RECYCLE LIKE A ROCK STAR

Being a rock star used to mean doing everything to excess, from riding around in stretch limos to trashing hotel suites. These days, though, rock’s tune has changed. Biofueled-powered buses are replacing gas-guzzling tour caravans, and backstage caterers are as likely to serve tofu cubes as shrimp cocktail. From recording and distributing albums to going on tour, musicians leave a massive carbon footprint. But more and more, they’re realizing it – and making changes to reduce their long-term environmental impact. Here’s what some of rock’s biggest names are doing to green up their acts.

Dave Matthews Band

You gotta give the Dave Matthews Band props for their commitment to the environment. DMB tours clean by using bio-diesel, vegetable oil-based fuels, selling eco-friendly organic cotton and bamboo merchandise at concerts, and planting trees to offset their shows’ carbon emissions. In Eco-Villages set up at every DMB concert venue, fans can learn about green products and eco-volunteer opportunities. And for their most recent tour, the Dave Matthews Band rewarded concert-goers who donated cans a code good for free music downloads. The band also partnered with Pickup Pal, a social-networking rideshare network, to coordinate pollution-reducing carpools to shows.

Radiohead

They played “Late Night with Conan O'Brien” via satellite because they thought flying to the U.S. for a five-minute set would leave too large a carbon footprint. They refused to play last year’s Glastonbury fest because public transportation was limited. High-profile decisions like these get Radiohead plenty of PR, but it’s not just green spin. As spokesman for Friends of the Earth’s Big Ask campaign, band frontman Thom Yorke is adamant about calling for climate-change laws that significantly reduce CO2 emissions. But Radiohead keeps doing its part: The initial release of “In Rainbows” was digital-only, to reduce emissions from producing and shipping physical CDs. On tour, the band relies on biofuel-powered buses, low-energy LED lights, solar-powered amps and even wind power; all concert merch is made from recyclable materials and refillable water bottles are a must. "Plastic anything is, like, contraband,” reported one-time opening act Liars, on their MySpace. “They don't do airfreight, either. Everything is supremely managed to reduce the 'footprint.’”

Green Day

“People are sick of our oil addiction and feel like nobody is doing anything about it,” wails Green Day’s lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong. It was that epiphany that led him – and the rest of his band – to partner earlier this year with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit comprised of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists who work to protect public health and the planet. As part of their joint “Move Beyond Oil” campaign, Green Day’s populated YouTube with short video rants about environmental challenges like growing up next to oil refineries and over-logging -- and how music fans can be part of the solution.

Sheryl Crow

She got lots of (well-deserved) flack for her call to limit toilet paper use to “only one square per restroom visit,” but Sheryl Crow's eco efforts since have made up for that ill-advised joke. On her summer 2007 Stop Global Warming tour, Crow and “An Inconvenient Truth” producer Laurie David visited U.S. college campuses, where they passed out energy efficient CFL bulbs and answered questions about how students could help end climate crisis. A special edition of her CD “Detours” included a recycled paperboard insert good for three free digital downloads; after using, the insert could be planted to grow wildflowers.

Jack Johnson

“One day I just looked out back behind the venue and realized we had a pretty big footprint," recalled singer-songwriter Jack Johnson, in an ABC News interview. That was one of the moments he realized if “everybody does their little part … in that way music can change the world.” The big kahuna of eco-artists, the Hawaiian-born surf enthusiast not only hosts Eco-Villages at every venue, but also insists on backstage amenities including CFL bulbs, water-efficient showers, separate bins for waste and recycling (with biodegradable bags), and an eco-crew to check tire air pressure for concert attendees. Even his catering supplies come from local farmers markets, and Johnson requires that all leftover food be donated to area food banks. As if that wasn’t enough, his song “3 R’s” – as in, reduce, reuse and recycle -- has become a sing-along go-green anthem of sorts, thanks in large part to its presence on the “Curious George” movie soundtrack.

Guster

"Rock 'n' roll excess I think maybe is on its way out,” says Adam Gardner singer-guitarist for Guster. It’s that mindset that spurred Gardner and his wife to found Reverb, a nonprofit environmental consultancy -- or “eco SWAT team,” as he calls it – that helps rockers make their tours eco-friendly and spread the green message to fans. Since 2004, Reverb has “greened” more than 1,300 concerts, from John Mayer to Linkin Park, doing everything from arranging for biodiesel fuel to recyclable cups.

Russell Simmons

Here’s proof that hip-hop artists recycle more than just beats: Russell Simmons, the music mogul who helped launch Def Jam records and founded Phat Farm clothing, this fall became spokesman for America’s Green Campus, a campaign and contest that called on colleges across the U.S. to lower their carbon footprints. "Hip-hop makes the planet cool, now hip-hop has to save it,” Simmons explained in a campaign PSA urging music fans to do “small things” to change the world, like cut down on water and electricity use and eat less meat. As a blogger at GlobalGrind.com, a hip-hop news site he helped create, Simmons also encouraged students to calculate their own carbon footprints and pledge to reduce them.

Alanis Morissette

One of rock’s most outspoken musicians, Alanis Morissette’s re-channeled her bitterness and rage toward ex-lovers into saving the planet. On tour, she travels by biodiesel-fueled buses and donates unused backstage food to homeless shelters, but off-stage her efforts are equally impressive. "It's everything from shutting off the light in my hotel room to not running the water for too long, to using the same towel over and over again until you can't,” she says. And those efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. Currently, she and Woody Harrelson collaborated on the launch of Reco Jeans, a recycled denim-wear line.