» Arcola Energy News

Community Energy and Efficiency

Marta — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:37:12 +0000

In these times of rising gas and electricity costs, and concern about the impact of our lifestyles on the planet, there is growing interest in local renewable energy generation and efficiency.

DECC have launched a new fund for communities in England and Wales who are playing an active role in the development of a low carbon society. They want to fund projects that increase understanding of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. This is really interesting for Arcola Energy with our research in hydrogen power and long-term involvement in our local community.

There’s also very encouraging news from Germany, where as TreeHugger reports over half of the renewable energy produced is owned by citizens and farmers, and not utility companies. Perhaps the same situation will start happening in the UK…

Arcola Energy for Schools is Project of the Week for London Sustainable Schools Forum

Feimatta — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:50:04 +0000

Arcola Energy is a member of Project Dirt ; London’s largest and most active green network. It’s a social network of people / organisations doing tangible green projects. The London Sustainable Schools Forum is a group trying to make London’s schools more sustainable places. We’re really excited that Arcola Energy for Schools has been listed as their project of the week – for our workshops where pupils use renewable energy technologies to design, build and test possibilities for a low-carbon future. For more information about the LSSF – check HERE

Green Theatre Network Meeting held at Arcola Theatre and Tent on 24th November

Feimatta — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:38:41 +0000

The event was an opportunity for members of the Green Theatre Network to meet up,
share progress, discuss issues and find new ways to improve sustainable
practices within theatres. The morning consisted of discussions and updates,
particularly from members of the network who gave brief summaries on their
latest sustainability initiatives. There were also discussions on the future of
greening theatre and what we can ideally achieve by 2025.

The variety in projects ranged from new LED lighting techniques, introducing Green
Riders into contracts, energy monitoring and measuring, Climate Week 2012
progress and more. It was inspiring and exciting to see how each theatre or
company is using different initiatives to be more sustainable.

The event was organised by Julie’s Bicycle, an
organisation working to integrate sustainability into the arts.

UN COP17 Climate Negotiations kick off in Durban

Marta — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:26:05 +0000

The 17th UN negotiations to try and limit the harmful effects of greenhouse gas emissions and potentially catastrophic climate change began on 28th November, in Durban South Africa. Since the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) entered into force in 1995, the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC have been meeting annually to assess progress in dealing with climate change.

With the slogan “Working Together; Saving Tomorrow Today”, it seems as though there is plenty of optimism and a will to achieve. However, recent COP meetings, in Copenhagen and Cancun, were felt by some to have failed to deliver lasting commitments from countries to decrease their greenhouse gas emissions.

Here’s an update from the UKYCC delegation in Durban on Monday 5 December:

“It’s the first day of the second week and the pressure’s started to build. This is the make or break week for the negotiations and I’ll be honest – I’m afraid it’s going to be break time. There are some really important issues on the table – the one a lot of people are talking
about is the Kyoto Protocol. It’s the only legally binding treaty we have to reduce carbon emissions but it runs out in 2012. If we want to have emissions reduction targets (which we do), then we need action now. The KP (as it’s called) only applies to developed countries. The US never signed up to it (they just don’t like playing fair or acknowledging that they’re part of the world) and now Canada is actively trying to kill it so it can sell highly polluting tar sand oil to every other country in the world for maximum profits. Japan and Russia are being lame too.

It’s not often I’m proud to be British but the EU, and the UK within it, are doing their best to keep it alive – I’m 100% of the way behind them. Say it loud and say it proud: ‘I heart KP!

Other important issues are having a broader mandate for a universal treaty that will cover both developed and developing countries come out of Durban. That, and money. Always with the money! But the UNFCCC want to create a Green Climate Fund to manage the money that will support mitigation and adaptation to climate change. The big question is, who’s going to take care of the money and where’s it going to come from?

For a more in-depth insight, check out the second UKYCC hand puppet video. If talking hands can’t explain what’s going on, nothing can!”

Websites to keep up to date with progress of the talks:

http://adoptanegotiator.org/ – A blogging platform which tracks the progress of the negotiations day by day
un.ukycc.org - the website of the UK Youth Climate Coalition, who have a delegation at the conference
http://www.cop17-cmp7durban.com/index.html – the main website of the conference; useful for full background information.

