Biofuels and Carbon Credits: Greening Up the Concert Industry

The music industry is renowned for its excess. More often than not, you can see some really stunning examples of wastefulness during the concerts themselves, backstage and in every facet of preparation and production. It’s not just wasted energy – pollution and trash are huge factors as well. Many musicians have been willing to participate in efforts to raise awareness – like the Live Earth concerts – but not to actually make changes in their own lifestyles or even their regular performances.

The Economist has it:

According to National Geographic’s Green Guide, a typical stadium concert releases 500 to 1000 tons of carbon dioxide, which is between 25 and 50 times more than the average American produces in a year. That number does not even take into account fans’ transport, the immense amount of garbage produced or any fire-spewing Kiss-style pyrotechnic displays. Reverb, an advocacy group promoting environmentally responsible music tours, estimates that fans’ commutes can quintuple the carbon cost of a show.

Despite these costs, tour schedules are growing longer and more intensive. Consumers are downloading (both legally and illegally) more individual tracks and buying fewer complete albums; bands need to make their money somewhere.

Some bands and concert organisers have taken strides to minimise touring’s environmental impact. Festivals such as Lollapalooza, an American summer institution, and Britain’s massive Glastonbury Festival have switched to biofuel-powered generators. The organisers of last summer’s Osheaga Festival in Montreal went one step further: they hired Hydro Quebec to supply their main stage with emission-free geothermal energy. Reverb has encouraged organisers to offer reusable aluminum canteens rather than plastic water-bottles, and also set up “Eco-Villages”, with information on how to minimise one’s carbon footprints, outside concert venues.

Since so many bands are mostly all talk and no action, there’s still a lot of waste going on despite efforts to curb it. Some bands claim to be green and then go and schedule a concert at places like the Gorge Amphitheather, which is 150 miles east of Seattle and far from any public transportation. In order to make a real change, bands would need to commit to scaling back their shows and holding them at venues accessible by public transit. Maybe that could help us take concerts back to their roots – intimate experiences enjoying the music you love played live right in front of you, not giant impersonal productions where the band is a football field away.

Fans now have the option of carpooling to and from shows thanks to Reverb partnering with PickupPal. The service, which we told you about last month, provides a venue for passengers to be matched up with drivers to cut back on the number of vehicles on the road. Reverb is also currently working with acts like John Mayer, Norah Jones, Kelly Clarkson, the Blue Man Group and Ben Folds to reduce the carbon footprints of their tours.

Link [The Economist]
Photo credit: Flickr user monkeyatlarge

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