Eco-friendly bands make the earth a little greener
It hasn't necessarily been deliberate, but the slow death of the CD could be responsible for the biggest greening the music industry has ever seen.
As more and more people choose to get their music from iTunes or other sources the industry continues to suffer financially, but the Earth benefits from less plastic production and less fuel burned in shipping CDs around the globe. Music labels are producing far fewer CDs than they did, and a small Winnipeg-based label, G7 Welcoming Committee announced last month that it will be the first in Canada to stop producing CDs altogether. While people are sure to grieve over the loss of the CD, green music lovers can celebrate this new era in music technology. (Although Apple, the maker of iPod, prefers to replace the little hand-held music player when it goes berzerk rather than fix it, a practice that is less than green.)
But it's Perry Farrell, the current frontman of Satellite Party, the former frontman of Jane's Addiction and the man behind Lollapalooza, who is blazing a new and ambitious trail with Global Cool, a recently formed organization that is encouraging people to reduce their carbon emissions by 10 billion tonnes over 10 years. The non-profit organization has attracted the likes of Lily Allen, Fall Out Boy and Bloc Party to speak out about climate change. The group's youth-friendly website encourages people to reduce their emissions by making small lifestyle changes, such as turning down the thermostat by one degree and boiling only as much water as is needed for coffee or tea. In an effort to reduce landfill waste, you could also fashion a sparkling disco ball out of those old CDs you're embarrassed to have in your collection, or hang them from string to catch the sun. You could also choose to buy only those CDs that are packaged in cardboard rather than plastic, or choose to only buy music online.
Or check out TreeHugger.com's list of favourite green musicians and buy their music. They include the Barenaked Ladies, as well as fellow Canadian Sarah Harmer, British sensation Coldplay, as well as Jack Johnson and Ben Harper.
The Tragically Hip is also using a Canadian-grown green solution to combat carbon emissions. With the help of Toronto-based Greenshift, all plates, cups and cutlery used on its World Container tour were made from 100 per cent renewable resources, and fully biodegradable. Other acts have taken a different path to neutralize carbon emissions.
They're jumping onto bio-diesel buses and snatching up carbon credits as much for their image as for the benefits to the Earth. Canada's own Barenaked Ladies recently won a Planet Defender Award from the Colorado-based environmental group Rock the Earth.
Pearl Jam partnered with Conservation International on several of its tours. As a result, dozens of hectares of tropical forests have been planted, enough to absorb thousands of tons of carbon emissions generated by a typical world tour.
Many eco-friendly bands reduce carbon emissions before they are released into the environment. According to a recent Rolling Stone article, Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam and Coldplay planned bio-diesel tours. Tour stops are coordinated to allow for bio-diesel distributors to fill up their tour buses and trucks. Bio-diesel is made from a mixture of waste plant oils and diesel, which means anywhere from 20-99 per cent of the bands' fuel is made from renewable resources. Spinner.com have put together a list of the Top 10 most extreme green musicians. Their countdown is:
10) Dave Matthews Band: They've offset 100 per cent of their carbon emissions caused by touring since 1991, and helped scatter free bikes around Charlottesville, Virginia as part of the Community Yellow Bicycles Program.
9) Orbital: Recorded songs using solar electricity, and sneaks environmental commentary into song lyrics.
8) Neil Young: A pioneer in veggie-fuelled touring, and anti-war protester.
7) Peter and the Wolf: These guys tour by boat.
6) Bonnie Raitt: A founding member of Musicians United for Safe Energy, amongst her other green endeavours.
5) Sarah Harmer: Co-founder of environmental group called PERL (Protecting Escarpment Rural Land) to help protect those and other wild lands from human destruction.
4) Cloud Cult: These guys are eco-friendly, right down to the details. “They package CDs in recycled jewel cases, each of which is hand-cleaned by the band members themselves. All CD inserts are printed with nontoxic soy inks on recycled paper, and CD shrink-wrap is made of nontoxic biodegradable corn cellulose. This is all done on an organic farm, where Earthology's headquarters are heated entirely with geothermal energy.”
3) Pearl Jam: Co-founders of the Carbon Portfolio Strategy, they also offset carbon emissions caused by touring.
2) Jack Johnson: He works out of an eco-friendly building, and has co-founded an environmental education program in Hawaii.
1) Ditty Bops: These ladies tour by bicycle. That's pretty extreme green.
If this green trend continues, odds are the next big concert you attend will be eco-friendly. Enjoy the organic t-shirts and carbon-offsetting, and rejoice in the knowledge that you love a band who loves the environment. The gaping hole in the o-zone layer will thank you for it.
