The Stage

Bush and Finborough among the 12 theatres selected for initial Ecovenue project

Published Tuesday 11 May 2010 at 16:20 by Natalie Woolman

London’s Bush Theatre, Southwark Playhouse and Finborough Theatre are among the 12 venues chosen to participate in the first round of the Theatres Trust’s Ecovenue project.

The £900,000 initiative aims to help 48 small and medium-sized theatres in London reduce their carbon emissions and make inroads in achieving the Mayor of London’s Green Theatre Plan. The Mayor’s plan seeks a 60% reduction in emissions from 1990 levels by 2025.

Through the scheme, the Theatres Trust will offer environmental business support - venues will be given an energy assessment, assistance in monitoring energy, water usage and procurement and receive a Display Energy Certificate showing the public how much energy they use. It is hoped that, across all four rounds of the scheme, the theatres will reduce their carbon emissions by 240 tonnes together. According to research published in 2008, the total emitted by all London theatres is approximately 50,000 tonnes annually.

Theatres Trust theatre building services adviser Tim Atkinson said the venues’ enthusiasm for the initiative was “infectious”.

Angela Bond, executive director of the Bush Theatre, added: “We’re essentially a small business so it’s great to be able to work with a company like Theatres Trust. We’ve been making small inroads into reducing our carbon footprint over the years, but we’ve never really had the resources to develop a comprehensive plan ourselves. What’s great about this for us is that they’ll come in and look at our business, assess our energy rating and give us some really good tools that we can start to use immediately, without us having to do all that research ourselves.”

The first round will include the following venues - Deptford’s Albany Theatre, the Bush Theatre in Shepherd’s Bush, Chisenhale Dance Space in Bow, the Compass Theatre in Ickenham, the Drill Hall in Bloomsbury, the Duchess Theatre in Westminster, Finborough Theatre, Earl’s Court, Ilford’s Kenneth More Theatre, Islington’s Little Angel Theatre, Polka Theatre in Wimbledon, Southwark Playhouse and Tara Studio in Wandsworth.

The European Regional Development Fund has given £450,000 towards the project, which has been match funded by Theatres Trust.

Venues can apply to Ecovenue providing that they do not receive more than £430,000 in subsidy from public bodies, do not have more than £37 million on their balance sheets and no more than 250 full-time employees.

There will be four rounds of the scheme, which is scheduled to run until 2012. For applications to participate, email tim.atkinson@theatrestrust.org.uk.