An Accidental Environmentalist

When I was nine years old I told my parents I wanted a drum set. I remember selling produce on the side of the street to pay the family bills so there wasn't exactly the extra cash in the family budget for something as extravagant as a drum kit. I remember my dad saying, "If you can raise the money you can have one." I lived out in the country so there weren't many neighbors I could ply with my grass cutting or car-washing prowess. But there were many long stretches of road, many deep ditches and many folks who liked to drink beer and didn't think twice about throwing their cans out the window. My first experience with recycling wasn't about cleaning up the earth. It was about being the next drummer for KC and the Sunshine Band.

The decision to become the first 100% solar-powered theatre company in America had a similar start. In 2006, our Board of Directors was looking at our operating budget and were surprised to see that we spent nearly 10K a year on electricity - about the same cost of hiring 6 non-union actors. We realized we could finance the cost of the panels and have them paid off in about 9 years - even if we didn't raise a penny. You know what happened next. We raised all the money in about a year and didn't have to finance a damn thing.

Ultimately choosing to operate a "certified green business" is not something we did for financial reasons. Many of the certified products, practices and services we now employ cost more than doing it the old fashioned way. But by now we also know that the long-term "costs" of living wastefully and arrogantly in our world are too high. We've listed some of our green practices below. Most of you probably don't operate theatres but if you see something here that you can apply to your own life - go for it. Also, if you have any other ideas while visiting our theatre, please don't hesitate to let us know.

* We installed a waterless urinal in the men's room. Exciting!
* We ask our audiences to reuse their programs. Thanks
* We stopped selling bottled water and now we offer a discount to folks who bring their own cups for coffee or tea.
* We have an inventory of all our building materials that our designers go to when they're designing our sets.
* We have compost receptacles in the lobby, backstage and in the kitchen upstairs.
* We also have separate containers for paper and glass/plastic/metal recycling and then I go through other trash to make sure someone wasn't lazy because I'm crazy like that.
* We have motion detectors in the restrooms. (Sorry if you've had the lights go out on you!)

Pollutant Recycling:
* We recycle all excess paint or dispose of properly. Check it out: http://www.stopwaste.org/home/index.asp
* We dispose of our electronic equipment responsibly. You can too: http://www.accrc.org/
* Green Theatre seeks like-minded Green Business for multiple interactions…
* When possible we only do business with locals: Sweet Adeline, Bison Brewery etc.
* We also seek out other businesses that share our green ideology: Ashby Lumber, Urban Ore, Salvation Army etc