Earth Day 2026 | Where do we stand on sustainability?
1 May 2026
Here at Bristol Old Vic, we take seriously our responsibility to reduce our impact on the environment. In 2019 we joined with other Bristol organisations and signed the Climate Emergency declaration – you can read about our pledges here. On Earth Day last week we had a check in on our progress. Here is an update on where we are in our sustainability journey.
What have we achieved?
Electricity
Bristol Old Vic runs on 100% renewable sources of electricity. We have our own large array of solar panels and top up the extra energy we use with a renewable electricity tariff. We consider this a big win, but are still trying to reduce the amount of electricity we use. Recently we received a grant from the West of England Combined Auhtority (WECA) to replace our old lights with LED lights. This means that all of the lights in our Studio, Front of House spaces, and Back of House spaces are now much more environmentally friendly LEDs!
Materials
Using environmentally friendly options throughout our building is one of our key priorities. You’ll find sustainable choices in many places including:
- Wine on tap to reduce glass use
- Flooring made of recycled materials
- Unbleached toilet paper with no cardboard core
- Coffee beans in bulk bags to reduce packaging
- And many more in our café bar and offices!
Biodiversity
From our spot on King Street, we don’t have much outside space to manage. But that hasn’t stopped us from doing our bit for biodiversity!
We have a living roof – meaning that our roof is covered in plants to provide a small wild space in the middle of the city.
Excitingly, we have just redone our planters on King Street too! You’ll find that all of the plants in our planters are edible, hardy, and good for wildlife. Our particular favourite is the lavender – a useful herb which bees love and has a strong connection with our history (find out why here)!
Data
One of the key challenges for monitoring our sustainability is having the right data. For example, we need to know how people are travelling to the theatre. We run audience and staff surveys to collect data on our environmental impact through travel. In addition to this, we are continually improving our internal processes to help track our environmental impact.
What are we hoping to do next?
Gas & electricity
We currently use gas to heat our buildings. This is one of our bigger environmental impact areas and we are actively looking for ways to reduce it. There are a few methods we could use – the best of which involve other organisations. As such, these methods may take time to confirm and put in place. We will keep you updated!
The next steps in reducing our electricity usage are more clear. We would like to continue the success of our lighting overhaul by switching the main theatre to LED lights too. This is a more complex procedure as theatre lighting has more detailed requirements than in other areas – for example the specific colour of the light is more important.
Another project to reduce our electricity usage is to change how we get electricity into the building in the first place. We are hoping to introduce a voltage optimisation system to our electricity supply – a way of making sure the electricity we receive is an appropriate power level. This could end up saving us around 25,000 kWh per year – which would be the equivalent of over 5 tons of carbon!
Theatre Green Book
There is a framework called Theatre Green Book which supports theatres in producing environmentally sustainable shows. A key requirement for doing this is to allocate time for theatre makers to research and buy more environmentally-friendly materials for a show. This could mean locally produced materials, recycled materials, or reusing items from previous shows.
Props and set making are only one element of Theatre Green Book though. The framework considers many areas of creating a show – from costumes and makeup to lighting and transport.
While some of our shows already go through the Green Book process, we would like to roll this out to cover more shows across our programme where possible.
Thank you for reading our sustainability update. We are committed to continuing to reduce our impact on the environment, keep an eye out for future updates on our journey!
