Radiohead Analyse Carbon Footprint

29 January 2008 

Celebrities must find ways to reduce their impact on the environment; flights, transportation, tours and publicity all take their toll.  Best Foot Forward believes that with just a few minor changes carbon footprints could be significantly reduced.  This has been highlighted through a study of the rock band Radiohead's tours, which has highlighted some interesting results. Two different tours were analysed, an out of town big gig / amphitheatre tour and a smaller theatre tour in city centres. The findings showed that fan travel and consumption made up 86% of the theatre tour and 97% of the amphitheatre tour. Of the band's touring impact, travel and energy use accounted for 60% (theatre tour) and 40% (amphitheatre tour). International travel accounted for a further 34 - 40% of impacts.

Following the research, Radiohead has pledged to try to plan future tours around city centres to enable fans to take advantage of public transportation.  They will also be reducing their own carbon emissions by shipping their gear via sea transportation. Using this arrangement instead of air will save almost 47 tonnes of CO2 for a US tour. These changes will begin with the 2008 tour; along with travelling as little as possible by air, avoiding chartered flights, and investigating more efficient road and rail transportation, they're asking fans to cut the amount of flights they take to gigs and to share cars with friends.