Reverb Greens the Music Industry and Saves 67,000 Tons of CO2

I love going to concerts, but on my way out there’s always that twinge of reality when I see a field covered with old plastic cups and see the fleets of buses out back idling before they leave for the next show. Wouldn’t it be great if somebody was figuring out how to do an environmentally friendly tour? There is: Reverb.

“We sort of think of ourselves as an Eco- SWAT Team.” – Lauren Sullivan, Reverb Co-founder

Reverb is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that helps musicians green their tours. Founded in 2004 by wife-husband  team Lauren Sullivan, environmentalist, and Adam Garder, Guster guitarist, Reverb provides turn-key greening programs for tours along with grassroots outreach and education for music fans. They have worked with high-profile groups like the Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson and Maroon 5, and do everything from getting biodiesel into the tour gas tanks to setting up recycling bins at the venues.

“To use the musician and the artist voice to create change and to in essence reverberate out a good message of environmental stewardship and sustainability.” — L. Sullivan

What do they do? Everything. So what’s really so green about them? Go to a Reverb concert and you’ll see recycling bins for those beers you drank in the parking lot, fill your belly with organic food on biodegradable plates, get educated at their eco-village booth, and go home wearing an organic t-shirt from their merch booth. Oh, and while you’re there you’re seeing a band who arrived on vehicles powered with biodiesel, who is recycling backstage and using reusable water bottles, attended by stage crew using rechargeable batteries, aided by local non-profits to create the very fan outreach program you were part of. Then they organize carbon offsetting, too.

Reverb rocks.

They’ve reduced over 67,000 tons of CO2.They’ve greened over 80 major music tours. They’ve reached over 10 million fans. Their current projects include Lilith 2010 and the IZStyle.com 2010 Winter Tour, and it’s a powerful movement that I expect you’ll see coming to a concert near you.

This past Grammy’s weekend, Reverb launched Green Music Group, which is “a large-scale, high-profile environmental coalition of musicians, industry leaders and music fans using our collective power to bring about widespread environmental change within the music industry and around the globe.” Check out this video to get a sense of what they are doing:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI_FHQXvJ9Y

And they aren’t kidding about the coalition part. Founding members are from across the music spectrum, including Willie Nelson, The Roots, Sheryl Crow and Linkin Park. With several years of work under their eco-belt, Reverb has the connections and experience to make this work. Check out the Green Music Group website, the Green Music Group Fan Page, or follow them on twitter.

Reverb is the real deal- built from within the music industry, by musicians and for musicians. To learn more, check out their outstanding set of videos documenting what they do on the Reverb Video page.