TEDx Youth @Thames Event – 20 November – ZSL London Zoo

Marta — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:52:25 +0000

If the voices of young people alive today were heard in parliaments, councils,
courtrooms and corridors of power, what would we do differently? If future
generations not yet born could speak to us now, what would they say about the
world we hand down to them?

With speakers who have innovative ideas and creative solutions to the challenges intergenerational justice poses for topics such as climate change and sustainability, democracy, law, and economics, its certain to be a fascinating afternoon. For more information including how to book tickets, see HERE

The event is part of a global network of independently organised TED events.

Arcola joins the theatre DEC pool

stephane — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 12:31:54 +0000

The Theatres Trust and Julie’s Bicycle have joined together to undertake a comprehensive survey of environmental and sustainability issues facing performing arts venues in the UK.

Arcola is participating in the Theatres Trust Ecovenue project, which is improving the environmental performance of 48 London theatres by providing theatre-specific advice and awards of Display Energy Certificates. The Theatres DEC Pool will compare the performance of participating London venues with national theatre building performance.

The Theatres DEC Pool will cover all theatres throughout the UK and enable venues of similar types to compare approaches and share best practice. Theatres will also be able to see where they can contribute to promoting a more sustainable theatre sector. Analysis of the data will inform the next series of Government DEC benchmarks so they can be relevant to the theatre industry as a whole and will be incorporated into the Trust’s established Theatres Database.

See the Theatres Trust press release for further information: HERE

Arcola Theatre’s Carbon Footprint, April 2011

Feimatta — Thu, 19 May 2011 09:05:59 +0000

We are working with Julies Bicycle to monitor our carbon emissions using their Industry Green Tool, which involves entering figures for our consumption of electricity, water, and consumables as well as figures on staff and audience travel in to their website on a monthly basis. April was the first month in out new building on Ashwin Street where we have had enough data to start using their monitoring tool again. Arcola Theatre’s carbon footprint for April 2011 was equal to 3 tonnes of carbon dioxide, that’s 0.38 kg CO₂e per seat, per show. The average person in the UK will emit 10 tonnes of CO₂e per year, if Arcola Theatre continues with these emissions throughout the year our annual carbon footprint would be 36 tonnes of CO₂e.

We don’t think that’s good enough, over the month of May we will be working to reduce our carbon emissions further. We will start by ensuring that we are not heating the building unnecessarily over the warmer weather and ensuring all electrical outlets are switched off when the building is closed. The Industry Green tool assumes an average travel emission for each audience member per show, unless we enter data regarding audience travel. The estimated average travel emissions are the biggest contributor to our carbon footprint at present and we’d like to be able to provide the site with more accurate data on audience travel therefore we are conducting an Audience Travel Survey this month. If you would like to help us with this then please click on the link at the end of this article.

Travel Survey

PVC Tape in Lighting Rigs. 26th April 2011

dianedundon — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:00:54 +0000

With each show that comes into Arcola comes a different lighting rig. We encourage production companies to look at ways they can reduce the carbon footprint of their show, and last week we introduced a new way of doing this during the pre rig of Uncle Vanya.

The large amount of cable used in theatre lighting rigs is usually taped to a lighting bar with PVC tape, which is not reusable. We have estimated that approximately 198m of this tape is used per production. We did think of using Velcro ties instead, but Lighting Designer on Uncle Vanya, Alex Wardle came up with an idea using rubber bands, which we developed so we could use recycled materials.

For the production of Uncle Vanya however, we’ve swapped this PVC tape for reusable rubber straps, made from used bicycle inner tubes. Just under 100 of these were made especially for this production. We hope that more companies will be interested in using these straps if the trial on Uncle Vanya goes well, so that eventually we can be free of PVC tape on our productions.

Rubber strap at work!

“Going Green Would Save Theatres £8m, Claims Report.

dianedundon — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 16:36:35 +0000

A rather interesting article in The Stage about saving energy and money.

Exclusive: Going green would save theatres £8m, claims report

Arcola Energy for Schools.

dianedundon — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 09:52:39 +0000

We launched Arcola Energy for Schools during Climate Week 2011 (21 – 27 March).

Climate Week is a national campaign to get people taking action on climate change. It has created some controversy due to its partners, see Guardian blog HERE.

Arcola has enjoyed the opportunity of bringing the excitement of the science of renewable energy to over 100 local school children. Full report coming soon on our latest news page