Saving The Planet Through Great Music
by Dawn St John
In April of this year, before there even was a Green Room, we went to a Guster show at SUNY Geneseo. This show was part of their Campus Consciousness tour, wherein the band (and others) were working to educate people on college campuses and at their shows about environmentalism. It was there that we learned about Reverb, an organization started by Lauren Sullivan and Adam Gardner for exactly that purpose.
Reverb was a major inspiration to us when we started The Green Room. Though we work in "very different media," as Lauren said to me, Reverb and The Green Room share a similar mission - teaching people how they can help the Earth through their love of music. Reverb's mission has evolved over the two years since their first tour. In the words of Adam Gardner, "Originally, it was just, "Why don't we spread awareness through bands?" and now we're realizing we can actually "green" the music industry itself, so that's become sort of a dual mission between spreading awareness and, y'know, between environmental education and actually greening artists' tours and the music industry at large." It is the perfect marriage of Lauren's background in environmentalism, which includes a Masters degree in Environmental Education and working as an "Indigenous Rights Campaigner" for the Rainforest Action Network, and Adam's musical background with his band, Guster.
In 2004, Reverb took the show on the road, so to speak. Their first tour was with Barenaked Ladies and Alanis Morissette. Lauren says, "We approached BNL's management in April and got a very supportive "yes" -- and then we just started scrambling to make flyers, t-shirts, get groups organized, route our travels across the country (we chased the tour in a van twice across the country!), and then hit the road in July. We used the old "Green Highway" infrastructure (tents, banners, flags, etc.) and I invited diverse enviro-groups to come out and table and educate BNL and Alanis' fans. We offset almost every show with wind power and had a very successful tour. The BNL guys could not have been more supportive. They talked about issues from stage, came out to help us set-up on occasion and always had something nice to say about the Reverb team on site each day. It was the perfect entrŽe into this sort of work." The "Green Highway" tour was originated by Bonnie Raitt and her manager, Kathy Kane, who was one of Lauren's first contacts when she and Adam started Reverb.
While following around bands and being on tour with them sounds incredibly exciting, it's also a lot of work. Reverb, right now, is comprised of just the couple who started it. Because of Adam's busy touring and recording schedule, much of the day-to-day responsibility is Lauren's. Adam's role has largely been, "to connect the cause with artists," in his own words. He describes his ability to use his musical connections for the greater good, "I've had this conversation time and time again with artists, where they go, 'God, y'know... I'd really LIKE to do something, but I don't know what, or I don't know how. ... We'd love our tour to be more environmentally-friendly, but we don't have the personnel to take care of it, y'know? Hey, it'd be great to run our buses on biodiesel, but that seems like a lot of work, and everybody else here is tapped.'" Reverb provides artists with the opportunity to make the difference they want to make. This obviously requires long days and hard work. When she's not on tour, Lauren's days are filled with making contacts and doing research. This may mean contacting artists or their managers, speaking with volunteers or environmental groups, working on flyers or designing eco-villages (the area set aside for representatives of environmental groups to distribute information to the concert attendants), setting up the fuel stops for the groups to get their biodiesel, and general e-mail and telephone contacts. Things are even busier when Reverb is on the road because all these duties continue, along with the additional tasks of setting up the eco-village (which often means arriving on site on the morning of each show to scope out the area and determine the optimal set-up), greeting and helping with set-up for the groups as they arrive to take part in the eco-village, and of course the actual "outreach and education work which continues [from when the doors open] throughout the evening." Lauren says she is often at work until around 2:00 in the morning, at which time it's "... [back to the] bus and drive to next venue and do it all again."
A lot of work, but I've no doubt both Lauren and Adam think it's a cause well worth it. They both feel that everything an individual can do to further environmental causes makes a huge difference. Says Adam, "... you don't have to change your whole world, you don't have to be a hippie. You can just be a concerned citizen that wants to do the right thing. And you don't have to turn your world upside down." He further urges our readers to do some research and see what's out there, "Choose a couple things that can help your impact - y'know, reduce your impact on the environment. Do what-- Look into wind power. A lot of local utilities now offer alternative energy as an option. They don't tell you about it, but if you ask them about it, a lot of them have programs." Lauren agrees, "Doing SOMETHING and being aware is a HUGE step," but adds, "I'm not a purist...I'm actually a hypocrite in many ways. I'm an environmentalist and a consumer. We all are." Still, there are ways we can all curb our impact on the Earth's fragile environment. To name a few, she suggests, "Use renewable energy to power your home (many suppliers have a green power option that often costs only $5 more per month). Drive a hybrid, biodiesel, greasecar or high mpg car -- and drive less. Make your home as toxin-free as possible (i.e. Use earth friendly products i.e. homemade ones work well and they're cheap--low VOC paints, etc.) Become vegetarian (according to the USDA growing crops for farm animals requires half of the U.S. Water supply and 80% of our agricultural land, not to mention clear cutting for cattle, topsoil erosion which leads to desertification, the list goes on...)" Not everyone can go to the extent that Adam and Lauren have in creating a group like Reverb, but everyone can certainly make a difference.
This summer, Guster and Reverb are again touring together. After the success of the Campus Consciousness Tour, which was their first collaborative effort, the decision was made by Adam and his fellow Gusters, "'Well, we might as well keep running on biodiesel and educating our fans about this stuff. Let's do it again this summer!' so we're doing a co-headlining with Ray LaMontagne this summer." We'll be catching them (and working with Reverb as well) on August 9th, so keep an eye out for further information and coverage.