LIVE EARTH CONCERTS

In a bid to increase awareness of its environmental initiatives, Pepsi has signed on as one of the biggest sponsors of the Live Earth concerts on July 7.

Like arch-rival Coke, which last week unveiled plans to reduce energy and water consumption at its Atlanta headquarters, PepsiCo will announce plans to reduce its carbon footprint and extend its environmentally friendly practices, claims a source (via Brandweek).

Pepsi, already planning to change its can design 35 times this year, will manufacture cans with the Live Earth event emblazoned on them. (More on mbp.com)

Auction site eBay has announced it will carry tickets for Live Earth - but 20% from each sale must go to charity.

Tickets for concerts in the UK and USA, to highlight climate change, went on sale last week and have already appeared on the website at marked up prices.

Website bosses have said they will let the tickets stay but, because it is a special event, good causes should benefit from those being sold on. (More on DigitalSpy)

Mayor David Miller says a Toronto venue for the massive Live Earth concert for global warming is a perfect fit because city residents are “strong environmentalists.”

On Wednesday Miller confirmed his office is pursuing a local venue and promoter. The mayor says he is excited by the prospect of taking part in the high-profile concert.

“I think it would be a real Toronto statement. People here are strong environmentalists, and a fun event like this to really send a strong message would be great,” he said.  (More information on ctv.ca)

The Honda Racing F1 Team is going to be “green” in 2007 Formula 1 season. To help raise awareness of the environmental issues facing the planet, the RA107 F1 car simply features a huge image of earth, in place of the advertising and sponsor logos which have featured and dominated all other F1 cars for decades.

The car’s new look is a powerful call to action for fans, sponsors, customers and members of the public to join Honda’s commitment to help address the environmental issues facing the world.

M & C just posted nice article with some more information about Live Earth Concerts. One of the questions is “what will happen with money raised by Live Earth concerts?” According to Live Earth communications director Yusef Robb the Live Earth is charging for tickets and does seek to gain financial support from corporate sponsors. Robb says the bulk of this income will go to underwriting the massive expense of staging the concerts, easily in the multimillions of dollars.

Beyond paying for the event, “all proceeds will go to the Alliance for Climate Protection, chaired by Al Gore, which is going to start a new global program to combat our climate crisis,” Robb says.

The endgame, Robb says, is to make Live Earth more than a one-day event. “We want to make sure the message we issue on 7-7-07 echoes for the weeks, months, years and decades to come.”

Interesting news related to the Al Gore’s documentary movie An Inconvenient Truth. This movie about Global Warming won Oscar in best “documentary feature” movie category and another Oscar goes for best music (song) - Melissa Etheridge: “I Need To Wake Up”. Congratulation.