Theatre in Response to Climate Emergency?

Theatre in Response to Climate Emergency?
By Zoe Drinkwater
26th January 2025
“The climate emergency is the most serious challenge humanity has ever faced. Theatre can play an essential part in our response.  So theatre must become environmentally sustainable.” 

Theatre Green Book 

After successfully receiving Arts Council England Organisational Development grant funding, Highly Sprung appointed me, Zoe Drinkwater, as their Green Champion in Summer 2024. But what have we been up to since then to help Highly Sprung on its sustainability journey? 

I started with some learning, and took part in Aston University’s Green Advantage Skills Bootcamp in Sustainability course, supported by mentorship from Gerard Davies from Contented. As part of the Skills Bootcamp, we created a sustainability roadmap draft, aiming for Net Zero emissions by 2041, in line with the West Midlands region target. We have also facilitated our Trustee Board to have sustainability training with Danielle Pipe, to give them a background understanding of sustainability and the impact on us as a charity, as well as areas of consideration for them as our Board. 

I am currently working with members of the Highly Sprung Board to refine and sign off our sustainability roadmap with clear actions and targets, in our Sustainability Working group. Once we have these in place, we can’t wait to share with you and also to sign up to the West Midlands Net Zero Business Pledge. As part of the initial work, I have been compiling our data around our carbon and waste footprint from the last financial year, to give us a better picture of where we are on our journey. 

We have also chosen five of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that we feel best align with Highly Sprung’s purpose, mission and values: 

You may start to see these against some of our projects on the website. 

Highly Sprung are also using the Theatre Green Book to help us create productions that are environmentally sustainable. We already buy second-hand, reuse, repurpose and store a lot of our sets and costumes, and are currently working at the Theatre Green Book’s Intermediate level for all our current productions.  

We are also a member of Sustainability West Midlands, and it has been great to connect with other organisations who are members as well, most recently at the Member’s Mingle, where Emily, our Senior Associate Artist and Schools Development Co-ordinator was a part of the panel at the event. 

So, what’s next? 

  • Finalise our roadmap, targets and action plan, ready at the start of the 2025/26 financial year 
  • Complete our data audit to give us our baseline 
  • Continue with our learning and sharing with other organisations 
  • Work to the Theatre Green Book for any new productions that we are creating – aiming for Intermediate level or higher 

 Check back on our blogs/socials for updates on our sustainability journey!