Cloud Control‘s Heidi Lenffer has lead a bunch of Aussie artists to help contribute to a clean energy future by investing in solar farms with her initiative, FEAT. The initiative is already being supported by Vance Joy, Midnight Oil, and Peking Duk to name a few.
Lenffer had the idea to design a strategy for touring in the climate change era, especially after she calculated the cost touring had on the planet.
She worked with climate scientists to gather data from a 15-date Aussie tour by Cloud Control. They worked out two weeks of touring equalled 28 tonnes of carbon emissions — equivalent to a household’s year in emissions.
“The fact is that this was just one small tour in an album cycle which also took us to the U.S. three times… then you think about multiplying this out with a 64-billion dollar industry worldwide and you’ve got a serious problem,” says Heidi Lenffer.
“Touring is easily the biggest source of income for artists, so when I understood how something as important as live music could be creating so much damage at this critical time in human history, I knew we could do so much better. I also knew that a progressive community like the music industry would have the guts and imagination to embrace change.”
FEAT. will launch a solar investment fund for artists in collaboration with Future Super: Australia’s most renewables-focused superannuation fund. The fund will finance new and existing solar farms throughout Australia. It’ll have a target return of over five per cent per annum and artists will have the choice of either reinvesting their dividend payments back into the fund or have them paid into their artist account.
Touring artists will have the option of investing a lump sum or a percentage of their income from touring.
FEAT. Artists will see Brigalow Solar Farm in South West Queensland built from the fund first. The new solar farm will be 35 megawatts, meaning it’s large enough to power 11,300 homes for 30 years — the equivalent of 2,149 Cloud Control tours each year.
Fellow Aussies will also be able to invest into the new fund later in the year. For now, you can join the waiting list and lean more about the initiative, over at the FEAT. website.
Supporting Artists
Annie Hamilton
Big Scary
Breathe
Cloud Control
Cub Sport
Jack River
Little May
Mansionair
Midnight Oil
Peking Duk
Regurgitator
Set Mo
The Jezabels
The Rubens
Urthboy
Vallis Alps
Vance Joy
Washington
Supporting Groups
Collective Artists
Green Music Australia
Lunatic Entertainment
Mushroom Music Group
St Jerome’s Laneway festival
Unified Music Group
Village Sounds
