Get Started with the ETC Theatre Green Book

You are joining 32 other ETC Theatres from 21 countries on an ambitious journey to become climate neutral by 2030.

It can seem like a huge task..... but this guide will show you the exact steps you need to take over the coming weeks and months to get closer to becoming a sustainable theatre.

Often, we find theatres are much further ahead on sustainability than they realised. This can be a very rewarding and empowering place to start.

To get inspired, watch the video below to see how your colleagues around Europe have embedded the ETC TGB in their organisations.

STEP 1: DOWLOAD THE ETC THEATRE GREEN BOOK (ETC TGB)

Download the ETC Theatre Green Book

This is the reference for every question about making your theatre sustainable. Use it as a guide whenever you have a question.

STEP 2: DISCOVER GREEN THEATRE

Read pages 3 - 11 in the ETC Theatre Green Book. This explains what 'green theatre' looks like and why it is important.

You can also explore video and article resources to get more information. For instance:

• Renew Culture, the creators of the Theatre Green Book and ETC's partners for the ETC Theatre Green Book, have created several recorded lectures to explain how the ETC TGB works. You can watch them here
• Your ETC colleagues have written articles about challenges they have faced in applying the ETC TGB. You can read these articles HERE. They include: ETC TGB: How to Make Sustainable Productions Without Storage Space; and ETC TGB: Our 'Howcha Dowcha'* Approach to Sustainable Theatre

STEP 3: GET YOUR FIRST SELF-CERTIFICATION, PRELIMINARY

Read pages 12 - 14 in the ETC TGB. This explains the 5 steps you need to take to reach the first level in the ETC Theatre Green Book, called 'Preliminary'. The steps are:

• Commit to reducing your envionmental impact, so that your journey is clear to everyone
• Establish a Green Committee to involve staff and make progress
• Agree an Action Plan to reach 'Basic' level in the ETC TGB (this is already level 2!)
• Make a Data Plan so that you can report and analyse your progress
• Set a Communication Plan to explain how you will share your targets and achievements (see the section below 'Communicating the ETC Theatre Green Book').

As a reminder, there are 4 Self-Certification levels in total (Preliminary, Basic, Intermediate and Advanced). Once you reach Advanced, you have achieved net-zero theatre. You can see more detail about the process for receiving the self-certification in the section below called 'How to Receive the ETC Theatre Green Book Certifications'.

The ETC Theatre Green Book self-certification process helps you track — and celebrate — your sustainable progress, across four levels: Preliminary, Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced (equivalent to net-zero).

Once you are ready with 'Preliminary', submit the 'Preliminary' form and ETC will confirm your level.

ETC awards theatres their ETC Theatre Green Book certificates for Basic, Intermediate and Advanced at our annual attribution ceremonies, held every year during the Spring ETC Conferences. The next Spring ETC Conference at which we will have an attribution ceremony is in Bilbao in Spring 2027.

To apply for these levels, you must download and submit the relevant submission form.

The forms are available to fill in and submit on the 'Self-Certification' page. 

Once you reach the 'Preliminary' level of self-certification in the ETC TGB, you will be 25% of the way towards climate-neutral theatre!

We think the best policy for communicating about sustainability is to be clear about your targets, and to celebrate things that go well along the way! We have created a dedicated 'Comms Kit' guide to help you in this process, which details the exact steps you can take. You can download the document HERE.

The next steps are:

1) Download the ETC Theatre Green Book logos        

2) Add the ETC Theatre Green Book logo to your website footer

3) Add the ETC TGB logo to relevant communications materials (newsletters, flyers)

4) Share the news of your progress with the ETC Theatre Green Book on social media. 

• You can download the social media assets here

5) When you receive the link from ETC, download the ETC TGB certificate with your current level to print and display internally

6) Continue working towards the next level of Self-Certification!