At Stratford East, we are striving to make our work as sustainable and environmentally-friendly as possible. Being a 136-year old listed building poses many challenges, but as we open our latest play, EXTINCT by April De Angelis (which examines the effects of the climate crisis) we wanted to let you know the steps we are taking to lower our carbon footprint.

We set up an internal Green Committee who meet regularly to keep us on track for our environmental goals. A core part of our Green Strategy has been being part of the London Theatre Consortium (LTC) – a consortium of 14 London theatres - where we have developed a roadmap to 2025 as part of the Arts Council Accelerator Programme. This is vital in achieving industry-wide change. 

At the 2019 Creative Green Awards, the LTC was awarded the Highest Achievement for Committment and Stratford East was nominated for the Highest Achievement for Improvement. We were most recently awarded a 4 Star Creative Green accreditation from Julie's Bicycle, and are continuing to interrogate how we can implement effective, realistic changes.

Here are some quick figures from the LTC group (as a whole) to show the progress made:

• Energy use decreased 9% since 2012/13
• Energy use emissions decreased 54% since 2012/13
• Energy use per m2 decreased 12% since 2012/13
• Energy use emissions per m2 decreased 56% since 2012/13

We know there's still much more to be done and so we've set ourselves the following goals for 2021/22:

• Reduce annual energy consumption by 6% 
• Carbon reduction target: 9.5% relative reduction (61 kg CO2e per m2) 
• Energy intensity target: 5.9% relative reduction (271 kWh per m2) 
• In achieving the target, Stratford East's carbon footprint will be 167 tonnes CO2e in 2021/22 (17 tonnes CO2e lower compared to 2018/19) 
• 100% renewable electricity through a certified green tariff, 100% renewable energy supplier 
• By March 2022, we'll have a designated Green Champion on our Board of Trustees 
• Complete LED replacement throughout the building 
• Zero landfill on waste (including our sets) 
• Exploring a more efficient vent and cooling system with heat pumps
• 100% environmentally-friendly products used for all sets on productions
• Continue to reuse, reduce and recycle all elements of Stratford East productions 
• Use 100% eco-friendly products in laundry 
• Using ticket scanners and e-tickets 
• Encouraging audiences and staff members to walk or take public transport to the venue where possible
• Pilot the Green Book initiative – making the production cycle more sustainable
• Making the move towards getting rid of single-use plastics (in a post-COVID world)

We will continue working with our industry peers to benchmark our progress and utilise our internal committee to ensure we're achieving the goals we set.