Sustainability

At the Young Vic, we are committed to operating in an environmentally responsible and sustainable way. Guided by our Environmental Policy and Action Plan, we measure our carbon footprint annually and continually look for new opportunities to reduce our impact. We have contributed actively to both editions of the Theatre Green Book, taking part as trial participants, focus group members, and mentors for the European Theatre Convention Green Book.

We are proud to hold a 5 Star Creative Green accreditation from Julie’s Bicycle.

Recent Successes

For Entertaining Mr Sloane, we achieved an impressive 84% of materials having a previous life and 92% destined for future life across set, costume, and props. Here are just a few of the ways we made that possible:

We collected and stored black foam crumb used to cover the stage floor. It was then repurposed to fill sandbags for our next production, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.

We sourced many items from car boot sales, resulting in a collection of unique and characterful pieces that were incorporated into the hanging elements above the stage.

70% of our costumes were hired, meaning they had already been used in productions across London—and will continue to serve future shows for years to come.

We partnered with the charities PropUp, Habitat for Humanity, and Petit Miracles, as well as the theatre company Wake The Tiger, to give pieces of our set a new life in communities across the country. Find out more about our case study below.

What's Next

- We are committed to the Theatre Green Book and are advancing to intermediate in the coming years

- We are committed to continuing to track and analyse carbon footprint against Creative Green benchmarks

- Our Green Building Levy supports all of our carbon reduction investments

- We are achieving targets to reduce the kwh per m2 we use for gas and electricity to below best practice guidelines

- We develop and produce work that addresses the climate crisis

- Our Creators Program seeks to engage our network of artists in conversations around sustainability by holding workshops and discussions that explore how to make work that engages with the climate crisis.