SEATTLE, WA (www.pearljam.com) - In an effort to mitigate their own carbon emissions while raising the public's carbon consciousness,
Pearl Jam today announced the launch of their 2006 Carbon Portfolio Strategy. Through this Strategy, the band will donate a total of $100,000 to nine organizations doing innovative work around climate change, renewable energy, and the environment.
"We established the Carbon Portfolio Strategy in the hopes of creating new models for businesses like ours looking to invest in the future health of our planet and its delicate ecosphere," said Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam. "Our Carbon Portfolio Strategy unites the combined efforts of nine diverse groups all approaching the issue of carbon in distinctive and unique ways. We hope that by highlighting and creating a commons for these groups, we can help to advance a broad and synergistic strategy that encourages preservation of existing ecosystems, restoration of degraded environments, and broad stimulus for clean, renewable energy technologies."
Since 2003, Pearl Jam has employed a variety of approaches - including rainforest preservation and the use of pure bio-diesel for their 2006 US tour - to help offset carbon emissions produced by the band's tours and day-to-day business operations. The Carbon Portfolio Strategy builds on these earlier efforts by helping advance clean renewable energy and carbon mitigation. "We are honored to be part of this collaborative effort and would like to express our gratitude for the leadership and passion of all these diverse groups," remarked Gossard.
The nine organizations supported by the Carbon Portfolio Strategy are:
- American Solar Energy Society is the nation's oldest and largest membership organization dedicated to moving the U.S. to a sustainable energy economy for the benefit of our citizens and the global environment. www.ases.org
- Bonneville Environmental Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, was established in 1998 to restore watershed ecosystems and further the development and use of new renewable energy resources primarily from wind and solar power. www.b-e-f.org
- Cascade Land Conservancy conserves and cares for the landscapes that define the Pacific Northwest region, from headwaters to estuaries, foothill forests to our communities and neighborhoods. www.cascadeland.org
- Conservation International (CI) applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth's richest regions of plant and animal diversity in the biodiversity hotspots, high-biodiversity wilderness areas, and key marine ecosystems. With headquarters in Washington, D.C., CI works in more than 40 countries on four continents. www.conservation.org
- EarthCorps gathers youth from around the world to restore Washington's salmon habitat, urban forests, and hiking trails. Environmental education and service with 10,000 volunteers annually. www.earthcorps.org
- Green Empowerment is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that promotes community-based renewable energy, potable water delivery, and related watershed restoration internationally to generate social and environmental progress. www.greenempowerment.org
- Honor the Earth is a Minnesota-based organization working nationally to promote renewable energy on tribal lands to build leadership in Native communities for a new energy future rooted in environmental justice and seeking to mitigate global climate change. www.honorearth.com
- IslandWood is a Seattle-based organization providing outdoor learning experiences and inspiring lifelong environmental and community stewardship for children and adults. www.islandwood.org
- Washington Clean Energy Initiative is a Washington State initiative to guarantee that at least 15% of the state's energy comes from clean, renewable sources by 2020. www.yeson937.org
While the Pearl Jam Carbon Portfolio Strategy has national and international components, the band's initial focus is on the Pacific Northwest since it is their home. By identifying and supporting leaders in the environmental community, they hope to raise this region's carbon consciousness while also investing in a clean energy future.
Part of the band's goal is to encourage Northwest businesses and individuals to invest in these and other leading environmental organizations. Interested businesses and individuals can learn more about these organizations, calculate their own carbon emissions, and become part of the Pearl Jam Carbon Portfolio Strategy by visiting www.pearljam.com/activism.
The band encourages people outside the Pacific Northwest to identify and support leaders in their own community leading the charge for clean and renewable energy. In addition, the band hopes that everyone will take a close look at how their daily activities contribute to the increasing amounts of carbon emissions in the air.
For several years now, Pearl Jam has been committed to offsetting the carbon output produced by their tours. In 2003, the band joined forces with Conservation International to offset 5,700 tons of CO2 emissions released from trucks, buses, airplane travel, hotel rooms, concert venues - and the estimated one million fans driving to and from the concerts - by creating and managing a new protected area in the rainforest of Makira, Madagascar. Protecting forests, which naturally store carbon, helps prevent the release of nearly a quarter of world's annual the greenhouse gas emissions caused by deforestation and other land-use changes.
Additionally, Stone Gossard and his wife Liz Weber spearheaded an effort on the 2004 Vote for Change tour called the "Vote for Change Renewable Energy Project" that raised $77,000 to fund a variety of small-scale renewable energy projects in several of the states the tour traveled through. The Dave Matthews Band, Bonnie Raitt, Pearl Jam and Stone Gossard individually donated money to this effort, which was overseen by the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. To date, the Vote for Change Renewable Energy Project has installed four solar photovoltaic power systems in states across the US, with four additional systems set for completion by the end of 2006. For more information on these projects, visit https://www.b-e-f.org/renewables/index.shtm.
In addition to the Carbon Portfolio Strategy, Pearl Jam are working to offset carbon emissions from their 2006 US tour by using B100 - pure bio-diesel - in all production trucks on their 2006 US tour and for their buses on leg two of this tour. B100 reduces emissions of carbon monoxide by approximately 50% and carbon dioxide by 78% on a net lifecycle basis. In contrast to fossil fuels, which release new carbon previously sequestered in the earth's crust, the carbon in B100 emissions is recycled from carbon already present in the atmosphere. The ultimate goal in all of these efforts is to get Pearl Jam at 0% net emissions for tours and business operations.
Pearl Jam's 2006 worldwide tour is in support of their new, self-titled studio record released May 1 in Europe and May 2 in North America. For more information on Pearl Jam, visit www.pearljam.com.
