Sustainability Projects

Synergy = Music + Sustainability

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Arts Earth Partnership (AEP) and NextAid are two long-standing Los Angeles-based nonprofit organizations that promote sustainability projects within the arts and cultural sectors.  AEP certifies cultural institutions throughout Los Angeles to make them more sustainable and reduce their environmental impact.  NextAid harnesses the power of dance music to support young entrepreneurs in urban centers in Africa, with a specific focus in Nairobi.  Both organizations offer tangible results to today’s most pressing environmental and societal problems.

In a spirit of collaboration, AEP and NextAid are coming together for first time to raise funds for their vital work!

Music by:

AND MORE

Saturday, August 4th

4pm -11pm

At a gorgeous private home in the Los Feliz.

GET TICKETS BY CLICKING HERE

Host Committee:

Gabriel Avenna, Brooke Bendewish, Mimi Campbell, Stuart Cooley, Lindsay Hawes, Janine Jordan, Joe Hernandez-Kolski, Lisa Lee, Jeffrey Levin, Heather Lounsbury, Mia Mayweather, Naomi Okuyama, Bonnie Powers, Jonathan Rudnick, Susan Von Seggern, Joel Shapiro, Dominique Smith, Lynn Tejada, Wamuhu Waweru, Carl Welty

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Arts:Earth Partnership (AEP) has been in existence since 2008 and has created a user-friendly green certification program specifically for the arts sector and cultural institutions.  Endorsed by the cities of Los Angeles and Santa Monica, both have adopted AEP’s standards into their “official” Green Business Certification Process. Funds raised at the event will help AEP certify more facilitates in the greater Los Angeles area and lower the negative environmental impact of the cultural sector.  The money will also be used to implement the Los Angles Arts Environmental Impact Report (LAAEIR), a project that gathers data about the environmental impacts of arts organizations in the greater Los Angeles area. www.artsearthpartnership.org

NextAid is an 8 year old Los Angeles based nonprofit organization that harnesses the power of music, specifically electronic dance music, to support sustainable development projects that serve children, youth and women in Kenya and Sierra Leone. Currently, funds raised are going toward the completion of the Kawangware Vision Centre (KVC) in Nairobi, Kenya. KVC is a youth-driven, locally created and managed organization that runs an ecological business making silkscreened gift bags out of recycled paper for the tourism industry. NextAid partnered with KVC to build a new “green” workshop and multipurpose facility to expand their operation and ultimately serve more youth. Other NextAid partner projects include the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy which provides free high school to girls in Kibera, Nairobi and a Birthing Shelter in Sierra Leone, stated to be built this year partnership with the First Ladies Initiative and the First Lady of Sierra Leone. www.nextaid.org 

Cape Farewell and the Scottish "bellwether" islands

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This post comes to you from Ashden Directory

Cape Farewell known for its seafaring expeditions to the Arctic to study climate change, with scientists and artists aboard, is taking a journey closer to home.Kellie Gutman reports on Cape Farewell’s latest voyage.

For four weeks starting July 15, a rotating crew of thirty-two artists and nine scientists will sail around Scotland’s coastal islands to investigate the effects of climate change on the island cultures and ecologies.  A recent report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation warns about the ‘severe impact’ rising sea levels are likely to have on the coastline of the UK, and the Outer and Inner Hebrides are the ‘bellwethers’ for the coast. Each week will have a theme: Gaelic language; island musical tradition and story-telling; marine and environmental science; local resources and the built environment.

Cape Farewell associate director Ruth Little comments:

‘One of the aims of the project is to challenge the widespread assumption that climate change impacts are only relevant to coastal communities in the global south.  The environmental, social and economic situation in Scotland’s island communities resonates strongly with that of other island and coastal cultures worldwide… [We] will seek to develop new forms of communication for the human experience of climate change, and new forums for collaboration and bold imaginative response to the profound changes we all face.’

The islands have a wide range of sustainability projects ongoing, and Cape Farewell will use these as a starting point for a four-year plan of artist residencies to document, disseminate and bring together
islanders around the issues of sustainability.

The expedition blog can be followed on the Ashdenizen blogroll in our left-hand column.

“ashdenizen blog and twitter are consistently among the best sources for information and reflection on developments in the field of arts and climate change in the UK” (2020 Network)

The editors are Robert Butler and Wallace Heim. The associate editor is Kellie Gutman. The editorial adviser is Patricia Morison.

Robert Butler’s most recent publication is The Alchemist Exposed (Oberon 2006). From 1995-2000 he was drama critic of the Independent on Sunday. See www.robertbutler.info

Wallace Heim has written on social practice art and the work of PLATFORM, Basia Irland and Shelley Sacks. Her doctorate in philosophy investigated nature and performance. Her previous career was as a set designer for theatre and television/film.

Kellie Gutman worked with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture for twenty years, producing video programmes and slide presentations for both the Aga Khan Foundation and the Award for Architecture.

Patricia Morison is an executive officer of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, a group of grant-making trusts of which the Ashden Trust is one.

