A large group of people wearing colourful clothes and pointing their fingers towards the camera.

Environmental Policy

1. Overview

Lung Ha Theatre Company works to reduce the environmental impact of all its activities.  The company will ensure that awareness of environmental impact is embedded in the culture of the organisation. Our artistic outputs are considered with environmentally sustainable practices applied across all production planning and execution. Our sustainable mitigations derive from appropriate sector guidance such as the Theatre Green Book, Julie’s Bicycle and Culture for Climate Scotland. We take our responsibilities to the planet seriously and our company will strive to take our carbon emissions towards net zero by 2030 in line with the City of Edinburgh targets.

2. Climate Justice

“Unfortunately, climate change negotiators and policymakers tend to overlook persons with disabilities more than any other demographic.”

(Nancy Marangu, Chemichemi Foundation).

It is important to reflect and acknowledge that the access requirements of individuals and groups that we work with may mean that the ‘default’ greenest options are not available to us. We will strive to demonstrate the limits and opportunities to the reporting bodies to better express the intersectionality between inclusivity and environmental sustainability.  We will further develop our voice, influence & advocacy to highlight the inequalities of climate change initiatives. We will seek to ensure the voice of disabled artists contributes to the broader picture of climate change in the arts.

3. Our Commitments:

  • Our Environmental Policy will be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure we monitor and minimise the environmental impact of our operations and the work we produce and tour in line with industry practice
  • From 2025 we will be using Culture for Climate Scotland’s Carbon Budget Calculator, which will help us set individual staff, project and organisational budgets. These will be reported on to our environmental subcommittee and will be evidenced through our financial management processes.
  • We will continue to be a member of the Green Arts Initiative (Culture for Climate Scotland), a proactive network of Scottish arts and cultural organisations and comply with their recommendations
  • We will continue to deliver our work in line with the Theatre Green Book and will remain connected to industry specific networks of information and resource sharing. This will influence our Environmental Policy and the supporting procedures.
  • We will review our carbon footprint as an organisation with the Board of Directors on an annual basis. The results of this review will be made available to stakeholders and the public in our annual report.
  • We will review the impact of the environmental actions we have taken each year.
  • Our Environmental Subcommittee will have representation from board, staff, actors and volunteers

4. Our Actions

Staff & Office Space 

  • All staff support and take responsibility for adhering to the environmental policy.  
  • Office recycling facilities will be used to reduce the amount of waste to landfill. 
  • Printing will be kept to a minimum, and recycled paper used where possible. Double-sided printing will be used where possible to minimise paper usage. Print cartridges should be recycled. 
  • As tenants in a large building, LHTC will work with the organisation who owns the building to monitor and reduce the carbon footprint and environmental impact of the company’s office.  
  • LHTC will collect carbon emissions data to calculate and evaluate the company’s annual carbon footprint.  

Procurement and Marketing & Communications

  • LHTC will work with suppliers that have a robust environmental policy.  
  • Where physical goods are being sourced, environmentally sustainable options will be considered. 
  • Any new equipment the company purchases will be as energy efficient as possible.  
  • LHTC will use local printers and all publicity will be printed on sustainable paper.  
  • Printed material distributed will include an encouragement to recycle it.

Travel & Accommodation 

  • LHTC will monitor and evaluate all staff journeys and encourage the use of walking, cycling and public transport where possible.  
  • Where taxis are unavoidable, we will encourage actors to use taxi fleets with a majority of electric vehicles. 
  • Long-distance travel will be evaluated in terms of environmental impact as well as cost effectiveness. Train travel will be considered before flights. 
  • The Green Arts Champion will record and monitor all work-related travel in order to calculate the footprint of LHTC’s travel-related emissions.   

Rehearsals & Production 

  • We will encourage all actors, volunteer support team members and guest artists to use reusable water bottles, and to dispose of recyclable waste in the appropriate recycling bins where these are available.  
  • LHTC will encourage all partners, creative team, and crew members to be environmentally pro-active, including sourcing materials locally and avoiding single-use items.  
  • Where possible all sets and costumes will be reused or recycled. 

Venues & Audiences  

  • LHTC will tour to venues that have a robust environmental policy
  • When working with partners and venues, we will compare environmental polices and actions to collaborate on efficient monitoring and reporting
  • We will arrange meetings to be most environmentally efficient in terms of travel, making use of video-conferencing facilities where possible.

This policy is to be reviewed annually.