Bands Try to Cut Back on Touring’s Massive Carbon Footprint

Chris Martin scored his first big hit in 2000 with a song called Yellow, but these days, he’s more interested in green. Coldplay, the band Martin fronts, announced in November that it wouldn’t go on tour to promote its latest album, Everyday Life, until it could find a way to make concerts more sustainable and beneficial to the environment. The Dave Matthews Band said in January it would offset carbon emissions created by its 2020 summer tour by planting a million trees. And electronic dance pioneer Massive Attack is planning to tour Europe by train, considered a more eco-friendly mode of transport, and work with a climate research center to track its carbon footprint.

The moves reflect a new level of concern in the industry about the environmental impact of live music, which generated more than $10 billion in revenue in 2018. Issues such as global warming and sustainability have become passionate concerns for many of the concert industry’s fans—and increasingly for the musicians that cater to them.