Live Earth loves music. We believe the collaboration between music and public activism is a great way to draw attention and spread our important message.

But the music industry needs to take even greater strides in greening the industry and their products because along with all the benefits, like fantastic music and terrific entertainment, there are also some drawbacks: electronic waste.

We understand, putting on a performance takes a lot of material and most of the materials that are used aren't exactly eco-friendly like: tour bus emissions, the one billion polyvinyl chloride CD cases produced each year, light bulbs, merchandise and food packaging waste.

Slowly but surely, many labels, small and large, are starting to take the right steps to green the industry.

Large labels like Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group have shown increasing dedication in decreasing their carbon footprint. Sony and Universal have each distributed around 50-60 US artist’s music in renewable and recyclable paperboard cases while Warner has offset CO2 emissions from its New York City offices and started WMGreen. This is a ongoing green initiative "has proven to lower the cost of paper and waste as well as strengthen employee morale," says WMG's sales and retail marketing president, John Esposito.

On a similar note, smaller labels "are beefing up their eco-conscious efforts." Labels like Sub Pop Records and Kill Rock Stars releases material in cardstock and recycled paperboard to consumers while others like, non-profit Earthology Recordings, go a little more extreme. This particular label's cds are packaged in a combination of recycled, soy-ink paper and 100 percent recycled/reclaimed jewel cases and the studio itself is constructed from recycled material as well, like chicken coop wire. Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records "powers its office and recording studio with solar panels, insulates its walls with 100 percent post-consumer waste and uses recycled shingles on the roof."

Other labels take a different route, along with using recyclable material; they donate proceeds to environmental foundations and organizations. Parks and Records donate 5% of each $8 cd to Friends of the Urban Forest, the National Forest Foundation, and the National Arbor Day Foundation while Green Owl Records donates 100% of profits, collected from April, to the Energy Action Coalition.

Businesses like these are incredibly inspiring and other labels will hopefully follow suite. Live Earth does its best to create green venues and reach a carbon neutral performance. To learn more about how we do it directions of how you can too, check out our Green Event Guidelines.

For more on Greening the Music Industry, read this article at Plenty.