Jack Johnson’s All at Once partners with Tennessee Riverkeeper for a matching funds donation
Now through October 15, Jack Johnson’s social action network, All At Once is partnering with Tennessee Riverkeeper on a fundraiser to match every dollar up to $2500 that we raise for this collaboration! This great opportunity to support clean water advocacy is part of our non-profit partnership with Jack Johnson's 2022 Tour.
All At Once is Jack’s social action network connecting nonprofits with people who want to take action and give back to their community. All At Once promotes sustainable and equitable food systems, plastic-free initiatives, healthy watersheds and more!
And if you are in Nashville, visit our table at Jack Johnson's Aug 24 concert at the Ascend Amphitheater. We’ll be right on the Cumberland River we protect!
Jack Johnson and Tennessee Riverkeeper:
In addition to being one of our favorite musicians of all time, Jack Johnson is a former pro-surfer, waterman, philanthropist, and environmentalist. Jack and David Whiteside have been fighting pollution together since 2005. In 2005, David read an interview with Jack from Outside Magazine in a dentist’s waiting room. The interview was meant to focus on Jack’s recent success and new album, but Jack clearly was more interested in talking about water and the environment. David excitedly wrote an email about Riverkeeper to Emmett Malloy, Jack’s manager, filmmaker, and surfing legend. The next day Jack called David’s cell phone, starting the conversation with “I’ve been meaning to reach out to you guys….” The two talked about water, pollution, and the Riverkeepers for nearly an hour, and have remained aquatic allies for nearly two decades.
Jack invited David to collaborate in various ways including adding environmental initiatives into his hospitality rider and syncing local Waterkeeper organizations in cities along his tours. Jack has helped raise more considerable funds for dozens of Waterkeeper groups while helping these nonprofits educate hundreds of thousands of concertgoers. The goal of “greening the rider” was to force venues to reduce single-use plastics and other waste, not just at Jack’s shows, but hopefully year-round at those venues.
Impact on the music industry and Orion Amphitheater
Years later, Jack and David’s environmentally focused hospitality rider worked. That rider inspired Ryan Murphy, Dianya Markovits, and the stellar team at an amphitheater in St. Augustine, Florida to take Jack’s rider, improve upon it and incorporate it at their venue year-round. Those eco-conscious venue managers later moved to Huntsville, Alabama, and now run Orion Amphitheater. They are well on the path to making it one of the least wasteful large music venues in the country. For more info read this Riverkeeper blog article.
Resources:
Tennessee Riverkeeper’s Favorite Jack Johnson Environmental Songs
Jack Johnson discusses his involvement with the Waterkeepers
Dive Deeper
Kizzy O’Neal and Jack Johnson produced a 30-minute documentary film on plastic pollution called The Smog of the Sea. The Smog of the Sea chronicles a 1-week journey through the remote waters of the Sargasso Sea. Marine scientist Marcus Eriksen invited onboard an unusual crew to help him study the sea: renowned surfers Keith & Dan Malloy, musician Jack Johnson, spearfisher woman Kimi Werner, and bodysurfer Mark Cunningham become citizen scientists on a mission to assess the fate of plastics in the world’s waterways.
Documentary film: Smog of the Sea
Link to watch: https://vimeo.com/181069340
Photo: Kizzy, Jack, and David in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Patagonia Films recently produced, The Monster In Our Closet, a 30 minute documentary on plastic pollution from the clothing industry and laundry. Plastics are essential to building durable, high-performance clothing. But they’re also accelerating the environmental crisis, from the fossil fuels used to make materials like polyester to the plastic pollution that piles up once that clothing has been tossed.
