“Dance – Or the Lights Will Go Out!”

The “Music of Spheres” tour is expected to cut emissions by 50 percent and set new standards. © Néstor J. Beremblum / Alamy Stock Foto

Protecting the Climate Around the Globe

“I really need you to jump up and down. Because if you don’t, the lights go out.” When Chris Martin calls for his audience to dance during the current world tour, it’s not just out of pure pleasure. There is a kinetic floor at Coldplay concerts. When people jump, they generate energy. And that keeps the concert going. The band is also relying on renewable energy stored in batteries developed especially for the tour. They are developed from recycled batteries from electric vehicles. The show itself is supposed to be staged nearly climate-neutral. Coldplay also motivates the audience to embrace sustainability. A discount code awaits fans who can prove they arrived at the concert by bicycle or train. A tour app is designed to record the arrivals. Biodegradable confetti and multiple-use – not single-use – products are available on site. Visitors can bring their beverage bottles from home and fill them up at water dispensers. The band has also designed its own travel to be as sustainable as possible. Accordingly, the concert route is mapped out to minimize the amount of air travel. When flights are unavoidable, the band turns to CO₂ compensation and to biojet fuel to power the plane. All the details can be reviewed in the 12-point plan that an expert team has developed for Coldplay.

There’s Even More?

Climate researchers at the Imperial College in London are accompanying the tour to evaluate the band’s measures. One of them is Jem Woods. In a blog article for the college, he explained that he especially sees potential in the concerts’ broad reach. The message of sustainability is making it into the headlines and resonating. He hopes that Coldplay can be a template for other bands and that it will set new standards in the music and entertainment industry with its concept.

Nonetheless, Coldplay has been exposed to criticism. The burning issue is whether the band – whose last tour included 114 shows and was among the most commercially successful tours of all time – would not succeed in cutting emissions by more than one half. In an interview with BBC Radio 2, Martin accepted the criticism and admitted that the concept is far from perfect. But the band is making a commitment to do everything in its power to make the tour as sustainable as possible and to share what it has learned along the way. That, too, is sustainability: rethinking processes and demonstrating the courage to attempt what is purportedly impossible.