Radiohead, the coolest band ever?

Good Morning,

Unless you live in a bubble, you know that Radiohead is on tour this summer.

Now, touring and all the logistical aspects of going on tour, definitely takes a toll on the environment. From the electric needs, all the travel (buses, planes for ALL the equipment and 60+ crew), the venues etc...it can seem like if you are really worried about our carbon footprint, organizing a tour might be the worst thing you could do.

But did you know about their efforts to make this as "Eco-Friendly" as realistically possible?

Richard Young, the production manager has a blog where he explains all the different ways they have tried to tackle their carbon footprint.

They hired a woman named Katie, who is the Eco-Coordinator for the tour. Some efforts have failed (like their wish to be powered by the sun, due to their various restrictions of needing to be temporary and transportable), but they are still trying to push the envelope:

Here are some of the highlights:

1. Venue Sites:
They gave a hit list of ten items to the venue sites including:

"· Give car poolers preferential parking and promote this option through communications with concert goers
· Use low energy light bulbs in all areas
· Purchase green power or power from renewable sources from electricity provider
· Use reusable cups rather than disposable ones
· Use recycled paper for all office stationery, tickets, posters, flyers and napkins
· Use compostable recycled paper crockery and wooden cutlery not plastic
· Install recycling points for all cans and bottles"

They said that all of the sites have been very accommodating with their priority list. In fact, some backstage kitchens have collected the compostable food waste and given it to the local ground keepers and local gardening clubs.
They tried to push serving organic hamburgers and hotdogs, but they lost that battle.

2. The whole lighting system is run by LED lights.
I loved the exact explanation of why LED's actually use less power:

"The full system (including video) is exclusively LED and uses 140A 3phase (420A in total) when turned on fully. It's worth pointing out that LED lighting uses Red, Green and Blue LED's to make colours, with all 3 being on 100% to make white, therefore any colour effect only uses a percentage of the power. Traditional lighting uses a subtractive colour creation, with filters placed in front of a white source to remove the unwanted colour - therefore, in the case of red for example, using 100% of the power for a third of the light output."
LED has been used before for lighting shows, but never to this degree. This required a lot of research and new lighting technology that has never been seen before.

3. The Power Issue.
It is worth reading this part of the blog called "(n)eveready". He goes through a lengthy explanation of how they researched and researched ways to run the power off of solar panels, but due to the limitations of being on tour and moving from city to city, it just wasn't going to be feasible. I appreciate the honesty and explanation.

"Conceding that solar power was never going to work on this scale, a slightly different tack was taken. Could we build a battery that would power the show from load in to load out? It still has to be charged, but with nearly half the venues on the tour being supplied by grid electricity, we could charge in one city, then use the battery in the next, allowing one of the generators never to be turned on.
And that's what we did.....
Any alternative power source requires a storage medium for its electricity. The next step is to research charging methods that will provide enough electricity to complete a charge in a useful amount of time. I suspect it will result in a combination of wind, solar and even hydrogen."

Needless to say, Radiohead is always on the forefront of new technology and it's awesome to see them using their reach to encourage change in the way we treat our environment!

"None of what we are trying to do could have been possible with out the cooperation of the band, crew, venues, suppliers and fans. It's a joint effort. We can dream up new schemes and come up with the resources, but it requires each and every one of us to participate for the whole thing to work. Let's start a debate. Things will only change on a global scale if the customer demands it.

Some of the initiatives are very simple and obvious, but make a big difference, others are new and innovative. It's not a perfect model; there are always limitations as to what can be done when putting on such a level of show.

Ultimately, that's the point. None of what we are doing should impede your enjoyment of a Radiohead concert, in fact; maybe it will be a better show, through the discovery of new technologies and a fresh way of thinking."

Nicely said!

n