A few years ago, the National Theatre demonstrated its leadership by announcing its commitment to reaching net zero by 2030, which is aligned with the Mayor of London’s target of making London a net-zero city by that date. “We are rethinking everything, from the environmental performance of our building to how we bring productions to life,” says Paul Handley, the NT’s head of production.

Innovations towards this goal have included the creation of the National Theatre Green Store, a home in south Bermondsey for 131,000 costume pieces and 22,000 props. Handley says: “It champions reuse, fuels a circular economy and plays a key role in helping us reach our net-zero goal.” 

Yet establishing a common understanding of what net zero really means has been a barrier to wider engagement. Whereas carbon neutrality simply means neutralising emissions (and therefore, in theory, could be made up of 100% offsets), ‘net zero’ implies a more rigorous approach, demanding emissions are cut as far as possible before offsets are used. The Science Based Targets Initiative offers a widely recognised “net-zero standard” for businesses, which requires companies to cut emissions by at least 90%, with remaining emissions neutralised using permanent carbon removal and storage. 

While such economy-wide initiatives provide much-needed consensus about where we are heading, they offer little in the way of detailed guidance about how to achieve these reductions, nor do they address the specific challenges of our sector. This is where many arts organisations struggle: while most are surely committed to operating more sustainably, they need support in understanding what this looks like practically in straightforward terms. 

As theatre increasingly brings its tenacity to this challenge, we will place ourselves at the forefront of the profound transition we are living through.

“No one doubts that we need to become as sustainable as possible,” says Paddy Dillon, co-founder of Theatre Green Book: “Only we, as theatremakers, can determine what is feasible and practical.” Last week, TGB published guidance recommending that theatres prioritise reaching the collective’s advanced standard as “the most realistic, comprehensive and accurate standard for theatres to plan for”. The beauty of this guidance, Dillon explains, is that “it’s come from theatremakers and it looks at actual, on-the-ground challenges of what theatremakers do”.

Venue operators praise the guidance as “phenomenal for getting people to take action”, as Rachael O’Sullivan, environmental manager for Royal Ballet and Opera, puts it. The venue set a target of 2035 to reach net zero for emissions generated directly by sources they own and from purchased energy. But establishing a net zero target for their indirect impact was much harder, as they faced a challenge around accurate carbon calculation. It is extremely difficult, at least for now, to come up with a true calculation of the embodied carbon of every pen, postage stamp and customer that passes through a venue’s doors.

Focusing on the advanced standard has helped, because it doesn’t prioritise carbon calculation, instead focusing on the circular economy. “We know that if we reuse and recycle more, the impacts will reduce and that’s something that’s much easier to visualise,” Dillon explains. At the same time, the advanced standard asks theatremakers to track and reduce carbon figures that can be meaningfully calculated and represent the biggest impact: building energy use, new materials and travel, which he says represent around 90% of most theatres’ emissions. “It’s focusing on outcomes,” O’Sullivan says. “It’s about thinking, where are our biggest hitters and how are we going to deal with those?”
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TGB has created a “positive feedback loop” within the sector: the more companies and venues that embrace it, the more freelancers work with it and move on to other companies and venues who are, in turn, encouraged to embrace it, too. This process is driving greater ambition and earlier decision-making. An example of this is Bristol Old Vic’s current production The Beautiful Future is Coming, a play with strong ecological themes. Designer Aldo Vázquez says: “As a designer now, it’s something you have to be aware of from the outset.” While he originally hoped to reuse a set from a past production, he found this was impossible – because the set had already been reused in other shows. Instead, he has designed the show in such a way that new materials used are not altered, so they can be reused or resold. “I feel the theatre, in its soul, has this cyclical way of working,” he comments. 

There will be challenges along the way in achieving net zero. “We are part of a much wider ecosystem and our progress is often dependent on factors beyond our direct control,” Handley admits. For instance, at present there are no good low-carbon options for larger freight touring. “We hope that technologies will emerge over the next few years to make that cost effective,” says Dillon, “but at the moment it’s very difficult.” While these barriers can be frustrating, it is helpful to consider that those driving the transition in theatre have contemporaries in every sector, also experimenting, innovating and evolving.

As theatre increasingly brings its tenacity to this challenge, we will place ourselves at the forefront of the profound transition we are living through. The need to decarbonise is not, after all, merely the woolly idealism of the left. Fossil fuels are running out – Stanford University researchers predict that, if we were to keep using oil at the current rate, viable supplies would dry up by 2052. Our choice is stark: we could kick the can and deal with the consequences of an unprepared economy attempting to survive a significantly heated world. Anyone wishing to engage with the alarming consequences of that choice need only read the recent report from the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, which advised that if warming rises to three degrees by 2050, we could face four billon deaths and 50% loss of GDP globally in the second half of the century.

Alternatively, we can embrace transition, and the myriad co-benefits it presents, now: significantly cheaper and more secure energy, economic opportunities and cleaner air. As the backlash against net zero comes into force, theatre must stand resolute in its commitment to the only logical decision.