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Mayor challenges London theatre to ‘go green’ by 2025

Published Wednesday 24 October 2007 at 15:40 by Lalayn Baluch

London mayor Ken Livingstone has announced an industry-wide campaign to make the capital’s theatres more energy efficient and achieve a 60% reduction in carbon emissions by 2025.

The first stage of the initiative will be spent calculating the total carbon footprint of London theatres. Data will then be used to compile a report assessing the major contributing factors to the pollution and how they should be addressed. These measures follow the Climate Change Action Plan published in February, which demonstrated that London would have to reduce carbon emissions by nearly two-thirds within the next 20 years to “avert catastrophic climate change”. It claimed they would grow from 44 million tonnes to 52 million tonnes by 2025 without action.

Livingstone told The Stage: “The fact that most of the major bodies representing London theatres are committed to taking action on climate change will send an extremely positive message to the rest of London.

“The message is that London’s theatres are going green. This is good for the planet, but it also gives a competitive advantage to the creative industry and tourism sectors in London, as theatregoers, tourists and consumers become increasingly concerned about the impact on climate change of their leisure pursuits.”

Partners in the project include the London office of Arts Council England, the Theatres Trust, Ambassador Theatre Group, the Independent Theatre Council, Equity, PLASA, Association of British Theatre Technicians, National Theatre and Arcola Theatre. A crucial addition to the list will be the Society of London Theatre and its sister body, the Theatrical Management Association, whose boards meet next week to discuss whether they will be involved in the campaign.

Mark Watts, climate change advisor to the mayor, explained: “The first thing to do is look at where energy is being wasted in the current theatre set-up. It’s not doing anybody any good with lights being left on and inefficient lighting being used, when efficient lighting is available.

“Let’s try and do the simple things first, and take a bit more time to work on a long-term strategy and the more radical plans of getting everything carbon neutral.”

Earlier this week, the NT and Philips announced a lighting partnership to install environmentally-friendly bulbs throughout the South Bank venue.

Energy-saving LED lights have been installed on the exterior of the building, and the venue expects a 70% reduction in the energy needed to illuminate its flytowers, which will save £100,000 annually.

According to Livingstone, 38% of carbon emissions come from public, commercial and industrial buildings, and he believes the NT will be an “advertisement” in demonstrating green strategies.

NT artistic director Nicholas Hytner said: “It’s important that we in the theatre get there first and get there quickly. If the NT, with its tremendous consumption of light, can show that by adopting new technology you can have results as dramatic as these are - then I think everybody is going to sit up and take notice.”

Another venue making changes to become more environmentally friendly is the Arcola in north London. In July, the fringe venue announced plans to become the world’s first carbon neutral theatre, and will launch a funding campaign next month to drive the project forward.

Ben Todd, executive director of the Arcola Theatre, believes the London-wide plan is a necessary step in tackling climate change, and said he was pleased the proposals finally included the arts in a discussion that was previously restricted to scientists and business people.

The Arcola’s plans have been described by Watts as the “gold standard” to which all venues should aspire, a sentiment echoed by Hytner.

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