I had planned to write about Live Earth before the event, but being an unpaid blogger, I got sidetracked by minor details related to moving into my new apartment.  You know, little stuff like painting my kitchen, buying a shower curtain my girlfriend would approve of, and throwing a housewarming party on 7-7-07 instead of planting myself on the sofa and actually watching the concerts.  So I missed the chance to blog about it the before or during the event, but given the massive amounts of publicity the event received, it wasn't really necessary.

To sum up the coverage: those with a green bias felt that the concerts were a huge success, those with a conservative bias pointed out the hypocrisy of having an event with a huge carbon footprint to raise awareness of global warming, and everyone else just yawned at the less-than-stellar artist list and the now passe' concept of a concert for a cause--"cause concert fatigue," as the Boston Globe put it.

But regardless of your stance on the actual concerts, one thing was clear:  the organizers went to great lengths to make the events as green as they could.  Many of the things they did are similar to actions at other events, especially Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza, but the nice touch here was that Live Earth decided to take the opportunity to write a series of green event standards. Working with an all-star team led by John Picard, one of the biggest names in corporate greening and a member of Clinton's "Greening the White House" team, the promoters developed a set of guidelines fashioned after the LEED program developed by the US Green Building Council.  Not everyone loves LEED, but no one can argue that the program has been instrumental in getting green building into the mainstream and making it easier for developers to understand and implement.  These guidelines aim for a similar effect:  demystify green events and remove the barriers that stop well-intentioned people from making sustainable decisions.

Inevitably, some of the greener-than-thou crowd will find fault with the new set of standards, picking it apart and snufflling that it doesn't go far enough or uses the wrong mechanisms for this or that purpose.  These are the same people who, instead of celebrating the fact that an event with the scope and purpose of Live Earth happened at all, immediately started whining that it didn't go far enough. 

My plea to these folks:  stop it!  You're not helping anything.  In fact, you're making us look bad.  Sure, there will be room for improvement in these standards in the future, but for now if we can get venues and production companies to adopt even a handful of these ideas it will be a huge victory.  Once we have established that artists, venues, and producers are open to the concept of greening their events, then we can fine tune the standards. 

I got in touch with John Rego, the environmental brains behind the Live Earth greening effort, before the show.  He was kind enough to send me an advance copy of the green standards.  Hopefully the standards will be released to the public in the near future, but until that happens I can provide a preview of what's inside.

The guidelines, which run to 74 pages, start out with a 5 page greening activity checklist.  While it might seem like common sense to have a checklist like this, the fact is that this is the first time anybody has actually put one together and distributed it.  The checklist is broken down into sections, from Green Power to Communications and Marketing, with multiple ideas in each section.  After the checklist, there is an introduction and overview that is mostly marketing aimed at people who aren't sold on the idea of green concerts yet. Following this is 7-page guide to getting started, with general organizational advice like "set goals," and "measure results" that applies to pretty much any activity a management team takes on, green or not.

After all this, we get to the meat of the document, which starts on page 25.  This is where the authors give step-by-step instructions on the topics in the checklist like powering the event and using volunteers to help with recycling.  Throughout these nuts-and-bolts sections, which are written in plain English, there are lists of specific questions to ask and specific actions to take.  For a busy concert promoter who wants to go green but doesn't really know what it means, reading this part of the document will give an idea of what's entailed and how easy or difficult it will be to act in any particular area (green power, recycling, etc.).  Much of what's in here will seem like common sense to those of us who are well-versed in the topic, but for an audience that's new to the realm of sustainability this will be an invaluable introduction.  And for those who are ready to take action, the format of the document should help make it as painless as possible.

At the end of each section, there is a list of minimum criteria.  This is an especially nice touch after bombarding the reader with so much information, since it summarizes what's most important about what we've just read.  For example, these are the minimum criteria that the authors set for the "venues" section:

Energy
Does the venue have the capability to purchase or use renewable energy?     
Is an energy-saving strategy in place for the venue to reduce lighting and power?  
Waste
Does the facility have a waste reduction, recycling, and/or composting program in place? If so, what is the diversion rate?
If the facility does not have any waste management program are they willing to implement one for the event?  
Restrooms
What measures (low volume toilets, waterless urinals, motion sensor sinks, aerated taps, etc.) have been implemented to reduce water consumption within the venue restrooms?
What percentage of restroom paper/tissues are made of post-consumer recycled materials?
Does the venue use environmentally safe, non-toxic cleaners and soaps?
Lighting
What percentage of facility lights are CFL, LED or other energy efficient fixtures? 

Following the minimum criteria lists, there are samples of contracts that promoters can use to ensure that the venues, vendors, and everyone else gets on board with the greening of the particular event. 

After more than 40 pages of specific ideas, contract language, and minimum criteria, the authors conclude with brief bios, a sample letter to vendors, and a bibliographic list of resources.

Is there room for improvement in the standards?  Sure.  For one thing, they offer sometimes vague advice like "purchase carbon offsets" or "reserve rooms in hotels that have implemented green practices."  At some point, someone will need to put together a yellow-pages style list of places to actually get this stuff, and that should be linked directly to the document.  That way, instead of just telling me to get biodegradable plastic cups, they can direct me to a list of vendors.  Hey Treehugger.com, are you listening?

Another area for improvement would be to move beyond the "yes/no" aspect of their checklist and offer some kind of rating or benchmarking system.  Sarah von Schagen over at Grist did some preliminary work in this area with a simple star system.  The LEED program goes a step further, in a controversial yet successful arrangement that awards points for particular activities and allows buildings to get rated in a four-level system.  While there are plenty of detractors of the LEED system, the chance for recognition (and the marketing opportunities that come with it) is one of the biggest drivers of the green building movement.

But all that is work for the future.  For now, we should take a step back to congratulate the Live Earth team for going all out to expand the boundaries of what a green event can be, and for working so hard to raise awareness of the environmental issues that we're all facing.   

Addendum:  So how green was Live Earth?  Did the concerts live up to their own set of standards?   In my view, yes, although not everyone agrees.  The promoters went to great length to practice what they preached.  They bought green power or used biodiesel wherever they could.  They egged reluctant vendors into using biodegradable food service items and educated Brazilian street vendors on the need for sustainable practices.  They got Giants Stadium to recycle at this event for the first time in the 30 years the venue has been open.  They did everything they could to make it easy for the concert-goers to carpool, and they worked hard to green their behind-the-scenes activities as well.  And even after doing all that, they acknowledged that there were other ways they could have improved given more time to set things up.  For more on the "greenness" of the actual Live Earth Events, check out these links:

http://www.ecorazzi.com/?p=2987
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2007/7/2/163947/8426
http://liveearth.org/?p=13
http://www.forbes.com/businesswire/feeds/businesswire/2007/06/25/businesswire20070625006007r1.html