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In these times of economic austerity, slashed arts funding and rising fuel and utility prices,

when better to re-examine the day-to-day running costs of your operation and improve

your environmental, economic and social sustainability? Thankfully, today there are

numerous industry trailblazers and organisations that can help you on your way, as

Sarah Rushton-Read reports . . .

If there’s one thing the entertainment

industry does really well, it is embrace new

ideas quickly. When the issues

surrounding climate change hit the

headlines, many in the entertainment

industry were quick to react.

In fact, since 2008 when we first started totalk about these issues in any meaningfulway, organisations, venues, businesses andindividuals have travelled a long andinteresting road. The launch of the LordMayor’s Green Theatre Plan and theTheatres Trust’s Building SustainableTheatres conference, along with ArcolaEnergy’s initiatives, kicked the industry intopositive action. Since then many haveproved that environmental sustainabilityneedn’t cost the earth, compromise corebusiness or create unwanted work. In fact,most have proved just the opposite: that it’sa satisfying activity that has unexpected andoften far-reaching beneficial outcomes.

Thanks to the activities of such trailblazers,there’s now plenty of industry-specific adviceavailable to everyone. PLASA, for instance, hasa Sustainability Centre on the members part ofits website which provides members with tipson achieving sustainability in their businessesand an action list to guide the process. As PLASA’s tips make clear, we can’t doeverything at once, but we can do some thingsnow. The first step is often the hardest,especially if it involves convincing others tochange long-established behaviour orworking practice. Venues looking to developan action plan that will make a real impactto your bottom line, take a look at the GreenTheatre Plan (weblink below).

It offers a wealth of insights into the CO2emissions of London’s theatres, includingwhich activities are responsible for whatpercentage of those emissions, and a usefulguide to reducing your organisation’semissions. So comprehensive is it, that even ifyou do nothing else but respond to the advicein this document, you’ll soon be makingsignificant savings on your energy bills andcreating the leverage you need, in the form of

benchmarking and reports, to move on to thenext stage of your green strategy.

Theatres around the UK have quite literallysaved thousands of pounds by followingsimilar guidelines and action plans. Many ofthe changes necessary cost very littlefinancially - perhaps a bit more in terms oftime and human resources, but this is morethan compensated for by the financial andenvironmental savings that can be made.There are useful case studies and plenty ofideas that can be embraced by any theatre,supplier, service provider or manufacturer.> www.greeningtheatres.com/green-theatre-plan-quick-links

Early Pioneers - Theatre Royal Plymouth:Start with the ‘easy wins’The Theatre Royal Plymouth (TRP) was thefirst performance venue to receive theCarbon Trust’s Energy Efficiency Award.Between 2002 and 2007 it saved a whopping £50,000 on utility bills by makingcost-driven changes to its buildingmanagement and maintenance system. By looking away from the stage and gettingdown and dirty with building operations, thevenue cut electricity consumption by 19%,gas by 46% and water usage by 33% duringthat period. This equated to a cut in carbonemissions of 270 tonnes a year.

Water saving devices were fitted to toiletcisterns, urinals fitted with sensors thatensured they flushed only when required,and percussion taps were installed. Highwattage light fixtures were replaced withfluorescents and LED. With over 6000 lamps(of which 30% were changed annually), thesavings really added up. Upfront cost isgreater, but long-term the changes makecommercial and ethical sense.

TRP also replaced its inefficient boiler,optimised its Building Management System(BMS) and divided the building into zones,allowing heating to be separately controlledin each area. The BMS also controls airconditioning and this alone has bought hugesavings on the running costs of the building.

When TRP started working on the efficiencyof its building they were pretty much alone intheir quest and driven primarily by cost.Today there are plenty of businesses andorganisations that offer helpful and insightfulindustry-specific advice and support bornefrom trial, error, benchmarking andexperience.

More detailed information can be found at:> http://tinyurl.com/32euj7r

Julies Bicycle:Julie’s Bicycle (JB) is a coalition of music,theatre and scientific experts committed tomaking the entertainment industry green.Since 2007, JB has researched theindustry’s carbon emissions baseline whichhas informed the development of its not-for-profit certification programme, IndustryGreen (IG). IG is a framework that supportsimprovement in environmental sustainabilityfor the creative industries and is supportedby a series of industry campaigns, projectpartnerships and practical resources,including case studies and free onlinecarbon calculators - the IG tools.

JB’s focus has now extended to theatre andit is currently working with industryrepresentatives to inform and guide its UK-wide theatre programme, supporting thetheatre industry in improving sustainability.Nevertheless, whatever sector you operatein, Julie’s Bicycle can set the foundations ofthe new, environmentally and economicallysustainable you.

