Whether you are a Fringe first-timer or an experienced veteran, there are lots of opportunities to make the 2015 Edinburgh Festival Fringe your greenest yet. Here are just some of the ways to reduce the environmental impact of your Fringe involvement.

Every year, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe hosts hundreds of temporary venues, visiting companies from around the world and thousands of productions, all over the course of a single month. However, even in this fleetingly temporary festival setting, there are many ways of reducing the environmental impact of your show.

Listed below are just some of the initiatives which you can join to operate in a more sustainable way this August:

Advice for Participants and Companies

The Fringe Guide to Sustainability

Produced by the Participant Services team at the Fringe Society, this guide offers accessible advice and practical steps for production companies to make their shows more sustainable. It provides a list of first steps and creative ideas for action, case studies of past sustainable productions and useful resources for sustainable operations, communication and monitoring.

Click here to download the 2015 official Fringe Guide to Sustainability.

The Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award

Run by Creative Carbon Scotland and the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, this yearly award celebrates the most sustainable shows appearing at the Fringe. Shortlisted productions are named in The List magazine, and the winner receives a special feature in the CPSA quarterly as well as recognition in a ceremony at Fringe Central.

For more information and to apply, click here. The deadline for 2015 applications is July 24th.

The Fringe Swap Shop

Formerly known as the Fringe Re-use and Recycle Days, the Swap Shop is back for 2015, welcoming companies and individuals participating in the festival to bring good quality props, costumes and set materials to be reused by other productions or members of the local community. The event has grown year on year and is now a popular fixture in the Fringe calendar. This year’s Swap Shop will take place from Sunday 30th August to Tuesday 1st September 2015, 11am – 6pm – details of which can be found on our Events page.

Participants can contact Fringe Central or participants@edfringe.com to find out more about what can be donated.

Top Tips

• Ask your Fringe venue about their environmental policy, and whether they have energy monitoring systems and recycling options
• Advertise the most environmentally-friendly way to get to your venue – Edinburgh has excellent public transport and cycling networks – and most city centre locations can easily be reached on foot. Websites likewww.walkit.com and www.edinburgh.cyclestreets.net can be used to find new routes and avoid the manic festival traffic.
• Reduce and re-use your materials by investing in responsibly sourced set items that can be used repeatedly, and commit to efficient waste disposal methods (like the Fringe Swap Shop)
• Always use recycled and/or recyclable paper. The price difference is often negligible while the environmental benefits are huge. See here to learn more about your paper options.

Advice for Venues

The Green Arts Initiative

Run by Creative Carbon Scotland and Festivals Edinburgh, the GAI is a simple accreditation scheme designed to provide advice, support and tools for venues, companies and organizations to become greener and communicate their efforts to audiences and the public.

In 2014, nearly 70 organizations across the UK were signed up to the GAI, taking proactive steps to reduce their environmental impact across waste, travel and energy areas.

This year, we are offering a free staff induction service for GAI members. The CCS team is available to give a 5 minute sustainability talk to festival volunteers and seasonal staff members to help raise awareness of the small actions that can make a big difference! Please contactCatriona.patterson@creativecarbonscotland.com to arrange for one of our staff to come out and meet your team.

We are also offering supplemental branding for those GAI members participating in Scotland’s various summer festivals to assist in making your green achievements that much more visible. ContactCatriona.patterson@creativecarbonscotland.com to arrange for an additional GAI sticker delivery and social media coverage.

To sign up to the GAI, and to find out which organisations are already members, click here

Case Study Examples

We’ve been putting together case studies of good practice in the arts and cultural industries, constantly adding more to highlight the best efforts of the festivals! Click here to find real-world examples of everything from environmentally-friendly touring and publicity, to sustainable catering and audience engagement.

Top Tips

• Address the four main areas of environmental impact: energy, water, waste and travel
• Develop your own environmental policy, set your own targets and create action plans for minimizing your impact
• Be inventive with your publicity method – paper flyer use can be reduced easily with more efficient targeting of material, a good social network campaign or the use of ink stamps and poster QR codes.
• Encourage staff members, volunteers and audiences to use the greenest transportation options available. Edinburgh has excellent public transport and cycling networks – and most city centre locations can easily be reached on foot. Websites like www.walkit.com and www.edinburgh.cyclestreets.net can be used to find efficient routes.
• Run a simple staff induction addressing environmentally-responsible behaviours and locations of recycling facilities (or, if you are a GAI member, invite us to do this for you!)

Keep up to date with sustainability news and opportunities throughout the Fringe, and Scotland’s other various summer festivals, by following Creative Carbon Scotland on Facebook, Twitter and our festival-specific #GreenFests blog.

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Eco Drama is a Scottish theatre company that aims to “embed sustainability and ecology at the heart of the experience,” touring their productions predominantly to school and community groups. Reid explained that in founding the company she was “keen to develop an arts practice that did things a little differently,” which has come to fruition in the company’s use of a touring van run on reclaimed biodiesels and its limited print publicity. A key characteristic of the Eco Drama productions is their immediate call to action, often enabled directly by the group. For example, The Worm: An Underground Adventure brings both the production and an introductory vermiculture workshop to schoolchildren, teaching them about the ecosystem services provided by worms in-situ. Another production, The Forgotten Orchard, has seen the planting of 34 school orchards reminiscent of Scotland’s historic apple production.

