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An inspired indie band dedicated to the environment? Music to our ears! Fifteen years into their career, Guster is operating at the peak of their creative powers,creating inspired music and practices for the entire music industry. In 2004, band member Adam Gardner and his wife Lauren Sullivan started Reverb – a non-profit organization dedicated to greening musicians' tours. Since its inception, Reverb has helped transform the touring practices of over 100 major tours including Coldplay, John Legend, and many others.
Give a listen to Guster’s new album, Easy Wonderful — a sneak preview for Whole Story readers since the album comes out in stores next week. And check out Adam’s musing below about “What does Guster have to do with Whole Foods?”
Guster "Easy Wonderful" by guster
From Adam Gardner:
Hey there, this is Adam, Guster's guitarist/vocalist. If you're wondering, "What does Guster have to do with Whole Foods?" That's a fair question. The answer is until recently, nothing. But then something changed -- we realized how we share the same passion for protecting the planet and have joined forces to try to make good stuff happen on a local, national and global scale.
As a band that has put in a lot of miles touring across the country for the past 18 years, we felt badly about the negative effects our tours had on the planet. All the garbage on the ground at the end of our concerts, the power used to light up the stage and amplify our sound, food leftover from catering backstage, and thousands of fans commuting to our shows every night started to really bother me. We jokingly nicknamed our tour bus the "Earth-eater" because of it's gas-guzzling capabilities, but the joke didn't make us feel any better. We decided it was time we made some real changes that would not only make our tours more earth-friendly, but also help influence the people around us to think twice about their environmental footprint.
In 2004 my environmentalist wife, Lauren Sullivan, and I started REVERB -- a nonprofit group dedicated to greening bands' tours while using concerts as a platform to inspire and engage music fans to take action toward a more sustainable future. This was before the age of An Inconvenient Truth when the word "green" referred simply to a color. In addition to Guster's tours, REVERB has worked with over 100 major tours including Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson, Coldplay, Sheryl Crow, John Legend, John Mayer and many others reaching over 13 million fans at 2,000 concerts and counting.
Guster's tour greening efforts include:
- Waste reduction and recycling backstage
- On-line carpooling service for concert goers
- Sustainable B20 biodiesel used in tour bus and truck
- Biodegradable and compostable catering products
- Local and organic food backstage
- Rechargeable batteries on stage
- Reusable water bottles for band and crew to reduce plastic bottle waste
- Eco-friendly merchandise
- Non-toxic cleaners and post-consumer recycled bathroom tissue on tour buses
- Calculating and neutralizing the carbon footprint from tour buses, trucks, and venue energy use
- Inviting local non-profit groups to table at shows