The website includes expert, easy-to-access,industry-sensitive information, advice andguidance to green-up your organisations,including a world-first carbon calculator fortouring. JB also works in-depth withindividual organisations, networks andconsortia and links up strategically with otherschemes and programmes across the UK. If you require more tailored support or stilldon’t know where to start, this is a reallygood resource.> www.juliesbicycle.com

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Arcola Energy: Fuel for thoughtArcola Energy is a multi-disciplinary agentfor sustainable innovation. It operates intwo modes: firstly commerciallydeveloping and retailing cutting-edge lowcarbon products, particularly fuel cells,and secondly as an award-winning not-for-profit project of Arcola Theatre, drivingsustainability in the arts. Arcola Theatreaims to be the world’s first carbon neutraltheatre. To this end, Arcola establishedArcola Energy in 2007 - promotinginnovation in sustainability, through theArts. 2009 saw the launch of FutureArcola - a new theatre for Dalston.

Today, Arcola is a global leader in drivingenvironmental change locally, nationallyand internationally via a number ofinitiatives. Arcola has a long-standingtradition of innovation, inspiration andintegration with the local community.Working to the same principles, ArcolaEnergy encourages arts and scienceprofessionals and the community topioneer practices that will fundamentallychange the way arts organisations work.Partners in this venture includedistinguished advisers to government,industry and the arts, as well as award-winning new energy companies.> www.arcolaenergy.com

Supplier Case Study: White Light Bryan Raven,managing director ofWhite Light, hasbeen involved withthe GreeningLondon’s TheatresCommittee, theArcola Theatre,Julie’s Bicycle and a number of otherinitiatives. He’s put his money where hismouth is and has committed to aninvestment programme that brings thebest in low energy professional lightingequipment to anyone who wants it. He’salso encouraged operational changeacross all aspects of WL’s business andparticipated in conferences andseminars, bringing the green messageout of the boardroom and onto the stage.

Today, White Light has an enviable stockof LED lighting equipment and isexclusive UK distributor for a number ofground-breaking manufacturers. Ravensays: “We try to ensure that the clients wesupply use the most efficient equipmentavailable for the task.”

Raven points out: “The greatestenvironmental impact for most productscomes during manufacture. As a rentalcompany, our aim is to re-use equipmentas much as possible and minimise theneed to replace it. Our equipment isregularly serviced and kept in peakcondition, ensuring it’s used for many

years - the oldest lantern in our rentalstock is 35 years old, and still very muchin demand!”

White Light continues to explore andinvest in new technology, has made hugeinroads into reducing its operationalemissions and - for those who want toreduce emissions from stage lighting -has produced a handy downloadablepublication on how to reduce energyconsumption in professional lighting (seeweb address at the end of this article).

There’s no one solution that fits all, butarmed with some knowledge of how tomitigate energy consumption and waste,plus understanding of your own business,it’s possible to tailor an environmentalapproach to any event or show, no matterhow out-of-the-box it may be.> www.whitelightltd.co.uk

Event Case Study: C-Venues at the Edinburgh FestivalThis year, head ofEdinburgh-basedNorthern LightEvents, Nick Read,worked with one ofthe biggest venueproducers on theEdinburgh FestivalFringe - C-Venues - to green-up the stagelighting in one of its many venues. Readexplains: “Many of Edinburgh FestivalFringe venues are ‘found’ spaces (offices,hotel rooms, rooms above bars etc). Theyhost up to 10 shows a day, seven days a week for a month. This means that,unlike conventional theatres, stagelighting is on all the time and one of thebiggest consumers of energy in thebuilding - often being used for more than15 hours per day. They can generate a lotof heat and waste a lot of energy.”

In a bid to make small venues morecomfortable and less power hungry,Read, along with C-Venues productionmanager Richard Williamson, artisticdirector (and international lightingdesigner) Hartley T. A. Kemp and I, designed a no-compromise, superenergy-efficient, low heat emitting lightingrig that embraced the latest in theatrelighting technology. The rig includedRobert Juliat Aledin LED profiles, PrismProjection RevEAL CW LED washlights,ETC Selador of LED washlights along withlow-wattage ETC Source Four Juniors,and products from the Philips Seleconrange of low-wattage fresnels and PCs.

Read says: “Edinburgh Festival Fringepresents a number of unique challengesnot found in purpose-built theatres.Turnaround between shows is tight - oftenless than 15 minutes. Kit has to berobust, quick to rig, de-rig, programme

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and simple to maintain. We choseequipment we believed meets this criteriaand so far feedback has been positive.”

