Birmingham’s Hippodrome theatre goes green

• May. 11 by Aneesa Malik (0)

The Hippodrome theatre in the centre of Birmingham has announced their decision to officially “Go Green”.

They recently received an ISO award for their attempt to lower their carbon footprint throughout the building, and is the first theatre in the UK to have been registered .

The theatre has implemented several schemes to help protect the environment, including compacting general waste, so it can be recycled every two weeks. Originally it was two skips every week, to a landfill site.

Waste which cannot be recycled is now sent to Tyseley Incinerator in Birmingham, which produces enough energy to power 40,000 local homes.

The Hippodrome have also been involved with the Cool Earth charity to help save the endangered Amazonian rainforest, through selling coffee. So far, the theatre has rescued seven acres of forestry, which will help contain 1, 800 tones of C02.

Brian Smith, of the Facilities Department at the Hippodrome has stated:

‘Birmingham Hippodrome is the UK’s most visited theatre, with around  500,000 visitors annually.   We wanted to be able to respond to their needs, by helping to save the environment.’

Further plans to reduce carbon emmisions are being looked into, and are hoping to be implemented by 2011.
Mr. Smith further stated:

‘Our commitment is ongoing and at the moment we are looking at how we can improve our water usage.’

The Hippodrome sees food recycling as another priority which needs to be addressed, but have stated that they are not upto scratch as of yet.

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