ecorazzi.com :: the latest in green gossip

March 28th 2008

San Francisco’s ‘Outside Lands Music And Arts Festival’ Gets SUPER GREEN!

Filed under: events, events: bay area, green and famous, music, thegreenpicture — parrish @ 1:52 pm

Solve this math problem: take a dozen or so musicians, add one super green city and multiply it all by three days of good old fashion summer fun. What did you get? If you came up with the Outside Lands Music And Arts Festival then you’ve got it right! 2 gold stars!

The first ever Outside Lands Music And Arts Festival will be held in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park on August 22-24 and will feature some of today’s hottest musicians. So far the roster includes: Beck, Wilco, Widespread Panic, Primus, Radiohead, Tom Petty, Jack Johnson Manu Chao, Ben Harper, Steve Winwood, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Drive-By Truckers, Cafe Tacuba, Devendra Banhart, Regina Spektor, Cold War Kids, and Nellie McKay.

OLMAF is taking it a step further by making the event as green as possible. First off, when you buy your tickets you’ll be given the option of donating $3 to the National Arbor Day Foundation to help reforest California. Or if you’d rather, you could donate $3 to help ‘green’ your ticket. These donations will be used to purchase (and then retire) pollution credits on the Chicago Climate Exchange. Once you’ve got your slot, leave that car at home and take advantage of the complimentary bike valet service. Yes, you heard me…bike valet!

The festival itself is like green heaven with almost all the products on sale being either recyclable or compostable. You can also win prizes just for recycling! The Outside Lands Recycling Store will be stocked with items you can “buy” with your used bottles and cans as currency. And finally don’t forget to bring your old cell phone to be refurbished and redistributed throughout other countries. Once you’ve done all your good deeds for the day you can sit back and relax in front of a fully solar-powered stage and watch your favorite musicians rock away!

Sounds like an event you HAVE TO BE AT? Tickets are $225.50 (plus fees) for all three days and go on sale March 30th. So scoot on over to sfoutsidelands.com to learn more and get your green on!

March 27th 2008

Billboard Magazine Announces Top 10 Greenest Musicians

Filed under: green and famous, honors, magazines, music, thegreenpicture — parrish @ 10:04 am

It seems that nowadays every magazine has a “Green Issue”. And why not? Let’s be honest, green is the new EVERYTHING!!! 

So in the spirit of el verde Billboard Magazine has dedicated their entire March issue to all things green, including a list of the top 10 greenest musicians. Billboard says, “The Top 10 green musician activists from the past year were chosen by overall positive impact on the environment; the extent to which the artist integrates a green approach into all aspects of his/her career; perceived sacrifice of choices; and trailblazing nature/originality of ideas.”

Wanna know the Top 10? Drumroll please!

In order from last to first they are: 10. The Roots 9. Missy Higgins 8. Radiohead 7. Serj Tankian 6. Pearl Jam 5. K.T Tunstall 4. Dave Matthews Band 2. Mana 2. Willie Nelson 1. Jack Johnson

Bands were praised for everything from their choice to eat local and organic to fueling tour buses with biodiesel and raising money for eco-worthy causes. Also included in the issue are stories on the touring industry (from green merch to green venues), green instruments, green festivals and tons more.

Billboard’s Green Issue is on sale now, but if you just can’t wait to get your hands on a copy you can visit their website and get an online preview NOW!!!

thanks: seattlepi.com

March 3rd 2008

Jack Johnson’s Eco-Friendly Tour Teams Up With All At Once

Filed under: music — michael @ 12:31 pm

Tour dates spanning the U.S. and Canada were announced today for Jack Johnson’s summer tour; including a collaboration with the new campaign All At Once to help raise money for various environmental groups. As usual, Jack will use several green elements to help reduce the tour’s impact — from vehicles fueled with biodiesel to offering eco-friendly tour merchandise and working with venues to reduce waste, recycle and offset carbon emissions. From the release,

“The All At Once campaign can be experienced both online and at the Village Green, a focal point of every Jack Johnson concert. Online, fans can become a member of the community, get free downloads, learn how to reduce their environmental impact by carpooling to concerts, reducing plastic use and volunteering. The interactive Village Green is the website brought to life. It educates and activates fans to take action while offering the opportunity to connect personally with local, national, and international non-profits. All donations made by fans to these organizations online or at the concerts will be matched by Jack Johnson’s charity, the Johnson Ohana Charitable Foundation (up to $2,500 per organization). ‘I can’t think of a better reason to put on a concert than to bring people together to create positive change,’ said Jack Johnson. ‘With this year’s tour we are bringing together all of our resources All At Once to give back to each community that we visit.’”

The All At Once collaboration is a pretty cool idea for giving fans a choice when it comes to giving back. Jack is also allowing fans to choose how to offset their carbon emissions from traveling to the show: as an extra $.50 opt-in at the time of online ticket purchase, or via an exclusive Jack Johnson offset sticker (available at the show).

