The talk was part of the Sustain series of talks at the RCA. For more information, see HERE

As part of its sustainability, Arcola Theatre continuously strives to improve its energy efficiency. In this post, we take a closer look at the Green Deal initiative being set up by the government to increase energy efficient efforts in the UK.

What is it?

The Green Deal is a new government initiative, which is intended to revolutionise the energy efficiency of British properties. It is anticipated the Green Deal will be launched in autumn 2012.

Through the Green Deal, many households and businesses can improve their energy efficiency and reduce their fuel bills through better insulation and installing energy efficient boilers. The Deal is hailed as an innovative financing mechanism which allows consumers to pay back through their energy bills. Thus, the crucial aspect is that there are no upfront costs whatsoever. Therefore, consumers can see the Green Deal charge alongside the reductions in energy use which generate savings on their bill. It also means that if they move out and cease to be the bill-payer at that property, the financial obligation doesnt move with them but moves to the next bill payer: the charge is only paid whilst the benefits are enjoyed.

Why is it needed?

At a local level, the Green Deal will enable many households and businesses to improve the energy efficiency of their properties and thus generate economic gains. At a national level, the UK needs to become more energy efficient to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change.

Break down of the consumer journey

1. Advice
All businesses and households will be permitted to an energy efficiency assessment, undertaken by an accredited assessor.

2. Finance
A new finance mechanism is introduced, whereby the cost of energy efficient installations is paid back through the energy bill.

3. Installations
Accredited installer will install the measures, subject to the highest standard and to ensure that genuine energy bill and carbon savings are met.

4. Repayments and follow up
After the energy efficiency measures have been installed, a charge will be added to the energy meter at the property and will enable repayments through their energy bills for any Green Deal charges taken out. Repayment obligations belong to the occupier of the property.

With the concerns surrounding climate change increasing day to day, many firms, households and consumers are searching for ways to reduce our negative impact on the environment and to reduce our carbon footprint. With this in mind, the argument becomes in favour of local produce and somewhat against imported fair-trade. Thus, this raises the question: can they not both exist together?

Many of the products that we buy are only grown in developing countries and therefore it is logical to buy these Fairtrade products. For example, us Brits, we do love our tea! And tea, where does it come from? The majority of tea plantations are found in Asia, South America and Africa; places where the climate is suited to growing tea. Thus, in this case it makes sense to transport and ship over Fairtrade goods rather than growing and producing local goods. It can even be said that in some instances the level of carbon emissions is lower from transporting Fairtrade goods than producing local. In addition, the number of jobs created in tea plantations provides a boost to the local economy and their carbon footprint is reduced as they can afford to buy local food.

Buying local, however, does have its benefits and is often preferred for certain types of food. Our desire to buy local is often a result of our increasing concern over food quality and the need to trust what we buy. With local foods, it is possible to go to the Farmers market and meet the farmer and learn more about where the food comes from. This is increasingly being for advertised international foods through TV adverts and marketing, however the ease with which it occurs with local foods is unparalleled.

At the end of the day, some goods are just better suited to being produced abroad and others that we love are better made locally. A harmonious result is that balance of both types of goods in our shopping basket.

“Many products we use in everyday life, from shower gel to T-shirts and even children’s toys, contain harmful artificial chemicals, which contaminate our air, food and drinking water before finding their way into our bodies. Most of the time we use them without even realising, or stopping to think about the long-lasting effects they are having on our health, and the health of the natural world. If you were to analyse the fat in your own body, you would be likely to find harmful chemicals such as brominated flame retardants, DDT, dioxins and many other persistent organic pollutants (POPs). POPs are chemicals that your body cannot get rid of, so they gradually build up over our lifetimes. Worryingly, POPs are even found in babies still in the womb.”
www.greenpeace.org.uk/toxics/problems

and

“Here at the health-report site we cannot condone the use of potentially toxic synthetic chemicals on the skin. It may be safer to eat the toxic chemicals rather than apply them to the skin. At least through the digestive system the body can produce specific enzymes to break down the toxic chemicals in the gut and excrete them. No such mechanism exists when chemicals are absorbed through the skin into the body. It is a well proven fact that chemicals applied to the skin are readily absorbed into the bloodstream where they can lodge in any part of the body or organ.”
www.health-report.co.uk/Dr_Samuel_Epstein.html

Rachel.

We would welcome any donations to help our garden grow – including seeds, pots, plants, watering cans, compost and soil… please feel free to drop them off at the theatre any time. We are also looking for volunteers to help maintain the garden, so please contacts us if you are interested in getting involved. Just think, doing a bit of gardening, on top of a theatre, in a green space in the sun…

Pictures from Green Sundays on the roof

Why a roof garden?

Green roofs alleviate the urban heat island effect, created by cement and concrete absorbing the suns rays and heating up an urban space. In the summer, Central London can be 9 degrees hotter than surrounding areas. Green spaces within urban areas not only provide spaces where the public can escape from the hustle and bustle of city living but it also means that for those without gardens, it’s a communal space to enjoy the peace and quiet a green space can provide.The UK lags behind countries like Germany in the construction of green roofs but we are slowly catching up… by building a green space on the roof of a theatre we hope to communicate the advantages of having a roof garden to a wide range of community members. We also hope to encourage other London theatres to do the same.

Re-use, recycle, reduce…

We will be using recycled materials in the garden – including tyres, wood, second hand wheel barrows and reclaimed bricks.

Come and get involved in growing!

