U2 Will Help Raise Money for Turkish Geothermal Plant

The Hurriyet Daily News, an English-language Turkish newspaper, is reporting that the Irish rock band U2 is helping to raise money to support the Dora-1 geothermal power plant in Aydin, Turkey.

Known for its environmentally and socially conscious projects, U2 purchases carbon offsets that balance the greenhouse gases (GHG) produced during their concert tours.

The band has requested that its fans also purchase offsets through a company called Offset Options, which helps organizations all over the world incorporate carbon offsets into their products and services. Through Offset Options, fans can easily and quickly neutralize their travel emissions by supporting a range of carbon offset projects, which were all rigorously vetted by the company.

Offset Options estimates that U2 fans emit an average of 127 kilos of GHG while traveling to the group’s concerts. Fans can purchase carbon offsets on the company’s website to balance the GHG emitted during the tour. Offset Options identified four environmentally conscious power plant projects to support with the carbon offset funds, including ones in China, India and Indonesia—in addition to the Dora-1 plant. U2 fans will be able buy an offset certificate from one of the four projects for US$1.89. The project is hoping to raise US$450,000 for the various projects.

Because it uses clean energy, the Dora-1 plant has the right to offer carbon-offset certificates valued at 30,000 tons. The plant has issued its certificates through Switzerland’s South Pole Carbon, a company that supports emissions-reduction projects.  South Pole estimates the emissions a comparable fossil-fuel plant would produce compared to Dora-1, and bases the certificates on this amount.

Hurriyet quotes Pınar Öztürk in South Pole’s Turkey office: “The system can be used for a bank branch. Or it can be used to offset the emissions resulting from the airplane flight of a tourism agency. Individuals can also buy them, as in the U2 project.”

In preparation for their upcoming 360 Degrees Tour, U2 is also working with Music Matters, a company that helps to reduce the environmental impact of tours and concerts. In addition to recycling and composting backstage and on the road, the company has made it easy for fans to recycle at concerts and set up rideshare options for fans attending concerts.