BACKGROUND
Actor and activist Woody Harrelson has always been known for ‘walking his talk’. He has risked his career time and again to “do the right thing”. Whether campaigning for old growth, standing up for animal rights, or exposing other injustices, Woody has always worn his heart on his sleeve, and put activism first.

CHALLENGE
After participating on The Spitfire Tour for many years, Woody came across a study done at UC Santa Cruz called “Modeling”. This study took place in a public shower on campus, and tested the power of suggestion versus the power of observing action. The study started when a sign was placed in the public shower, asking people to please save on resources by turning the water off while lathering – 11% of the people did it. Then a “model” (a person modeling the behavior) was put in the shower room, along with the sign, to display the behavior. This time 44% of the people adopted the behavior. When a second model was placed in the shower room to further reinforce the behavior, 67% of the people turned the water off while lathering. When Woody read about this, he came to The Spitfire Agency, with the challenge of creating a tour that on every level, “became the model”.

SOLUTION
‘The SOL Tour’ (Simple Organic Living). A 1,500 mile human-powered bicycle tour, followed by a by bio-diesel and veggie oil bus, that visited colleges and communities from Seattle to LA, to discuss and display how you too can support sustainable solutions.

RESULTS
On Earthday 2001, during the “energy crisis” Woody Harrelson & friends went on the road and off the grid to launch the SOL Tour. They rode their bikes from Seattle to LA, camped in state parks, ate entirely organic, and were followed by ‘The Mothership’, a retired Greyhound coach purchased, gutted and converted for the tour. The bus ran on bio-diesel and veggie oil, and was powered inside by solar panels. The interior included an organic kitchen, 6 navy ship bunks, cork flooring, hemp curtains, and the exterior was painted with a beautiful wrap-around mural.

The tour was funded by a series of college events, which Spitfire booked (all events were free to students). At these events, Woody and other experts discuss the state of our world, the purpose in the tour, and the many solutions available to all of us. All events were promoted with tree-free paper, and displayed each town’s many sustainable non-profits. Between college performances, the tour participated in numerous events and fundraisers in the communities that they rode through. On off days, the tour created our own impromptu activities, such as popping into fast food restaurants to discuss organic food with their customers, touring organic farms, dropping by logging corporation headquarters, visiting youth training action camps, solar villages, clear cuts, factory farms, and the like.

In addition to reaching hundreds of thousands of people across America through the tour and our media campaign, the SOL Tour will soon reach a far greater audience. In Fall 2004, the SOL Tour will hit theaters nationwide through the release of Ron Mann’s documentary, “Go Further”. The documentary, which follows the SOL Tour from pre-production to our final days on the road, focuses on the personal transformation of unknowing individuals met on the tour, some of whom were invited to “hop on the bus”. Recently unveiled at film festivals around the world, Go Further has won numerous awards including ‘First Runner Up, People's Choice’ at the Toronto International Film Festival. Soundtrack includes Bob Weir, Anthony Kiedis, Natalie Merchant, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Medeski, Martin & Wood, String Cheese Incident, and Dave Matthews. Glimpse a view of this wild ride.