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The Eco-Friendly
Theatre of the Future
"Greening" operations can reduce your carbon footprint while still delivering stellar productions—and help keep your audience and staff healthy
According to the U.S. Green Building Council, buildings are responsible for 72% of electricity consumption, consume 40% of our raw materials, spew 38% of all CO2 emissions, create 136 million tons of construction waste, and use 15 trillion gallons of water per year in the United States alone.
Green buildings, on the other hand, consume 26% less energy while emitting 33% fewer greenhouse gases. The USGBC also estimates that if “half of new commercial buildings were built to use 50% less energy, it would save over 6 million metric tons of CO2 annually for the life of the buildings—the equivalent of taking more than 1 million cars off the road every year."
Now take a deep breath – because those are significant numbers that should give us pause. But it does not mean we should all go out and start looking for a green architect and a wealthy donor. Not yet, anyway. Rebuilding from the ground up is not the first step. Efficiency and green building experts agree that the first and most important thing you can do is improve conservation and efficiency within your current operation and facility.
What Makes It Green?
“An ecologically responsible theatre is one that does more with less,” explains Michael Crowley, Producing Manager of 9Thirty Theatre Company in New York City, one of the only companies in the country to be founded on the principle of green theatre practices.
While Crowley’s idea of a green, eco-responsible theatre company is direct, what makes a theatre green remains a complex question. “We're still working on defining it,” says Seema Sueko, Artistic Director of the eco-friendly Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company in San Diego. Mo’olelo received a grant from Theatre Communications Group (TCG) this year to pursue their green mission and to “research and develop a tool to measure the environmental impact of theatre, helping the industry to make choices that do not damage our communities.” They are partnering with Brown & Wilmanns Environmental Consulting on the project to develop a “Green Theatre Choices Tool kit.” “Hopefully,” Sueko says, “this will help us answer that question.”
Ian Garrett, Executive Director of the Los Angeles-based Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, has a very clear idea of what a theatre can do today to move toward a green future. “The best thing a theatre can do to go green right now is just to record what they use,” he says. According to Garrett this relatively simple and routine effort can go a long way by informing a theatre of what needs to be reduced in the first place. “It can be very enlightening to know what you're using today before you look at what you are going to do tomorrow to use less.”
An excellent example of the many ways performance facilities can go green is Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Without building a new facility, the company has taken dozens of steps toward more eco-friendly operations, beginning with the creation of an environmental policy board, or Green Committee, during the 2007-08 season. In order to keep the eco-responsible efforts a part of day-to-day operations, the committee is made up of staff members from several departments.
“We have always been a globally conscious organization, and our primary commitments have not changed,” says Terence Keane, Berkeley Rep’s Director of Public Relations, when talking about how the move to greening operations has affected the overall organization. “Several of our departments—most notably our prop shop—had made sustainable practices a priority long before it became an organizational mandate,” he says. “As a result, many of the big picture changes that we’ve incorporated on an institutional level have very quickly become second nature. What has changed is that environmental awareness is now a core organizational value.”
Their Green Policy commits the company to sourcing materials from local vendors, implementing waste reduction and pollution prevention practices, encouraging audiences to use eco-friendly transportation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, overhauling the menu of the theatre’s café to focus on local, organic, and sustainable food and drink, and advocating within the arts for more sustainable practices.
“Everything is greener,” says Keane, “the food, the drink, the napkins, the cups, the lights, the responsibility to sort one’s trash appropriately – and the fact that it goes into a bio bag without you even knowing it.”
But us “knowing it” is an important part of the movement toward greener practices in the arts. Berkeley Rep knows this, and you should too: the potential for audience education is large, as is a theatre’s ability to highlight their green activities in their marketing and outreach. It’s not about putting forth a green front without taking action to back it up (frequently referred to as greenwashing), but rather taking advantage of the opportunity to extend your policies beyond your own operations by being a responsible member of your community and encouraging your patrons to take similar steps.
Keeping the public informed about your green policies means being honest, too. “We strive to be transparent about the choices we make since there are tradeoffs along the way,” explains Mo’olelo’s Sueko. “By being transparent, we hope we'll learn from others so we can make better decisions in the future.”
