INTERVIEW
Joint effort proves a winning formula for sustainability
The Theatre Green Book is a sustainability project born during lockdown. It soon became apparent that the guide could work in sectors beyond theatre, helping to create guidance that can be adapted to a range of publicly accessible buildings. Paddy Dillon helped create the guide, and here he talks to Rob Green about how the it developed into a tool for library services.
AS theatre production ground to a halt due to Covid lockdowns, a window of opportunity opened up. Paddy Dillon, theatre architect and co-founder and director of The Green Library Book, says: “We knew everyone in theatre wanted the sector to become more sustainable. So why weren’t we making more progress? Julie’s Bicycle and others had been advocating for change for years. There was no lack of personal commitment or under- standing. So, what was the problem?” It turns out that one of the problems was
having the time, space and tools to have those conversations. Lockdown saw a shift towards digital tools like Zoom and Team, at a time when many in the theatre industry were on an enforced hiatus. It quickly became clear that cooperation was key to success.
Window of opportunity Paddy says: “In a series of conversations – possible only because we had the new tools of Zoom and Teams, and because theatre-mak- ers were stuck at home, unable to make work – we started to realise a few vital principles. “First, we would only tackle the challenge of sustainable culture if we did it together. It made no sense for theatres to write and research their own guidance. If they came up with the same solutions, we were wasting
22 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Rob Green (
rob.green@
cilip.org.uk) is Editor of Information Professional
energy and time. If they came up with differ- ent answers, we’d never be able to learn from each other. So, we began by bringing together all the major organisations in theatre. We needed everyone on board.”
While the project began in the world of theatre, it didn’t take a huge shift to see the potential for other sectors to contribute and learn from The Green Book. Paddy explains that usability was a guiding principal, saying: “We knew the guidance needed to be practi- cal. It’s no good asking people in the cultural sector to ‘reduce their carbon footprint by ‘x’ per cent.’ Everyone is busy. We’re specialists in theatre, music, libraries and cinema – not in physics. So, to create the guidance, we brought together groups of theatre-makers of all kinds, from directors through to heads of
June 2023
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