touring stars use environmentally friendly fuels

Music and the arts have frequently helped to spearhead progressive thinking, and July’s Live Earth global concert series sparked a widespread effort by artists to make a positive environmental impact.

In the past few months, biofuel provider Simply Green has been helping touring bands in the New England area “clean up their act.”

Based in Stratham, Simply Green is just six months old, but it already has quite a track record in the biofuel industry. The company markets bio-heating fuel to homes from Portland, Maine, to Newburyport, Mass., and fuels vehicles for a number of touring entertainers. Since the company formed, it has serviced tour buses for a number of national acts, including Dave Matthews, Incubus, The Beastie Boys, Guster and John Mayer.

Simply Green also holds a unique status as a provider in the New England area. “To the best of our knowledge, we’re the only company in New Hampshire that is only offering alternative fuels,” said company founder Andrew Kellar. “There are a few companies that offer both standard and biofuels, but we’re the only one that is dedicated to providing only alternative fuels.” Simply Green purchases its biofuel from Sprague Energy, which makes a blended fuel mixture from soybeans grown in the Midwest. Kellar doesn’t market to the bands directly, but an organization called Reverb puts him in contact with the touring acts.

Founded by environmentalist Lauren Sullivan (wife of Guster’s Adam Gardner), Reverb is a nonprofit organization that encourages musicians and their fans to promote environmental sustainability. Top solutions on Reverb’s list are recycling, attending environmentally friendly venues, and, of course, using biofuels for tour buses. So far, Simply Green’s famous clients have been pleased with the results. “The driver from the Dave Matthews tour even said that they’d been getting a two mile-per-gallon increase on our fuels,” Kellar said.

Kellar cautions against confusing biofuel with ethanol. “Ethanol and biofuel are completely different animals, but a lot of people get them confused or think they’re the same thing,” Kellar said. “Ethanol runs only in gasoline engines. Biofuel runs in diesel engines.”

Got it. So, what are the benefits?

Biofuel has been proven to burn cleaner than diesel fuel, extend the life of home heating systems and produce fewer harmful emissions than traditional fuels. You can even put these fuels into your home heating system or your diesel engine without additional modifications, and the price is comparable to standard fuels.

“Our trucks definitely run on our own fuel,” Kellar said. “They’re made by Toyota, which is a pretty progressive company, and they’re outfitted to run specifically on this kind of fuel.”  For more information on going green and the benefits of biofuels, visit www.reverbrock.com or www.seacoastbiofuels.com.