Jack Johnson, the singer-songwriter, not the hockey player or the long dead boxer, was born in Hawaii, and has always had a bit of a laid back, hippie sort of vibe. This assumption certainly seems to be true when it comes to his touring, because he has a rider that demands all sorts of green policies be enacted for him to perform at a venue.
“You hear all these horror stories of people’s riders requesting one color of M&Ms or super fancy champagne,” Johnson said, “We just figured, all right, let’s be demanding with these, because we know they’re not going to switch back to those energy-draining bulbs once the show is over.” Now, granted, he got the Van Halen rider wrong, as they wanted no brown M&Ms, not just brown M&Ms, but his overall point remains true. Concerts create a lot of trash, traditionally, and also create a lot of carbon emissions, particularly when it comes to people driving to shows.
Amongst other things, Johnson demands that all light bulbs be replaced with energy-efficient LED bulbs. He tries to eliminate plastic bottles and cups, he uses biodiesel fuel on his tour bus, and he sets up “bike valets” at his shows to encourage fans to not drive. On his rider, it reads, in all caps, “RECYCLING MUST NOT BE THROWN AWAY WITH THE TRASH.”
None of this seems to inconvenience fans, plus his fans are probably the kind of people who are into this stuff, and venues can always say no if they don’t feel like meeting his standards. It certainly is good for the environment, and who could complain about Johnson doing that? Also, Van Halen only asked for no brown M&Ms as a test for concert venues to make sure they were paying attention to their demands. Let’s give Van Halen a break, guys.
(Via Huffington Post)
