So the alt rock group Guster is challenging people to eat local, for their tastebuds and the planet. That’s easy for them to say, though, right? They’re co-founders of the Green Music Group. They know about this stuff. Well, thanks to the power of the Internets and ZIP Codes, you can be an expert, too. And learning this lesson can help you win two Live Nation season passes, and maybe a new car.
As a surfer and someone who likes to spend a lot of time outdoors, clean air, water, and soil have always been important to me. As a member of Dave Matthews Band, protecting the environment has been a part of our band’s ethos since forming in 1991. Among the several causes our band supports, the environment is unique because we can do far more than the traditional ways of lending our name or making a donation—we can directly make a difference by “walking the talk.”
Jan. 30 was a star-studded evening at Jane’s House in Hollywood as the Green Music Group hosted an event featuring performances by Maroon 5, The Roots, Guster and members of the Dave Matthews Band.
An international nonprofit, the Green Music Group is a team of musicians, fans, record labels and music industry leaders seeking to inspire positive environmental change through powerful performances that spread awareness of global issues.
The music industry isn’t exactly known for its sustainability initiatives—and with the combined carbon footprint of tours, concerts, videos, and albums, it takes some major star power to hit the green notes.
Luckily, Guster vocalist/guitarist Adam Gardner and his wife, Lauren Sullivan, were already on the case with the founding of their environmental organization, Reverb—and now they’re taking it one step further with the Green Music Group. With the support of founding members including Linkin Park,Dave Matthews Band, Willie Nelson, The Roots, Sheryl Crow, Guster, Barenaked Ladies, Bonnie Raitt, and Maroon 5; venues like the American Airlines Arena, the Comcast Center, and the Brooklyn Bowl; and labels Brushfire Records and Warner Music Group, the GMG wants to make big changes by targeting small tasks–to “harness the collective power of the entire music community to affect millions of individual actions, bringing about measurable global environmental change,” according to the website.
“If someone says my tour is ‘green,’ what does that mean?”
Adam Gardner thinks about such things on a regular basis. A number of things claim the “green” label, be they light bulbs, electric cars or dog food.
But bands on tour?
The whole packed bus, hotel shampoo, cheap beer, Moons Over My Hammy at 3 a.m. thing? The joyful grind that all bands endure on a path to success?
It has been Gardner’s business to know these things since 2004 when he and his wife, Lauren Sullivan, started Reverb, a Portland-based nonprofit that helps make tours environmentally friendly.
Green Music Group (GMG), a coalition of environmental non-profit Reverb, celebrated its official launch over the last weekend in January in Hollywood, CA. The high-profile coalition brings together musicians, industry leaders and music fans to create widespread environmental change within the music industry and around the globe.
To celebrate its launch, Green Music Group founding members and friends gathered at Jane’s House in Hollywood for live performances by members ofDave Matthews Band, Guster, and Maroon 5. Guests were treated to eco-friendly appetizers and drinks provided by Shin’s BBQ, VeeV, ZICO, Eel River, and Newton’s Vineyard.
It’s an eco-SWAT team: members of Dave Matthews Band, Maroon 5, The Roots, and Guster mingled with music biz denizens, environmental nonprofits, and earth-friendly music fans to party with purpose. Brought together by Reverb, which has greened more than 85 rock tours since 2004, the newly formed Green Music Group gathered over Grammy weekend for a jam session at Jane’s House, as an alternative to Hollywood’s glitzy galas. Launching an impressive eco-coalition, the GMG intends to turn up the volume on greening the music industry.
After nine years of touring with my band Guster, I realized that life on the road (and its inherent impact on the environment) didn’t need to look so different from my life at home in Portland, Maine. And yet it was. Dramatically…
Read the whole story here.
From the electricity required to power the sound and lights, to the fuel needed for touring buses, equipment trucks and rabid music fans, the environmental impact of music festivals and big (inter)national touring acts can be massive.
Seeing the massive amounts of resources being poured into touring and the waste it produced–both back stage and in the audience–was all that Guster guitarist/vocalist Adam Gardner needed to launch the non-profit organization, Reverb, in 2004. In addition to helping make touring operations more sustainable for 85 major music tours, Reverb has conducted grassroots educational outreach to over 10 million music fans.