Lengthy earlier than Billie Eilish grew to become a world celebrity, she says she was “infamous” amongst her pals for one thing else solely. “After I would get a gift, I might rigorously undo the tape and thoroughly unwrap it and never let it rip and I might fold it up in order that it might be reused — I didn’t wish to destroy it,” she says with a honest chuckle.
Within the eco-conscious home the place Eilish grew up, the whole lot — wrapping paper included — was handled as reusable. In 2012, with the assistance of a authorities rebate program, the household transitioned its Los Angeles residence to run on solar energy. And, in 2014, Eilish’s dad and mom, Patrick O’Connell and Maggie Baird, eliminated the grass from their entrance yard to save lots of water. “These had been huge moments for us,” Baird recollects. “We had been excited.”
When Eilish, then in her early teenagers, began taking label conferences in 2016, her mom got here alongside for the experience — for myriad enterprise causes, together with preserving sustainability on the forefront of her daughter’s profession. Baird recollects “begging” labels to offer extra details about their environmental initiatives and insurance policies, and infrequently puzzled why she and her teenage daughter had been those who needed to increase the problem within the first place. (Eilish signed with The Darkroom in 2016, an imprint of Common Music Group subsidiary Interscope Information.)
Immediately, Eilish and Baird are nonetheless speaking in regards to the surroundings — to a lot bigger audiences than they had been practically a decade in the past — whereas additionally main the cost for the way forward for sustainability in music. In 2020, Baird based Assist + Feed, which goals to mitigate local weather change and improve meals safety by encouraging the acceptance and accessibility of plant-based meals, together with at large-scale occasions like concert events. Eilish partnered with the group on her 2022 Happier Than Ever tour, which, in keeping with REVERB, a nonprofit devoted to addressing environmental considerations within the music enterprise, saved 8.8 million gallons of water by serving plant-based meals for the artists and crew.
And final 12 months, Eilish helped launch and fund REVERB’s Music Decarbonization Mission, which goals to in the end remove carbon emissions created by the music business. As a part of the initiative, she partially powered her headlining set at Chicago’s Lollapalooza final summer season with zero-emissions battery programs that had been charged on a brief “photo voltaic farm” arrange on web site. (In 2024, Willie Nelson’s Luck Reunion pageant partnered with REVERB for a second consecutive 12 months to energy its primary stage with 100% photo voltaic vitality all day.)
Eilish’s sustainability efforts go far past her touring. In 2022, she labored with Nike to revamp the model’s iconic Air Drive 1 sneakers to be vegan utilizing vegan nubuck leather-based made with 80% recycled supplies and 100% recycled polyester. Extra lately, in October she starred in a Gucci marketing campaign that featured its basic 1955 Horsebit bag in Demetra, a vegan different to leather-based created from 75% plant-derived uncooked supplies — a primary for the model.
“Yeah, we’re all going to die quickly,” Eilish says matter-of-factly. “However we will attempt our greatest.”
Billie Eilish (left) and Maggie Baird at Overheated in 2023.
Jessie Morgan
Rising up, why was sustainability such a precedence for the household?
Billie Eilish: It wasn’t even one thing I actually thought of; it was such a standard factor. My mother began making these baggage in these several types of lovely materials and ribbons, and that’s how all of our presents had been wrapped for Christmas and my birthday. After I would have events, pals would come over and convey me presents in wrapping paper and I might be like, “Ew, that is so ugly.” We all the time used dish towels as an alternative of paper napkins — the whole lot was reusable, really. And I didn’t even understand it was bizarre. After I began courting, the folks I used to be courting can be like, “Do you could have any paper towels?”
Maggie Baird: You’re four-and-a-half years [younger than your brother], Finneas… [he] remembers [the] transition extra. We all the time joke that my children grew up in the home the place you bought the stink eye if you happen to got here in with a plastic bag or if you happen to wasted something.
Eilish: I even suppose to a fault typically, I’m so unable to only throw issues away within the trash. If I get meals out with a buddy I actually need to separate the whole lot. Like, it’s genuinely annoying. I want I simply didn’t care and will throw all of it within the rubbish and that might be the tip of it.
When Billie was beginning out, had been there any blueprints for making a music profession sustainable or had been you making your individual?