Go to The Ashden Directory

Arcola Recieves Green Tourism Gold Award

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Arcola Theatre is delighted to announce that it has achieved Green Tourism Award Gold standard. Sustainability Projects Manager, Rachel Carless, and the rest of the sustainability team worked hard to fulfil the rigorous set of criteria set out by the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS), who came to carry out an audit at the end of April. Arcola is now the first theatre in the UK to achieve a Gold award in Green Tourism and is proud to be recognised as ‘a strong local catalyst in greening North East London (Hackney and surrounding districts)’.

The GTBS, developed by the International Centre for Responsible Tourism and validated by Visit Britain, is the largest of its type in the world, and since 1997 has worked to make tourism and the hospitality industry in the UK more sustainable. The audit covers areas such as energy efficiency, waste minimisation and recycling, use of local produce, and support of public transport, its overall aim to encourage sustainability in business and provide the consumer with a ‘green’ choice.

Attempting to improve on the Bronze Award, received in 2008, the sustainability team had a number of issues to address including improving links with other GTBS members (e.g. Arts Admin), developing better systems for measuring the theatre’s energy use, and sourcing greener cleaning products. In the GTBS’ audit report, special mention was given to Arcola’s success in communicating the green message, in particular through the Green Sundays events and the green notice board up in the café/bar. Reaching the GTBS’ Gold standard is recognition of Arcola Theatre’s ongoing commitment to sustainability and its goal of becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral theatre.

The Green Tourism audit report can be viewed here.

Go to Arcola Energy

Arcola’s Winning Streak

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Arcola Recognized as Green Community Hero

On Nov. 25, Arcola proudly accepted the award of Most Innovative Project at the Green Communities conference in Liverpool. Green Communities is an intiative from the Energy Saving Trust that supports, facilitates and promotes community based energy projects. They are a great resource for any group interested in pursuing sustainability.
For more information on the awards click here .
If you have a community group and would like to join Green Communities, sign up here.

Arcola Wins Archant London Environmental Award 2009

Rachel Carless, Sustainability Projects Manager and Lisa Woynarski, Sustainability Intern, accept award from Penney Poyzer.

Arcola Theatre was awarded Best Environmental Business of the Year (Small to Medium) at this year’s Archant London Environmental awards. The awards ceremony, held on 20th November, was hosted by TV presenter, Penney Poyzer (of BBC’s “No Waste like Home”).  Boris Johnson, Mayor of London praised the awards in a statement read in his absence, saying “We have to take bold steps to improve our environment and combat climate change, so I urge you all to continue with your exceptional endeavours so we can really make a difference.”
Click here to find out more about the awards and the other winners.
You can also read the Hackney Gazette article here.

Go to Arcola Energy

Future Arcola kicks off!

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Monday 16 November 2009 was a date to remember : the first official kick-off meeting for the Future Arcola theatre was held, appropriately, in the current Arcola bar!

After two years of meetings and relationship building on all fronts, the show is finally on the road… and now we have three weeks to present our plans for taking the project to RIBA stage B, i.e. feasibility design stage. A presentation on Future Arcola is going to be made at City Hall on December 15th.

I am working with fellow Sustainability Consultant Mariane Jang, and Arcola’s Sustainability  Projects Manager Rachel Carless, to develop a robust Sustainability Appraisal Framework (SAF) that will provide the performance framework for managing the sustainability of the project.

As part of the SAF we will:

  • Crystallise the sustainability vision for Future Arcola
  • Set sustainability objectives (covering environment and natural resource issues, social responsibility and economic viability and regeneration)
  • Derive robust key performance indicators to measure sustainability performance against objectives
  • Compare different scoring mechanisms (LEED, BREEAM etc) as well as the WWF One Planet Living principles and reviewing their relevance for Future Arcola
  • Undertake stakeholder engagement with the Arcola team, Mouchel (project management), Arup Associates (architecture), Arup (theatre consulting, structural engineering), Hackney Borough Council, the London Development Agency (LDA), BioRegional and beyond

Arcola has proved itself to be a groundbreaking theatre, not only showcasing world-class productions but also leading the way in engaging with the public through the Arcola Energy incubator, Arcola Youth & Community programmes and Green Sundays. The next step in the sustainability story will be to set some challenging targets so that Future Arcola can realistically hope to be the most sustainable theatre in the world.

Congratulations to Leyla, Mehmet and Ben for all their hard work to get us to the starting blocks.

Go to Arcola Energy

Green Sundays at Arcola: 3 May, all welcome!

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Come and join us anytime between 3pm and 7pm for May’s Green Sunday at Arcola Theatre.

It’s free to attend and everyone is welcome. This month we are looking at urban regeneration – from the Olympics to roof gardens. With special film screenings, lively debate, Kabula dancing and the chance to picnic near the Olympic site, it’s not to be missed!

arcola-green-sun-030509

—
Anna Beech
Sustainability Projects Manager
Arcola Theatre
27 Arcola Street
London E8 2DJ

anna@arcolatheatre.com
www.arcolatheatre.com
www.arcolaenergy.com
www.greensundays.org.uk