Resource Efficiency

THE MAN WHO PLANTED TREES Announced as Recipient of the 2012 Award for Sustainable Production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe

The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA) has awarded the third CSPA Fringe Award for Sustainable Production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to The Man Who Planted Trees adapted from Jean Giono’s story by Ailie Cohen, Richard Medrington, Rick Conte and directed by Ailie Cohen. It is produced by the Edinburgh’s Puppet State Theater, and is currently on tour in North America.

Giono, who passed in 1970, has said about The Man Who Planted Trees in 1957: “I wrote this story to make people love trees, or more precisely to make people love planting trees. Of all my stories it is one of the ones of which I am most proud. It has never earned me a penny and for that reason it has accomplished the very purpose for which it was written.”

“The Man Who Planted Trees was chosen because of the synchronicity of the themes and the physical production of the show.” comments Ian Garrett, co-founder and Director of the CSPA. “ The award is intended to reward both smartly addressing issues of sustainability and production practices. Further, we recognize that in the Fringe environment, the physically production is often partially determined by the resources and time made available by the venues. What made The Man Who Planted Trees stand out is that it was able to successfully combine these factors into one of the most consistently lauded productions of the festival.”

The award is determined by the submission of a questionnaire about how the show was produced and audience response. The Man Who Planted Trees’ production team was able to provide comprehensive technical information for the production, which showed a commitment to design and resource efficiency. This considered approach also factored into their communications and marketing. All of these factors were further supported by the themes of the play.

The CSPA Directors, Ian Garrett and Miranda Wright adjudicated the award, along with select CSPA affiliates and friends. This year marked the beginning of a closer relation with Festival Edinburgh, which supports all of the festivals throughout August and the rest of the year. For the original Edinburgh Fringe application, Mhora Samuel and Tim Atkinson from The Theatres Trust’s European Regional Development Fund-backed Ecovenue project helped the CSPA adapt the criteria for a UK audience, providing guidance on UK equivalents to US name brands, as well as providing insight on measuring conventions and policy.

“The CSPA is not just another ‘go green’ organization,” says Wright.  “We hope to gather and distribute information that aids in the sustainability of the earth, the sustainability of our communities, and the sustainability of our art.  And so, the purpose of this award is not to recognize the greenest production.  Our objective in offering this award is to ask questions of ourselves, as theater artists, about the greater impact of our work on the world around us. The fringe model provides an ideal platform to introduce these ideas and the award due to the expectations and scale of the shows.”

“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 Garrett.

Ian Garrett and Miranda Wright founded the CSPA in early 2008 after individually working on each of the programs that now make up the multi-faceted approach to sustainability separately. 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 Theater, Diverseworks Artspace, Indy Convergence, York University, LA Stage Alliance and others.

D IS FOR DOG Announced as Recipient of Award for Sustainable Production at the Hollywood Fringe Festival

The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA) has awarded the second CSPA Fringe Award for Sustainable Production at the Hollywood Fringe to D is for Dog by Katie Polebaum and the Rogue Artists ensemble, directed by Sean Calweti. It is produced by the Rogue Artists Ensemble at the Hudson Theater and continues to play through August 4th.

D is for Dog explores the themes of family loyalty and compassion using iconic imagery from 1950s television blended with startling elements of horror and science fiction. Mixing puppetry, live actors, original music and video projection, the play takes audiences from the absurd to the terrifying, and everywhere in-between.

“D is for Dog was chosen because of how the Rogue Artists Ensemble careful considered their entire production.” comments Ian Garrett, co-founder and Director of the CSPA. “The nature of our process for determining the winner of this award doesn’t just focus on what a show is about; though there are mainly elements of D is for Dog which do speak to thematic to sustainability. But, it is also about the importance of being conscientious in how a show is made and addressing those questions across all elements of production and presentation, which is what led to this award going to this show.”

The award is determined by the submission of a questionnaire about how the show was produced and audience response. D is for Dog‘s production team was able to provide comprehensive technical information for the production, which showed a commitment to design and resource efficiency. This considered approach also factored into their communications and marketing. All of these factors were further supported by the themes of the play.

The CSPA Directors, Ian Garrett and Miranda Wright adjudicated the award, along with select CSPA affiliates and friends. The CSPA also supports a similar award for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, going into its 3rd year. For the Edinburgh Fringe, Mhora Samuel and Tim Atkinson from The Theatres Trust’s European Regional Development Fund-backed Ecovenue project have helped the CSPA adapt the criteria for a UK audience, providing guidance on UK equivalents to US name brands, as well as providing insight on measuring conventions and policy. This year, the CSPA will be working with Festivals Edinburgh to further expand the impact of this program.

“The CSPA is not just another ‘go green’ organization,” says Wright.  “We hope to gather and distribute information that aids in the sustainability of the earth, the sustainability of our communities, and the sustainability of our art.  And so, the purpose of this award is not to recognize the greenest production.  Our objective in offering this award is to ask questions of ourselves, as theater artists, about the greater impact of our work on the world around us. The fringe model provides an ideal platform to introduce these ideas and the award due to the expectations and scale of the shows.”

“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 Garrett.

