Good Green Tunes: Craig Minowa and Cloud Cult
Caring about the environment and being in a rock band aren’t two things that are usually readily associated with one another, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Take Minnesota band Cloud Cult [www.cloudcult.com] for example; founder, singer and songwriter for the band Craig Minowa is busily leading the band (and the music industry, for that matter) in a greener direction, and he knows his stuff: when not writing, recording or touring with the band, he’s an environmental scientist working for the Organic Consumer’s Association [www.organicconsumers.org]. Though TreeHugger has known about the band for a while now [www.treehugger.com], they’re starting to get noticed for all the right reasons.
Craig established Clout Cult as a not-for-profit, music-centered environmental and philosophical movement. In tandem with the band’s self-created record label, Earthology Records [www.earthology.net], Minowa is doing some pretty exceptional things. Cloud Cult donates all profits, after expenses, to environmental charity work. Instead of creating new plastic, Cloud Cult’s CD is packaged in cleaned reused jewel cases that the band painstakingly hand-cleans for each CD release. The thousands of used jewel cases are donated by the box-load to Earthology from all over the country. Earthology, along with the band’s studio (and Minowa’s home) is located on a small organic farm in Northern Minnesota, is powered by geothermal power and wind energy, and the recording studio is built from recycled and salvaged materials. Cloud Cult CD inserts and print materials are on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper and printed with non-toxic soy inks by a local, family-owned print shop. Cloud Cult’s CD shrink-wrap is not the industry standard toxic PVC; instead, they are packaging all of their materials in a 100% earth-friendly shrink-wrap, made of non-toxic biodegradable corn cellulose. On tour, the band offsets all of its energy use through renewable energy credits, its van runs on biodiesel and even boasts solar panels on the roof, and also plants trees to offset the shipping and other resource depletion incurred when producing their albums.
All of this green goodness would be easier to dismiss if the band’s music wasn’t very good, but Cloud Cult is gaining recognition as much for its unique sound as for its passionate environmentalism. Featured recently in the New York Times [www.nytimes.com] and by MTV [www.mtv.com], the band’s good work combining eco-friendly alternatives with catchy beats and poetic lyrics also hasn’t gone unnoticed in the environmental community, with features by Grist [www.grist.org] and the Sustainable Style Foundation [www.sustainablestyle.org] highlighting Cloud Cult’s unique, green approach to making music. Their success is a true testament to the power of pop culture used for good, and as long as they’re making music, the industry (and the world) will be a better place for us all. Learn more (and be inspired) at the band’s website [www.cloudcult.com].
