Rolling Stones Pledge Carbon-Neutral U.K. Tour

LONDON, — The Rolling Stones have become the first band to stage an entirely carbon-neutral tour across the U.K.

During the band’s U.K. leg of the “Licks” tour, they teamed up with Future Forests, a European climate change business, and T-Mobile, the tour sponsors, to launch the Carbon Neutral Touring scheme. This enables musicians to take responsibility for their global warming impact and raise awareness among their fans.

The scheme measures emissions of carbon dioxide from any concert and offsets this by planting forests and investing in renewable energy. Factors taken into account include venue size, distance between gigs, and fan travel, which equates to a global average of 13 kilograms of carbon dioxide per fan.

Future Forests estimate that 90% of the emissions are created by the fans travel to the venue. To offset this, an extra 15 pence has been added to the price of each ticket. The company said that it takes one tree to offset the emissions from 57 fans.

This means that, to offset the emissions from the nine days in the U.K., where the Stones will play to 160,000 fans, more than 2,800 trees will be planted in forestry projects in Scotland.

A spokesperson for Future Forests said that their projects only use native species, such as oak, ash and beech, and are designed to be managed and maintained for a minimum of 99 years.

Brian McBride, managing director of T-Mobile, said: “We are proud to be the first operator to offset the environmental effects of an entire tour. Working alongside the biggest names in entertainment in an environmentally conscious manner, helps us to ensure that our customers get not only the best services, but that they are delivered in a socially responsible manner.”