Reverb is greening music tours across the country

Music is important. We all have memories, impressions and ways of thinking about life that are filtered through the music that we listened to when we were going through stages, celebrating an important event, or dealing with a tragedy. Music sticks with you and still means something decades down the road.

But what about when the bands that make that music are on the road? The truth is, the concerts that make a huge impact on the fans makes an equally huge impact on the environment. From the vehicles bands tour in and the resources required to put on dozens of shows along a tour, and from the traveling all of the concert-goers have to do to get there and back to the waste we all produce at a show, it's a big toll. And it happens thousands of times a summer at hundreds of venues across the country.

Is there any hope for lessening the impact these shows have on the environment?

If there is, Reverb is making it happen.

"We sort of think of ourselves when we're out on the road as an eco-swat team…"

                                                            -- Lauren Sullivan, co-founder of Reverb

"Based in Portland, Maine, Reverb is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that was founded in 2004 by environmentalist Lauren Sullivan and her musician husband, Adam Gardner of Guster. Reverb provides comprehensive, custom greening programs for music tours while conducting grassroots outreach and education with fans around the globe."

Pretty awesome, right? To top it off, it's founded by the husband and wife team of Adam Gardner, lead singer of the band Guster, and his environmentalist wife Lauren Sullivan.

Reverb has a hand in everything. They have partnered with big names like Jack Johnson and the Dave Matthews Band to set up "eco-villages" at concerts, helping attendees recycle, offset their carbon footprint and facilitate carpools, while also working with the venues themselves to implement recycling programs, coordinate more sustainable fuel and other supplies for the venue, and even make the backstage food more organic.

Another great project they head up is the "Campus Consciousness Tour." For this project, the Reverb team organizes a tour that visits college campuses and helps start a student-staff dialogue around sustainability as well as showing how the band's needs can be met in the most sustainable way possible.

Image courtesy of Reverb.org