Did you know that we have a group whose sole function is to ensure the Octagon works towards being a carbon neutral charity by 2038?

We are well on the journey to achieve this and would like to share what we have done, are doing and what you can do to help…

The Octagon pledges to understand, measure, monitor, improve, and communicate our environmental performance, and engage our Trustees, senior management, staff, audiences and participants in reducing our environmental impact.

Recent actions and plans from our environment group include the following:

• We now publish our carbon footprint with the aim to significantly reduce this by 2030
• We work hard to minimise the environmental impact of our productions and by 2027, all our productions will adhere to the Green Book on environmental sustainability
• Our Bar and Kitchen recycle waste, such as oil and food waste is minimal due to careful management
• We ensure that our suppliers also understand our environmental promises and their ethos matches ours wherever possible
• All departments engaged with National Recycling Week 14 – 20 October. There were some creative and successful ideas which we hope to continue
• 50% of our stage lighting is LED. We hope to have another successful bid to complete the task in the near future
• We are planning improved signage for our audience to assist with recycling
• We will have a dedicated page on our website to explain what we are doing and what we want to achieve in the near future- we hope you will like it!

What you can do to help….

Believe it or not, the biggest contributor to our carbon footprint is the use of cars to come to the theatre. It would be brilliant if more of our audience would use public transport. We know this is not possible for many people, but we aim to raise awareness, and we are looking at ways we can reward and assist our audience and staff if they do choose to use public transport.

Here are some other ways YOU can help….

• Purchase reuseable coffee cups for take aways at our Bar and Kitchen- a discount of 10% is offered if you bring your own reuseable cup
• When in our building please note our recycling policy and use the recycle bins as indicated
• Use public transport/walk/cycle whenever possible

We will share our news, challenges and sustainability wins as we progress our journey towards net zero, and we hope you will engage with us along the way! Find out more about our sustainability here.

If you have any suggestions for what we could do better, or would like any further information, please feel free to get in touch.