As usual, we’re big fans. For a list of upcoming tour dates, check out the full list after the fold!
Read the rest of this entry »

February 12th 2008

The Green Quote: Jack Johnson On Touring And The Environment

Filed under: music — michael @ 3:44 pm

“It’s a step-by-step process. It’s a learning experience for me and there’s two ways of looking at it: we could make less of an impact by not touring at all, but, at the same time, if you can help change the industry you’re involved with, that’s a more responsible thing than to just walk away altogether. Because I do have that guilt of flying airplanes wherever we go but it’s fun. I like travelling and it’s nice to go places.”

– Musician Jack Johnson in a recent interview with Stuff Magazine

February 9th 2008

SIGG Celebrates 100 Years Of Eco Fabulous Bottles

Filed under: campaigns, web — michael @ 3:17 pm

While SIGG has gained worldwide recognition over the past couple years as environmental awareness has risen, their impact on the bottle industry is older than either you or I. Unless of course, there are some of you out there older than 100. If so, I need to update Ecorazzi’s demographics.

Anyways, it’s time to celebrate! SIGG turns 100 years young this year and to mark the occasion are launching Sigg100 — a new site that explores the 100 most significant eco-moments of the past century. Here’s what’s going down:

Visitors to www.sigg100.com will also have an opportunity to chat directly with environmental activists through SIGG Switzerland’s bi-monthly Q&A series. Chat hosts include Academy Award winning producer and author Laurie David; acclaimed actor and environmental enthusiast, Ed Begley Jr.; The Oprah Winfrey show and NBC Nightly News environmental contributor P. Simran Sethi; Founder of EcoFabulous.com and Domino Magazine’s eco-editor Zem Joaquin; and Executive Director of Healthy Child Healthy World, Christopher Gavigan.

Regulars to the site will also have an opportunity to win a free trip to Hawaii to attend the two day Kokua Festival. This is the same music jam hosted by Jack Johnson on April 19th and 20th in honor of Earth Day.

We congratulate SIGG on their centennial anniversary! Don’t forget to pay a visit this coming Monday for the start of their Eco 100 Greatest Moments! The trip down memory lane will end on Earth Day, April 22nd.

February 5th 2008

Jack Johnson Does Not Want To Be The Next Al Gore

Filed under: magazines, music — michael @ 3:14 pm

With Jack Johnson’s new album, Sleeping Through The Static, dropping today, it’s only fitting that we discover something about the guy online. The latest was dug up from the current spread of Outside Magazine. Their green issue is now on stands (one of the best annual green issues you’ll find in the magazine world) and Jack is front and center chatting about music, green, and why he won’t ever consider politics to push his eco-agenda forward. Here’s a highlight:

“I’m not trying to act like I’ve got all the answers and that I’m greener than everyone else. I want to do what I can to help, but sometimes it starts to overwhelm me. It’s hard, because as soon as you put your voice in there, all of a sudden you’re the guy the newspaper wants to talk to. I accept the fact that I’m a somewhat known personality now and I like that I can use it for good things, but I ultimately don’t want to run for president.”

As Al Gore has proven, you don’t need politics to make a difference. Fame helps — but passion behind what you believe in can make a huge difference as well.

Hit Outside Magazine for more details on this month’s issue.

January 29th 2008

Jack Johnson’s New Eco-Friendly Jams To Hit Next Week

Filed under: music — michael @ 2:51 pm

It’s been a few since Jack Johnson last released an album and I’m getting jazzed for his new release this coming weekend titled Sleep Through The Static. As we’ve profiled several times, Jack is a major player in the environmental movement — promoting recycling programs in his native Hawaii, educating other on how to live more eco-friendly lifestyles, and actually managing to come up with a catchy green song called ‘The 3Rs’. Remember when Madonna tried? My ears bled.

Anyways, this latest release is a bit special not just because of the music featured on the album, but also in terms of how it was produced. Johnson’s home studio is solar-powered. He built a similar facility, called the Solar Powered Plastic Plant, in LA. It has skylights, walls insulated with recycled jeans, recycled timber paneling, and bamboo floors. In terms of production, we may be looking at one of the most green albums ever produced. Spin magazine recently caught up with Jack and asked him a myriad of questions; including his thoughts on the success of Live Earth. Here are some highlights:

You’ve earned a reputation as an environmentally aware artist. Does thinking green factor into the business decisions you make?
It’s more just a thing of, “Why not?” We got this new office, so why not put solar panels on the roof? Why not use recycled blue jeans for the insulation? I grew up like that. My pops is always fixing things when they’re broken.

You were a part of Live Earth in Sydney. Do you think the event was effective?
I do. How far it helped push things in the right direction I can’t be sure, but I don’t think it had a negative effect. I talked to a lot of teenagers who saw it and thought it was really cool. There was definitely that potential oxymoron of a big event making a huge carbon footprint to fight carbon footprints. If people all flew in on private jets, that’s something to look at….

I look forward to picking up this new LP. For a preview — and to check out his latest music video, jump here. To see the ‘green’ studio, surf here.