After more than a decade away from show business, Canto-pop singer and composer Lowell Lo Koon-ting is planning a 'carbon offset' comeback concert and is calling on other local entertainers to run more environmentally friendly shows.
Lo (right) returns to the stage on May 16 and 17 at the Hong Kong Coliseum, where he will perform classic and modern numbers with singers such as Justin Lo Ting-wei and George Lam Chi-cheung.
But if the lyrics of Lo's songs sound familiar, his concert's green message could strike a new chord in Canto-pop.
A three-hour concert can waste up to 12,000 watts of electricity, said Lo, who has become an environmental activist and also runs an organic shop, Green Earth Society, in Sai Kung with his wife.
'I am probably the first Chinese who has applied this [carbon offset] concept to concerts,' he said.
'I hired an Australian company to calculate the energy consumption of all of the concerts. I will invest an equivalent amount of money into projects which develop renewable energy like solar and wind energy to offset the energy used at the concerts.'
Lo urged other singers and businesses to offset their carbon footprint. 'Some big businesses have already,' he said. 'Say, for a trip from London to New York, they'll pay HK$160 for the [environmental] damage they've caused. Compared to the tens of thousands of dollars that a business class ticket costs, it's not that much money. If you have extra money, please do something good.'