Updates from the London Green Theatre Network
The latest London Green Theatre Network meeting took place at the Bush Theatre on 2 Nov, bringing members together for discussions on environmental policy and sustainable touring, as well as networking and updates on green initiatives from individual members.
Policy
Matt Prout and Jane Ellaway from DECC and Yael Parag from the Environmental Change Institute (Oxford University) started off the morning with presentations and a panel discussion chaired by JB director, Alison Tickell. They covered current environmental policy making and the impact of the Comprehensive Spending Review on environmental legislation and the creative industries. Matt and Jane gave an outline of the current policy landscape: a light-touch approach with little binding legislation, particularly for smaller emitters, with little tailored support and information available. They presented the government's plans for a Non-domestic 'Green Deal' - an initiative providing 'green' building improvements upfront which are then paid off gradually on energy bills - on the same day that Chris Huhne announced the Domestic Green Deal to an audience at the LSE: click HERE to read his speech, and HERE for more on the Green Deal.
Yael Parag outlined the fact that, if we are to achieve the government's target of 80% reductions by 2050 to establish a low carbon economy and society, this means fundamental changes to our energy production and consumption, and emphasised that these practices in energy demand and use will be determined at a local level. With Local Authorities' power and resources taking a hit following the spending review cuts, the drive for change on a local level is most likely to come from green businesses, NGOs and individual action, and support from new (albeit limited) government investment funds designed to grow a green economy, such as the Green Investment Bank. Yael finished by questioning how successful this multi-layered approach to change will be, and what role the creative industries could play in this shift towards low carbon living, particularly in contributing creative solutions and new models of working to the thinking and action towards a green infrastructure.
Touring
The policy debate was followed by presentations on sustainable touring from Judith Knight, Co-director of Artadmin, and Rachel Tackley, Director of English Touring Theatre, and Helen Heathfield, Director of Energy and Environment at Julie's Bicycle, with an update from Sian Alexander, Director of Theatre at Julie's Bicycle, on the findings from our Moving Arts reports measuring the footprint of touring theatre productions, bands and orchestras.
Helen presented the Industry Green (IG) Touring Tool, developed by Julie's Bicycle to enable artists and producers to calculate their Greenhouse gas emissions before and after their tour. Judith and Rachel each gave a lowdown of what sustainable initiatives they have been implementing and also outstanding questions about what is to be done around issues of tour travel, audience travel and how to influence receiving venues to act more sustainably. In this respect, Sian flagged that Julie's Bicycle are working with Artsadmin to develop a 'green rider' - more on this soon.
Environmental Resources for the Arts
As promised at the last meeting, we have compiled an Environmental Resources for the Arts document which is now available on our website HERE.
