Live Earth Carbon Foot Print

11/1
Last week, we released the Carbon Assessment and Footprint report documenting our environmental performance on 07-07-07. This is the first time that an event of this magnitude has measured and presented its impact in such a detailed report. In an effort to offer another means of viewing this data, we partnered with Visible Strategies of Vancouver, Canada to graphically display the data of our Carbon Footprint in their interactive "see-it" reporting tool. With this tool, you can easily interact with the data, compare each city's results and read interesting stories about how each venue managed in the areas of energy, transportation and waste by venue. Please visit the see-it tool and start clicking!

Pre-Event Estimates
The media cited a variety of estimates before the concerts. On concert day, the Daily Mail quoted an estimate of 31,500 tons of carbon emissions for the global event footprint (including attendee transport), and a waste estimate of 1,025 tons. Internal estimates were generated as well to assess the success of reduction strategies and act as a safeguard to large number variances.
In June, Live Earth produced a final pre-event internal estimate of 18,526 tons, after most reduction strategies were planned and long-term changes were in place, but before the results of concert-day reductions could be known.

Post-Event Calculations
After the Live Earth concerts, we calculated our estimated gross carbon emissions, throughout
our ten-month planning and execution process (and including the concert day itself) at 19,708 tons.

Live Earth’s post-event calculations of our estimated emissions were significantly below all pre-event external estimates in every category except for audience travel. Our actual carbon footprint was roughly 40% below the estimate quoted in the Daily Mail.

Additionally, we generated only about one-tenth the amount of waste that was expected, and of the waste we did generate, 81% was diverted from landfills to be composted or recycled.

As is typical for live events, a great majority (86%) of the estimated emissions were generated
by the nearly 1 million people attending the concerts. Energy use and air travel by Live Earth staff and artists combine to make up the next three largest categories: electricity and fuel use

Achievements by Others

The NFL Super Bowl has been phasing in “green” practices for several years. The carbon accounting for the 2006 Super Bowl measured the impact of selected emissions-generating activities.

The carbon equivalent measured for those activities was roughly 500 tons, with about 70% attributed to the NFL transportation fleet used to shuttle NFL guests around the host city, and 30% attributed to electricity use at the venue.

Likewise, the producers of the 79th Academy Awards took impressive steps to “green” the telecast and related events. Carbon accounting was only one of the environmental issues addressed in the course of producing the Oscars, which also part of the Oscars’ focus, which also included species extinction, deforestation, toxic waste, and environmental pollution. The carbon accounting focused primarily on energy use.

Because they were multi-venue events like Live Earth, the 2006 FIFA World Cup and the 2006 Olympics are worth reviewing. The 2006 World Cup games in Germany saw 3.4 million attendees at 64 games in 12 cities. The World Cup greenhouse gas accounting captured approximately 92,000 tons of carbon equivalents and the World Cup generated approximately 1,494 tons of waste.

The 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy provide another basis for comparison. The Games consisted of 16 days of competition with 342 Olympic Medal events in 3 Olympic Villages. The carbon accounting considered transportation by teams, officials, sponsors, volunteers and media to and within the Olympic Villages (but not travel by spectators), preparation, operation and dismantling of accommodations and venues, and transportation for waste management. Total carbon emissions measured 106,000 tons, and the Games generated 1,212 tons of waste.

Associated Organizations

Alliance for Climate Protection
The Alliance is a new organization engaged in an unprecedented public education campaign on both the urgency and the solvability of the climate crisis.

Building on the momentum of “An Inconvenient Truth,” our objective is to persuade individuals, communities, states, and corporations across the world to begin to quickly reduce their own greenhouse pollution in order to become “carbon neutral.” Furthermore, The Alliance is working to move the US past a tipping point, beyond which political and business leaders and all sectors of civil society compete to offer policies and programs that will sharply reduce emissions.

Through an innovative combination of communication platforms—like Live Earth—and an influential collection of supporters that includes the environmental community, key leaders in business, the entertainment industry, hunters, labor and many others, the Alliance will reach new audiences that until now have not engaged in solving the climate crisis.

The Climate Group
The Climate Group is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing business
and government leadership on climate change, based in the US, UK and Australia and operating internationally.

