GTI and founder Gideon Banner are profiled in a feature this month’s issue of Stage Directions in “Green Support”, an article by Mike Lawler (author of the excellent Ecotheater blog).  The article can be viewed here.

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SAVE PAPER IN YOUR OFFICE

Near each printer, create a stack of scrap paper that has only been printed on one side, and use that paper to print nonessential documents.

Estimates show that the American paper industry is the 4th largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions among U.S. manufacturing industries,   Moreover, the creation of the paper produces a large amount of dioxins and other cancer-causing chemicals that are released into our air and water.  (A recent study showed that nearly 40% of American streams and rivers are too polluted for fishing and swimming.)  Much of that paper comes from forests that are not sustainably managed — that is to say, they aren’t cared for in such a way that the local ecosystem will survive over time.  And even though paper recycling rates are increasingly slowly, recycling is not a perfectly benign process: the paper still has to be shipped first to you and then to the recycling plant (possibly to China, where much of America’s recycling material gets reprocessed), and that recycling still consumes a fair amount of energy.  (For more on paper’s effects on the environment, see articles here and here

One of the best ways to save paper is to use sheets that have already been printed on one side and print on their blank sides.  Some people don’t like this — they feel that the sheet is cluttered, or feel that it’s too difficult to do.  But frankly, once you start, you’ll quickly find that it becomes easy and simple, and it’ll become a habit you’ll wonder why you never developed before.

And you’ll save money.  Artistic Director PJ Paparelli of Chicago’s American Theater Company estimates that his organization has cut paper purchasing costs nearly in half by using this technique.

Other ideas for saving paper:

• Print two pages per sheet
• When possible, read scripts online rather than printing them
• Adjust your margins so that more text is printed per sheet
• Ensure that nonessential pages, such as cover sheets and web page extras, aren’t printed  (Greenprint)
• Don’t throw paper away: make sure it goes into a recycling bin

Want to share what your organization is doing to save paper?  Let us know in the comments section below.

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A MAJOR entry to the Princeton campus and community is being redesigned as a 21st-century portal with the door lodged firmly open.

At an open house for the community Wednesday, Sept. 17, Steven Holl Architects unveiled concepts for the initial academic buildings in the new arts and transit neighborhood. In addition, Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners presented updated information on traffic circulation and other plans for the area near the intersection of Alexander Street and University Place.

(more…)

Excerpted from Lighting & Sound America Online, August 13, 2008:

Production Design Associates (PDA) will launch a new division called PDA Green Light.

PDA Green Light is meant to provide affordable event production while delivering eco-friendly practices for the benefit of the community and the overall environment, the company says. It will utilize production equipment and transportation that reduces the overall carbon footprint of typical lighting and A/V services, thereby reducing waste through various recycling and reusing methods. With the accessibility of LED lighting, battery and other alternative power sources and bio-diesel fueled transportation, PDA says it can now service clients while practicing eco-friendly procedures.

The initiative will be led by Dave Brisacher, whose credits include productions for The Weather Channel, Governor Mark Sanford, Senator Fritz Hollings, Mayor Joe Riley, Interscope Records, The Wailers, The Pointer Sisters and many corporate events and weddings. “Green Light combines two of my passions — event production and the environment,” he said. “And considering the current state of the economy, we are happy to be able to provide an affordable option to our clients with lower budgets. It’s a win-win situation.”

In business for 17 years, PDA has handled a number of high-profile projects, including five CNN Presidential debates.

“I believe that PDA’s success has been a result of the commitment to investing in new technology and responding to client needs,” said Jeff Nickles, the company’s president. “PDA Green Light is a great example of both of these strengths at work, and now we can see a greater environmental benefit, too.”

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SAYING that “the power of the theater industry to set an example in the fight against climate change is immense,” the Mayor of London’s “Green Theatre: Taking Action on Climate Change” plan was launched on September 9th in partnership with industry leaders at the Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA) annual conference, and represents a milestone of collaboration and innovation in providing theaters with the tools to green their planning and operations.