Eilish: There’s all the time anyone that paved the way in which for you, however I obtained to be actual: It was bleak out right here. We might be in conferences for issues and my mother would [ask], “What are you guys doing to be extra resourceful and aware?” They usually’d be like, “Oh, uh, properly, you recognize…” They’d be tripping and stumbling over their phrases as a result of they’re not doing something. And it was sort of alarming to seek out that nobody’s actually doing something to higher the world. And the issue is, us folks residing on this planet with no energy — “us” when it comes to anyone — we’re all like, “Oh, don’t use plastic straws. We’re going to make use of horrible, soggy paper straws to save lots of all of the turtles. And we’re going to get electrical automobiles. And we’re going to not use blow dryers,” or no matter it’s to save lots of the planet. After which these big firms aren’t even doing something once they have a lot extra energy. We’ve had loads of conversations and individuals are making an attempt, however even once they’re making an attempt, they’re like, “Oh, yeah. We’re going to have that in 2026.” And also you’re like, “Properly, that’s not quick sufficient.”
Baird: It did really feel bleak and really lonely at first. Once you’re a smaller artist and also you don’t have any energy and also you don’t have any cash, you simply end up going, “Wait, why do we now have all this plastic backstage?” Or, “Why are we driving this fashion?” Or, “Why are we doing this?” And the reply was, “Properly, that’s simply the way in which it’s accomplished.” What actually helped me was anyone stated, “You’ll want to discuss to [Coldplay’s] Chris Martin.” They related me on a name with Chris, which was wonderful. Then Chris related me to REVERB, and REVERB was an actual game-changer for us. They’d the flexibility to assist us know what to vary and the way to talk.
Do you suggest REVERB to new artists on the lookout for sustainability options?
Baird: They do have sources for newer artists as a result of at first, you may’t actually afford issues and also you might not be taking part in in venues which have loads of flexibility. There’s loads of organizations working on this area: Music Sustainability Alliance, Music Declares Emergency. If artists have an interest, it does actually begin with them telling their groups that they care and that it’s foremost of their ideas. From the start, it was about continually asking questions till folks [got] you the solutions.
We, as a plant-based household, had all these catering conversations and it was not till Lesley [Olenik, vp of touring at] Reside Nation was like, “Properly, it sounds such as you’d like all plant-based meals.” We had been like, “Can we do this?” And she or he was like, “Erykah Badu did.” It’s sort of simply understanding what different individuals are doing. We do have inexperienced riders [for] dressing rooms, video shoots and photoshoots. I believe these are actually, actually useful and extremely shareable.
Which of your strides in sustainability are you most happy with?
Eilish: The one which was seen by the most individuals was getting Oscar de la Renta to cease utilizing fur once they made me a gown for the Met [Gala]. That was actually vital to me. It’s robust as an individual who loves trend. I’ve tried to be a giant advocate of no animal merchandise in clothes and it’s arduous. Individuals actually like basic issues. I get it, I’m one in every of them. However what’s extra vital: issues being unique or our youngsters with the ability to stay on the planet and them having children?
Baird: Additionally, the photo voltaic set at Lollapalooza was an enormous second. And Billie additionally made it doable for us to create two local weather summits in London for her followers, Overheated, [which was held in 2022 and 2023]. Getting [London’s] O2 Area to go absolutely plant-based for six exhibits [in 2022] was a monumental feat, and getting plant-based meals in each area on her [Happier Than Ever] tour was wonderful. There’s so many wonderful wins that Billie herself in all probability doesn’t even know. I believe that the artist’s position is to champion [something] and say that’s what they need, what they imagine in and [that they] wish to make it occur. It’s the ability that they need to say, “That is vital to me, and it must be a precedence.”
Billie Eilish (left) and Maggie Baird onstage with panelists at their Overheated local weather activism occasion in London in 2023.
Jessie Morgan
Have you ever seen labels make sustainability a precedence?
Baird: I’ll say fortunately that Common has actually come a great distance. We had three Common Music Group Sustainability Summits final 12 months, one in London, one in L.A., one in New York with simply UMG staff speaking about all the varied points. I was like, “Why are we those doing this?” Like, why is a 15-year-old woman and her mother speaking about this? Why aren’t you telling us, why don’t you could have all the recommendation on this? However progressively they’ve began to, which I believe is de facto encouraging.
Relating to pushing for affect over revenue, have you ever skilled any friction?
Baird: Merch turns into an actual difficulty. We have a look at sustainability in each single side: vinyl, packaging, transportation, meals. However with merch, Billie may be very specific about what her merch appears like.
