How They Green
In the August issue of Live Design, you’ll see a column by Bob Usdin about environmentally conscious practices, and I have a short rant in there in my editorial letter about how well we’re doing taking care of our planet. Talking with designer Patrick Dierson about issues he’s had trying to be as green as possible, I was heartened to hear that his company, Artfag, certainly does its share. Here’s what the designers at do, so far…
-donate to “1% for the Planet,” an organization that accepts 1% of a company’s sales and distributes it to environmental groups across the globe who are actively trying to protect & restore the environment.
-promote the goal of creating carbon neutral productions wherever possible, encouraging clientele to embrace it without making them feel guilty about it. “It basically comes down to offering the client possible environmentally sustainable solutions and not having them have to go out of their way to attain them,” Dierson notes.
-where possible, specify recyclable and/or sustainable materials for construction of scenic pieces and sets.
-alter and reuse existing scenic pieces and sets wherever possible to keep them from ending up in a dump somewhere.
-use LED and other energy-efficient light sources in designs to lower the overall energy consumption of a production
-promote the use of bio-diesel fuel in generators, tour buses, and trucking
-utilize pre-visualization technologies as much as possible to promote energy savings by not having the equipment fired up for days on end just to appease our need to program shows
They’re not suffering for their efforts either. Have you seen the roster of tours they’ve done this year alone?
Related Topics: From The Editors of Live Design, General
July 28th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
As a “green” lighting designer for architecture and the built environment, I take issue with the suggestion that there is such a thing as a “green” performance event by modern standards of staging and lighting. I believe that we need to make energy splurges, such as for performance events, and to conserve in our everyday actions. Performance events are by their nature extravagant, meaning the use of resources for a particular purpose unattainable without them. Weigh all the related carbon costs of live events, such as transportation of sets, personnel and audience, energy costs, and carbon footprint of the set and related equipment, and considering the limited time of use, it is huge. If the entertainment industry were green, performers would use existing stages and sets in communities in which the audience could walk to the performance and daylight could illluminate it. And the performers would ride bikes to move among venues. I applaud the concept of less waste in staging and lighting, but this is like driving a smaller Hummer.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:24 am
James,
Your point is certainly an important one: performance events will always use a large amount of resources, be it in the form energy, materials, or transportation fuels. However, to suggest that taking action to reduce that figure is foolhardy, and that we should not concern ourselves with it, is foolhardy. Performance venues already have the technology and methods at their fingerprints to drastically reduce their environmental footprints, and although there can be some initial difficulty in implementing those steps, once they are in place they will seem as natural. Moreover, by taking such action, they will inspire their audiences not only to take similar steps, but also to associate themselves with a positive message.
Resistance to changing our ways is natural, because change is daunting, because it is safer to remain where we are, doing things as we have always done them. But that resistance should not lead to pessimism, or a casual dismissal of our own capacity to reduce our footprints. Because climate change is just around the corner, we no longer have the luxury of claiming that certain parts of our lives or jobs can remain off-limits. And we can look on this as an opportunity — an opportunity to find innovative solutions to old, inefficient ways; an opportunity to reduce energy costs; an opportunity to provide lower-budget arts venues with discarded set pieces; an opportunity to invigorate and inspire our co-workers. Most importantly, an opportunity to lead, to demonstrate what is possible in the world. Because the arts have always shown us the way to other possible futures, to other ways of thinking, feeling, and leading our lives. To shrug our shoulders and say, “Let other people take action; the arts are special,” is to abandon the very principle we should be embracing — that the greatest human trait is the ability to fight off spiritual entropy, to find new ways of engaging with the world.
Leave a Comment
Advertisement
Categories
Recent Posts
Calendar
Archives
Your Account
Subscribe