At least there’s one part of Texas that isn’t a gas-guzzlin’, carbon-emittin’ oil field. Organisers of the South By South West (SXSW) Music Festival, set to take place in Austin this March, have announced that the event will be environmentally friendly, with all carbon emissions offset.
The brains behind the music industry shindig, that see performances from over 1,500 up-and-coming international bands, are working with Green Mountain Energy to donate $5,000 to the local Parks Department.
The money will be spent on planting native Texan trees to offset the carbon released not only during the week long jamboree and in the festival offices throughout the year, but also the emissions caused by the thousands who travel to the event from across the globe.
SXSW head honcho Roland Swenson explained the thinking behind the green switch. “Once we set the goal for SXSW to achieve carbon neutral status, our staff took a very active hand in gathering all the pertinent information about our activities which generate carbon emissions,” he said.
“An important lesson we learned was that any business can achieve this goal with some work and a willingness to invest in new activity.”
He added that the festival was taking a step that he hoped would set an example to other businesses: “While the amount of carbon emissions generated by SXSW alone is relatively small, if every business took similar steps, it would make a profound difference to our planet’s future”.
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