For the last several months we’ve been talking with people in the music industry about how packaging choices impact endangered forests when there are readily available alternatives.

While there are indeed people that have been making major headway in greening the music industry, I want to take a moment to highlight The Good Life’s latest album, Help Wanted Nights out on Saddle Creek Records.The Good Life is Led by Cursive’s Tim Kasher (vocals, guitar), the band–featuring Stefanie Drootin (bass), Roger Lewis (drums), and Ryan Fox (guitar, keys)–“creates bold songs that are not
afraid of the mixed up emotions they describe, sometimes in vicious, heart-battering detail.”

Last Spring I met with Ryan Fox in Omaha who works with Saddle Creek and plays in The Good Life to talk about their packaging options and what they can do to help green the music industry. Ryan was already very interested in going this route, and his main interest was finding packaging options for their upcoming release that is both environmentally friendly and economical as well.

Smart man…

The Good Life succeeded, not only in creating the ideal packaging for a CD release but also in creating an album you’ll want to listen to time and time again.The CD topspine, booklet and CD sleeve are all made from 100% post-consumer recycled materials and the recording is carbon offset thanks to partnering with Native Energy. Check out their website and some reviews of the album.

In a recent aricle I wrote for Musicians Atlas , Ryan was also quoted:

Cutting-edge indie labels are also committed to reducing waste. Says Ryan Fox of The Good Life/Saddle Creek Records, “It’s a little disheartening to think that bands, artists, musicians can unknowingly have goods manufactured in their names part of which are the product of old-growth forests or unsustainable practices or that contribute unnecessarily to waste. It’s not uncommon for these CDs and their packaging to turn out to be discarded ephemera for many of the people who buy them. So our thought was “why not seek out the option for bands to choose packaging from recycled and more easily recyclable materials if they’re available and affordable?”

Over half of the forests that are cut down in the US goes to packaging many different types of products. Think about all the millions of CD booklets and sleeves that are sold that are coming directly from endangered forests when there are readily available alternatives. As a lover of music and the environment, it’s ever so important to me and others in the same boat that musicians do all they can to lighten their impact.

What is the greatest thing about greening the music industry? Bands like The Good Life and others on Saddle Creek have an impact that is multiplied by all their fans, press, and friends. As a musician, the impact they have goes above and beyond what any one person can do.

Working together with non-profits like Dogwood Alliance and other bands and labels to green the industry and reduce the overall amount of packaging they use, we can transform the packaging problem, ensure the protection of endangered forests and slow global climate change.

Check out the other albums, Art in Manila and Two Gallants, recently released on Saddle Creek that also have
made great choices when it comes to their packaging.It looks like, feels good, and is good for
the future.

Art in Manila and Two Gallants self-titled release, also 100% Post-consumer recycled content and whose production is carbon neutral came out this year on Saddle Creek records.It looks like Saddle Creek Records is becoming a leader in the music industry when it comes to representing what can be done a with a little research and a lot of heart.

Thanks from all of us to Ryan Fox, The Good Life, and Saddle Creek.