Sex, Drugs and Sustainable Travel (Reverb Helps Rockstars Go Green)

The success of Reverb, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that helps musicians go green, confirms that sustainable travel is in vogue. Reverb, based in Portland, Maine, offers greening programs for musicians on tour, including a grassroots outreach program to spread the good word about eco-friendly practices.

Environmentalist Lauren Sullivan and her husband, Adam Gardner of Guster, created Reverb. Guster once toured in a large bus nicknamed "The Earth Eater," because it was a huge, gas-hogging machine. Gardner and Sullivan wanted to encourage musicians to engage in sustainable travel, and so they launched the Reverb in 2004. Now, they offer biodiesel fueling for tour buses, and entire groups travel on sustainable biodiesel.  Earth Eater has retired, and Guster is now one of the greenest bands around. Guster lead the first Campus Consciousness Tour in 2006, performing on college campuses and teaching students about the environment. Since then, in collaboration with Reverb, they've toured campuses with Ben Harper,  O.A.R., Drake and other college favorites.

Reverb has worked with over eighty major tours. This year, they are working with Arcade Fire, John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band, Sheryl Crow, Phish, Barenaked Ladies, Jack Johnson and a handful of others others. Each group chooses to engage sustainable travel and environmental education in various ways, since Reverb does not take an all or nothing approach to going green. Reverb offers an array options to the musicians: Pick-Up Pal to arrange carpooling for music fans, Eco-Villages to educate fans, waste reduction and recycling, and so forth.

This year, for the second time, Reverb is partnering with Honda for the 2010 Honda Civic Tour. Tonight, for the HCT, Paramore is performing at the PNC Pavillion in Cincinnati, Ohio, and they're headed to Wisconsin this weekend. They've purchased carbon offsets in the name of sustainable travel, to neutralize the emissions from air travel, the tour bus and so forth. The concert utensils are potato and corn based, and the bowls and cups are made of sugarcane (unfortunately, you cannot eat them).

The Green Music Group is another Reverb brainchild. GMG's  founding members include Linkin Park, The Roots, Maroon 5, Willie Nelson and other artists, as well as American Airlines Arena, Brooklyn Bowl, Verizon Wireless Center and other large concert venues. The labels Brushfire Records and Warner Music Group are also founding members of GMG, which aims to facilitate large scale greening of the music community. The music industry, historically, has involved a lot of waste (swag, extravagant travel, trash, CD's, etc), but it appears they have a strong interest in sustainable practices. This is especially uplifting because music is all about messages. Music people are trendsetters. They sing, they share, they show us how it's done, and right now, it's done green.

Photo Credit: Reverb