Jo Caird: Theatre goes green

The
Arts Council has partnered with Julie’s Bicycle, the brilliant
not-for-profit company that works across the arts to help venues,
companies, festivals and artists (among others) to integrate
environmental sustainability into their businesses. ACE and JB will
offer advice and practical support to help NPOs meet the new funding
requirements – including running a series of national workshops and
providing a free online carbon calculator – with measures being
implemented from April 2013.

Greening
the theatre industry has been on the agenda in this country for a few
years now, but ACE’s announcement is a significant step forwards.
Since 2005, when the Dominion, West End home to We Will Rock
You, became the first UK venue to embrace environmental
sustainability in a joined-up way, more and more venues and companies
have become wise to the benefits to going green. Many, however, are
either still in denial or simply unsure about how best to proceed. It
is these organisations that have the most to gain from Davey’s
announcement, which was made, appropriately enough, at a conference
called Tipping Point.

I
won’t repeat the economic advantages of an eco-friendly business
model for theatre here. It’s an acknowledged fact that major savings
can be made through even small changes. Instead I want to consider
the potential positive impact that theatre pursuing environmental
sustainability can have on society in general.

Firstly,
we mustn’t underestimate the symbolic importance of ACE’s new policy,
let alone the bravely unambiguous language with which it was
announced. In his speech last week Davey referred to “the magnitude
of the task required to deal with the challenges of climate change”.
He acknowledged the “economic imperative” of greening the arts,
but he also spoke at length about the policy being motivated by
“ethical concern”. At a time when climate change has misguidedly
been allowed to fall way down the government’s list of priorities,
Davey’s words are a hugely encouraging statement of intent.

Words
alone are not enough of course; it’s what ACE and the NPOs do that
counts, and that is yet to be seen. But this new policy and the
measures it will implement undoubtedly represent an excellent
opportunity for theatres and theatre companies to set a good example
to the public of environmental best practice.

Many
of the changes that ACE and Julie’s Bicycle will help organisations
to implement will be visible ones. This might include simple
measures like placing recycling bins in foyers or displaying a
Display Energy Certificate (DEC) somewhere prominent to ensure that
punters are made aware of the how a building rates in terms of energy
consumption (DECs are only a legal requirement for public buildings
over a certain size, so most small venues won’t currently have them).

Other
more complex measures, such as updating a building’s central heating
system or designing shows with low-energy technologies in mind, won’t
be so obvious, but organisations are encouraged to keep
audiences informed about progress towards environmental
sustainability via notices in foyers and e-newsletters. Appealing
directly to the public to consider the environmental implications of
their own theatre-going behaviour (in a non-judgemental way, clearly)
is another option: do they really need to drive or take a taxi to
theatre?

By
being loud and proud about their efforts towards environmental
sustainability – and crucially, about the successful outcomes of
those efforts – theatres and companies can help to normalise green
practice and hopefully persuade punters that it’s worthwhile making
similar efforts in their own homes and businesses.

We’ve
got to be realistic of course. According to the Department of Culture
Media and Sport, only 42% of the English adult population attends or
takes part in theatre, and of that 42%, a reasonable proportion will
be attending commercial theatre, which can do as it pleases when it
comes to energy policy (for the nerds among you, there’s lots of
interesting data on arts attendance on the Arts Council’s website).
So there’s only so much theatre can hope to do in terms of affecting
attitudes and action on climate change. But you’ve got to start
somewhere and I’m quietly optimistic: the jury’s still out on whether
theatre can change the world, but I’m always very happy to see it try.

And
with that, it’s time for me to say goodbye. I’ve been writing this
blog for exactly a year and have loved sharing my thoughts on some of the issues in contemporary British
theatre that have got me excited, angry, puzzled and amused. I’m off to Australia for a few weeks, but will be back
writing interviews, reviews and one-off blog posts for
Whatsonstage.com in no time. You certainly haven’t heard the last of
me. Thanks for reading.