Sustainability behind the scenes at Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour
I was first introduced to Showpower by Lukas Howell of Hope Solutions over a year ago and picked things up with them again earlier this year. Since then, we’ve been working closely with Rob and Tim to help scale a business that has the potential to transform how live events are powered.
This week, Georgina Chapman and I caught up with Rob Scully and Tim Benson at Wembley, just ahead of Coldplay’s final UK concert. Next week, the Kognise team will be joined by Richard Lydon as we head over to Amsterdam with the Showpower team to continue shaping the next stage of their journey.
The Coldplay Blueprint
When Paul Schurink, Rob Scully and Tim Benson, then at ZAP Concepts, were approached by Lukas Howell and Coldplay’s Sustainability Manager, the challenge was clear: create the most sustainable, flexible, and reliable power system possible for a global stadium tour.
The result was Showpower: a state-of-the-art, mobile, modular power system that can run 100% of any stadium show, anywhere in the world, powered by renewable energy and batteries instead of diesel.
This was put to the test on Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour — the most attended and highest grossing tour in history, projected to reach 13 million tickets and $1.4bn in revenue by September 2025.
And crucially, it has been the most sustainable stadium tour ever delivered:
- 59% reduction in CO₂ emissions compared to their 2016-17 tour.
- Nearly 7 million trees planted, one for each ticket sold.
- 72% of tour waste diverted from landfill.
- Renewable energy integrated from solar, kinetic dance floors, power bikes, and SmartGrid battery systems.
Hope Solutions and Showpower
Hope Solutions, under Luke Howell, shaped the sustainability framework and independently validated results with MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative. Showpower, through its SmartGrid and Power-As-A-Service model, provided the technology backbone, demonstrating that large-scale events can now be powered without diesel, reliably and at scale.
Looking Ahead
What has been proven with Coldplay is just the beginning. Showpower’s technology, this is about building a strategy, plans and the funding to accelerate growth, scale globally, and set a new standard for powering live events sustainably.
