Green Owl Records is trying to do business in an environmentally conscious way - even if it means driving halfway across the country in a bus fueled by vegetable oil.

This year, SXSW went green... or tried to, anyway.

Festival organizers partnered with Green Mountain Energy and Ecology Action of Austin to cut down on carbon emissions where it could.  All waste generated from outdoor events at the festival was to be recycled. Generators and production trucks all ran on biodiesel. Of course, not all emissions could be cut out. So for the remaining parts, SXSW purchased carbon offset credits to make up the difference. 

And all of that is well and good for a festival hosting over one thousand bands (and the 1000 vans, cars, and tour busses that those bands bring, not to mention countless others driven by the fans attending the festival). But they're not doing all they can, according to Carbon Crusaders.

"They are purchasing renewable energy credits to offset the conference’s emissions – now standard for any conference wanting to brand itself as “sustainable”. They are also however, consuming the equivalent of acres and acres of trees in useless promotional materials - the life blood of sponsorship commerce that drives these events."

 So while the festival may have paid close attention to their own waste, they clearly didn't extend the favor on to the hundreds (if not thousands) of sponsors. The convention center down here is littered with piles of promotional material, some piles literally three feet high. A quick scan of the flyers, magazines, stickers, and postcards yielded very few that identified the use of post-consumer waste.

If SXSW is so serious about making their festival sustainable, they should encourage -if not force - their sponsors to do the same. Companies are vying for access to the music fans who perenially descend into Austin for these ten fateful days in March, and a little bit of prodding in the name of the environment wouldn't hurt anybody.

Amid the sea of noisy rock and indie pop, the music at SXSW took a decidedly more serious note on Thursday night when an A-list set of musicians gathered to celebrate the release of album filled with songs inspired by the film "Body of War."

The movie follows the life of Iraq war veteran Tomas Young, who was paralyzed from the waist down in his first week of duty in Iraq. It is an incredibly moving film; and the soundtrack is no less impactful. Thursday's performers included Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave), Ben Harper, Billy Bragg, Mason Jennings, and Serj Tankian (System of a Down).

The crowd reached a fever pitch at the end of the set, when Tom Morello sang an often-censored verse from the Woody Guthrie song "This Land is Your Land" (audio slightly distorted on video):

One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief Office, I saw my people
As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering
If this land's  still made for you and me

 

This week, Campus Progress will be traveling down to Austin, Texas for the annual South by Southwest music festival - and we'll be live blogging everything!

Well OK, not everything. With over 1,000 bands in attendance and five whole days of music, films, and events, there's a lot to see.

We'll be talking with Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro, creators of the film Body of War. We'll discuss net neutrality with Franz Nicolay from The Hold Steady. We'll talk to Green Owl Records about ways that the music business is reducing its carbon footprint.

And of course, we will feature coverage on the best up-and-coming new bands making their mark at the festival.

Coverage begins Wednesday, March 12th. Headed to the festival? Let us know so we can stop by and say hello.