What do Southern forests and the Music biz have in common? More than I thought.

The music
industry is known for it’s innovation, for fighting censorship, for defining culture.
The South is known for its forests and
mountains, it’s pecan pie, and for its amazing music and cultural heritage. What do the two have in common? Forests. Southern forests which are critical to
stopping the climate crisis and define the region that has brought us
everything from Johnny Cash to OutKast to R.E.M. (hailing from Athens, Georiga and
recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!) are being destroyed to make excessive
packaging for the music industry.

So what are
we gonna do about it?

You might
have heard that we are working on the Packaging Campaign, and a big part of
that is working to transform the Music Industry. Big music labels like
Sony, Universal and others are buying paper for packaging from endangered
Southern forests—a big scratch on the music industry record! Especially
because there are so many readily available alternatives like using more
recycled content, reducing packaging, and using other sustainable packaging
products.

In just a
few days we’ll be headed to South x Southwest (www.sxsw.com)
industry conference where we will have the opportunity to meet with key
partners, hand out materials about the campaign, and sign up labels, artists,
activists and volunteers to sign on to the campaign to help green the music
industry, transform the packaging problem and help protect Southern forests to
slow global warming.

That’s a
lot to do in a few days! Stay tuned in
the coming week for updates from the road…