Let’s face it – touring creates a large carbon footprint. The Touring Team at Regional Arts Victoria are working with our artists to find ways to reduce the impact of our touring.
What is Regional Arts Victoria doing?
We will be doing this by:
- Choosing the most sustainable travel options wherever possible
- Looking at ways we can support your company to reduce the impact of touring
- Trying to be sustainable while we are being COVID-Safe
- Offsetting our carbon emissions at the end of each year.
This is part of our bigger organisational focus on being more responsible for our environmental impact, and not just in the office.
Working with our service providers
We are working with our service providers to:
- Use Hybrid vehicles whenever possible for the tour party. Hybrid vehicles run on both petrol and electricity. The battery charges as you drive, using petrol to take off and slow down. There is no need to recharge it – just refill it with petrol when you need it.
- Identify accommodation providers with a strong environmental policy, which uses re-usable soaps/shampoos etc, actively saves water & power, and provides basic cooking facilities to minimise food wastage for companies; and
- Work with venues to identify how they can reduce their energy and waste consumption.
What can touring artists do?
Being sustainable can be more challenging on the road, so we have put together some useful tips for you and your company members. We encourage you to have these conversations before you get on the road and to make choices where possible to do what you can. Just by reading this you are already doing a great job!
Have you got your plastic-free kit ready? Bringing cutlery, keep cups and containers on tour can help cut back on single-use plastics.
The reality is, you can’t always avoid packaging on the road, but did you know you can collect all your soft plastics and return them to most supermarkets? This even includes the packaging around gaffer tape and electrical tape.
Bring back the bakery! Buying fresh bread from a local bakery supports the local
community, and by bringing your own bag, you reduce waste. Win-win!
Fresh fruit comes in its own plastic-free packaging! It is also a great healthy snack that supports local farmers and reduces your waste. So why not go bananas?
Tip:
A day on the road can be pretty tough on the fruit in the bottom of your bag, so why not have a “fruit bowl” container in the car for all your company members to share…
The bathroom is another area where you can start to reduce your plastics – especially on tour. Bringing your own toiletries instead of using what is provided at motels ensures you are generating less waste. Did you know that almost everything in your toiletry bag has readily available plastic-free alternatives? Try searching online, or your local area for wholefood or eco stores for soap and shampoo bars.
Driving is a pretty big and essential part of touring regionally. At RAV, we track how many kilometers each tour travels, and last year we were able to offset our carbon emissions from all of yours, and our driving. Reducing fuel consumption can also have an impact! It’s a lot of people doing small things that add up to big change!
Did you know…
- Checking the pressure of tires regularly can help keep fuel consumption down
- Hard accelerating and breaking increases fuel use
- When you stop at the lights, turning the vehicle engine off while you are stationary uses less fuel than idling longer than 30 seconds
- Air conditioning can increase fuel use by up to 10%
- Using cruise control whenever safe to do so can reduce fuel consumption.
Tip:
For more info on using less fuel, check out this fab resource at RACV:
Food wastage in Australia is a big problem. Not only is it a waste of the resources required to grow the food, it also can be problematic to break down in landfill when it is discarded in a plastic bag. Composting your food scraps on tour is rarely an option. So what can you do?
Bringing food with you on tour rather than ordering takeaway when you can, trying not to order more food than you can eat, and touring with containers for leftovers are all little things that can add up to making a big difference.
Why not tour with an esky and some ice bricks or gel packs you can refreeze in the motel fridge?
Worried you won’t always have a microwave when you need it? Why not bring a portable camping stove?
Talk to your team about how you can shop together to reduce your waste.
Consider ways of reducing waste in the theatre too, not just on the road.
Landfill is another huge problem, which we can reduce by thinking about what we buy.
Here are some great questions to ask before we buy anything:
- Can that item be borrowed?
- Can it be bought second hand?
- What happens when you are done with it?
- Are there greener alternatives?
Here are three game changing alternatives to electrical tape:
Bongo Tie – Reusable, and 100% bio-degradable. Perfect for tidying cables!
Quick Release Rubber Ties – Used mainly in farming. Fantastic for cables, and the occasional gaff job.
Search online, or find in agriculture or hardware stores.
VELCRO Brand Straps – These can be purchased from Bunnings, in high vis or black. Perfect for keeping cables tidy, as well as a replacement for electrical tape.
- Keep cup / favourite mug
- Containers
- Cutlery
- Napkin
- Green bags
- Produce bags
- Bread bag
- Esky with ice blocks
- Small camping stove
- Bongo ties
- Velcro straps
- Bamboo toothbrush
- Soap
- Shampoo
- Solar device chargers
Challenge:
How many venues can you convert to these alternatives?
Super Challenge: Can you think of more ways to reduce waste in the theatre?
Other resources
Touring Green has been an active movement globally for many years, and there are some great resources out there to dive into: