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Sustainability Goals and Practises

What we actively do now
What we will do in the future

Sustainability is important to us at OFEN.
Sustainability directly inspires our decision making and is an integral part of our daily lives. 

We join leading organisations by transparently stating our goals and practices so you can know what we’re working on to be a more sustainable company and maybe others may be inspired to do the same. The more this becomes the norm, the quicker we will be educating and protecting our resources from depletion. It’s also a quick way for us to let you know what we do, so that if we should collaborate one day, you will know if your values align with ours.  

Sustainability in the performing arts industry is typically not spoken about and is often an afterthought when coming to responsible planning. Creating art and the distribution of work are normally wasteful exercises for many reasons, but again, they are usually not well thought through to reduce impact and waste.  Our policies are continually under review and as societal awareness of this issue grows, we envisage that our future commitments will broaden in scope. Environmental sustainability is something we are passionate about supporting in itself; but ethical choices also make good business sense. 

At OFEN we want to be advocates for sustainability in the arts sector and the world itself. Should sustainability be ignored we risk damaging the world we live in for our generation, all living plants and animals, and the generations of life to come. 

We are:

  • Committed to pay a legal wage or above, as defined in each country’s wage indicator
  • Flexible employee scheduling to enable autonomy and flat hierarchy
  • Decolonizing neoliberal capitalist definitions of wealth and value
  • Green rider and flexible touring
  • Deliberate incorporation of environmentally sustainable or regenerative principles into design, tech, and production elements
  • Utilizing renewable energy sources e.g. solar panels 
  • Showing work on alternative platforms
  • Sustainable travel- taking trains instead of planes and working remotely. Riding a bike locally
  • Considering Labor and People as resources equally in need of regenerability 

Our aims:

  • Commiting to recycle or reuse every element of set, costume, light, and tech, going as far as refusing to budget money for materials. 
  • Resource sharing amongst organizations to decrease redundancy and waste
  • Checking with city, county, state and local indigenous nations for environmental programs to support
  • Decolonizing our definitions of resources to include regeneration of land, sky, water, and time
  • Becoming CO2 neutral
  • Implementing the strategies of Just Transition to move your from an extractive, industrial economy to an interconnected, participatory one. See: Movement Generation Just Transition 

Outcomes:

  • Improved environmental performance within the theatre sector
  • The arts sector is leading on the forefront of social change
  • Increased awareness of social issues and increased action
  • Sustainable Cities and Communities (UN Goal 11)
  • Better overall health and well-being

Time frame:

31st of December, 2022 is our goal to reach out sustainability aims. This means that the work that we are planning now (for the second half of 2021 and 2022) is being developed with these specific goals in mind.

Measuring success:

Being a small enterprise, we think it’s too soon to apply for formal accreditation. Therefore, we will set milestones and track our progress. At the end, we will assess ourselves against the aims we set. Then we will set new aims. 

– OFEN Co-Arts Platform, 18 February 2021.

Sources: Groundwater Arts via their Green New Theatre working document, The Old Vic, Julie’s bicycle