When we announced this tour, we said that we would try our best to make it as sustainable and low carbon-impact as possible, but that it would be a work in progress. That remains true. We don’t claim to have got it all right yet.
We set ourselves a target of reducing our overall CO2 emissions by 50% from the last tour in 2017. As part of this, we’re trying to eliminate the use of fossil fuels in our show production and land freight. In most cities – but not yet all – we can achieve this by using a mix of sustainable biofuels and renewable energy (solar, kinetic and wind). We’re also trying to reduce emissions from air travel with sustainable aviation fuel.
The biodiesel and sustainable aviation fuel that we use on our tour is certified as renewable waste only, (ie recycled cooking oil and byproducts from wood pulp manufacture). It contains zero palm oil.
The second component of our efforts is a custom-built, tourable battery system to allow us to use renewable energy wherever we are in the world. We approached various electric car manufacturers to supply the batteries and expertise to create this. BMW were the ones that offered to help. We have no connection to or influence on their corporate policies. We just need their batteries so that we can power our shows with renewable energy.
We are doing our best, and always genuinely welcome suggestions as to how to do it better.