As Ecorazzi previously reported, this year we chose to spend our precious World Vegan Day sampling delicious veggie food and hanging out with a few well-known veggies at the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival . It was our first time at the festival and I’ll tell you this: we most certainly WEREN’T disappointed.

A highlight of the day was a talk by celebrated author and friend of Ecorazzi, Karen Dawn, who discussed her book Thanking The Monkey and signed autographs in the lobby after – if you don’t have a copy make sure you pick one up! We also said hello to Josh Hooten, founder of Herbivore Clothing Clothing, who will be featured in our upcoming segment Ecorazzi Home Movie: Parrish Goes To Portland.

If you’re a regular reader, you might remember that earlier this month I attended Farm Sanctuary’s Party for the Pigs and met one my all time favorite “actorvists”, Persia White. I was so impressed by Persia’s supreme awesomeness that I gave her my coveted vegan pin that I often sport at these kinds of events. While I was more than happy to share my bling, my threads have been looking a bit bare lately. Luckily for me, Snooty Jewelry owner Jeanine Taylor – a talented vegan jewelry designer – was at the festival and hooked me up with a brand new recycled VEGAN pin that is sure to impress all!

If you missed the festival this year, NO WORRIES! The Boston Vegetarian Society holds the food fest each year and you only have to wait another 363 for the next one (sigh). To find out more about what’s going on up in MASS, visit the Boston Vegetarian Society’s website! Happy eating!

Earlier this month Ecorazzi went apples and bananas celebrating World Vegetarian Day – the meat-free holiday that kicks off Vegetarian Awareness Month. Well October is coming to an end and World Vegan Day (Nov. 1) is just around the corner! And how will WE celebrate the vegan holiday this year? One clue: pahk the cah in Havad Yahd (see also: park the car in Harvard Yard).

Yep, you’ve got it right! This year Ecorazzi will celebrate the vegtastic holiday at the 13th Annual Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. Besides tasty treats, the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival will also welcome some great speakers – including friend of Ecorazzi and Thanking The Monkey author, Karen Dawn!

With free admission, parking and food sampling, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t see ALL of you in Boston this Saturday! So find a carpool, take a bus or hop on the train and get down to the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center this Saturday, November 1, 2008 from 10 AM – 6 PM for the best World Vegan Day celebration ever!!!

For more information, visit BostonVeg.org/FoodFest!

Oh Daryl, how we love you so. Wouldn’t it be awesome if Daryl Hannah and Ed Begley Jr. mated and had little green offspring that grew up and saved the world? Pretty sweet idea, right? Oh, but I digress.

Daryl Hannah has just signed on to lend to her voice to the New IMAX Film DOLPHINS AND WHALES 3D: Tribes of the Ocean. Dolphins and Whales will premier at the New England Aquarium in Boston on February 13th (a day before V. day…classy) and takes the audience on a 3D tour of the ocean deep.

The film is directed by Jean-Jacques and Francois Mantello and distributed in association with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and PADI’S Project Aware and Reef Check.

Daryl released a statement saying, “It is amazing how much we share with these beautiful creatures – play, family, education, community, struggles. Unfortunately, because we often are so unaware of these underwater tribes and our negative impact upon them through slaughtering and uncontrolled human activities, they are facing the greatest challenge of all: to survive the destruction of their habitat and depletion of food resources.”

Oh Daryl, if I was just a little bit older and you were just a little bit younger…watch out!

Visit DOLPHINS AND WHALES 3D: Tribes of the Ocean’s official website to find out when it will be arriving in a town near you

According to the press release:

“We are not only committed to preserving the history, beauty, and integrity of Fenway Park, but we are also determined to enhance the park’s environmental attributes so it can serve our team, our fans, and our community in the 21st century as well as it did in the 20th century,” said Larry Lucchino, President/CEO of the Red Sox. “We look forward to beginning this process with the help of some key partners.”

Some of the proposed initiatives including new recycling bins which actually begin at the next homestand game on Tuesday. We know far too many Red Sox fans to make any puns or generalizations. Let’s just hope for the spirit of the club that this season doesn’t leave fans green with envy. Learn about all the proposed initiatives here.

photo credit: Night Owl City

If you’ve never listened to these guys, you are missing out. Not only is their music incredible, but they are planet lovers just like us!

Check out our exclusive video interview:

Click To Play

See previous Ecorazzi Earthfest coverageThanks to video producer Gabriel Mugar who is a teacher in Boston Public Schools and operates Press Pass TV.

This up-and-coming foursome are fantastically funny, mildly irreverent, and humble gentlemen as well. Did I mention they’re also very environmentally conscious blokes?