Throughout the festival, NL measuredpower usage, collected artist andtechnician feedback and published thedata on Northern Light’s Edinburgh Festivalsocial networking site. The company alsoplans to evaluate the wider environmentalimpact of C-Venues using British StandardBS8901 - Sustainability ManagementSystem for Events. This will setbenchmarks and targets for future work.> www.northernlight.co.uk

Company Case Study: Royal Court outside the boxThe Royal Court’s ‘Theatre Local’ aimed toextend the scope of its work in differentenvironments. Sited in an empty shop inthe Elephant & Castle shopping centre insouth London, Theatre Local hostedproductions that had already completedfully resourced runs at the Royal Court inSloane Square, but then were strippedback to their basics. Only essentialchanges were made to the empty shop: a partition wall was left to create dressingroom and office space and the wallsremained unpainted. Seating, borrowedfrom the Royal Court, was fixed down usingsheets of fully recyclable plywood.

All staff travelled to and from SloaneSquare by tube, and public transport wasactively advertised in promotion andticketing. The public was directed to localcafés and restaurants for interval drinksand refreshments, reducing the need fortransport and supplies. The first productionused just four lights!

Theatres Trust: EcoVenueOnce you embark on your environmentaladventure it’s important to share yourexperiences - good or bad - so that otherswith similar issues don’t have to reinventthe wheel or start from scratch: this is not a competition! An organisation that makessure all its work is readily accessible toanyone that needs it is the Theatres Trust.

In 2008 it hosted a conference titledBuilding Sustainable Theatres (the reportcan be downloaded from the website listedbelow). Since then, the Trust has embarkedon EcoVenue - a three-year project toprovide specialist environmental adviceand undertake free Display EnergyCertificate assessments for 48 small-scaletheatres in London. Funded by £450,000from the European Regional DevelopmentFund (ERDF), EcoVenue targets theatresnot significantly funded through the publicpurse or part of a commercially-run theatregroup. Participating venues receive a freeenvironmental audit, a free Display EnergyCertificate (DEC) plus advice and practicalhelp to develop their own EnvironmentalPolicy, reduce waste and the associatedcosts.

The Theatres Trust also aims to encourageparticipating venues to jointly procureenergy saving equipment and fittings at a reduced cost that would not be possibleindividually. To help quantify results andpromote achievements, venues will receivea second Display Energy Certificate a yearlater and all the information gathered will beshared publicly. The first 12 venues arecurrently beginning their journey and thesecond 12 are about to: we will report onthese later in the year.

Once all the easy wins have beenimplemented, you’ve saved money andshared your achievements with the world,you can move on to those initiatives thatrequire capital investment. Maybe by thistime you have attracted some sponsorshipor funding . . .

(A feature area promoting the Ecovenueinitiative will be launched at this year’sPLASA Show, which runs from the 12-15September at Earls Court in London).

Venue Case Study: The National Theatre (NT)While The NT hasreceived the kind ofsponsorship most artsorganisations can onlydream of, under seniorproject manager MikeAtkinson (right) thetheatre has madesome radical changes to its operations.

In 2009, sponsored by Philips, the teletexton the front of the building was changedfrom the Seefact system (1248 lightbulbscosting £6 each and imported fromMexico), to the Philips VidiWall - an 8m x 3mLED screen delivering a 60% energy saving(30 tonnes of CO2 per year). External washlights were switched from discharge lampsto LEDs, reducing external lighting energyconsumption by 70%.

Carbon monoxide extractors in the NT’s carpark used to be on 20 hours per day. Nowthey are activated by carbon monoxidesensors when necessary (which is,apparently, hardly ever), reportedly saving a whopping £30,000 per year!

Inside the venue, motion detectors forlighting have been installed in the toiletsalong with Dyson Airblade hand dryers.Operationally, theatre programmes areprinted on 75%-90% recycled paper. TheNT uses nearly 60 tonnes of paper perannum for programmes and repertorybrochures - approximately 750 trees a year.Once it reaches its target of 100% recycledpaper it will divert more than 75 tonnesfrom landfill sites and save nearly 80 tonnesof CO2 per annum.

Backstage, staff members are encouragedto cycle to work with a ride2work schemeand there are better showers for cyclists.

