Sustainability Lab looks at how we, the performing arts sector, can improve the environmental sustainability of our touring.

Welcome to the Sustainability Lab!

Our aim is to increase literacy around sustainability in the performing arts, specifically with regards to touring, and to provide practical tips that help you to reduce the environmental impact of touring – whether that’s from the perspective of a touring artist, an inviting venue or festival, independent producer or curator.

Trying to improve sustainability from touring can be overwhelming at first, and you might be asking yourself ‘where do I start?’ – if so, we have created this just for you. This website hosts three main components: The toolbox with recommendations to reduce the environmental impact of touring, a library that hosts downloadable guides and links to useful websites, resources and other tools, and the Kino (that’s “cinema”, in German) where you can re-watch the webinars we organised in spring of 2021.

Before you dive into the resources, a few tips to help you along your journey:

Measure, plan, action, review
o   Measure: What you measure you will manage. Look at where your environmental impact and CO2 emissions are coming from. If you have already created a show, you can measure your touring CO2 footprint here. If you are about to create a show that will eventually tour, we highly recommend you look at the Theatre Green Book here as a starting point. Once you know where most of your CO2 emissions come from, you can then prioritise what changes you need to implement.

o   Plan: Go to the Toolbox and use the search function for recommendations in the desired area of impact and/or according to your profile (artist, producer or programmer). Distinguish which recommendations make the most sense to you and your company (of course, not all of them will apply to you). Then, set yourself short-term, mid-term and long-term actions that you can implement, and plan accordingly in terms of time and budget needed.

o   Action: Implement your planned actions and get your collaborators involved. Communicate with your team, venues and board the changes that you are implementing and why. Make sure that sustainability is built into everyone’s job description.

o   Review: Measure again and review your progress on a regular basis. What went well, what didn’t? What needs further time, resources or skills? Adjust plans where necessary and continue your improvement.  Communicating results will create transparency and accountability as well as inspire colleagues, stakeholders and audiences.

Lastly, every little change can make a difference! The tools are here to help you start your journey into sustainability and to empower you to make changes, gain knowledge and continue to improve. Carve out the time and space to celebrate your wins!