Some thoughts on going green… sorry I can be more detailed…

Lighting

This has been very well received on the whole. And the newly painted bar area makes a good blank canvas. Things aren’t quite perfect yet – we’re still experimenting with colour combinations, and not being able to mix and match the faders means that interim states eg. Dusk may not be well lit… But very positive reactions overall. The bar now looks like a bar and it quite literally drawing people off the street.

Price and Sacrifice

Implementing organic/ecological bar stock inevitably meant prices went up. Too high for some stock eg. £2 for a soft drink in a can. Indeed, taking into consideration our location and audience, we realised the prices had gone too high, too soon. In light of this, some prices have been lowered. The addition of Freedom organic beer has meant sales for Efes – our cheaper ‘local’ option – increased. However, having choice has proved a good thing; once given the information about our new stock being organic many customers are curious to try. Indeed, I have not come across any cynicism; people are much more ecologically conscious/curious.

Box office

The Box office has not faced any big changes yet. Implementing reusable paper clips as opposed to staples has been a small step. We should obviously look to using recycled paper for our tickets, if we can and advertising that fact. Indeed, we need to advertise the greening process even more I think – it’s not that obvious to a lot of people.

Audience feedback

It’s been great to hear what our audiences think – more questionnaires and interrogation.

Personal Repercussions

Going green at the Arcola has made me think more about what I do outside work – ie. Not wasting water, turning lights off more. Etc. An inevitable knock on effect must surely influence our customers too. At the same time, nothing must be forced upon people/ Choice – as now being reflected in the bar – is everything…

Lauretta

Current Green Tarriff with EDF Energy:
8.222p / Unit
22p / day standing charge (per meter)

Green Energy:
Tarrif: +10 (20% non-carbon)
10.46p / unit
23.09p / day standing charge

Tariff: +100 (100% green)
11.19p / unit
23.09p / day standing charge

Ecotricity:
Tariff: New Energy (30% renewable, rest bought from grid)
9.41p / unit
15p / day standing charge

Tariff: New Energy Plus (100% eco)
9.91p / unit
15p / day standing charge

Nicole

By Energy Volunteer Queenie Kung.

Following to the implementation of Arcola Waste Management Strategy, a detailed resource monitoring was carried out, for the period from September 2006 to October 2007, to observe materials intake and energy consumed annually, so as to produce efficient waste reduction schemes.

The monitored areas included: electricity, gas, water, glass, paper and plastics. It was conducted by tracking bills and invoices on the aforementioned areas during that specific period of time, on how much Arcola has consumed and spent.

After consolidating all the raw data collected, a detailed analysis is made as follows:

Among the three areas of waste, paper, glass and plastics, the amount of paper waste produced in Arcola accounted to 72% of the whole sum, which weighed close to 14150kg, while glass and plastics taking up 27% and merely 1% of the sum respectively (as shown in Chart_General). Meanwhile, glass and paper consumption took up to 41.7% and 43.6% of the total expenditure on the monitored areas.

Brochures were the main culprit for the paper waste, which took up to 57% of the sum, followed by printing materials (posters by 15% and flyers by 11%), sanitary waste (napkins, paper towels and toilet rolls by 7%), office A4 paper and plain tickets surprisingly amounted to 4% and 3% as well (as shown in Chart_Paper).

As for glass, it showed an average disposal of 347.52 kg per month. The relatively steep slope for August to September 2007 on the chart for glass consumption suggested a larger amount of glass waste were produced over the summer from our foyer café due to alcohol consumption (as shown in Chart_Glass).

For electricity consumption, it summed up to the level between 2000 to 3000 kw/h from our two meters each month and there is a reasonably larger amount of electricity consumed from November to January due to less daylights. It is noted that there is a 24% increase in electricity charge from June 2007 onwards. Whereas for gas consumption, it varied significantly from December to March and reached up to 9000 units in March, that was possibly due to misread of our three meters or incorrect estimation, which exact reasons cannot be retrieved by now (refer to Chart_Gas&Electricity).

Generating from the findings, recommendations are listed below:

First, there was a huge difficulty to retrieve exact and correct data on electricity, gas, water consumption and waste disposal, since no system was set before to keep track on the bills and no regular check-up of meters were done, which rest it hard to investigate suspicious or missing data and generate a full report. Especially for Arcola’s water consumption, meters were never read before, either by Arcola or the service provider. Arcola has been charged all the time by just an annual lump sum and make it impossible to retrieve data needed on water consumption. It is strongly recommended that meters should be read at least on a weekly basis and bills should be read thoroughly and monitored all the time if energy reduction plans are to be carried out.

Second, paper is the major waste among all in Arcola and seasonal brochures account to over half of the annual paper waste. Given that Arcola has been encouraging e-Newsletter for some time, it would be viable if Arcola actually starts an e-Newsletter campaign and actively cut down its paper consumption on seasonal brochures. Before actually making the drastic change to publishing e-Newsletter, considering the possibility that some of the customers prefer not to use email or give out email address, seasonal brochures which are printed on recycle or thinner paper would be an alternative.

Third, another note for paper waste is on plain tickets. It is surprising that paper waste on tickets amounted to 3% of the sum and 2% of the annual expenditure. This can be drastically reduced if e-ticket or m-ticket (mobile ticket) could be used to substitute paper tickets in the long run. But it is noted that the difficulty to monitor the auditorium and the huge cost incurred to set up the system may be a drag to adopt this alternative for now.

Fourth, plastics are not currently recycled in Hackney and all of the plastics waste went straight to the bin. One possibility is to use degradable plastic bottles in the café and refrain from consuming plastic forks, knives, spoons, plates, etc.

Fifth, the 205kg of paper towels thrown in the bin can be reduced by installing hand dryers and offering clean towels in bathroom for customers.