The Climate Group convened last summer’s roundtable discussion with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Prime Minister Tony Blair and a select group of prominent CEOs and business leaders from leading California and international companies to share ideas on how business and government can work together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The roundtable resulted in a historic cooperation agreement between the UK and California to advance the deployment of clean energy and clean technologies and a Leadership Statement on Climate Change signed by twelve of the participating CEOs.

I Count
I Count is the campaign of the Stop Climate Chaos coalition, which brings together over 50 of the UK’s most respected organisations passionate about climate change. With a combined experience of over 700 years and a supporter base of over 4 million, the campaign is showing the public and politicians that climate change is not too big a problem to fix.

The campaign has created a range of compelling ways to inspire individuals to reduce their carbon footprint in work, rest and play and a public platform to demand that the UK government keep within the widely accepted global warming danger threshold of 2 degrees C.
As the NGO partner for LIVE EARTH UK, I Count will transform all the awareness and excitement generated by the concert, into individual action and positive pressure on politicians.

Avaaz.org
Avaaz.org is a new multi-issue online network that provides opportunities for citizens of every country to take concerted action on urgent global problems like climate change, poverty, and human rights. Its mission is to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people shape global decisions.

It operates in 12 languages. Launched in January 2007, Avaaz.org has grown to more than 1 million members hailing from every nation in the world. Avaaz means “voice” in several European, Middle Eastern, and Asian languages.

Campaign Sponsors and Partners

Recycling at Live Earth Johannesburg.
Climate Action Partnership
CAP is an alliance between major conservation
organizations in South Africa who have a common vision of reducing the impact of climate change on South Africa’s unique natural diversity. CAP aims to reduce species extinctions by planning for climate change, for example by incorporating conservation corridors into South African landscapes, allowing species to shift their ranges in response to changes in climatic conditions.
CAP also works to reduce South Africans’ carbon footprints and in addition offers carbon footprint offset opportunities through forest rehabilitation projects in South Africa, benefiting the climate while at the same time increasing habitat for forest species and creating jobs for rural communities.

Fórum Brasileiro de ONGs e Movimentos Sociais
The Brazilian Forum of NGOs and Social Movements
for the Environment and the Development (FBOMS) was created in 1990 in order to facilitate the participation of civil society in the process of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio-92). FBOMS mission is the harmonization between social, economic and environmental questions aiming at sustainable development, seeking to achieve a fair, equal and environmentally sound society.
FBOMS Brazil has more than 550 member organizations, both NGOs and social movements from all across Brazil.

ICLEI
ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability is an international association of 1,000 local governments,
including more than 250 in the United States, working to advance sustainable development
and climate protection. Since 1990, ICLEI has helped local governments set and reach tangible
goals with positive results for their communities.
When it comes to global warming, ICLEI’s members provide leadership at the local, national and global scale and are proving that local action can indeed move the world.

United Nations Environment Programme
UNEP’s China office in Beijing works closely with the State Environmental Protection Administration
of China (SEPA) and other ministries, international agencies and nongovernmental organizations in implementing programmes in environmental assessment, law, education and training, management, technology transfer and innovation, and natural disaster prevention. It also helps to develop and support projects under the Global Environment Facility, an international fund to address climate change, biodiversity, land degradation, transboundary water and chemical management issues.

World Future Council
The World Future Council is a new voice in the global political arena—one that draws on our shared human values to champion the rights of future generations, and works to ensure that humanity acts now for a sustainable future. The Council unites fifty highly respected figures from across the globe and from all walks of life to create a strong ethical voice to represent future generations.
Selected through a global consultation process involving 2,500 civil society organisations, the Council members bring with them a wealth of experience and expertise. Coming together to identify the key issues of the day, the Council draws on this knowledge and experience to set the agenda for the activities of the WFC.

World Wildlife Fund
For more than 45 years, the World Wildlife Fund has been protecting the future of nature. The largest multinational conservation organization in the world, WWF works in 100 countries and is supported by 1.2 million members in the United States and close to 5 million globally. WWF’s unique way of working combines global reach with a foundation in science, involves action at every level from local to global, and ensures the delivery of innovative solutions that meet the needs of both people and nature.