At the merch table
Selling CDs and gear is where you can make the most cash on tour, and there are plenty of ways to green your kit. The Sustainable Style Foundation Web site features sharp-looking enviro-conscious clothing with links to printers that can make your shirts. South Portland’s Small Victory Studios prints with organic cotton in a green studio, and might be worth a holler if you’re looking to screenprint in town. The good-times music mega-site JamBase now has an impressive sub-site, GreenBase, which offers a host of links to places you can buy recycled jewel cases or post-consumer cardboard cases ready for your album art. Many of these options are the same price as standard production costs. (If you’re willing to risk losing impulse shoppers, you can also forego packaging altogether and distribute your album digitally.) Adding an extra dollar onto your merch prices will likely give you enough money to purchase offsets that will green up the on-site consumer waste you can’t control.
Apart from the travel hurdle, there are plenty of cost-efficient and extremely simple ways to lessen the environmental impact of your tour. But to get at those 85-percenters causing all the damage at your next show, tell them about what you’re doing with pamphlets, signs, and preaching. If fans pay your covers and buy your goodies without knowing where that money’s going, they won’t look for similar behavior from other artists, or themselves. It’s another example of the supply and demand aspect of going green: as more people take the lead, more will be compelled to follow.
Natural resources
Essential web stops for the musician going green
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL | atctower.net | ATC works with bands and managers to promote green education, but rather than pay for their services, read the Web site’s free, comprehensive “Green Your Tour” handbook to get ideas for minimizing your tour’s carbon footprint.
BANDAGO | bandago.com | A biodiesel van-rental company with quick and simple estimates online; it’s cheaper than a nice hotel, at least (prices run from $125-175 a day if you stick to the Northeast).
GREENBASE | green.jambase.com | Particularly strong on greening measures for the poor musician, the site has tons of information about packaging, instruments, and a running list of green concerts happening around the world daily.
MAINE INTERFAITH POWER AND LIGHT | meipl.org | A Brunswick-based non-profit that can assist you in greening up your home and your practice space with discounted energy-efficiency products, including sustainably generated electricity, if you’re a Central Maine Power or Bangor Hydro customer.
NATIONAL BIODIESEL BOARD | biodiesel.org | An exhaustive pile of information about biodiesel power, with the official skinny on tax incentives as well.
REVERB | reverbrock.org | Portland’s own environmentally active musician’s hub, with lots of updates on green touring trends, and offices at 386 Fore St.
SUSTAINABLE STYLE FOUNDATION | sustainablestyle.org | Fashion tips and resources to create your next T-shirt or flier.
TERRAPASS | terrapass.com | NATIVE ENERGY | nativeenergy.com | Two of the most respected and affordable companies offering carbon offsets for individuals. TerraPass is run out of San Francisco (the Brunswick comedy troupe Late Night Players used the company to offset 85,000 miles of air and vehicle travel for $300), while Native Energy is a privately owned, Native American company based in Charlotte, Vermont, investing in wind power and methane-emission reductions.
Email the author
Christopher Gray: cgray@phx.com
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