Actions Speak Louder Than Lyrics

    Ever stop to wonder how much carbon your favorite musicians release into the atmosphere driving from one place to the next on a tour that you are just dying to attend? Don’t worry, these musicians thought about it for you.

     Pearl Jam has been making strides for the environment for years. This rock band has done it all: staging benefit concerts, busing with biodiesel, and offsetting their carbon footprint. In 2003, the band calculated that their transportation as well as that of their fans would come to 5,700 tons of carbon. The band bought 5,700 tons of Conservation Carbon from the Makira rainforest in Madagascar. In 2006, Pearl Jam donated over $100,000 to nine organizations whose missions focus on renewable energy, climate change, and other green issues.

    During her “Stop Global Warming” College Tour, Sheryl Crow taught students about global warming and encouraged them to become activists for the environment. She did not tour the country ignorantly either. She made sure that every tour bus ran on biodiesel. Her efforts as an environmental activist landed her as keynote speaker at GreenBuild Conference & Expo in 2009.

           

    And finally, the big kahuna of eco-friendly musicians: Jack Johnson. This guy goes the whole nine yards. Two solar-powered studios. Sustainable biodiesel tour buses. Eco-friendly merchandise. Jack Johnson even has a partnership with 1% for the Planet. Every year he organizes the annual Kokua Festival in Hawaii, bringing to the stage other superstars like Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews, and Jackson Browne. The festival supports Kokua Hawaii Foundation, a non-profit Johnson founded that supports environmental education in local Hawaiian schools.

    So next time you tell someone that one of these green, clean, singing machines is your idol or your hero, you should pat yourself on the back because they are doing it right, as should you.