During our interview, Johnny McDaid told us about his plans to work closely with his record label, SonyBMG, to reduce packaging waste with their record. We also learned that the video contest for the song Life is Beautiful on YouTube is coming to a close today. Yes, that’s right folks… TODAY.

The members of Vega4 are asking all of you with a camera to get out there and film an earth conscious music video for their latest single, Life is Beautiful. The lucky winner of this contest will win two free tickes to the Live Earth concert later this summer. If Live Earth is half as fun as Earthfest, I’m so there!

Interesting sidenote: this trio is constantly evolving – there are five previous members, all of which have moved on to other projects. It’s this evolutionary thread that keeps these guys together, and the band’s ultimate goal is to unite people through music to positively affect both social and environmental change.

That’s why the band has joined forces with the CLIF GreenNotes Program, a program designed to partner with musicians to minimize the impact their tours have on the environment.

Not only does this band believe in mimizmizing their carbon footprint, but they are amazing musicians as well. During their Earthfest set, John Butler himself played the constantly evolving guitar solo, Ocean, a song that he never plays the same way twice. Everyone around me was on their feet smiling and they certainly recruited a new fan in me.

Wow, that was fast. Memorial Day seemed to just fly by this year! But before we pack up our picnic, we’ve got one last fish to fry: Earthfest Boston, my friends. We’ve been talking about Earthfest quite a bit lately around these parts, and for good reason. The line-up was AMAZING: The John Butler Trio, Vega4, Mat Kierney, Guster, KT Tunstall and Grace Potter and The Nocturnals. The weather couldn’t have been nicer too. You could smell the environmental awareness in the air and Boston’s Charles River Esplanade is spring simply cannot be beat!

A few of us from ecorazzi (Nina and I) and our friends (Gabe, Frank, and Julia) got the chance to spend the afternoon at Earthfest on Saturday. Nina and Frank captured some amazing photographs, Gabe shot some amazing video, Julia interviewed some super cool eco-friendly people, and after hearing The John Butler Trio’s ghostly-instrumental jam, Ocean, I was immediately their biggest fan.

Backstage, we got to watch a number of bands giving live radio interviews, and we were able to catch up with Vega4, Adam Gardner from Guster, and Lauren Sullivan, Director and Co-Founder of Reverb. We have some amazing video of our day, and that’ll be coming at you all very soon. Stay tuned!

With over 100,000 attendees, the artists showed their various commitments to environmental issues by sharing their thoughts and eco-tips in-between playing their hit songs. KT Tunstall remarked: “We just need to use less stuff. Only buy what you need.” She also dedicated her song Under the Weather to the earth and shouted out into the crowd: “Show it some respect!”

In a backstage interview, Tunstall also expressed appreciation for Earthfest’s deliberate efforts to be an environmentally friendly event, which included a recycling squad, biodegradable plates, and utensils in the VIP tent, and eco-tips posted all over the esplanade, which were sponsored by Whole Foods. She said: This festival really sets a precedent. It’s fantastic. This is the way all festivals should be.”

Tunstall’s new album will be coming out in September and it’s one I am dying to hear. I’ll buy it for the sole purpose that KT’s tour bus runs on bio-diesel. Plus rumor has it, it’s a fabulous album. You gotta love green rocker chicks!

Photo Credit: Frank Siteman

Ecorazzi recently had the chance to talk with Adam Gardner of the band Guster and co-founder of Reverb with his wife Lauren Sullivan. You can see Guster and some other incredible bands at this year’s Earthfest in Boston on Saturday, May 26. There’s no excuse – it’s free – and sounds incredible!

Adam & Lauren live in a small condo in downtown Portland, Maine. The location allows them to walk most everywhere – that is, when Guster or Reverb aren’t on tour. In fact, Lauren & Adam even got others in the building to agree to composting. But they are doing more than just greening their personal lives – they are helping the entire music industry get on the bandwagon.

It’s not that the music industry and musicians haven’t wanted to be environmentally friendly, “There is a lot of intention there,” said Gardner, “There is just a lack of resources and knowledge. That’s where Reverb can come in and help.” Reverb will sit down with an artist and lay out all of their options. He explains that it’s not all or nothing and tells the musicians, “What do you want to do? You wanna do some, you wanna do all? You wanna order a la carte from the menu? Or you can do a combo meal, what would you like?”

