Environmental Initiatives
The Giving Tree Band is also known for extraordinary environmental stewardship and eco-friendly music production. They use a number of instruments that were handmade from naturally fallen trees and reclaimed woods. They have recorded with renewable energy and package all their CD's with 100% recycled materials. The band's second full-length album, Great Possessions, was released on August 18, 2009. It was recorded with 100% solar energy at the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center in Baraboo, WI. During the recording session, the band camped in a nearby state park and commuted over 500 miles by bicycle. The Chicago Sun-Times has called Great Possessions the "greenest of albums." National and international environmental media, such as The Sierra Club, The Discovery Channel and Mother Earth News, have also highlighted the band's activism, with the latter referring to them as "the greenest band in the land".
Following the release of Great Possessions, the band began receiving international recognition, as news sources in countries as diverse as Mexico, France, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt, China, and Ecuador reported on the making of the album and the band's other environmental initiatives. These international sources put the group's environmental efforts as being on par with those of popular rock artists Radiohead and Kings of Leon.
In an interview with Vegetarian Times magazine, Todd Fink mentioned that the band members follow a vegan diet. In July 2010, the band was also named as one of the "Top Ten Great Vegan Activists" by Vegan Mainstream, a prominent blog site for vegan living. The list also includes Natalie Portman, Ellen DeGeneres, and Alicia Silverstone.
In 2011, the group announced that they will be appearing on a compilation album entitled Home on the Range alongside such artists as Moby, Matisyahu, Nellie McKay and others, with the album due to be released in September 2011. The compilation album is the project of the Compassionate Farming Education Initiative, and proceeds from the album will benefit farm animal sanctuaries.
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Famous quotes containing the word initiatives:
“It is well known, that the best productions of the best human intellects, are generally regarded by those intellects as mere immature freshman exercises, wholly worthless in themselves, except as initiatives for entering the great University of God after death.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)