The Magic Van is another feature of Eco Drama that is quite unique; using repurposed oil from Indian and Chinese takeaways, the production company’s mode of set transportation emits 85% less carbon emissions than a traditional van would. More information about Eco Drama’s Magic Van can be found in our article #GreenFests: Behind the Wheel. Reid mentioned the group brings along vials of the biofuel in all stages of the reclamation process to help kids understand the idea.

Our Green Tease discussion covered ideas of sustainability evident in the gathering’s immediate surroundings; held at Fringe Central, our Edinburgh Green Tease occurred alongside the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Reuse and Recycle Days. This year’s Reuse and Recycle Days were a roaring success, with an extensive swap-shop of set materials, costumes and props. It was mentioned during our discussion that the concept of set and costume reuse is an underutilised asset for many production companies. An emphasis on more reuse would shift the linear structure of making, using and disposing towards a more circular approach of cradle to grave reuse, repurposing or recycling. Companies like Stage Bitz and Set Exchange are doing this via the internet, but more localised approaches seem to be lacking.

We also discussed the importance of bringing designers into the planning stages of a production earlier rather than later. Quoting the Design Council, Reid mentioned “80% of a product’s sustainability is locked in at the design stage” proving the importance of communicating sustainability aims clearly to all members of the production from its inception. In recent years, structural and funding changes have led to the use of more freelance designers rather than full-time in-house designers, which can often be a pitfall as the relationship between director and designer is not as well established.

A question discussed at the Green Tease gathering was- “What are the creative possibilities of setting rules?” The setting of rules certainly worked in favour for The HandleBards, winners of the 2014 Fringe Sustainable Practice Award. The production aimed to use only set items that were bicycle parts or something that could be used whilst camping, as cycling and camping is the group’s mode of touring. Through adapting to this rule set for themselves, The HandleBards reached a higher level of creativity rather than succumbing to the pressure of having restrictions on their practice.

“We (Eco Drama) try to be green models otherwise it feels a bit false” Reid explained, a thought that resonates consistently through their creative operations and sustainable themes. Through the discussions we’ve had at our Edinburgh Green Tease gatherings thus far, this seems to be a common aspiration with myriad unique and innovative solutions.

Information about our next Edinburgh Green Tease will be published soon. Follow us on Twitter or ‘Like’ us on Facebook to hear about the event!

The post Edinburgh Green Tease Reflections: Discussions with Eco Drama appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

A lively crowd gathered on 22 August 2014 at Fringe Central to celebrate the fifth year of the Fringe Sustainable Practice Award’s existence at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Elinor Gallant from the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh accepted the award on behalf of The HandleBards, part of the production company Peculius who are touring their productions of The Comedy of Errors and Macbeth via bicycle across Europe now.

Gallant quoted the HandleBards-

“We’re thrilled to have received the award, but it’s clear from the long list that all of the companies here are doing fantastic work in communication the message of sustainability through the arts, and long may it continue.”

The following images are from the award ceremony. More information on the award can be found here.

Click to view slideshow.

Images courtesy Gillian Murphy from the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts. HandleBards image courtesy Callum Cheatle.

The post Photo Recap from the Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award ceremony appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Though listed in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme as comedy, performer Kate Smurthwaite admits the production is more a TED-style science talk peppered with some laughs. Smurthwaite is a stand-up comedian and political activist who is as often a guest on debate shows as she is in the comedy clubs. Only one of her three productions at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, The Evolution Will Be Televised is a one-hour show in which Smurthwaite talks the audience through some basic evolution and primatology. Ingeniously drawing parallels between the habits of core primate species and human beings, audience members are invited to admit to habits and behaviours also held by orang-utans, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos. Audience members with libations in hand were compared to gorillas, a species known to seek out rotting fruit for its alcohol content.

Key points about the species addressed also included information about the dire circumstances of orang-utan existence. Likely to be the first ape to go extinct, the orang-utan species is threatened by the production of palm oil. Smurthwaite explains the complexity of this issue, as unbeknownst to many consumers (myself included) palm oil is a substance used in the manufacture of thousands of everyday items. This makes it difficult to target the issue, and nearly impossible for informed consumers to avoid products with palm oil.

Smurthwaite further develops the argument for environmental sustainability by raising a common question of primatology- what separates humans from the chimps? Tools and language (both of which are flawed but frequent answers to that question) are used by both humans and apes. The key difference, Smurthwaite explains, is that we (humans) aren’t endangered. Smurthwaite left the audience with a provoking thought nearing the end of her act- “we are the only creatures that can give the rest of evolution the chance to survive.”

“The Evolution Will Be Televised” runs from 2-11, 13-23 August 8.20pm at Ciao Roma. The production is a contender for the Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award.

The post #GreenFests highlights: The Evolution Will Be Televised appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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