Eilish: It’s about the way it feels and the way it appears and the way it’s made. And so the issue is to ensure that my clothes is being made properly and ethically and with good supplies and it’s very sustainable and that it feels good and is sturdy. It’s going to be costlier and that’s the factor: Individuals could be upset by that. However I’m making an attempt to select one in every of two evils.
Baird: And Billie diminished the variety of drops she does. Like, she simply actually doesn’t promote as a lot merch.
Eilish: Generally folks have the concept of when issues are extra moral, they’re costlier, and so it’s more durable to be plant-based or environmentally aware if you happen to don’t have as a lot cash. That’s the entire system we stay in, of like, if in case you have much less cash then you could have much less sources [for] more healthy meals… And so what we’re making an attempt to do is make it extra universally accessible.
You’re working to make vinyl extra sustainable. Happier Than Ever got here in eight vinyl variants, however you utilize 100% recycled black vinyl — plus recycled scraps for coloured variants — and shrink-wrap created from sugar cane.
Eilish: We stay this present day the place, for some purpose, it’s essential to some artists to make all kinds of various vinyl and packaging … which ups the gross sales and ups the numbers and will get them extra money and will get them extra…
Baird: Properly, it counts towards No. 1 albums.
Eilish: I can’t even categorical to you the way wasteful it’s. It’s proper in entrance of our faces and individuals are simply getting away with it left and proper, and I discover it actually irritating as anyone who actually goes out of my approach to be sustainable and do the perfect that I can and attempt to contain everyone in my workforce in being sustainable — after which it’s a few of the largest artists on this planet making f–king 40 totally different vinyl packages which have a unique distinctive factor simply to get you to maintain shopping for extra. It’s so wasteful, and it’s irritating to me that we’re nonetheless at a degree the place you care that a lot about your numbers and also you care that a lot about getting cash — and it’s all of your favourite artists doing that sh-t.
Baird: However to be honest, the issue is systemic, proper? As a result of if Billboard, to be trustworthy, goes to not have limits… I might like to see limits, like not more than 4 colours. Or some sort of guidelines, as a result of you may’t fault an artist for taking part in the No. 1 sport.
Eilish: I used to be watching The Starvation Video games and it made me give it some thought, as a result of it’s like, we’re all going to do it as a result of [it’s] the one approach to play the sport. It’s simply accentuating this already sort of tousled means of this business working.
How have the business and fan responses to your efforts shifted through the years?
Baird: You’ve got this wonderful energy if you’ve obtained 10,000 to twenty,000 folks in a venue to see you, who get to listen to from you, what you imagine in and the way you’re making an attempt to vary. That fan interplay is extremely vital. Should you can educate them to know you may carry your reusable water bottle in and there might be water-filling stations, and there might be plant-based meals and it’ll not be costlier, and [to think about] the way you get to the present and again — which, as we all know, the largest carbon value is fan transportation. Then we’ve obtained to get the world to know folks need this stuff.
We all know from analysis that followers usually tend to take motion in the event that they imagine the artist is genuine. Which I believe sadly scares off loads of artists as a result of they’re like, “Properly, I don’t wish to say I’m making an attempt to do X as a result of I’m not good on Y.” That’s a barrier that’s actually difficult to interrupt, particularly with social media and the tradition of cancel and hate. The reality is, you simply need to do it anyway. Artists can solid a large shadow of affect. Should you’re not good, however you might be influencing many, many, many individuals to do higher, it’s multiplied a whole lot of instances.
Is there every other a part of your profession, Billie, that isn’t but the place you want to it to be when it comes to sustainability?
Baird: You skilled main touring climate occasions in 2022 and 2023. We had been in an excessive climate occasion in Mexico Metropolis that canceled the present and was fairly harmful. We’ve been in horrific warmth. We’ve been in horrific smoke from fires. It’s only a actuality of the enterprise, and other people need to begin to take severely that that is the largest risk to touring.
Eilish: It’s a unending f–king combat. As everyone knows, it’s fairly inconceivable to pressure somebody to care. All you are able to do is categorical and clarify your beliefs, however lots of people don’t actually perceive the severity of the local weather [crisis]. And in the event that they do, they’re like, “Properly, what’s the purpose? We’re all going to die anyway.” Imagine me, I really feel that means too. However “what’s the purpose” goes each methods: “What’s the purpose? I can do no matter I would like. We’re all going to die anyway.” Or, “What’s the purpose? I would as properly do the appropriate factor whereas I’m right here.” That’s my view.
This story will seem within the March 30, 2024, difficulty of Billboard.