After the World Stage Design in Cardiff offered UK theatre makers so much opportunity to develop Sustainable theatre, it’s time Australia took a turn. Here’s how:
Access resources
Tipping Point Australia has put together an amazing report on greening the arts and features all kinds of information from zero carbon touring ideas through to how to effectively measure your environmental impact, suggested alternatives to current practices and some fantastic examples of what other creative bodies in Australia have done to become greener.
Looking at using arts to highlight issues in climate, and how to manage the arts with climate change in mind is Climarte. Keep a very close eye on Live Performance Australia and their Greener Live Performances project. If you are a small to medium enterprise, they’ve got a bucket load of advice, information and assistance to give you as you go green.
You can also get some non arts specific but extremely dandy advice from Zero Waste SA, get your green on with the help of UTS, and find inspiration with The Daily Lime.
And any theatre looking for remodelling and building advice should check out a wealth of building info at the Green Builders Council Australia.
Reduce, re-use, and recycle
It’s nice to see a new set of the 3 R’s taking Australian creative practitioners by storm in reduce, re-use and recycle.
Pop along to your local council website and check out their collections information- you’ll be amazed at how many now offer not just set neighbourhood pick up days for hard rubbish but also offer whitegoods pickups, e-waste solutions, scheduled pickups and commercial advice. Planet Ark also offers the site Recycling Near You for suggestions.
Mobiles and tablets find their recycling happiness with Mobile Muster. If you have batteries that you don’t want to bin, check out the Australian Battery Recycling Initiative for advice on battery recycling pilots, who to contact and tips on safe disposal.
For large e-waste collections on a commercial scale, you can try E-waste Australia.
Places like Reverse Garbage Sydney and Reverse Garbage Brisbane not only lead the way in warehousing everything from fabrics through to used Mardi Gras floats! Furniture, tiles, wood, paint, butchers paper and all kinds of wonderful things can be found in abundance. Both also offer courses and workshops if you’re really keen.
Perth has the Cockburn Recycle Shop that has the occasional bit of scenery and creative props coming through, amongst other fun and glorious items.
You can freecycle at Ziilch (they’ve even had houses to giveaway- amazeballs!), Freecycle, OzRecycle – and see what charities may need at Givit.
Find out about clothes swaps at The Clothing Exchange, and stretch the costuming budget further with new buying and selling fashion marketplace YohKoe.
And of course, you can start putting your props, costumes and other stage bitz into StageBitz ready to share with other companies – we go live with this in the next couple of months!
Transport Options
Getting out and about to see a show or to make use of efficient car usage while in production is fairly easy in Australia with the rise of ride and car sharing. Share a ride across town or across the country on Jayride, hire a car or van from a fleet with GoGet or Flexicar, or rent a car direct from the owner with Car Next Door and Drive My Car.
Access to things we need
Want to borrow an iPad or a drill? Rent the tools and technology you need from Open Shed.
Or if you are working and need to find a desk for a day (and yours is covered with crud- or you simply need to disappear for a while), try one of the many co-working places in Australia.
Theatre students and teachers need not fret now that Zookal provides you a place to find some second hand texts.
And if you need a little bit of scratch to help make up the money between theatre gigs, why not try sharing your skills at WeTeachMe, Laneway Learning conducting a tour of your favourite creative hollows via eXpertLocal?
Find inspiration
The Sustainable Living Festival in Melbourne and Sydney’s EcoExpo fuel the mind with practical ways to make green changes, small and large.
If you feel like enjoying some music and planting some trees at the same time, Southbound in Busselton, WA will tickle all kinds of imagination and heart.
And if you want to see how other Australian theatre companies are kicking goals in sustainable theatre for Australia, Sydney Theatre Company’s Greening the Wharf initiative, The Malthouse in Melbourne and Brisbane’s La Boite have done wonderful things!
This article originally appeared on Stagebitz.Image: Theatre built by recycled paper designed by Studio Andrew Todd . Photo: Moorbier