“Green Theatre”, an action plan for the theater industry, outlines the most practical and effective measures that can be taken to reduce energy use in buildings while also saving money on energy bills. The plan estimates that London’s theatre industry creates 50,000 tonnes (55,000 US tons) of carbon emissions per year – the equivalent of emissions from 9,000 homes. (That figure does not include carbon emissions from audience travel, which it estimates at 35,000 tonnes per year, or that from embedded carbon in materials waste.)  Given the trend of shows using more energy because of the lighting required to create ever more spectacular effects, that figure will only grow over time.  It concludes that if all actions recommended in the plan were taken, the industry could reduce carbon emissions by almost 60 per cent by 2025 – the equivalent of converting over 5,000 London homes to zero-carbon.

The Plan lists a number of benefits to going green, firstly by allowing theaters to lead the way by “showing our audiences and other theatre industries what is possible.”  It touts the energy and money that can be saved, noting that a simple step such as ensuring that stage lights are only turned on at half-hour would collectively save London theatres £100,000 a year in energy costs, and that such changes can be made “without sacrificing artistic integrity”.  Saying that “industries that get ahead of the game can not only better influence policy but reduce the pain of hasty compliance later on,” it encourages theaters to retrofit their spaces before government regulations for them to — a message that may well resonate with managers who have worked so hard to get up to speed with OSHA regulations.  Lastly, it asserts that going green will attract talent.

Moira Sinclair, Executive Director, Arts Council England said: “We recognize the importance of this work in helping theaters to increase the efficiency of their business processes thereby reducing the industry’s carbon footprint while saving money and continuing to attract artists and audiences.  A program such as this demonstrates that the arts in England can lead internationally in responding to the pressures of climate change, moving beyond a duty of compliance with issues such as energy management, to a role of inspiration and influence much greater than that due to the industry’s size alone. That this leadership should emerge from London is of great encouragement to those artists and audiences that are drawn to this world city for its ability to innovate.”

An exhibition at the PLASA conference featured case studies of theaters that are already working to increase their sustainability, including the re-designed external lighting scheme at the National Theatre, the use of fuel-cell technology and low-energy lighting at the Arcola Theatre and the efforts being made by award-winning lighting designer Paule Constable to reconcile lighting design with carbon transparency.  It was complemented by a seminar program with speakers including Dr Ben Todd from the Arcola Theatre discussing his venue’s fuel cell, staff from the National Theatre discussing their change to ‘The Big Switch Off,’ dousing their moving light rig between shows, and a Technical Sustainability discussion forum hosted by theatre owners Ambassador Theatre Group and the Association of British Theatre Technicians.

Climate change is one of the recently-elected mayor’s key priorities, as it was with with his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, and today’s announcement builds on his commitment to reducing London’s carbon emissions by 60 percent by 2025. The Plan, compiled in close collaboration with a range of key stakeholders, offers practical advice to the industry on how emissions can be cut and includes a carbon calculator that can be used to identify areas of production that create the largest amount of emissions. Advice outlined in the plan includes identifying where changes need to be made, designating “green” responsibilities to staff, and writing “green” policies into contracts to ensure that suppliers are also helping to cut emissions.

The Plan also details a number of successful case studies such as a battery recycling scheme launched by the Mayor in partnership with WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), which helps London’s theaters start recycling their waste batteries.

Parties to the research for and creation of the plan, among others, included Arup, ETC, Martin Professional, Philips, PixelRange, White Light, British Equity, the Association of British Theatre Technicians, Ambassador Theatre Group, the Arcola Theatre, the National Theatre, LiveNation, and Selecon.

Simply put, the Plan is a wealth of resources, information, and ideas that can be used by theaters of all sizes, in all locations, of all budgets, to reduce their environmental footprints and save on energy costs.  In particular, the carbon calculator provided on the Theatres Trust website will be of use to theaters in exactly pinpointing the amount of greenhouse gases they emit, giving them the concrete knowledge of which actions or materials most affect the environment.

One of the Plan’s surprises was its calculation that only 9% of a theater’s energy usage comes from its stage lighting, compared to 35% from heating and cooling of the auditorium space and front of house and 28% from heating and cooling of rehearsal spaces.

