Photo via MySpace

Pearl Jam, through a partnership with the Cascade Land Conservancy, is offsetting more than 7,000 metric tons of carbon emissions from their 2009 tour. The $210,000 project involves planting 33 acres of native trees and plants in their home state of Washington.

If you’ve been following Pearl Jam’s long history of social and environmental activism, this comes as no surprise. The band has backed lots of great causes over the years, from fighting Ticketmaster’s exorbitant service fees to supporting organizations like Wild Salmon Center, Conservation International, and People for Puget Sound.

What’s more, the band has partially reduced their tours’ carbon footprints since 2003. The difference this time around is that they’re offsetting more than 100% of their carbon emissions.

It’s part of the band’s business philosophy to make sustainability a priority. As Stone Gossard, Pearl Jam’s guitarist and co-founder, explains:

“Businesses have an opportunity to lead the way in becoming a more conscious economy, one that views the health of our environment as inseparable from our personal and economic well being…we hope other businesses will join us in this effort.”

And the buck doesn’t stop here. The band is already planning to offset all of its carbon emissions for their current tour, and is even looking into expanding its efforts to take into account album manufacturing and distribution. Rock on.

via Reuters

Logo via Reverb

There’s much to think about when planning a tour: booking gigs, transportation, lodging, advertising, whether or not including a cover of Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend” on the set list is really a good idea… How do you make a tour environmentally friendly on top of all that? Wouldn’t it be great if there was a green fairy that could wave her eco wand and take care of it all for you?

Enter Reverb, a Portland, Maine-based organization that does just that. Reverb offers a menu of greening services for artists and their managers including providing biodiesel for buses, sourcing eco-friendly merchandise like organic t-shirts and reusable water bottles, and coordinating local, organic catering.

Reverb was founded by environmental activist Lauren Sullivan and her musician husband Adam Gardner, guitarist and vocalist for Guster. They’ve worked with an impressive roster of artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Stars, Phish, Andrew Bird, and Kelly Clarkson. So far they’ve greened 70 tours and 1,120 events, reducing 62,608 tons of CO2 in the process. Not too shabby.

And they haven’t forgot about the fans, whose commute comprises over 80% of a concert’s carbon footprint (!). Reverb has made it easy for folks to reduce the environmental impact of their travel by partnering with the online ridesharing system PickupPal and selling carbon offset credits at shows.

Reverb also promotes environmental awareness at concerts, highlighting green causes, technologies, and businesses. They’re always looking for volunteers to help out with this, especially at festivalas and larger events where they set up an entire “Eco Village.” And volunteering wil get you a free pass. Not a bad deal, if you ask me. Just remember to carpool. And show some love for the Loverboy cover.