KT Tunstall - Globally Cool

She is Scottish, she is a rock star, she has sold millions of albums all around the world, and yet she does not own a car or even a television. Her new recording studio has been built using 100% reclaimed wood, sheep’s wool insulation, and solar panels, and her house is the same. When it comes to being environmentally friendly, singer/songwriter KT Tunstall is almost as revolutionary as her music.

September saw the release of Tunstall’s third album, Drastic Fantastic, which quickly climbed to the top of the charts in many countries. It has already outsold her 2006 release, “Acoustic Extravaganza”, and is set to reach the lofty levels of 2005’s “Eye To The Telescope”.

But music is only one of Tunstall’s passions, the other being the state of the environment. When not performing or recording, Tunstall is usually found hard at work supporting ecological causes. In 2005, she planted 6000 trees in Scotland to offset the environmental cost of her first CD. And July 2007 saw her perform an extremely energetic set at the Live Earth concert held at Giant’s Stadium in New Jersey.

“I feel responsible because I am making money out of it,” said the 32 year old singer, whose hits include Suddenly I See and Black Horse And The Cherry Tree. “I use bio-diesel fuel on my buses and carbon-neutralize the audience’s journey to the gigs. With this next album, a portion of the money is going towards investing in renewable energy sources in developing countries.”

Tunstall has recently involved herself with Global Cool, a ten year campaign which plans to inspire one billion people to each reduce their personal CO2 emissions by one tonne. She joins a long list of celebrities involved with the initiative, including Stephen Fry, Josh Hartnett, Tony Blair, Prince Charles, Pink, the Kaiser Chiefs, Orlando Bloom, and Leonardo DiCaprio.

“Stop completely twatting your planet,” she said on the Global Cool website. “We haven’t got anywhere else to live.”

The start of September also saw Tunstall return to her roots when she went busking in Glasgow. But this time it was for charity, with a street side performance in front of the Buchanan Galleries shopping centre that raised $550 for Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy.

“Music is a really special way of helping disabled children,” said Tunstall. “I have a deaf brother who loves playing drums because he can really feel it and gets a lot out of it. I had heard of Nordoff-Robbins and they asked if I would be interested in raising a little money for them when I was in town. It was so different to when I first busked. In between every single song, I felt like I had to say the money wasn’t for me.”

More information on KT Tunstall’s new album and ecological beliefs can be found at www.kttunstall.com, and to work out your own personal CO2 usage and what you can do to lower it, visit www.globalcool.org.