Links:

Original press release

Stage Directions article

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To the uninitiated, an elevator ride in Austin’s newly-opened Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Center for the Performing Arts might give the wrong impression. The green and orange metal skin that lines the interior of the elevator is replete with dents about the size of a ball-peen hammer. It wasn’t the carelessness of the construction workers who left their marks on the elevator walls, but Mother Nature herself.

You see, the sheet metal from which the elevator was finished used to be the roof of the previous incarnation of the building, and those marks are the hail damage from almost 50 years of Texas weather. It’s a reflection of the community’s enthusiasm for sustainability and environmental responsibility because more than 97 percent of the material taken from the deconstruction of the Palmer Auditorium, the building from which the Long Center arose, was recycled, including steel, concrete and dirt. Much of it, about 65 percent, found its way back into the Long Center. In addition to the inside of the elevator, sheets from the old metal roof can be found on the exterior of Michael & Susan Dell Hall, and the 2,400-seat concert hall. In addition, the glass panels recognizing major supporters of the center were fabricated from the recycled glass walls of the old facility.

The Long Center was borne of the desire to find a permanent home for the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Austin Lyric Opera and Ballet Austin, as well as to replace the existing Palmer Auditorium, a multi-purpose venue that was plagued with problems including poor acoustics and a 10-foot high stage that was guaranteed to give the audience a stiff neck. After a false start in 1998, the post-dot-com-bust economy allowed enough funds to flow into the new project to get it off the ground. From the ashes of the Palmer came a first class venue that retains all of the good parts of the old facility — the downtown riverfront location, the familiar circular “ring beam” from the framework of the Palmer and the old Palmer stagehouse — while updating and improving the rest.

Fisher Dachs Associates came into the project as the theatre consultants in the early stages before the budget cuts forced the shuttling of one of the smaller performance spaces. By the time the dust settled from the partial demolition of the existing Palmer Auditorium, the Michael and Susan Dell Hall remained as the main venue, along with the Debra and Kevin Rollins Studio Theatre black box, the City Terrace outside, the Kodosky Donor Lounge, the West Donor Lounge and Lobby and the AT&T Education Room. “The priority,” said Associate Principal Bob Campbell, “was to make sure that the new home for the symphony, opera and ballet was pristine acoustically and functionally.” The largest cuts, he said, were in square footage to the lobby and the front of the building.

FDA began by working with the client to define the project, said Principal Joshua Dachs, before the architect was hired. “We did a study that resulted in two things,” said Dachs. “One was the concept for the building and also a building program — the brief defining the project, space by space, room by room. Our responsibility includes the overall disposition of the major elements — the auditorium is going here, where the loading dock will go, where do the dressing rooms go, where does the lobby go, how do you start to put the pieces together? The backstage planning and layout, front of house planning and layout and the geometry of the room — the plan, sections, the seating layout, sightlines, all were driven by Fisher Dachs, with the aggressive involvement of Mark Holden, the acoustical consultant (Jaffe Holden and Associates) and architects, Mike Nelson and Gino DeSantis from Zeidler Partnership Architects. There were a lot of iterations.”

Although FDA has been involved in a great number of designs for performing arts centers, including Radio City Music Hall, The Hollywood Bowl and the Lincoln Center, this project was like no other. “The unusual thing about this project,” Dachs said, “is dealing with the former Palmer Auditorium. The stage house was existing, and in order to get more fly space we dropped the entire stage by 10 feet.”

That was no small feat, considering the stage is solid concrete. While the crew was busy lowering the stage, they also installed HVAC plenums in the foundation so that it comes out through perforated stanchions in the seating. “It’s called displacement air,” said Campbell. “It brings air up into the lower area where people are and draws it out from above, rather than dropping it from above. It’s a lot more efficient.”

FDA’s involvement also included specifying all of the technology in the performance spaces including the lighting and rigging. The design of the lighting, Campbell said, was complicated because it had to serve the needs of the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Austin Lyric Opera and Ballet Austin. “The symphony requires not only fixed locations in the house, which are within the catwalks and within the orchestra ceiling shell,” he said, “but they also have a separate system which has very quiet dimming.”

