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Apple gives London's Roundhouse an eco-friendly makeover for Apple Music Festival

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For 2015's Apple Music Festival at the Roundhouse in London, Apple is giving the event's 168-year-old venue an unprecedented makeover in line with the company's environmental message, with changes to include both temporary and permanent structural enhancements.

According to the official Apple Music Festival FAQ webpage, Apple is making "major upgrades" to London's historic Roundhouse, a venue that has for years been home to the company's annual music bonanza.

Changes include permanent modifications like lighting, plumbing, HVAC upgrades and installation of recycling and composition bins, as well as event-specific efforts such as repurposing used fryer oil into biofuel, purchasing renewable energy credits to put toward the venue's energy use for September and providing reusable drink bottles in place of plastic.

We expect these improvements to reduce the Roundhouse's annual carbon emissions by 60 tons, save 60,000 gallons of water a year, and divert more than 1,600 kilograms of waste from landfills.

Apple's environmentally friendly makeover was highlighted by Apple's environmental chief Lisa Jackson in a tweet on Monday.

"Apple Music Fest gives a gift to the Roundhouse: energy & Environmental upgrades. Leaving it better than we find it," Jackson said.

The Apple Music Festival kicked off Saturday with performances from Ellie Goulding and Andra Day, while Sunday saw Take That hit the stage with special guest Charlie Pluth. Carrie Underwood performed on Monday and One Direction slated for Tuesday. The event, which runs through Sept. 28, will also host The Weeknd, The Chemical Brothers, James Bay and Leon Bridges.

As usual, tickets to the concert series were not available for purchase, but instead doled out free to fans through media affiliates. Performances are being broadcast via the Apple Music app and iTunes on iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and PC, while Apple TV owners can enjoy high-definition footage. Apple Music users can also subscribe to the official festival account on Apple Music Connect for announcements and exclusive behind-the-scenes content.



9 Comments

thewhitefalcon 4444 comments · 10 Years

Oh good, they're buying carbon credits. Because that's totally not a scam of the highest order.

patchythepirate 1254 comments · 12 Years

Quote:
Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon 

Oh good, they're buying carbon credits. Because that's totally not a scam of the highest order.


I was going to say the same thing. Did Apple just send the cash directly to Al Gore? All the other stuff is fantastic though. What I really hope is that Apple gets more proactive with its sustainable paper sourcing initiative. That's something that will have an actual, meaningful benefit to the environment by preventing habitat destruction. 

 

I love that Tim Cook basically told that investor to f off when he challenged Tim on the financial feasibility of Apple's environmental efforts. It's incredibly selfish and myopic not to work towards sustainability and environmental preservation, as individuals or businesses. I hope Apple keeps leading in this area.

 

Even as an investor, I would be happy/proud if Apple worked with an organization like Conservation International, or with foreign governments (e.g. Brazil), and spent a few billion dollars to sustainably protect habitat. If they want, Apple could even claim that it is 'fighting global warming', as the biomass in habitats (e.g. rainforest, wetlands) account for about 80% of the earths CO2 production, and function as important carbon sinks. This would be much more productive than buying some sham carbon credits.

 

Cue the global warning true believers who feel that 99% of our environmental efforts should go to raising awareness about gaseous plant food (CO2), based on some algorithms that need to be changed every couple of years due to the errors inherent in predicting the patterns of an incredibly complex system (i.e. Earth).

 

Edit: Made some additions.

techlover 879 comments · 11 Years

Quote:
Originally Posted by PatchyThePirate 
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheWhiteFalcon 

Oh good, they're buying carbon credits. Because that's totally not a scam of the highest order.


I was going to say the same thing. Did Apple just send the cash directly to Al Gore? All the other stuff is fantastic though. What I really hope is that Apple gets more proactive with its sustainable paper sourcing initiative. That's something that will have an actual, meaningful benefit to the environment by preventing habitat destruction. 

 

I love that Tim Cook basically told that investor to f off when he challenged Tim on the financial feasibility of Apple's environmental efforts. It's incredibly selfish and myopic not to work towards sustainability and environmental preservation, as individuals or businesses. I hope Apple keeps leading in this area.

 

Even as an investor, I would be happy/proud if Apple worked with an organization like Conservation International, or with foreign governments (e.g. Brazil), and spent a few billion dollars to sustainably protect habitat. If they want, Apple could even claim that it is 'fighting global warming', as the biomass in habitats (e.g. rainforest, wetlands) account for about 80% of the earths CO2 production, and function as important carbon sinks. This would be much more productive than buying some sham carbon credits.

 

Cue the global warning true believers who feel that 99% of our environmental efforts should go to raising awareness about gaseous plant food (CO2), based on some algorithms that need to be changed every couple of years due to the errors inherent in predicting the patterns of an incredibly complex system (i.e. Earth).

 

Edit: Made some additions.

I like to call them Al Gore rhythms.

 

Pollution is real. Carbon credits are a joke. There is now some evidence that some carbon credits are actually worse for the environment:

 

http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2015/0825/How-carbon-credit-scheme-resulted-in-even-more-greenhouse-gas-emissions

 

I like the idea of Apple planting trees instead.

macky the macky 4801 comments · 15 Years

Apple gave away some awesome videos of last years performance after the event.

rotateleftbyte 1630 comments · 12 Years

I would guess that most if not all the commentators so far have never been to the Roundhouse.

I used to go there in the late 1960's to watch the top bands of the time such as Led Zep etc. It helped that I only lived a bus ride away in Kentish Town.

The building is a grade 1 listed structure. This means that any changes to the building have to go through all sorts of approvals. This applied right down to the colour of the paint used on walls.

That means that these changes must have been months in the planning.

I welcome any improvements to the fabric of the building and to make it more energy efficient yet the commentators so far have concentrated soley on Carbon Offset targets. Rather sad really.