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Daniel Bye’s How to Occupy an Oil Rig receives 2013 Award for Sustainable Production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe #edfringe

Daniel Bye receives the 2013 award for Sustainable Production from Creative Carbon Scotland's Ben Twist.

Daniel Bye receives the 2013 award for Sustainable Production from Creative Carbon Scotland’s Ben Twist.

Creative Carbon Scotland and the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, in partnership with the List, presented Bye with Award at Fringe Central on August 23rd.

In a ceremony in the concourse at Fringe Central on Friday, August 23rd at 4:00 pm, Ben Twist of Creative Carbon Scotland awarded Daniel Bye the 2013 Award for Sustainable Production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe after presentation by Ian Garrett of the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts and Sholeh Johnston of Julie’s Bicycle. This was the fourth year of the award’s presentation. Applicants and fringe participants alike enjoyed complimentary beverages and snacks with support from Vegware, producers of compostable food containers.

The Sustainable Production Award is an annual celebration of performance that’s working for an environmentally sustainable world. Open to all Fringe Festival productions by application, the award assesses all aspects of a production’s sustainability, from design to content. This award ceremony recognizes the best in this year’s sustainable productions, alongside inspiring presentations from Creative Carbon Scotland, the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, and Julie’s Bicycle. The Sustainable Production Award is presented this year in partnership with The List, which is reviewing all shortlist shows and promoting the awards events.

The award is determined by the submission of a questionnaire about how the show was produced, and how environmental and sustainable themes were considered along the way. Assessors selected a short list of 23 productions, which appeared in the weekly editions of The List. These 23 shows were reviewed based on their questionnaires and the assessment team voted for the production which most aligned with the priorities of the award. Five finalists–Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer, The Garden, and Garden O’ Delight, How to Occupy An Oil Rig, Sacred Earth–were identified as outstanding entries before the winner was selected last week.

How to Occupy an Oil Rig was selected due to its conscientious production and themes related to sustainability in our present world. In their assessment  the reviewer for the show said,”It tells stories of journeys through environmental activism engagingly, wittily, movingly… It’s all about sustainability, and is making very bold points about the scale of the problem and the necessity of radical solutions.” Also praised by the press, the Financial Times said that How to Occupy an Oil Rig was, “The real thing. Clever, engaging and important.” The Guardian said it is, “Fantastic work. Invigorating and playful. Both beautiful, and wants to change the world.” Accepting the award, Bye said “It’s great for the work to be recognized for its impact outside of the theatre itself, in the wider world.”

“Even more so than we want someone to score perfectly on the questionnaire we use to evaluate shows, we want theater artists to look at the questions and think about how it helps to guide their thinking about sustainability in the their art. There may be questions asked in ways they hadn’t thought, and we hope they ask these questions of their next project and the project after that,” adds CSPA Director Ian Garrett.

The award for Sustainable Production on the Fringe was first launched in 2010 at the Hollywood Fringe and Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Previous recipients include:  The Pantry Shelf (Edinburgh 2010), a satirical comedy that takes place in any ordinary pantry shelf, produced by Team M&M at Sweet Grassmarket; Presque Pret a Porter (Hollywood 2010), produced by Dreams by Machine; and Allotment (Edinburgh 2011) by Jules Horne and directed by Kate Nelson, produced by nutshell productions at the Inverleith Allotments in co-production with Assembly. Last year recipients were D is for Dog by Katie Polebaum and the Rogue Artists ensemble, directed by Sean Calweti (Hollywood 2012) and The Man Who Planted Trees (Edinburgh 2012) adapted from Jean Giono’s story by Ailie Cohen, Richard Medrington, Rick Conte and directed by Ailie Cohen, produced by the Edinburgh’s Puppet State Theatre.

Ian Garrett and Miranda Wright founded the CSPA in early 2008. The organization provides a network of resources to arts organizations, which enables them to be ecologically and economically sustainable while maintaining artistic excellence. Past and Present partnerships have included the University of Oregon, Ashden Directory, Arcola Theatre, Diverseworks Artspace, Indy Convergence, York University, LA Stage Alliance and others.

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

More Info

Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts: https://www.sustainablepractice.org  

Creative Carbon Scotland: http://www.creativecarbonscotland.com/

CSPA Fringe Initiatives: https://www.sustainablepractice.org/programs/fringe/

2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe Questionnaire: http://bit.ly/cspafringe13

The List’s Edinburgh Coverage: http://edinburghfestival.list.co.uk

Expanding Plastics

This post comes to you from the Broadway Green Alliance
Expanding Plastics

Mayor Bloomberg at the press launch of Broadway Goes Green.

Mayor Bloomberg at the press launch of Broadway Goes Green.

by Noah Aberlin

Get ready to add all rigid plastics to your recycling bin-

NYC has expanded the residential recycling stream.

On April 24th Mayor Bloomberg announced that NYC will now recycle all rigid plastics. These newly included items go in the same clear bag or blue bin where all glass, metal, aseptic packaging (juice boxes, soy milks), and plastic bottles currently go.

Rigid plastics include yogurt cups, toys, hangers, cookie tray inserts, plastic cups, food containers, and more. Bloomberg said at a press meeting, “Starting today, if it’s a rigid plastic – any rigid plastic – recycle it…This means that 50,000 tons of plastics that we were sending to landfills every year will now be recycled and it will save taxpayers almost $600,000 in export costs each year.”

This announcement coincides with the development of the new recycling plant being built by the Sunset Park waterfront in Brooklyn, which will be the largest household recycling plant in North America. Because it takes 70 percent less energy to make plastic from recycled plastics instead of raw materials, it’s going to help further reduce the city’s carbon footprint. New York City will not only become more sustainable but will also create 100 jobs at the new plant. Plus, it will be powered by one of the largest solar installations in the city.

Keep a lookout for new recycling decals and posters that should be mailed to residences soon and remember it is recommended that New Yorkers should rinse out all containers before sorting them in recycling bins. While these new rules do not effect commercial recycling (i.e.: at the theatres) they do include the new Solar Big Belly public recycling bins that have been sited around town. There are 30 in the Times Square area so please seek them out and use them.

To recycle plastic bags, many supermarkets and drug stores have special collection bins. Film plastic (plastic wrap) does not recycle.

For more information and a detailed list of all recyclable materials visit http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/home/home.shtml

 

The Broadway Green Alliance was founded in 2008 in collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) is an ad hoc committee of The Broadway League and a fiscal program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids. Along with Julie’s Bicycle in the UK, the BGA is a founding member of the International Green Theatre Alliance. The BGA has reached tens of thousands of fans through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other media.

At the BGA, we recognize that it is impossible to be 100% “green” while continuing activity and – as there is no litmus test for green activity – we ask instead that our members commit to being greener and doing better each day. As climate change does not result from one large negative action, but rather from the cumulative effect of billions of small actions, progress comes from millions of us doing a bit better each day. To become a member of the Broadway Green Alliance we ask only that you commit to becoming greener, that you name a point person to be our liaison, and that you will tell us about your green-er journey.

The BGA is co-chaired by Susan Sampliner, Company Manager of the Broadway company of WICKED, and Charlie Deull, Executive Vice President at Clark Transfer<. Rebekah Sale is the BGA’s full-time Coordinator.

Go to the Broadway Green Alliance

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