The lighting that was designed for the symphony is not intended for use by the opera. “The opera shouldn’t use (the concert lighting) because when the theatre completes a changeover between opera and symphony events, it should not require a minimum four-hour crew call in order to re-focus,” Campbell added. “So there’s a fixed white light system for the symphony, and the opera would rig off of another system that’s part of the stage lighting system. When touring shows load in they can drop stage lighting trusses off a fore-stage grid located above the downstage acoustical reflector.”

The “quiet dimming” to which Campbell referred to are 96 ETC dual 20-amp Sensor “high-rise” dimmer modules with 800?sec rise time. The lighting system also includes another 636 dual 20-amp and 18 50-amp “Advanced Features” Sensor dimmers, 90 relay modules, 294 Source Fours, 25 Source Four Zooms, 48 Source Four PARs, a number of L&E MR-16 mini-strips and Runt cyc lights, Altman Q-Lites, Strand 8” 2K Fresnels, 24 Wybron Coloram InfoTrace Scrollers and three Lycian 1293 3K followspots. Also part of the Dell Hall is a group of High End Systems Studio Command 1200s, which lighting supervisor Todd Drga says are “super bright.”

The control system includes a pair of consoles, either of which many venues can only dream of having. There’s an ETC Eos and Flying Pig Systems Full Boar console. Both are networked to 40 remote network stations, and each station has an RJ-45 Ethernet connector and a 3-pin XLR jack that ties into the Leon Audio Cue Light System. Twelve ETCNet2 Portable DMX 2-Port Nodes provide network access and it’s all tied back to the front of house with a fiber optic backbone.

Next door in the Rollins Theatre is another system of ETC Sensor dimmers, Source Fours, L&E mini-strips and six Ocean Optics SeaChanger color changers. The console system comprises an ETC Expression with an Emphasis server.

San Antonio-based Texas Scenic supplied the rigging system as well as a custom fabricated automated system that adjusts soft goods in the house for acoustic dampening and control. The stage rigging system re-uses the Palmer gridiron and it’s still a manual counterweight system.

To help staff the production team, Director of Operations David Poole hired in Drga along with Frank Cortez as rigging supervisor, Jim Larkin as technical director and assistant technical directors Scott Braudt, Jeff Strange and Eric Miller.

“We’re trying to create a culture that’s different,” Drga said. “We want to be a top notch service provider.”

If the grand opening gala was any indication, then they just might achieve that goal. The two-day event featured performances by the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Austin Lyric Opera and Ballet Austin on Friday night and Asleep at the Wheel, Lyle Lovett, Rick Trevino, Flaco Jimenez and the unofficial ambassador of Austin, Willie Nelson. Austin-based lighting designer Tony Tucci and associate lighting designer Chad Jung hired in Phil Gilbert, formerly of Austin but now residing in New York, to program the automated lighting and four High End Systems DL.2s. Upstaging provided a circular truss and a handful of Vari*Lite VL3500s, some VL5s and High End Systems Showguns. J.T. McDonald, who happens to live in Austin, was the production supervisor for Upstaging.

For many Austinites, including band leader Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel, the new incarnation of the old Palmer Auditorium had a very familiar feel along with its shiny new image. The old dome may be gone, but the history remains a part of the new center. Benson remarked that he had first played on the stage of the Palmer Auditorium with country legend Ernest Tubb in the early ‘70s when he first moved to Austin and Elvis graced its stage long before that. The Clash made the video for “Rock the Casbah” in the early ‘80s and everyone from the Cars to Van Cliburn played there.

“The grid over the stage is the old grid from the Palmer Auditorium,” Campbell reminds us. “And the wood…a lot of that is re-used material. It was terrific talking to a lot of the contractors who had been to all of these concerts (in the past) and they were excited to work in this space to make it into something else.”

And if you listen closely, you can almost hear the last strains of the reverb from the old Palmer Auditorium. Rock the casbah indeed.

Links:

The Long Center’s sustainability statement

Article about the Center in LiveDesign Online

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