Arcola Theatre has won The Stage‘s 2018 Sustainability Award.
The award recognises Arcola’s continuing efforts to adopt greener practices and technologies, reduce carbon emissions and raise awareness about the importance of action to tackle climate change.
In particular, it acknowledges the 36% reduction in power usage at this year’s Grimeborn opera festival, made possible by a LED lighting partnership between Arcola Theatre and Philips Entertainment Lighting.
The Stage said:
“The Arcola Theatre in Dalston’s commitment to sustainability makes it one of the greenest venues in London, if not the UK. By aiming to become the world’s first carbon-neutral theatre, it continues to innovate in this area.
In 2017, it experimented with low-energy LED stage lighting in its flagship opera festival, Grimeborn. Philips Entertainment Lighting provided new LED stock that resulted in a 36% power saving.
Environmental sustainability has always been at the heart of the venue’s ethos. The former paint factory uses solar panels, DC power grids and carbon-neutral heating to make the building as energy-efficient as possible.
The theatre’s willingness to continue to refine its green credentials and explore new technologies that help it do so is why it’s being recognised this year.”
Arcola’s Executive Director Dr Ben Todd said:
“We’re very grateful to The Stage for this award. At Arcola we’re always challenging ourselves and others to innovate – in the art we make about big issues, but also in the approaches we have to big challenges. Few challenges are bigger or more important than the need to tackle climate change.
In partnership with our clean-energy sister company Arcola Energy, we will continue to look for opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint, and work to encourage new and creative thinking on stage and off.”
The Stage Awards recognise excellence across the breadth of the UK theatre industry.
Find out more about Arcola’s Sustainability initiatives →
Watch a clip of Dr Ben Todd’s speech from the awards ceremony: