Tours

Why me and why green?

Everyone who loves the arts and cares about the future of UK theatre has a role to play in achieving our vision of a theatre sector that is creatively dynamic, a world leader, and is truly sustainable. By coming together to form a community of practitioners and cultural managers committed to environmental sustainability in the creative industries, we can build a theatre sector that has longevity and integrity.

Travel is one of the major contributors to the theatre sector's carbon footprint. Audience travel has the largest impact across the industry, but artist and business travel creates impacts too, and touring is therefore a key area for focus in terms of reducing our emissions.

What's the impact?

To address what the theatre sector needs to do to reduce its touring impacts, Julie's Bicycle produced a piece of research, Moving Arts: Managing the Impacts of our Touring Vol. 3 Theatre, mapping the current impacts of theatre tours beginning in the UK, and providing detailed recommendations for how to measure and improve these impacts.

The total GHG emissions impact by UK theatre touring companies within the UK and globally in 2009, based on available data, is estimated to be approximately 13,400 t CO2e (see Figure 3), which is equivalent to driving around the world 1,500 times.

• UK based commercial theatre accounts for over a third of all touring performances in the UK, three quarters of the total audience of the sector and two thirds of the total touring GHG emissions of the sector.
• UK based small scale subsidised theatre accounts for two fifths of all touring performances in the UK, a sixth of the total audience of the sector and a sixth of the total touring GHG emissions of the sector. 
• Overseas touring by small and middle scale subsidized theatre accounts for 5% of all touring performances in the UK, 3% of the total audience of the sector and a fifth of the total touring GHG emissions of the sector.
• Large subsidised theatre accounts for less than one percent of all touring performances in the UK, 1% of the total audience of the sector and 1% of the total touring GHG emissions of the sector. 
• Education related performances account for 17% of all touring performances in the UK, 3% of the total audience of the sector and 1% of the total touring GHG emissions of the sector.
• In the UK hotel accommodation is a significant source of emissions, closely followed by freighting.
• For overseas touring, air travel is typically the most significant source of GHG emissions.

Making reductions doesn't have to be costly or difficult - we've summarised some starting points in the links below and we're at the end of a phone line if you'd like to discuss any of these steps forward...