Useful Websites:

Theatres Trust:www.theatrestrust.org.uk/resources/ecovenue

White Light: www.whitelight.ltd.uk/resource/?p=environment

Julie’s Bicycle: www.juliesbicycle.com

Defra: ww2.defra.gov.uk

Arcola: www.arcolaenergy.com

Green Theatre Initiative:www.greentheaters.org

Ecotheatre UK: //ecotheatre.co.uk

Ecotheater US: //ecotheater.wordpress.com

PLASA: www.plasa.org

Philips: www.asimpleswitch.com

Ashden Directory:www.ashdendirectory.org.uk/intro.asp

The Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts: www.sustainablepractice.org

RSA: Arts + Ecology:www.artsandecology.org.uk

greenmuseum.org: greenmuseum.org

TippingPoint: www.tippingpoint.org.uk

Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World: www.ccanw.co.uk

ArtsCatalyst: www.artscatalyst.org

Cape Farewell: www.capefarewell.com

Common Ground:www.commonground.org.uk

enter change, online exhibition:www.greenmuseum.org/c/enterchange

Community Arts Network:www.communityarts.net

Earth Matters on Stage:www.uoregon.edu/~ecodrama/welcome

50 things you can do to be moreenvironmentally sustainable:www.thegreentheater.org/50Things.html

Greening Theatres:www.greeningtheatres.com

White Light’s Green Guide to Entertainment Lighting:www.whitelight.ltd.uk/greenguide

Bike to Work Scheme:www.bike2workscheme.co.uk/faqs.php

Glyndebourne Wind Turbine:www.glyndebourne.com/about/wind_turbine

Further reading:

British Standards:BS8901 - Sustainability Management Systems for Events

ISO 14001 Environmental management systems - General guidelines on principles,systems and support techniques

ISO 9001 - Quality Management

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In the staff canteen there are plenty ofrecycling bins and there’s a discountscheme on tea and coffee if you bringyour own mug.

The NT provides excellent proof thatsimple changes in building infrastructureand staff behaviour, plus a generousdose of well-placed sponsorship, canmake a big impact and encouragecontinuous change. Although some ofthe venue’s actions have beenexpensive, most have or will return theircosts relatively quickly.

The next stage is to develop andimprove the building’s environmentalperformance. To achieve this, the NT isconsidering everything from installingCombined Heat and Power (CHP) toinsulating parts of its roof with grass andplants and replacing all its windows.

Another avenue is to explore therenewable energy route. This is not forthe faint-hearted and can often result inplanning issues and discussions withthe local community, as Glyndebournediscovered when it applied to erect a wind turbine on the Sussex downs . . .

Venue Case Study: GlyndebourneGlyndebourne Opera’s aim is to becarbon neutral. The company startedcutting its emissions and waste withmany of the ‘easy wins’ listed earlier inthis article. The company has installed a paper baler, 70% of garden waste iscurrently used for compost and, as formany years, a bus service is available tostaff and audience between the venueand the nearby railway station at Lewes.

Following a study by North EnergyAssociates into the most effective andeconomic renewable solutions forGlyndebourne, it was concluded that asingle wind turbine would be best. On 11July 2008 the Secretary of State grantedpermission for the construction of an850kW generating capacity wind turbine.

It’s hoped that the output will, whenmeasured over a year, provide for allGlyndebourne’s annual electricity needsand reduce current direct carbon

emissions by approximately 70% or 850tonnes per-year.

Venue Case Study:The Mill at Sonning TheatreThe Mill at Sonning Dinner Theatrelaunched the first Hydro Electric Schemeto be powered by the natural resourcesof the River Thames in 2005. Thescheme currently generates enoughelectricity for the entire building and anyexcess is passed on for sale to theNational Grid. The 18.5kW turbinegenerates approximately 162,000 unitsof electricity per-year, equating to 75tons of CO2.

Venue Case Study:The Colour House Children’s TheatreIn early 2008, Trevor Baylis, inventor ofthe clockwork radio, launched London’sfirst ground-based wind turbine atMerton Abbey Mills. The turbine is usedto supply 100% green electricity to TheColour House Children’s Theatre,making it the world’s first theatre to bepowered exclusively by wind energy.

The turbine is also used as aneducational tool for visitors, particularlyfor children who attend the theatre forworkshops, raising awareness andunderstanding of the importance ofembracing new technology in therenewable energy sector. Any excesselectricity created by the turbine is usedto power local shops and cafés, as wellas powering Surrey Strings, anorganisation that runs Replay, thelargest musical instrument recyclingcharity in the world.

The turbine was one of the first of a newgeneration of wind turbines designedspecifically for urban living by renewableenergy source specialists, QuietRevolution.

This is by no means an exhaustivereview of what’s happening in ourindustry today, but it does give aninsight into the initiatives and resourcesavailable to everyone if you want togreen-up your act and save somevaluable cash . . .

Fingers in green pies . . .

Above, from left to right: Dr. Ben Todd of the Arcola Theatre;Sian Alexander, associate director, Theatre for Julie’s Bicycle;Mhora Samuel and Tim Atkinson of the Theatres Trust.

Right: Gus Christie, chief executive of Glyndebourne.

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