Our latest Classics for a New Climate production, La Musica. With Emily Barclay and Sam Troughton. Photo by David Sandison.We are so delighted to have been awarded 3 Stars by Julie’s Bicycle, in recognition of our ongoing commitment to reducing our carbon emissions and making sustainable and ethical decisions in all areas of the theatre, be that our work in the production and producing of shows, our work with audiences, or all general day-to-day administrative and back-of-house actions and choices that we make.
3 Stars is the highest accreditation that Julie’s Bicycle give – so hopefully we have done something right!
This was a company-wide effort, with all departments chipping in with ideas and initiatives on how to make the Young Vic a greener, more sustainable place to work and visit.
We are incredibly proud of the changes we've made. They include working with ethical and sustainable suppliers; in particular the Cut Bar, who stock local and sustainable beers, organic wines, and local and free-range meat. All of our stationary is ethically sourced, and we are very proud that we will have a zero waste-to-landfill policy in 2016, working with, amongst others, Scenery Salvage, First Mile, Arts Basket, Wiles Greenworld, often through our colleagues in the London Theatre Consortium.
Our Taking Part department nurtures and strengthens our relationships with schools, colleges, community groups, residents and young people within Southwark and Lambeth. By giving away 10% of our tickets away for free to these people we ensure that localism is at the heart of our theatre – with people making short journeys, often walking, to the theatre. Any resources no longer required by the theatre, such as playtexts, scripts, or even paint, are given away to these groups for free, so that nothing is thrown away or wasted.
Our latest Classics for a New Climate production, La Musica. With Emily Barclay and Sam Troughton. Photo by David Sandison.Our latest Classics for a New Climate production, La Musica. With Emily Barclay and Sam Troughton. Photo by David Sandison.
Our latest Classics for a New Climate production, La Musica. With Emily Barclay and Sam Troughton. Photo by David Sandison.
Our recent Classics for a New Climate production of La Musica, directed by Jeff James and designed by Ultz, which saw a carbon emissions reduction of around 75% compared to similar scale Maria theatre productions. Most of the set was reclaimed from our summer production of The Trial, there was no lighting truss, with LED lighting and even natural and outside light used instead, and no printed programme or tickets. In next year's Julie's Bicycle Report we'll reveal more about what we learnt during that process and how we can incorporate it in the production of future shows.
You can read our full report here.
So, what next? Well, discussions are underway on installing LED house lights, waterless urinals in the public toilets and solar panels. We hope to see our roof garden and gardening club continue to go from strength to strength.
We cannot rest on our 3 Stars from Julie’s Bicycle – there is always more that we can do better and more efficiently and effectively. If you have any ideas then we’d love to hear them – please just email danielharrison@youngvic.org
Thank you Julie’s Bicycle and to you our audience for helping us in this achievement. Let’s keep on going for a cleaner, greener future.
Daniel de la Motte-Harrison
Young Vic Green Champion
