Dated 6 July 2022

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY POLICY

TEATRO VIVO LIMITED

A registered charity in England & Wales (number 1151584)

 

1. Key information: Teatro Vivo

Some theatre companies transform spaces to create experiences. We create experiences which change spaces forever.

Led by joint Artistic Directors Mark Stevenson and Kas Darley, Teatro Vivo is a critically acclaimed, immersive theatre company. Our mission is to make  playful and exciting immersive shows in unusual spaces, bringing Shakespeare to Supermarkets, exploring The Odyssey on the streets of Deptford, and discussing the British arms trade in public squares.

 

2. Motivation for taking environmental action and background

Our new environmental/sustainability policy has evolved from an existing ambition to explore contemporary global and local issues, reflecting the interests and concerns of the communities we serve. During the pandemic and associated lockdowns, we focused on supporting our audiences, telling stories that mattered and encouraging participation digitally. During this time, we still included environmental issues in our artistic programming, such as our digital performance, The House that Slipped (as to which, see below).

As we emerge from successive lockdowns and re-launch our in-person work, we seek to re-build our business and renew our environmental commitments, using our environmental and artistic work with Lewisham Council, our performance of Ondine in Dorset and our planned performance Common (as to all of which, see below) as a springboard for this change.

 

3. Level of environmental ambition

Covid-19 has laid bare some of the starkest issues facing individuals, societies, and the international community. Among these issues is the increasingly problematic relationship between humans and the natural world, thought by many to have triggered the Covid-19 global pandemic. Questions regarding the environment and our responsibilities towards it, particularly those of different generations, have sat at the centre of conversations surrounding sustainability.

As a community-focused theatre company, we have a unique opportunity to raise awareness of these issues at a local level, encouraging broader conversations about the world we live in, and also encouraging people to feel a sense of community and pride in their local area which inspires us all to take care of the green and urban spaces around us. This is approach can seen in:

• Previous projects, such as:
  • The House that Slipped: Teatro Vivo's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, created on Zoom for an international audience, the show followed the lives of the residents of 12 Laburnum Drive Brockley. After going into lockdown, they opened their door to find themselves in the year 2070, where they had to get to grips with the new ‘utopian’ society that surrounded then, the impact on the environment of the intervening years and the new rules about environmental security. Working with the audience, they explored these changes and found a way to return to August 2020, bringing some of the knowledge they had acquired with them.
  • Ondine: a Theatrical walk in Abbotsbury, Dorset (an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). The project operated a ‘leave no trace’ policy with great care being taken to reduce the impact of audiences and production on this beautiful piece of countryside. In addition, we challenged our designer and technicians to re-use and recycle materials wherever possible, with the vast majority of costumes and props for the 35 strong cast being repurposed from items already in our store or purchased second hand.
• Our current residency as Artists of Change for Lewisham Borough of Culture, embedded with the Climate Resilience Team at Lewisham Council for 6 months, working with 19 community groups across the borough to uncover their thoughts, priorities and hopes for a greener future, before making a show in response to everything we’ve learned which will be performed in every ward in Lewisham over a 2 week period with a cast of professional performers and community participants working together.
• Our upcoming projects, such as Common: Walking across Forest Hill and Sydenham today, there is little to indicate that until 1810, much of this suburban area had been a 500-acre undulating, open space. Common land was an important feature of day-to-day life, providing important resources for communities, not least the ability to graze animals, regardless of personal wealth and land-holding. Nowadays, the parks of London are one of the defining characteristics of the city, particularly in the leafy south side of the river. These green areas which have always been an important part of our local societies and economies have taken on a new meaning for groups and individuals as we have struggled with the various impacts of Covid, including worsening mental health. Working with local groups, we have developed Common, a play which explores local history and celebrates green spaces

As a small organisation with limited administrative resources, we punch above our weight, but we realise that there is more that we could do to consider the environment in our day-to-day work. Not being based in an office doesn’t mean that we can’t have goals that we wish to work towards. Our knowledge of local community groups and ability to develop local partnerships means that we can encourage positive environmental change at a community level and we are committed to continuing this. During 22/23, we will develop a full Environmental Action Plan which will support us on this journey.

As a starting point, we are establishing an Environmental Sustainability Group, a sub-committee of board members who will update the Artistic Directors with current trends, new ideas, and discuss potential ways in which these and other models of best practice can be incorporated within our work. We see this as a holistic approach to environmental engagement, a strand that runs through all of our work, rather than an add-on. We will be considering both small-scale things such as recycling, and how we can have a bigger impact through environmental messaging in our artistic programming. We will also be considering both our direct (such as car travel) and indirect (such as banking) impact.

4. Main impacts, specific to the nature and size of our activities

Transport, paper use, technology, energy and food are key areas where we have a strong, direct environmental impact. It should be noted, however, that audience emissions are significantly lower for us, as we are a local organisation who takes theatre to communities, rather than the other way around. We have been carefully considering our indirect environmental impacts, particularly with regard to financial investments, but this is harder to measure as so many financial institutions have their own metric for understanding the environmental impact of different investment portfolios. The key areas that we have identified in our five point summary (below) directly reflect the areas where our business has the strongest impact, and also additional work that we can undertake where the direct cost to our business is negligible, but the environmental impact is positive.

 

5. Key environmental commitments, given the nature and level of our impacts

This policy has five steps designed to change the way that we work.

1. Develop an Action Plan during 2022-23 which has clear, measurable targets and plans for evaluating progress.
2. Ensure that any financial investments are environmentally considerate, and switch to a more environmentally aware bank.
3. Begin recording our car journeys and other emissions, considering how and where we might reduce these, to inform our future Action Plan.
4. Make all events and entertainment vegetarian by default, decrease waste     , increase recycling.
5. Use our artistic programming as a vehicle for change, raising awareness of environmental issues.

 

6. Other key environmental commitments

In addition to the approaches outlined above, we will use 2023-26 to consider other ways in which we can support ourselves and the wider sector to be more sustainable, such as better data capture, sharing our experiences, reducing waste, reducing paper printing, etc.

As well as considering our own actions, we want to try and change audience behaviour by incentivising particular actions, such as taking public transport to our performances.

 

7. Responsibility for reviewing the Environmental Sustainability Policy and Action Plan

The Environmental Sustainability Group will be made up of two Board Members and the Artistic Directors. They will:

• Meet twice a year to:
  • monitor progress against this policy and (when drafted) the Action Plan;
  • consider what, if any changes need to be made or further steps need to be taken and will feedback to the Board who will consider whether to update the Action Plan.
• review and, if necessary, update this policy every two years for approval by the Board.
• carry out a full review of this policy and the Action Plan before each ACE NPO submission.
• convene any additional meetings needed to tackle specific challenges or deliver specific change.