High-energy plans are finding ways to lower carbon emissions in theatres.
Twelve London theatres, including the Bush, Southwark Playhouse and Finborough Theatre, have been granted ‘ecovenue’ status by The Theatres Trust, as part of a three-year initiative to help reduce carbon emissions and build models of sustainability best practise. The £900k programme, match-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and The Theatres Trust itself, will be targeting 48 small-to-medium sized London venues in total; the ambition is to establish a 60% reduction in emissions from 1990 levels by 2025, in line with the Mayor of London’s Green Theatre Plan.
Across the four rounds of the scheme, it is hoped the 48 theatres’ combined carbon footprint will be reduced by 240 tonnes annually. According to research published by the Mayor of London’s office in 2008, however, London theatres currently emit 50,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year. Tim Atkinson, who was appointed Theatre Building Services Advisor at The Theatres Trust in January and is leading the Ecovenue project, admits “it is a drop in the ocean,” but that the effort to go green must start somewhere.
The news comes at the same time that the not-for-profit green guidance organisation, Julie’s Bicycle, announces an expansion of its remit to work with the theatre sector and takes over management of the Mayor of London’s Green Theatres network. The company, which already assists creative industries to cut greenhouse emissions, is building a separate national programme for commercial and subsidised theatres across the UK to decrease waste, pool resources and improve sustainability issues for the sector.
The irony of two organisations dedicating considerable resource to achieve a low-carbon future for theatre is one that is not lost on Atkinson: “We’re all tackling the same issues but in different ways,” he says, underlining the fact that “Julie’s Bicycle is looking at [the carbon footprint] of staging a production from start to finish, while [The Theatres Trust is] looking at the venues and buildings themselves.” The two organisations have confirmed they will be sharing data where possible, and building additional and more comprehensive resources to sit alongside, for example, the Arts Energy toolkit from Art Council England (ACE).
With the Ecovenue project, participating venues will be given an energy assessment, assistance in monitoring energy and water usage, and receive a Display Energy Certificate showing energy consumption to the public. This translates to each venue submitting weekly gas, electricity and water (where possible) meter readings to SMEasure, a free energy monitoring tool for businesses developed by the University of Oxford. There will also be rotating weekly use of a smart meter to accurately pinpoint the building’s energy consumption.
A year into the programme, theatre buildings will then be issued certificates showing their progress pre and post taking part. There is no funding available to the 48 theatres that will work with the scheme, but as Atkinson points out “if [venues] can manage energy use better, [they will be able to] manage budgets better”. As for the £900k of Ecovenue money set aside to reduce theatre’s energy spending and carbon emissions, this will go towards staffing (for Tim Atkinson, and Financial and Monitoring Officer for Ecovenue, Clive Dixon); expanding The Theatres Trust website to incorporate the work of Ecovenue; clerical administration of producing certificates and conducting seminars. Eventually Julie’s Bicycle, (which will be publishing an ACE-commissioned guide to greening theatre at the end of June) hopes to include the 48 Ecovenues into its London Green Theatre Network.