INTRODUCTION
The Old Vic recognises its responsibility, in light of the ongoing climate emergency, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, assess our wider impact on the environment and utilise our role as a catalyst for positive change in the performing arts sector.
Increased action is needed to achieve the aim of the UK Climate Change Act to reach Net-Zero emissions by 2050. We have committed to becoming a Net-Zero carbon organisation by that date but we are aiming to reach this target earlier. Our approach to sustainability is intertwined with our environmental values:
- Responsible We recognise that everyone has something to contribute and we each have a shared responsibility to take action on climate change and the environment.
- Resilient We want to continue providing a world-class theatre experience while reducing our environmental impacts (and becoming a more resilient and future-facing organisation).
- Inclusive We want our work on sustainability to support and celebrate the diversity of everyone in our community, regardless of their circumstances or background.
- Creative We want to encourage the creativity of our staff and partners, looking for imaginative and innovative improvements to our carbon footprint to pilot and test viability to help us face the challenges on our sustainability journey.
- Inspirational We want to demonstrate and amplify good practice, inspire our staff, audiences and community to action through our productions, events and operations.
Images by Jonny Ruff: compostable beverage cups in the Backstage cafe; staff member volunteering with Bankside Open Spaces Trust in the Millennium Gardens opposite The Old Vic; the old Stage Door sign, now re-purposed in the Script Library in the Backstage building; flooring in the Clore Learning Centre made from recycled tyres; the Backstage building brise soleil, made from recycled barn door lighting; light fittings in the Backstage toilets made from recycled fresnel stage light lenses; a clothes rack of costumes sourced from vintage clothes shops; tabletops in the Backstage cafe made from recycled, shredded programmes.
The Theatre Green Book
Theatre Green Book (TGB) is an industry-wide initiative to work more sustainably in response to the climate emergency. TGB is a free resource for anyone working across the performing arts, providing best practice and shared standards guidance, frameworks for planning and measuring progress and reliable methodology from environmental sustainability experts.
As part of our ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability, we have been using TGB since its creation for all our productions. We track all materials used in our shows to see what proportion of these have previous and future lives. We analyse this data, using it to inform how we move forward, improve our practice and meet our goals.
TGB has three levels: Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. We aim to meet the Basic standard as a minimum on all our productions. This means that 50% of all materials used on a show will have had a previous life (e.g. reused from a previous production, hired, borrowed or bought from second hand sources), and 65% of all materials will have a future life (e.g. stored for reuse on a future production, donated to a charity shop or sold on to another company). You can find out more about how The Old Vic is working with Theatre Green Book in the document below.
Our Buildings
The Old Vic theatre is over 207 years old. It is important that our building is fit for purpose in the context of the climate emergency. The challenge is all the harder because of funding and the time it takes to carry out complex heritage building projects. We are working hard to make improvements where possible, to be more environmentally friendly, more energy efficient and better insulated.
Together with Buro Happold — our partner consultant engineers, experts in sustainable building projects — we have crafted a decarbonisation plan that will help us move into an environmentally efficient future.
Our new Backstage extension opened in late 2025 and has been designed and constructed with a low carbon approach. The structure is made from cross-laminated timber (CLT), instead of the more commonly used carbon-intensive steel. Across each floor a variety of recycled and reused materials can also be seen, from the cafe bar table tops made from recycled plastics and programmes, to the recycled rubber flooring in the Clore education space.
Theatre Operations cover all activities both front and back of house, and are responsible for meeting the challenge of managing the building sustainably.
We have transitioned entirely to a green energy tariff (which includes switching to green gas), The entire Backstage building is gas-free, with two air source heat pumps located on the roof providing underfloor heating. Additionally, the building is naturally ventilated meaning energy use is comparatively low.
We’ve switched to re-useable cups for all our Front of House bars. In terms of our F&B partnerships, Sacred Spirits (one of our drinks partners) is B Corp certified and we make sure all our other partners have good sustainability credentials.
All Corporate Development events run by us are meat-free and often plant-based. Sustainability is at the heart of our re-tendering process as we refresh our list of external caterers.