127USD per Barrel of Crude Oil - Record High.

One major area where environmental concerns marry with fiscal issues: Trucking.

125,000lb / 55,000kg of Sound, Lighting, Video, Band Gear, Office and Catering equipment needs to be moved between every show. Shying away from the American tradition of just rolling equipment onto an empty truck, our 5 trucks are efficiently packed, requiring more labour time and some tetris skill to make the most of our space and weight limits. We don't have a huge number of trucks compared to super group stadium shows that turn in to 36+ truck monsters, but even our 5 still have an impact on the environment.

In our initial planing for the US tour, we looked into moving all the equipment by rail. The American rail system isn't bad and every major city has a station. Problems come up, however, when stations don't have sidings and trains can only pull up for a few minutes to load and unload passengers. Freight timetables are set months in advance; we have too much gear to take advantage of spare capacity and not enough to command a 50 wagon freight train.

So, back to trucking it is. Fuel used on the road is inevitable, but the tradition of idling engines to maintain cab power and air conditioning can be addressed.

Truck Drivers live in their cabs. Some are luxury palaces, but all can be uncomfortable sweat boxes in the summer heat. With safety at the top of the priority list, ensuring the truckers get a good night sleep is key, so asking them not to run their AC is not an option. In a move to save fuel, more and more trucking companies are installing Auxiliary Power Units (APU's). Small generators mounted to the side of the cab deliver the required power instead of idling the engine. These can be run whenever the units are parked, saving on fuel and engine hours (servicing etc etc).

We have partnered with Upstaging Trucking to go one step further. There is more than enough house electricity when parked at the venue. Mains connectors and inverters have been installed to our 5 trucks to enable them to be hooked up to venue power and remove the need to run their APU's at all.

For the first time, complete silence and clean air at the loading dock.

The cost saving as the price of fuel continues to rise is clear, and we are also reducing emissions. A win-win solution and the best we could come up with, at least until those Hybrid trucks are developed!

www.upstaging.com

Where to play? Where to play? The Best Foot Forward report identified fan travel as the single biggest contributor to our carbon footprint. Public transport moves further up the list of importance, but venue availability, power, space, truck parking etc etc are still priority. A nice clean, sterile arena would have been sufficient, but having more adverts than character is not appealing to any of us. So the needs of the product override the ideals of the project and thus this plan came together.

As varied as they all are, venues around the world present a specific set of hurdles when it comes to eco policies. There are so many layers of contractors who deal with all the areas (i.e. consumables like paper plates having been pre-bought for the whole year) and they have no obvious reason to help us. We are, however, benefiting greatly from the network of communication that exists between Live Nation. What?  The big multi national helping out the common man? It's true. With their national venue network and buying power, they have been able to dive head first into some of our incentives. Senior management have been overtly supportive

Our efforts started in December with the appointment of Katie, our tour Eco Coordinator. Despite national ownership, the beer, food and operations are, more often than not, contracted out to regional companies. With a whole range of different policies, sorting all this out is a full time job (Katie also manages our IT as well, so we keep her really busy!)

Our next move was to enlist some expert help in drawing up a hit list of practicable measures to action at the venues. Our top ten included....


·        Give car poolers preferential parking and promote this option through communications with concert goers   
·        Use low energy light bulbs in all areas
·        Purchase green power or power from renewable sources from electricity provider
·        Use reusable cups rather than disposable ones
·        Use recycled paper for all office stationery, tickets, posters, flyers and napkins
·        Use compostable recycled paper crockery and wooden cutlery not plastic
·        Install recycling points for all cans and bottles

The current arrangements at each venue were checked against our ten points, which then produced a short list of things to concentrate on. A plan was made to research solutions to the issues; it's no good requesting something without having some idea of how to achieve it. This part of the big green push relies solely on the venues actions, and for the most part, our suggestions have been met with great enthusiasm. Car pooling has been North America wide, some of the additional recycling plans have been venue specific. Having determined the level of existing eco action, our plan is to encourage improvement. A 1950's amphitheatre is going to be starting from a worst position than a modern one, but their efforts are just as valid.

Car Pooling and composting have shown particular promise, with an average 12% reduction on the total number of cars used, and an average of over 1000 spots taken each night on the car pooling lot. Preferential parking locations were offered, although a better incentive would be for Live Nation not to include the parking charge in the ticket price, so car poolers would actually save money!

Compostable food waste from the venue backstage kitchens has been collected and used by venue grounds keepers and local gardening clubs. Live Nation have independently started to supply compostable beer cups for all their venues. The provision of organic locally grown food for the audience was one area that we had no influence over.
Consumer demand prevails and we are told the consumer demands mass produced burgers and chemically enhanced beer - maybe time for a little customer feedback?

The ultimate goal is to introduce schemes that, once proven effective, will be perpetuated by the venues and demanded by other acts.

You can read our full venue reports at www.radiohead.com/tourdates/

After the Radiohead commissioned report by Best Foot Forward was published, a lot of questions were asked about the way that we tour. The main issue is how the audience moves to and from the show. With the location and public transport links now a more significant factor when choosing venues, fans are being encouraged to think about alternative ways of travelling.

Beyond this, we have asked ourselves - what can we, the tour, do?

Staying at home is the obvious answer - no tour, no carbon footprint! but people will still go to gigs, and we are running a business, the business of providing a quality product {live music} to the customer {the fans}. If you start from this position and remember that we are responsible for the welfare of the 60+ people on the road, you very quickly hit some brick walls.

In the coming weeks we hope to show you what Radiohead are doing to change the way they tour in order to reduce their own carbon footprint.

We want to show the failings as well as the successes, and who has helped us along the way.

None of what we are trying to do could have been possible with out the cooperation of the band, crew, venues, suppliers and fans. It's a joint effort. We can dream up new schemes and come up with the resources, but it requires each and every one of us to participate for the whole thing to work. Let's start a debate. Things will only change on a global scale if the customer demands it.

Some of the initiatives are very simple and obvious, but make a big difference, others are new and innovative. It's not a perfect model; there are always limitations as to what can be done when putting on such a level of show.

Ultimately, that's the point. None of what we are doing should impede your enjoyment of a Radiohead concert, in fact; maybe it will be a better show, through the discovery of new technologies and a fresh way of thinking.