Climate Resiliency

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin…

— Troilus and Cressida, Act 3 Scene 3

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company seeks to reduce our impact to the environment as a whole, and to our principal location on the Boston Common, and to build organizational resilience to the impact of global climate change as a producer of outdoor theatre.

We envision a future in which sustainability is built into the core values of CSC, the three main pillars of which are access, excellence, and education. We strive to find pathways to sustainability that do not compromise these values, but rather build upon and enhance them. We envision a future in which we work strategically to reduce waste and our direct environmental impact, particularly in our unique outdoor venue of the Boston Common. Additionally, we know that our reach through our large and diverse audiences, our education programs, and our artistic partnerships allows us to set and promote standards that other groups can participate in and learn from. Finally, as an organization committed to diversity, equity, inclusion and access, we know that climate responsiveness is a DEIA issue and must be pursued as a key part of this work. 

WIDER BENEFITS OF CLIMATE ACTION IN OUR SECTOR

Our unique position as theater professionals obligates us to speak to the most important questions and crises facing our world. Theater makers are storytellers with great power to present complex ideas in clear and compelling ways, to build empathy and connection, and to empower audiences. Pre-pandemic, the theater sector hosted over 35 million audience members a year on average, according to research from the Theater Communications Group and the National Endowment for the Arts. As audiences return and theaters create new ways to reach them, it is vital to use our platforms and storytelling powers to explore and inspire action around critical climate issues. Particularly as the theater sector reckons with pandemic-era questions of the sector’s sustainability and racial justice, the environmental justice that is deeply entwined with both those issues is a key focus. 

In addition to the responsibility theaters have due to our platform, several US theater organizations have produced research that shows theater has significant environmental impact in our use of energy and materials, and several academic and consulting organizations have proposed shifts like the use of recycled materials, shifting budgets from physical tools to labor, and better inventory and tracking of materials and usage. CSC considers itself responsible for following and implementing these sustainability initiatives across the sector. 

CSC’s key partners in environmental efforts are the public bodies governing our geographic area, namely the municipal and state governments, and our fellow performing arts organizations across the world. With these various partnerships, CSC can work towards reducing the environmental impact of our productions and operations and to raising the profile of environmental and racial justice concerns across our city and beyond. A key example is the City of Boston, which currently operates under a climate plan most recently updated in 2019 that focuses on carbon reduction, and CSC joins its efforts to move towards net zero emissions by 2050, protecting Boston’s natural resources, and ensuring equity in climate efforts and resource management. 

Within the sector, the Theatre Green Book organization in the UK has published a suite of steps and commitments that guide sustainable productions, buildings, and operations to guide ecological responsibility on the premise that we have an opportunity and responsibility as a sector to be a force for climate action. Many theater organizations across the world, including the US, have committed to implementing these policies and procedures, and CSC commits specifically to taking their outdoor production guidelines onboard in planning and operations.

This work is supported through funding provided by
the Liberty Mutual Foundation’s Climate Resiliency Initiative Grant.

Please click the toggle titles below for a drop-down menu of links to resources: