A man on a bike cycles past Brighton Dome's Church Street entrance
(C) Summer Dean

Supporting the Environment

We're committed to reducing the negative environmental impact of the activities taking place in our venues and through our work around the City.

We track the amount of electricity required to get the show on the road, the gas to keep our venues welcoming and the water to quench the audience. We recognise the importance of reducing waste from our bars and catering operations and our cleaning and creative activities. We acknowledge the impacts created by our audiences as they come to enjoy our events and as our staff travel to seek out artists and bring them to Brighton. We recognise the potential that we may influence the suppliers we engage and the importance of the little details in the way we run our administration, make our marketing choices and in the ways we embrace technology.

  • Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival is committed to the Arts Councils aim that the arts take a lead in making the world a more sustainable, responsible and equitable place and to transform itself into a low carbon, sustainable and resilient sector.
  • We will communicate our mission to be an ethical organization engaging with our staff, stakeholders and audiences on sustainability issues.
  • We will ensure that all maintenance & redevelopment projects explicitly include environmental considerations and liaise with architects and contractors to ensure compliance.

Waste

  • We have eliminated plastic straws and have successfully trialled a reusable cup scheme which we are working on introducing in the near future.
  • We do not sell single-use plastic bottles at our bar. Alternatively, we are selling CanO Water, a recyclable alternative, saving 10,000 plastic bottles every year.
  • We only use wooden disposable cutlery and stirrers at our venue.
  • We aim to serve drinks in glass and China at seated events.
  • We are continuing to ensure that we remain a 0% to landfill organisation. Any leftover waste is recycled or burned for energy, so we can be confident that our waste does not reach the ocean
  • To reduce single-use plastic, we have refilling stations and main water supplies to replace bottled water use.
  • We have introduced two coffee recycling bins at Brighton Dome. We encourage staff and visitors to recycle their coffee cups in the designated bins.
  • By moving to e-tickets we are saving an estimated 242,000 paper tickets and associated envelopes and postage every year.
  • We have also moved a lot of our marketing online, saving 142,000 printed brochures that would have been produced for our Festival in 2021. The print we do create is on recycled paper
  • We recycle 60% of our waste with the remainder being burned for energy.
  • Components from equipment are stripped and equipment recycled. Coffee cups are sorted and recycled by special arrangement.
  • We have re-used 400 Tonnes of earth from the redevelopment of the Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre, redistributing this to other sites, recycling or burning all non-hazardous waste.

Energy

  • We continue to make responsible choices in procuring our energy, purchasing green tariff electricity and increase market demand for electricity generated from renewable sources. From October 2019 we will also be using green gas from renewable sources.
  • For three-years running, we participated in the WWF #Earth Hour. Staff worked around the fact that our venue was buzzing with events and the ticket office, bar and entrances were transformed to remove all non-essential lighting.
  • 59% of our waste was recycled in 2017/2018, with the remainder being burned for energy. Components from equipment are stripped and equipment recycled. Coffee cups sorted and recycled by special arrangement.
  • R Durtnell & Sons have re-used 400 tonnes of earth from the redevelopment of the Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre, redistributing this to other sites. They recycle or burned all non-hazardous waste.
  • BDBF joined the ‘Cycle to Work Scheme’ helping staff to access bicycles and also run Dr Bike maintenance sessions.
  • We have made consistent reductions in energy consumption – our Energy Display Certificate confirms our comparative energy efficiency. We will strive to continue to reduce the use of energy in our venues and in turn our carbon footprint.
  • We measure our consumption of gas, electricity and water sharing data with the Arts Council via Julie’s Bicycles Industry Green Tools.
  • We invest in energy saving initiatives such as LED lighting.
  • We will monitor and work to reduce the emissions associated with audience travel to our venues and our business travel.

Water

  • We monitor our water usage and make investment in water saving equipment

Travel

  • We ask our audiences how they travel to the venue, track this data, and encourage them to be more sustainable through our participation in schemes like Better Points.
  • Our survey data on audience travel indicates that 55% of our Brighton Dome year-round audience are travelling to events sustainably – 18% zero impact (walking/cycling) 32% sustainable public transport (bus/train) and 5% car share. Brighton Festival audience are selecting sustainable modes of transport at 64% - with 31% travelling with zero impact (walking/cycling); 30% sustainable (train/bus) and a further 3% choosing to car share.
  • We are a part of the ‘Cycle to Work Scheme’ helping staff to access bicycles and run Dr Bike maintenance session.
  • We utilise technology to avoid business travel wherever we can.
  • We do not own business vehicles.

This statement is supported by a 3 year Environmental Action Plan and annual plans. The action plan is informed by our environmental monitoring and measurement and fed by the passion and creativity of our staff Green Team and Management Team. The Action Plan is reviewed and updated on an annual basis.

The Environmental Statement and Action Plan was developed using guidelines from Julie’s Bicycle: juliesbicycle.com

Using Brighton Festival as a case study, see how Brighton and Hove City Council encourage a sustainable approach to running outdoor events in the city