Also in this issue:

 

THE SOLUTION

Think about your packaging choices:

  • * Post-consumer recycled content is readily available.
  • * Reduce packaging when it is an option.
  • * Use minimal plastic & plastic free packaging with soy-based inks and H2O based coating.
  • * Part of the solution to the climate crisis is recycled versus virgin paper.
  • * Look at packaging companies like Groovehouse records or Ivy Hill, who makes Warner Music Groups sustainable packaging.
  • * Sign a letter of support stating that packaging should not come from endangered forests.
 

Check out the eco-friendly packaging made by these companies:

Groovehouse records
Created package for
"An Inconvenient Truth"

 

Check out your impact on
the planet here at the
PAPER CALCULATOR
 

STOP BITCHIN'
& START SINGING

Independent Music Awards
Sing Out For Social Action category provides musicians from every end of the political spectrum a platform to promote social change to 11 Million music fans. Whether you're a Folkie or Rocker - For or Against Artic Drilling - Here's your chance.

Enter your Social Action songs in the 2008 IMAs.

Deadline is July 27, 2007.
 

Green is the New Black

Artists and the music industry are at the forefront of defining culture and affecting change - agitating against war and for civil rights, for example.

The environment is another extremely worthy cause in need of championing and musicians; managers; record labels and producers have the power to make a huge impact with actually very little effort. In fact, going green is good for the planet, for your karma and for your bottom line.

One of the easiest and most efficient ways to have a positive impact on the environment is by looking at packaging choices. Nearly 300 pounds of packaging waste is generated per person every single year. Excessive and unsustainable packaging is a scratch on the music industry’s record because there are alternatives readily available.

Your packaging choices say a lot about who you are creatively. The good news is that now your packaging can effectively sell your product and say "I’m for the environment."

A Heap Of Trouble
More than half of all the trees cut down in the United States are chipped up, and used for packaging CD’s, beauty products, fast food and other mass-consumed items. After a brief time on the shelf, these packages are ripped open, tossed out and shipped to landfills —50% of all landfill waste is paper or wood products.

Paper and plastic are the most frequently used packaging materials. Every CD booklet, insert and package that is not from recycled materials means that another tree will fall.

The most important thing for you as product consumers and creators is to realize that the paper used for packaging is coming from somewhere, and often it is coming from endangered forests.

Southern Forests Under Siege
Forests are critical in the fight to slow global warming. By storing the carbon in the air they act as the lungs of our planet.

And, forests such as those in the extremely temperate and bio-diverse south are home to many plant and aquatic species found nowhere else in the world.

Unfortunately, they are also the biggest source of paper in the world and millions of acres of forests in the Southern US are logged every single year for paper – most of that paper is used for packaging.

Big paper companies like International Paper are logging endangered Southern forests and turning them into packaging for music CD’s and other products. These disposal packages are clogging landfills and threatening clean air, clean water and economic stability.

Packaging is a $124 billion industry; Music a $40 billion industry. These two industrial giants must act responsibly and stop using paper that is coming from endangered forests in the Southern US and beyond.

Greening Of The Music Industry
Going green is already a hot topic within the industry – many artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Peter Gabriel and Sting, among many others have been active supporters for years.

Packaging was a key topic during last month’s Greening Of The Music Industry Panel at SXSW mentioned by everyone from David Byrne to Frank Mauceri who runs a Green Music Label out of Chicago, Smog Veil Records.

Leading companies like Warner Music Group, Groovehouse Records, and TreeSound Studios have already developed sustainable packaging initiatives that other music companies should follow.

Warner Music Group, for example, recently announced that they are working with Ivy Hill Corporation their main package supplier, and will only use packaging that has high-recycled content and is certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC).

Influential music festivals like Bonnaroo and Perry Farrell’s Lollapalooza are also taking a serious look at the effect they are having on the environment and are exploring how they can more proactively lighten their environmental impact.

It Pays To Go Green

  • Unnecessary packaging adds to your costs – the more packaging you use in your product the higher the cost of production
  • A switch to enviro-friendly packaging attracts better publicity and more fans and therefore increases revenue
  • Enviro-friendly packaging saves forests, protects drinking water, wildlife habitat and helps slow global warming helping everyone save money associated with the costs of dealing with environmental disaster
  • Once you begin to think about your paper choices, you recognize other areas of waste in your life where through careful reduction you can save money
  • In the long run, the greater the demand for enviro-friendly packaging, the lower the price becomes over time

Sing Out And Speak Up
As artists, labels, customers, we can create the demand for environmentally sound packaging. Now is the time to join those on the forefront of a rapidly changing industry— together we have the real opportunity to let our voices be heard and speak out for protecting the environment. Companies will only change their bad habits if it’s important to their customers. Many consumers are already demanding environmentally sound products and packaging, and you can help further that demand.

Our voices go far in creating a demand for sustainably made products and packaging. Tell the companies that you buy from that you want your products sold in environmentally friendly packages.

And, choose packaging that is made from post-consumer recycled paper and paper certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) for all the CDs and promotional materials that you produce.

Waste reduction, smart design, recycled content, responsibly sourced paper fiber and even rethinking the need for packaging altogether; these are the ideas behind the very real efforts by the music industry to fix its packaging problem.

To learn more about how you can get involved in greening the music industry and to talk about sustainable packaging, contact us at the Dogwood Alliance.

Our next Going Green installment will feature bands & labels that are going Green. Share your Green story with 90,000+ industry insiders.

Before joining the Dogwood Alliance team as campaign organizer in 2005, Eva Hernandez was a Green Corps field organizer during which time she took a role in securing Dogwood Alliance’s historic agreement with Bowater, the largest supplier of newsprint in the US.  Eva also worked with Corporate Accountability International and as an assistant director for the US Public Interest Research Group’s citizen outreach office in Washington, DC.  Eva also serves on the Board of Directors for Environment North Carolina.