The Theatre Times: The Mayor of London’s 2008 practical guide to “Green Theatre” reported that the total carbon footprint of London’s theatre industry is approximately 50,000 tonnes a year. You would need to cultivate 3 million seedlings every year to offset this, equivalent to a plantation three times the size of Regent’s Park.
1 comment:
Well this makes trying to make scenery more environmentally friendly feel a bit useless. That is about 2,500 tonnes of carbon per year for all the production work for the entire industry in the city. Going vegan saves about a ton of carbon, so basically 3 people going vegan has the same carbon reduction as if all theaters in London just stopped making anything for productions. And even just within the theater industry, looking at solar panels or more efficient HVAC systems is going to do more than using less foam, at least from a carbon footprint perspective. Honestly, looking at the audience transportation footprint, I think encouraging greener ways of commuting to the shows (reduced ticket prices or being entered in a raffle or something perhaps) might make a bigger difference that trying to reduce the footprint of the show itself. Or putting on more shows about environmental issues that will inspire people to go out and impact policy or make personal changes that will have a bigger positive impact on the environment than the negative impact the show itself had. I do like to think that little things add up and we can all make a difference, but if I have an over budget show I’m not going to be bothering with making the $100 unit cheaper when there is a $2000 unit in the show. We are well over our carbon budget as a society, and we need to stop focusing on the easy but minimally impactful changes and try to make a dent in the big ticket items, even if those are harder changes.
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