Billie Eilish has been championing sustainable touring for years now, and the numbers from her Happier Than Ever World Tour, which ran through 2022, are remarkable: 117,000 single-use plastic bottles avoided, 8.8 million gallons of water saved and close to a million dollars raised for environmental and non-profit organizations. Eilish's team resurfaced those figures in September 2024 while announcing the sustainability plan for her follow-up tour, Hit Me Hard and Soft.
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Where the numbers actually came from
The figures were compiled by REVERB , the nonprofit that has partnered with Eilish on tour sustainability since 2019, in its Happier Than Ever World Tour Impact Report. The fans' efforts resulted in 117,000+ single-use plastic bottles being saved, more than $990,000 generated for non-profits and climate projects, and 8.8 million gallons of water saved through plant-based meals for the artists and crew. The organization also credits the tour with offsetting 15,000+ tonnes of CO2e through climate projects. When setting sustainability targets for the Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour, which opened on September 29, 2024, in Quebec City, Eilish's management team used these Happier Than Ever statistics as benchmarks for the new tour to match or exceed, according to Universal Music Canada.
117,000 bottles avoided, split between fans and crew
Of the 117,000+ single-use plastic bottles avoided on the Happier Than Ever Tour, REVERB reports that about 28,000 were avoided backstage by artists and crew, while 89,000 were avoided by fans thanks to reusable water bottles and hydration stations provided at venues. The tour also marked a milestone in Atlanta, where the show at State Farm Arena became the first concert at that venue to achieve zero waste status.
The water savings come from food, not the venue's water systems. Plant-based meals were provided to the musicians and production crew throughout the tour, and according to REVERB's calculations, this catering choice saved 8,827,500 gallons of water compared with a standard diet, based on estimates from an independent vegan impact calculator. The organization also estimated the plant-based catering saved 321,000 pounds of grain and 240,750 square feet of forested land. Beyond the crew catering, every venue on the tour also offered plant-based food options to fans, priced the same as other menu items.
Nearly $990,000 raised, plus $575,000 sent to climate projects
According to REVERB's report, the fundraising campaign raised just above $990,000, rounded up to nearly $1 million, from fan contributions and proceeds from the #RockNRefill reusable bottle campaign, run together with Nalgene and Eco-Village initiatives. Separately from that total, Eilish allocated a portion of ticket sales revenue to fund climate projects directly, with over $575,000 going toward initiatives such as solar-powered water desalination in Kenya, biodigesters in Mexico and research into direct air capture. In total, certified climate projects conducted during the tour offset over 15,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, according to REVERB, more than the tour's estimated emissions, and roughly equal to taking 3,000 homes off the electricity grid for a year.
The 2022 tour's results became a benchmark for the 2024 tour
The outcomes of the Happier Than Ever tour have since been used frequently as an example of what sustainable touring looks like, including by Eilish's team in their sustainability strategy for the 2024 tour, Hit Me Hard and Soft, two years later. That tour again involved REVERB, Support+Feed and Live Nation, with fans encouraged to bring reusable bottles, choose vegan meals and use public transportation where possible. Whether or not it matched the 2022 results, the earlier tour remains one of the most detailed reports on the environmental impact of a major concert tour.
