From adopting paperless marketing, to choosing productions that raise awareness of environmental issues, The Lowry’s programming department is committed to championing sustainability. We’ve been examining the environmental impact of all aspects of our programming work – across our theatre shows, exhibitions, our learning and engagement offer and our front of house teams. Even small changes can make a big difference: instead of printing 100,000 copies of our 50 page-long brochure, we now produce an A5 folded sheet showing an overview of what’s on at The Lowry. We are also working to build more sustainable relationships with visiting companies and artists; it’s our ambition to become ambassadors for sustainability through a culture of shared responsibility.
In our theatre programming, we no longer use glitter for internal productions, are committed to reusing sets and props where possible, and have mostly switched to energy-saving LED lights. A two-stage system to replace the house lights and dimmers in the Quays Theatre is in progress. We’ve banned the sale of merchandise that has a negative effect on the environment. Behind the scenes, we’re using E-sign software for contracts, getting rid of paper versions entirely. All artists and companies engaged in our Artist Development programme attend Creative Climate Action and Green Rider workshops, and we’re currently working on initiatives such as an environmental clause in production contracts, which will set out our expectations for visiting companies.
Our Visual Arts team is focussing on a careful use of resources, with lights along the promenade switched off by Team Leaders at 5pm, and materials recycled between exhibitions. We use paper crafts for family interactive sessions and are no longer buying plastic pens. The Galleries team carefully monitors the number of documents it prints, and we’ve switched to using QR codes in order to minimise the number of exhibition leaflets and booklets we print. Booked groups, workshops and events are now electronically ticketed, with walk-in visitors not ticketed at all. In order to reduce the impact of travel, office-based staff have set work-from-home days, with an increase in online meetings.
The Learning and Engagement team has committed to ordering resources from small, local businesses where possible. For the Picture This exhibition in 2022, children’s books were provided by Chorlton Bookshop, and we source general classroom resources from suppliers including the Stretford-based Early Years Resources. As part of our efforts to reduce single-use plastics, the walls of The Lookout are decorated with paint rather than vinyl, and we encourage any groups of young people that we have in for activities and workshops to bring reusable water bottles for refill at the water foundation in the studio.