The hugely popular recent Coldplay tour has flooded our social media feeds of late but not just for the music, for many other interesting reasons too around the various sustainability pledges they made. We take a look more specifically at some of the changes they made and initiatives the group introduced to do better, including across their hospitality and food and beverage.
This year's World Tour recently landed in the UK with Chris Martin and his band heading to London's Wembley Stadium and Glasgow's Hampden Park Stadium in particular, the latter of which our own Scott Fraser was in attendance. From the outset, the group pledged to make the Music Of The Spheres Tour as sustainable and low-carbon as possible, guided by three key principles:
1. Reduce - reducing their consumption, recycling extensively and cutting their CO2 emissions by 50%
2. Reinvent - Supporting new green technologies and developing new sustainable, super-low carbon touring methods
3. Restore - Make the tour as environmentally beneficial as possible by funding a portfolio of nature-based and technology-based projects and. by drawing down significantly more CO2 than the tour produces
Their stage production, something that always requires a lot of power - especially with the impressive lengths that Coldplay go to in terms of light shows and pyrotechnics. The tour is using a mix of renewable, super-low emission energy from sustainable biofuels, including an HVO-type (Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil) biofuel, produced 100% from renewable raw materials. Other initiatives to generate power include static bicycles at the event for fans to use to help generate power for the show as well as kinetic floors in certain areas to convert fans' dance movement into energy.
With the carbon emissions of food sometimes account for up to 20% of a person's carbon footprint, this was a key consideration of Coldplay's tour. All crew catering meals will have plant-based and meat-free options as standard. Organic produce will be sourced from local suppliers or farms that practice regenerative agriculture techniques. While the tour is also supporting the development of synthetic, lab-grown cultured foods.
One additional initiative which we thought is simple but great is partnerships with local food banks to donate any surplus food from the shows.
Finally, the now famous LED wristbands, which have caused such a storm on social media lighting up the stadiums in a dazzling display of light across the crowds, have also been carefully considered. To avoid a large use of plastics, the LED wristbands worn by the audience as part of the show will be made from 100% compostable, plant-based materials.
You can find out much more here about all of the sustainable actions that Coldplay and their tour team are taking this year to make it a groundbreaking step forward in how such stage shows and tours are delivered when considering their environmental impact.