Building it Green
Portland Center Stage, Theatre For A New Audience, and Theatrical Outfit in Atlanta have all taken the big step. Each of these companies work in what are known as LEED certified facilities. LEED – or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – is a certification program managed by the U.S. Green Building Council. The program works on a point system, with points awarded for things as diverse as proximity to public transit to how efficiently the building uses (and reuses) water and electricity. Depending on the number of points earned a building can receive one of three levels of certification from Silver to Platinum, with Gold in the middle. Theatrical Outfit, for example, produces in a renovated historical building with a LEED Silver rating and was the first performing arts facility to be LEED certified in the nation. Portland Center Stage also renovated a historical building in the heart of Portland, earning a Platinum rating from the USGBC. Their facility includes such eco-friendly features as a rainwater collection and reuse system, natural ventilation, extensive use of natural lighting throughout the lobby and administrative offices, and radiant heating in the lobby. The building also reportedly uses about 30% less energy than code requires.
It is also important to keep in mind that LEED is a system designed for conventional commercial buildings and is not set up to deal with the vagaries of a performing arts venue. “LEED is intended for permanence in a way,” Garrett reminds us. “So, it's hard to balance what we do with their priorities.” He cites the PCS project as an example of how certification can lead to complex compromises, too. “They were looking at equal points for brush off grates at their entrance and a solar array on the roof next door,” he says. “The solar array would have been 10 to 20 times more expensive – so guess what they didn't do?”
LEED is also not the only rating system for green building out there. Green Globes, BREEAM, and the Minnesota Sustainable Building Guidelines are a few alternatives. The differing systems are essentially similar in method and intent, but do vary in some ways, such as cost. If you are considering pursuing a green facility, look carefully at every system of certification out there – but keep in mind that LEED seems to have gained a foothold in name recognition, lending itself to a stronger marketing and branding opportunity.
Another drawback of pursuing a green-built facility with LEED certification is the simple economic considerations of such a venture. “It's expensive,” Garrett says, “and I would hate for that to deter theatres from making progressive changes.”
Green Business = Good Business
In the end, greening your theatre in a disciplined and focused way is just plain good business. In an increasingly difficult economy funding has become sought after with more fervor by yet more organizations, and donors and granting agencies are seeking arts organizations with a plan to weather the storm in creative ways. Add to that the shift toward a green economy under the Obama administration and avenues for the green theatre of the future have become clearer.
“Going green is about maximizing your resources,” says Garrett. “It's as much about economy as ecology – if you use less you spend less,” he says. By combining the principles of reuse and conservation, a company can reduce its budget constraints while conserving energy and promoting the well-being of both staff and audience. “If you use less power for lights, you use less for HVAC,” Garrett continues. “If you use zero VOC, untreated, and nontoxic materials you have a healthier crew, and with day-lit offices you have happier staff and pay less for lighting.”
“Encouraging artists to explore using recycled and found materials can save money and our country's dwindling natural resources,” 9Thirty Theatre Company’s Crowley says. He also advocates partnerships with other green businesses that can both provide for the theatre and give audience members greener choices. “We are able to provide our patrons with green concessions which they may then choose to purchase in their home or business lives,” he says. “But eco-responsible theatres should also take an active role in the environmental issues facing their local communities.”
“If you want to compete in the future arts market place, greening is going to be a necessity for your budget,” Garrett says. “You can reinvest your budget into more and more green materials,” he says, “then you have insured you can sustain your company, and you can be proud that you've done your part to heal the earth, too.”
To access other stories about green theatre practices or to see how Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company pursued their green mission, visit DramaBiz Magazine Web site at www.dramabiz.com
Stimulating a Green Economy – Where do Theatres Fit?
The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, or stimulus package, includes billions of dollars for green projects. As the programs within the new bill – just signed into law by President Obama on February 17 – become clearer, more opportunities for arts organizations are bound to appear. Among the possibilities that have made themselves known already:
“All of the stimulus money for the arts is going through the NEA,” explains Ian Garrett, Executive Director of the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts. “They're doling it out to two types of entities: those they have given money to before and to approved state re-granting organizations like the California Arts Council.” Garrett advises theatre companies to check with arts councils at the state level to see where the money is going and how it’s going to get there. “To date I don't know of any funds specifically for greening in the arts,” he says. But Garrett doesn’t think arts organizations looking for funding for green initiatives should be discouraged. “A lot of local arts commissions and councils are looking to make an impact in the arts and environment and are looking for people to come to them with ideas.”
