[Image credit: David at Flickr under a Creative Commons license]
The lights are still bright, but thanks to theater owners and The Broadway League teaming up with the NRDC and the city, the lights are also LEDs and compact fluorescents on Broadway.
On Tuesday, the cast of Wicked and Mayor Bloomberg announced the roll out of Broadway Goes Green. Along with replacing incandescent bulbs with LEDs and CFLs, theaters are taking steps like using eco-friendly detergent to wash their costumes and icing performers’ sore muscles with bags of frozen peas rather than chemical ice packs.
Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), commented:
As Broadway shifts its theater productions toward environmentally preferable operations, its influence and leadership will reverberate throughout the entertainment world. Broadway’s unique global visibility and unparalleled cultural influence offers a rare opportunity to move the marketplace towards environmentally intelligent products and, at the same time, help theaters save money and inspire their patrons. Bravo to Broadway for its leadership on this critical issue.
Theater owners will see a return on investment when it comes to changes like more efficient lighting and air-conditioning. Ten of the 39 Broadway theaters have already replaced their marquee lights with more efficient lighting and 14 more are on their way. Over 10,000 exterior and interior bulbs have already been changed so far.
Many of Broadway’s touring shows are offsetting the carbon emissions from transporting their equipment through renewable energy investments. They have purchased nearly 1,900 tons of offsets through the Touring Green program. It would be great to eventually see them using trucks with auxiliary power units, which help trucks use less fuel at start up and eliminate idling, and encouraging drivers to adopt fuel-saving driving practices..
All of these small steps add up to a big impact, and Broadway Goes Green still has a lot of changes in the works. Playbill Magazine is working with the NRDC to adopt greener printing practices, such as using water-soluble ink and and regularly printing theater related eco-tips in Playbills throughout the year. Production shops are developing plans to recycle or reuse scenery. For more information on what they’re up to, check out GreenBroadway.com.
About Becky Striepe
This is great news about Broadway! I hope other theaters through out the world follow by example.
Thank you for the great post!
Thanks for the kind words, Kate! I hope other theaters follow suit, too!
Thats brilliant..do the las vegas casinos do that?
I’m not certain, Sam. A little Googling leads me to think that some casinos are implementing LEDs in their outdoor lights. I also came across stories about them frequently demoing whole buildings and putting up brand new ones, though, which doesn’t seem like the greenest practice.