And as time goes on, it is becoming easier for musicians to go green. Guster used to have to fight with their label to get eco-friendly packaging for their music. Now, Adam tells us, it’s a different story, “We’ve been on this label for a bunch of years now and every time we put out a record I remember having that conversation. What are we doing about the paper, can we use soy inks? ‘Well you can, but it will cost more’. Now, again, when this record Ganging Up on the Sun came out last year, I was all ready to get in my fighting position with my product manager about eco-friendly paper and he was all ready to get into it to. We were in our crouching positions ready to fight and then he said, ‘Well, let me find out the cost differences again.’ Then he came back and said, ‘You know what? New policy, all paper will be eco-friendly.’” In fact, Warner Music Group even made Guster’s entire back catalog carbon neutral.

I commented to Adam that what I like about Reverb is that they are actually greening musicians & their tours – biodiesel buses, energy efficiency, education – as well as using offsets to make the remainder carbon neutral, which are controversial, I said, depending on who you talk to. That got him fired up…

Read on to find out what Adam Gardner thinks of carbon offsets, how Reverb is making going green sexier, who’s huffing on exhaust pipes, and which Guster band member is crazy for composting.

“Let’s talk about offsets for a sec. The NY Times has been running a bunch [of articles] about it lately. This is what I think about offsets: I think obviously you need to reduce your footprint first and foremost. You gotta do what you can to be more efficient, use less energy and create less carbon. So obviously you are shrinking your footprint first.

“And then there is some inevitable footprint left over – well then what do you do with that? That’s where I think offsets do come in. And the key to offsets is making sure that you’re buying them from the right place. Because carbon offsets are not created equal.

“There are a lot people out there that see dollar signs and are selling things that aren’t carbon offsets. We use Native Energy and what I like about them is that money goes directly towards building new renewable energy sources like wind farms and solar arrays. So to me that’s what you want to do, you want to be able to point to something and say that got built with my help. And that’s an offset – you’re creating something that otherwise wouldn’t have existed without your help. Help being in this case, simply buying renewable energy credits.”

Basically, he says, because a musician doesn’t have control over venues and many details about their show, offsets are the best option right now. But like he said, they are also working on shrinking their footprint, as well.

Adam’s band Guster didn’t get involved in Reverb until after the non-profit organization had started and already worked with incredible bands like Barenaked Ladies, Alanis Morissette, Avril Lavigne, and Jack Johnson. We wanted to know if they were excited about touring with Reverb. Here’s how Adam tells it:

“When Reverb started, Guster was writing and recording that takes a long time and actually…two year process. So Reverb had already existed for two years and had done some great tours … we had done a bunch of stuff already. So it was kind of like ‘So when do we get to do this? We’re your own band!’

“What was neat was watching them going from: ‘OK let’s try this, let’s see how this goes’, to taking full on ownership. “We were on tour and Brian was Googling composting. He wants to start a compost pile. We’re in New York City and he’s trying to figure out how to compost! That’s really encouraging, it’s exciting to see my own brothers in effect, we’ve been together for 16 years, it’s great to see that transformation that happens within me also happen within them.”

Each member of Guster now has their own reusable water bottle – instead of asking for cases and cases of bottled water in their rider. Simple actions like this make a huge difference. I’m impressed, but are the fans? I wanted to know if Guster has found new fans through their green journey. Gardner replied,

“Moreso than gaining new fans, maybe we are, I don’t know…more than that we are deepening the bond between our fans and our band. The reaction from our fans to our relatively recent efforts is amazing. There’s tons of questions pouring in like ‘Where do I get biodiesel? Can I run that in my gas car?’ (No, you need a diesel engine.) So that’s been great.

“They’re getting a better sense of what we stand for and who we are. I think it’s added a little bit of a soul to our tour that the fans are actual appreciating it. And the key to that, and this is something I definitely want to stress is that we’re not preachy.”

He says he understands that people go to concerts for a fun experience, not necessarily to learn anything, “So Reverb’s been very aware making sure that it’s fun and making environmentalism a little sexier and saying ‘Hey, check out this car that runs on straight vegetable oil.’ We’ve got pictures of people literally huffing on the exhaust pipe. Or ‘Here, dip your finger in this vat of biodiesel and taste it. It’s less toxic than table salt.’ Making it an interactive experience.”

It sounds like fun! It’s incredible what Guster and many other bands have been able to accomplish because of Reverb. And it’s amazing what Reverb has been able to accomplish in such a short time with such a small staff. I’ll finish up with how Adam started off with me, “I’ve never had anything that has simultaneously given me so much energy and also make me so exhausted.” Amen!

Stay tuned for Part II of our interview where we look at one of Adam’s favorite TV shows, his favorite eco-product, and more!