Jack Johnson, Josh Ritter and More Team Up for 1% for the Planet Compilation

Compilation albums for causes have been on fire lately: last year's 'Dark Night of the Soul' was a huge smash and this year's 'Hope for Haiti Now' album has become a best seller. But quietly making waves has been another benefit compilation from the folks at 1% for the Planet, a coalition of artists who donate at least 1% of their annual sales to environmental causes. The campaign took off a few years ago when Jack Johnson placed the 1% logo on his 2005 release, 'In Between Dreams.'

For their first foray into the compilation game, 1% got 41 artists to contribute -- bigger folk leaning acts such as Josh Ritter, Grace Potter, Joseph Arthur and Jackson Browne are mixed in with indie pop's the Submarines and Brandi Carlile. In the spirit of the environmental nature of the organization, they made it available only at digital retailers and 1%'s website: all 41 tracks cost a mere $9.99.

While the impetus for this is pretty straightforward, we found the words of South Carolinian band Slow Runner to resonate perfectly, as they explain "slacker musicians aren't in a good position to help out the planet as, say, a really smart scientist. But I'm pretty sure a compilation of songs by really smart scientists would suck, so we're doing what we can to help out."

We couldn't agree more, especially about the scientist part. Check out a video about the compilation below.