Ian Garrett and Miranda Wright founded the CSPA in early 2008 after individually working on each of the programs that now make up the multi-faceted approach to sustainability separately. 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 Theater, Diverseworks Artspace, Indy Convergence, York University, LA Stage Alliance and others. www.sustainablepractice.org

It should be noted that director Ian Garrett has previously worked with the Rogue Artist Ensmeble. He was production manager on Gogol Project and Lighting Designer for Hyperbole:Origins. He was in no way involved with D is for Dog or other Rogue project since his work on Hyperbole: Origins.

The Kaleidoscope Videos

This post comes to you from Engage by Design

‘You’ve described a very interesting project and one that could fill a critically important void.’

David Orr.

The Kaleidoscope videos are conversations with experts on sustainability, design and innovation, aiming to reflect and generate actions between a diverse range of disciplines.


We interviewed a variety of people who have been working around sustainability for years all with different approaches; Science, Business, Graphic, Fashion and Industrial designers, Psychologist, Architects and Academics from different parts of the world; the United Kingdom, the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, Canada, Austria, Spain and Germany.

Participants:

Ramon Arratia European Sustainability Director at InterfaceFlor

Eric Benson Graphic Designer Co-founder of Re-Nourish

Dr. Jonathan Chapman Reader & Course Leader of the MA Sustainable Design at University of Brighton

Jo Confino Executive Editor of the Guardian Chairman & Editorial Director of Guardian Sustainable Business

Dr. Kate Fletcher Slow Fashion consultant & Reader in Sustainable Fashion at the London College of Fashion

Mark Gawlinski Senior Lecturer in Leadership specialising in Organisational Change

Nick Gant Co-Director of the Inheritable Futures Laboratory & Co-founder of BoBo Design

Ken Garland Visionary & Co-creator of First things First manifesto. Ken is a Graphic Designer & visiting lecturer at many design schools across the globe

Dr. Caneel Joyce Lecturer at the London School of Economics

Dr. Mike Pitts Sustainability Manager at Chemistry Innovation & Project Leader Resource Efficiency at Technology Strategy Board

Nathan Shedroff is a pioneer in Experience Design. Writer, lecturer and chair of the MBA in Design Strategy at California College of Arts

Ignacio Urbina Polo Industrial Designer and assistant professor at Pratt University, New York and Venezuela

Alberto Villarreal Industrial Designer & Co-founder of Agent

The videos are split into four different values; Balance, Meaning, Innovation and Culture. Asking how each value is seen and practised today and how they should be practiced in order to move towards a better future. The last video focuses on the tools and skills that we need to get to that better future. Acting as a call to arms for designers and professionals about the need for rethink the way we practice our disciplines.

The videos will be released one by one over the coming weeks and are a starting point for conversation showing different points of view and perspectives from all around the world.

Please interact with them, leave a comment, challenge them and most of all share them.

All the content you find here is Creative Commons. Please reference Engage by Design.

 

Engage by Design is a social enterprise developed through the final Master research of Rodrigo Bautista and Zoe Olivia John in sustainability and design. As a consultancy they specialize in strategic interventions that aim to support the transformation of your product or service into a more sustainable one.

Engage by Design’s research arm intends to act as a platform which enables dialogues and actions between a diverse range of disciplines around sustainability and design.

Rodrigo Bautista – Rodrigo is an Industrial Designer and has worked in many different industries including media, products, services and telecommunications. Today his work focuses on strategic interventions and tools to apply sustainability and design instruments within a company.

Zoë Olivia John – Zoë’s background in Fashion & Textiles has lead her into the research and development of better ways to integrate learning about sustainability for Higher Education students and tutors, particularly within the F&T programme. She is interested in finding new ways to readdress our value structure from one of linear economic quantity to one of circular quality.

Go to Engage by Design

The Theatres Trust Ecovenue project at PLASA 2010

Theatres Trust will be profiling the Ecovenue project, and all its participants at PLASA 2010 in The Theatres Trust’s very own ‘Ecovenue’ on Stand 2-M28 at Earl’s Court, showcasing the environmental efficiency practices being implemented across the London venues involved with the project. In addition to profiling the venues, the Ecovenue area in Earls Court 2 will also feature technologies designed to rationalise the environmental footprint of theatres.

As part of this initiative, The Theatres Trust will launch its first ‘People’s Choice’ award for sustainable theatrical products to complement the existing PLASA Innovation Award for Environmentally-focused products.

All exhibiting manufacturers at PLASA 2010 are invited, as part of an open call for entries, to put forward products to be considered for this Theatres Trust award. The Theatres Trust will then select those that represent either a significant step forward in the resource efficiency of an existing product or a new product intended to contribute to the resource efficiency of a theatre to be featured in the area.

Visitors to PLASA 2010 will be able to vote on the product they feel best represents progression towards sustainability, while also learning about the advice that the Ecovenue participants are receiving and the experiences of the 24 already signed up to the project.

The PLASA Show runs from the 12th – 15th September. For a Theatres Trust ‘People’s Choice’ award application form, please email Tim Atkinson.

via Ecovenue – Resources – The Theatres Trust.