: Absen today launched a new green initiative, Absen Green, that brings together its industry leading efforts in sustainability, environmental protection, energy efficiency and corporate social responsibility and reaffirms its commitment to a better future for all.
Thursday, November 04, 2021
Absen Green Sets New Standards for Sustainability
LightSoundJournal.com
: Absen today launched a new green initiative, Absen Green, that brings together its industry leading efforts in sustainability, environmental protection, energy efficiency and corporate social responsibility and reaffirms its commitment to a better future for all.
: Absen today launched a new green initiative, Absen Green, that brings together its industry leading efforts in sustainability, environmental protection, energy efficiency and corporate social responsibility and reaffirms its commitment to a better future for all.
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This company seems to take environmentalism as a very serious issue, as they should. Also, they don’t just claim to be environmentally friendly like so many other companies do, they infuse it into every single part of their production. Many manufacturing companies, whether it's textiles or technology can be very shady about their environmental impact and their practices so that they don’t have to face the consequences. But here you see every rule and process that Absen goes through and exactly how that contributes to their green ethos. Their transparency is very commendable. Another important aspect is that not only are their products sustainable but so is the process to make them. Unfortunately, so much of the products we use for theatre are unsustainable and not great for the environment. Theatre is a very wasteful art overall. So to see some lighting companies trying to make any difference that they can is refreshing. I think that theatre makers don’t often think of the way that it impacts the environment and that reusing isn’t something that is messy or cheap.
This new commitment to sustainability addresses one of the key issues that has arisen with the new wave of LED lights: LED’s take a lot of precious metals, non-renewable resources, and toxically-produced materials to create these lights that have a much lower energy consumption than conventional lights with less resource costs. Absen is making big strides to reduce the impact of LED production by following and exceeding the guidelines set by the European Union in environmentally sustainable manufacturing. This applies on both the resourcing end, using eco-friendly raw materials and complying with EU guidelines on reducing hazardous material use, and in the product end-of-life cycle by promoting electronic waste recycling which increases recycling rates by 25%. Combined with the lower energy consumption compared to conventional lights, these LED’s are making big steps towards sustainability in an industry that still has a very long way to go in terms of energy usage and materials sustainability.
I am very passionate about sustainable practices, especially when it comes to the entertainment industry as there are so many resources used to put on a single production. I enjoyed seeing how a company that provides for the entertainment industry is making strides towards making our practices more sustainable. Not only is the Absen Green initiative using far less power for their lights, but they are also keeping in mind the materials they are using and making sure to recycle as much as possible. I had never heard of sound or light pollution before, so it is comforting to know that this company is really doing its research when trying to make their products as sustainable and safe as possible. As a stage manager in the theatre industry, I am very conscious of the materials the productions I work on use. For example, in high school I noticed how many scripts I use for a show process and then multiplied that by how many shows I do a year and realized there must be a better way to do this that doesn’t waste so much paper. I soon began to use digital scripts and encouraged others on my production team to do the same.
Sustainability is a massive issue in not only the theatre industry and the world. I really appreciate that Absen has taken such a large step in the direction of sustainability and the environment. I looked a bit more into the company after reading this article, and learned that this isn’t just some small startup company or small manufacturer – Absen is one of the leading manufacturerers and providers of LED screen technology in the world. This is a huge step in the right direction for sustainability in the world. I am sure it cost the company a lot of money in research and development as well as deployment of new processes and techniques, but if a world leading business is able to accomplish sustainability goals like a zero-carbon footprint, then hopefully this will set a precedent for other world companies to follow suit. We onl have one Earth, and we need to take care of it. This is our home and the source of all our materials and supplies and we have already pushed the limit of what it can handle. A lot more work needs to be done to repair the damage that we have cause to it, but this is an excellent step in the right direction.
Ahhh this is so cool! I love hearing about continued efforts to find more eco-friendly solutions in the theatre, especially with electrical elements that can consume a lot of energy. I wonder if these unique lights come at a much steeper cost, or even with some sort of learning curve. I'm sure it can feel daunting to find solutions and substitutes for non-sustainable practices, but every bit counts. I was disappointed that all the programs this year have to viewed virtually (I like the old school act of being handed a playbill as you enter the theatre, and keeping the tickets for memories sake), but I'm sure it has saved so much paper, printer ink, and energy overall. For items looked at for an hour or even a few minutes, it now feels sort of frivolous to spend on, especially since it can be hard to estimate how much will be needed.
I clicked on this article expecting to come out with a pretty cynical view. I expected it to be touting an incremental increase in energy efficiency of some lighting fixture, overlooking the fact that by far the largest environmental cost of theatre is in the disposable materials, especially for things like scenery and costumes, not the already relatively efficient lighting and sound fixtures. And further, that the largest relative environmental effects of lighting and sound equipment is often light and sound pollution, not material pollution.
I was pleasantly surprised. All that is still true, of course, no improvement in environmental friendliness of lighting technology is going to make up for unsustainable practices in our construction, but the scale of the improvements in sustainability that are evident in this company are not insignificant, especially because they encompass the manufacturing of the equipment, not just its use. And further, they are considering lighting and sound pollution and implementing active steps to reduce the impact of these fixtures on the environment. This is a really cool company.
One thing I had always dwelled on as a production carpenter was the absolutely terrifying amount of waste that came out of pretty much each and every show I have ever done. The thing is, I only ever really considered theatrical waste from a largely scenic perspective, sometimes from a management perspective, what with all the paperwork and scripts that get printed for my use. I had never really considered waste with lighting fixtures, but it makes sense for things to get old and get harder to use and for new things to always be coming out onto the market. I am glad that this company is putting out new things that are more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Reducing lighting waste may be a small step compared to reducing scenic waste, but it is still a step in the right direction, and I hope many more companies and institutions will follow suit.
It leaves me constantly appalled just how much we waste in this industry. It makes me sad to see a dumpster full of materials at the end of a strike and I believe that we shoot ourselves in the foot far too often by not trying to salvage more of these materials. The number of 10 plus foot one by fours that were just thrown away from the columns for La Finta Giardiniera are a perfect example. Easily 200 feet of one by four with none of those pieces less than 10 feet and we toss out every single one of them instead of taking the time to preserve the materials we are spending so much money on. It's lowkey pretty ridiculous that there is an article talking about sustainability in theatre when it seems that we as an industry are either unwilling or unable to make the attempt to save materials from productions.
This article caused me to think a lot more seriously about the way sustainability is addressed in theatrical settings. With the invention of LED systems, having eco-friendly lighting designs has never been easier, and company wide shifts like Absen Green’s put even more emphasis on the importance of sustainability in lighting design. The energy conservation that Absen Green has achieved in their product design is genuinely bananas, and hugely promising for the future of lighting equipment. Incandescents lose so much energy to heat, and new products allow for that lost energy to be conserved and used more efficiently. However, climate sustainability is not something lighting designers themselves are ever taught to focus on. I am thrilled to see that sustainability information is becoming more accessible around lighting equipment, and in the future, I hope designers (including myself) take on the individual responsibility of determining the ecological impact of their art.
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