Breaking! Dave Matthews Band Named United Nations Environment Goodwill Ambassador On World Environment Day

For their powerful environmental advocacy Dave Matthews Band has been named a United Nations Environment Goodwill Ambassador. This is the first time in history that a band has received this recognition.

The band and nonprofit partner REVERB has been working together since 2005 on the BamaGreen Project; an ambitious set of environmental efforts undertaken by the band, in the studio, and at home, as well as the education and mobilization of fans around the globe.

Entering the 15^th year of the partnership, the band and the nonprofit have calculated the impact of their efforts and released a comprehensive report detailing the results of their work.  

Achievements over the course of 15 years, 20 tours, 578 concerts and 10 million fans:

• 121,000,000 pounds of C02 eliminated

• 478,000 single-use plastic bottles eliminated at shows

• 731,000 fans taking action at shows

• $2 million raised by fans for environmental causes

• 338,000 gallons of recycling collected

• 138,000 pounds of food waste composted

• 2,100 family farms supported

• 24,500 volunteer hours

• 1,000 non-profit organizations hosted in Eco-Village

“It’s desperate times, and we all need to work together to have hope for the future, hope for our children, and hope for the planet,” stated Dave Matthews at the UN Environment Goodwill Ambassadorship ceremony at their St. Louis tour stop.

“We wholeheartedly welcome the entertainment industry in joining government, civil society and private sector leaders in the fight for positive climate solutions,” Barbara Hendrie, Director of the UN Environment Office for North America, said in a statement. “Musical artists are in a unique position to use their platforms as performers and public figures to build awareness and encourage their fans to take action on a very large scale.”

The designation of Dave Matthews Band comes on the occasion of World Environment Day, the UN’s annual call to action on environmental protection. Recognized annually on June 5th, the theme for this year’s commemoration is air pollution, an issue leading to approximately seven million deaths each year globally. Through a global campaign, UN Environment is calling on everyone to #BeatAirPollution by making ambitious lifestyle changes; using public transport, car sharing, cycling or walking; reducing or eliminating meat and dairy consumption; and saving energy by turning off lights and electronics when not in use.

For every show of Dave Matthews Band’s North American tours, REVERB designs a comprehensive sustainability program that looks at the overall environmental footprint and works with band and crew members to mitigate the environmental toll of touring. Efforts include fueling trucks and buses with biodiesel, sourcing local farm food for catering, single-use plastic reduction, composting and recycling backstage, and offsetting tour carbon emissions by helping fund the creation of projects like solar and wind energy.

The partnership extends beyond making their tours green to include Dave Matthews Band’s dedicated fan base. At a time when it’s difficult for an individual person to feel like they can make a difference with an issue as big as global warming, the band and REVERB offer an empowering platform for millions of DMB fans to “band together and be bigger than the issues we face.”

Each show features the BamaGreen Eco-Village in the main concourse of the concert venue where fans are encouraged to be active participants in these efforts by reducing their environmental footprint, interacting with local and national nonprofits and supporting causes that have been selected by the band. Fans that participate are rewarded with opportunities to win prizes, like an autographed guitar. For the current 2019 summer tour, the focus is on fighting climate change, where fans take climate action to reduce their carbon footprint and raise funds to build rooftop solar projects on low-income housing.

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