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posted by Christopher Dawe on Mon, Feb 1, 2010
in At the theatre

Now in its fourth year, the Berkeley Rep green initiative works to model responsible environmental behavior that is in harmony with the Theatre’s core mission. Part of that goal is helping to create a framework within which the arts industry as a whole can shift towards practices that can contribute to sustainable development.

In a continuing effort to meet that mandate, Berkeley Rep is constantly reviewing and monitoring operations in all facets of the Theatre in an effort to ensure they are functioning at levels of environmental responsibility. Where we don’t find those higher levels, we are crafting policies to get there.

Here are highlights of Berkeley Rep’s green initiative:

• We now compost four yards a week (that’s cubic yards of waste not heading into a landfill but rather coming back to gardens and communities in an altered form).
• We recently had to increase our commercial recycle bin size because we’re recycling much more than ever before – and that’s a trend we intend to maintain.
• We’ve replaced a large percentage of the Theatre’s usage of incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents and/or LEDs where possible, thus reducing energy consumption. The bulbs also have a much longer life span, which reduces waste. Incandescent bulbs are about 90 percent heat and 10 percent light. Compact fluorescents and LEDs are much more efficient, utilizing 75 percent less energy and creating 75 percent less heat.
• We’re constantly monitoring our paper usage and trying to use less. For our copy machines, we have switched to 30 percent recycled paper. By making that switch, assuming 24 trees go into making one ton of office paper (and with 40 cases per ton), we’ll save an additional five trees a year. And our goal is to keep using less and less paper.
• In our scene shop, we’re using FSC lumber (http://www.fscus.org/) whenever possible. We build the set frames out steel because the steel frames, compared to wood, are easier to recycle and re-use – and you’re not cutting down a tree.

Visit Berkeley Rep’s online Green Room for the latest on the Theatre’s green initiatives.

Other theatres and theatre groups across the country are also taking steps to create responsible, sustainable green programs for their companies.

Wolftrap is America’s National Park for the Arts in Vienna, Virginia

Broadway Green Alliance is an industry-wide initiative to educate, motivate, and inspire the theatre community and its patrons to adopt environmentally friendlier practices in theatrical production and everyday life.

Mo ‘olelo Performing Arts Company is an Equity theatre company in San Diego