Eva Hernandez of Dogwood Alliance speaks with CloudCult's frontman and head of the non-profit label group, Earthology about how to balance business with activism.
AN INTERVIEW WITH CRAIG MINOWA OF CLOUDCULT
Eva Hernandez of Dogwood Alliance speaks with CloudCult's frontman and head of the non-profit label group, Earthology about how to balance business with activism.
Dogwood Alliance: What's the easiest thing you can do? CloudCult:Green Energy credits are really easy. If everyone offset their carbon emissions we wouldn't be looking at more nuclear power plants, more fossil fuels, and we would be cutting our dependence on foreign oil. It's important for people to wrap their minds around the concept of carbon offsets because it can seem foreign for you to be paying a company to generate wind power 5 states away. If you look at it on a mass scale you see that individually we are each drawing from the grid and we can pay to have wind power charge that.
Dogwood Alliance: Let's talk about your fans, how do your fans respond to your environmental activism? CloudCult: They really don't. We're pretty quiet about it and don't really tout it as being what we're all about. We do it as a good business practice and hope people see it as a working model that can be followed. We aren't a preachy band. Even at the merch table we mention that our t-shirts are organic cotton, and some people think that's cool, others just say they want a cool design. But in the industry as a whole environmentalism is starting to be more trendy, that's a great trend!
Dogwood Alliance: What are some of the things you do at your shows to promote environmentalism? CloudCult: We put out reading materials at the merch table–most materials are about buying local and reducing your carbon footprint by consumer. We've put out recycling bins that clubs will use to recycle bottles and cans.
Dogwood Alliance: What are some of the other companies or organizations you work with that you've found to be a good resource? CloudCult: The American Forests website a good carbon calculator where you can input miles and it will calculate how many trees you need to plant to offset your emissions. We know that the website is a bit on conservative side so we take their number and multiply it a few times over.
Your local power company has some sort of green energy choice too that costs a bit extra per month to have your power greened.
For T-shirts we switch around—we've used Patagonia, American apparel, really whatever is the best price for organic cotton and the prices are dropping pretty fast. We used to pay $7 /shirt and a conventional t-shirt is only $2/shirt. Now organic cotton shirts are down to $5 each which makes a big difference.
For packaging we still pop around. We still do a lot of packaging through Earthology Records but we've also used Groove House Records and Copycats Media.
The important thing is to always ask for 100% Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) paper packaging.
Dogwood Alliance: What are you listening to right now? CloudCult: I'm actually listening to a CD of Native American music I bought when we were going through Canada. When on tour we don't listen to much in the Indie Rock realm because every night we're listening to 2-3 bands. It's usually something jazzy or something meditational.
Thanks CloudCult!
To contact CloudCult and Eartholgy records, email [email protected], or call 1-320-237-0432.
To Sign up to help Green the Music Industry with Dogwood Alliance click here.
Today, consumers are demanding environmentally friendly products; we have better touring options, enviro-friendly merch, and even ways to easily offset our carbon footprints when on tour. To get involved with Earthology, Send your info to [email protected].
-Earthology studios have an environmentally friendly design, with 100% recycled plastic lumber, soundboards made of Homasote (100% recycled newspaper), and reclaimed lumber. The flooring & decks are made from 100% postconsumer recycled plastic (PET). The studio is located on 11 acres of prairie, wetlands, woods, and an organic herb/vegetable farm. All heat and cooling is provided sustainably via a geothermal system. Electricity is provided by wind power (via Allete's Wind Sense Program).
-Earthology shrink wrap is made of nontoxic low density polyethylene, instead of toxic poly-vinyl chloride. Earthology's shrink wrap will soon be made of 100% biodegradable corn cellulose.
-Earthology is a record company and an activist organization, working to revolutionize the music industry into operating in an ecologically sustainable manner.
-Earthology coordinates a monthly Eco-Action Group, which discusses important current environmental issues and offers ways of becoming active in these issues. If you'd like to be a part of this listserv, please email us at [email protected].