As more and more people choose to get their music from iTunes or other sources the industry continues to suffer financially, but the Earth benefits from less plastic production and less fuel burned in shipping CDs around the globe. Music labels are producing far fewer CDs than they did, and a small Winnipeg-based label, G7 Welcoming Committee announced last month that it will be the first in Canada to stop producing CDs altogether. While people are sure to grieve over the loss of the CD, green music lovers can celebrate this new era in music technology. (Although Apple, the maker of iPod, prefers to replace the little hand-held music player when it goes berzerk rather than fix it, a practice that is less than green.)
But it's Perry Farrell, the current frontman of Satellite Party, the former frontman of Jane's Addiction and the man behind Lollapalooza, who is blazing a new and ambitious trail with Global Cool, a recently formed organization that is encouraging people to reduce their carbon emissions by 10 billion tonnes over 10 years. The non-profit organization has attracted the likes of Lily Allen, Fall Out Boy and Bloc Party to speak out about climate change. The group's youth-friendly website encourages people to reduce their emissions by making small lifestyle changes, such as turning down the thermostat by one degree and boiling only as much water as is needed for coffee or tea. In an effort to reduce landfill waste, you could also fashion a sparkling disco ball out of those old CDs you're embarrassed to have in your collection, or hang them from string to catch the sun. You could also choose to buy only those CDs that are packaged in cardboard rather than plastic, or choose to only buy music online.
Or check out TreeHugger.com's list of favourite green musicians and buy their music. They include the Barenaked Ladies, as well as fellow Canadian Sarah Harmer, British sensation Coldplay, as well as Jack Johnson and Ben Harper.
The Tragically Hip is also using a Canadian-grown green solution to combat carbon emissions. With the help of Toronto-based Greenshift, all plates, cups and cutlery used on its World Container tour were made from 100 per cent renewable resources, and fully biodegradable. Other acts have taken a different path to neutralize carbon emissions.
They're jumping onto bio-diesel buses and snatching up carbon credits as much for their image as for the benefits to the Earth. Canada's own Barenaked Ladies recently won a Planet Defender Award from the Colorado-based environmental group Rock the Earth.
Pearl Jam partnered with Conservation International on several of its tours. As a result, dozens of hectares of tropical forests have been planted, enough to absorb thousands of tons of carbon emissions generated by a typical world tour.
Many eco-friendly bands reduce carbon emissions before they are released into the environment. According to a recent Rolling Stone article, Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam and Coldplay planned bio-diesel tours. Tour stops are coordinated to allow for bio-diesel distributors to fill up their tour buses and trucks. Bio-diesel is made from a mixture of waste plant oils and diesel, which means anywhere from 20-99 per cent of the bands' fuel is made from renewable resources. Spinner.com have put together a list of the Top 10 most extreme green musicians. Their countdown is:
10) Dave Matthews Band: They've offset 100 per cent of their carbon emissions caused by touring since 1991, and helped scatter free bikes around Charlottesville, Virginia as part of the Community Yellow Bicycles Program.
9) Orbital: Recorded songs using solar electricity, and sneaks environmental commentary into song lyrics.
8) Neil Young: A pioneer in veggie-fuelled touring, and anti-war protester.
7) Peter and the Wolf: These guys tour by boat.
6) Bonnie Raitt: A founding member of Musicians United for Safe Energy, amongst her other green endeavours.
5) Sarah Harmer: Co-founder of environmental group called PERL (Protecting Escarpment Rural Land) to help protect those and other wild lands from human destruction.
4) Cloud Cult: These guys are eco-friendly, right down to the details. “They package CDs in recycled jewel cases, each of which is hand-cleaned by the band members themselves. All CD inserts are printed with nontoxic soy inks on recycled paper, and CD shrink-wrap is made of nontoxic biodegradable corn cellulose. This is all done on an organic farm, where Earthology's headquarters are heated entirely with geothermal energy.”
3) Pearl Jam: Co-founders of the Carbon Portfolio Strategy, they also offset carbon emissions caused by touring.
2) Jack Johnson: He works out of an eco-friendly building, and has co-founded an environmental education program in Hawaii.
1) Ditty Bops: These ladies tour by bicycle. That's pretty extreme green.
If this green trend continues, odds are the next big concert you attend will be eco-friendly. Enjoy the organic t-shirts and carbon-offsetting, and rejoice in the knowledge that you love a band who loves the environment. The gaping hole in the o-zone layer will thank you for it.
