Ed Sheeran is looking to help the environment. On Wednesday (Dec. 29), the musician sat down with BBC Radio London and discussed his plans to make the United Kingdom a more sustainable place.
“I’m trying to buy as much land as possible and plant as many trees as possible,” the “Shape of You” singer explained, according to People. “I am trying to rewild as much of the U.K. as I can. I love my county and I love wildlife and the environment.”
The 30-year-old takes residence in Suffolk, and already has a list of protected animals on his property. “I have got a massive beehive. I have this massive wildlife pond with newts in it, salamanders, and there’s a grass snake that lives in there and hedgehogs,” he added.
Though Sheeran wishes to do his best with protecting the environment, he feels torn due to the effect his touring has on the climate crisis. “I feel like I am going to get my head bitten off anytime I say that, as my job is not a hugely sustainable job as I go and play in cities, but I am trying my best,” the singer said. “The thing with sustainability and being a public figure is when people support it, suddenly people try and find things to call them out on.”
Sheeran will embark on his Mathematics Tour in support of his Billboard 200 chart-topping album = (Equals) in April 2022, starting in Dublin, and will make stops in the United Kingdom, France, Netherlands and more. “I honestly think that this next tour that I’m going on, at the end of the tour, I can’t see myself going on one of them like that again,” he said of his upcoming touring plans.
The singer-songwriter’s aspirations for environmental change arrive on the heels of the U.K.’s Music Climate Pact, launched by the U.K.’s Association of Independent Music (AIM) with record labels and music groups apart of the association such as Sony, Universal and Warner Music. The pact seeks to “decarbonize” the music industry and includes commitments to join the Science Based Targets Initiative or the UN’s Race to Zero program by February 2022.
