Sustainability

Vamos Theatre’s Environmental Action Plan recognises our responsibility to take action in the face of the climate emergency and supports our belief that theatre can lead positive change.

Vamos Theatre’s ethos promotes empathy, connection, kindness, love, joy and community, all of which grow people’s connection with, and understanding of, fellow humans and more than humans. This ethos forms the backbone of our activities and is at the root of our Environmental Action Plan.

Our Environmental Action Plan is here to help us reduce the harm we cause through our work, whilst retaining the cultural and social value of what we do.  It’s here to show that the theatre community’s creativity and knowledge can have an impact on the crisis we are living through.

Our intent

• To continue to embed environmental sustainability and climate justice into our activity
• To grow our sustainability knowledge as a team and understand what makes a difference
• To act with manageable and authentic aims
• To use the Carbon Handprint concept, which puts the emphasis on actions that have a positive impact on the climate crisis
• To gather clear, precise, useful data 
• To embed a practice of minimising harm
• To embed a practice of using less
• To influence, inspire and encourage our peers and audiences 
• To share our experiences and learn from others

Background
Vamos Theatre came to the end of an initial three year Environmental Action Plan in 2025, which was based on the One Plant Living framework. The new Plan has been developed from this experience and learning. With the help of Change Consultant, Jo Lyons, members of Sustainable Arts West Midlands, the Theatre Green Book and One Planet Living, we are building upon these first three years to create a more impactful, creative and realistic set of aims and actions to take us forward. 

Principles
Our Environmental Action Plan is structured around four guiding principles: 
1. Community and connection
This principle guides aims and actions that value and promote the building of community and the championing of local. Connected communities create a fairer, less consuming, more locally-based world, which in turn promotes cohesion, empathy and social justice, crucial to building the resilience needed in times of crisis, By using our well-honed skills of bringing people together, creating opportunities and valuing community, we aim to help promote resilient community-making, recognising that it is only when people learn to care that people learn to act.
2. Social justice and equity
This principle guides aims and actions that support equity of opportunity, recognising that climate change impacts are felt most by communities already facing systemic inequality. It also acknowledges that where we all choose to put our money, such as through insurance, pensions or purchasing, can shore up some of the most environmentally damaging activities on the planet.
3. Health, well-being and nature
This principle recognises that centralising the health and happiness of all beings underpins climate responsibility. It supports aims and actions that care for people – our staff, our audiences, our peers and the wider world - and care for the earth, through responsible practice and ethical choices.
4. Ethical consumption
Ethical consumption is key to creating impactful change within the theatre industry and beyond. This principle supports aims and actions that reduce how much we take from the earth and how much harm we cause, based on energy use in its broadest sense. This principle guides our actions in the realm of travel, purchasing, digital data and energy (power) use, acknowledging the importance of reducing our carbon footprint in practical, meaningful ways.

Our approach 
The first three years of our climate action taught us a lot, both through implementing changes in practice and through the influence, knowledge and support of peers and consultants. We often took on more than we could manage, had unrealistic aims or didn’t know why we were taking action. All this has helped us to create a new Plan that is better informed, manageable and authentic. with knowledge at its core. Team ownership is also key, so that everyone involved understands why we are acting and can see why it matters that we do. Alongside an aim to reduce our carbon footprint in practical ways, we have chosen to reframe our approach through the lens of the carbon handprint, which focusses on how our strengths and values can guide us in having a positive impact on the climate crisis, and contribute to our energy and motivation.  Thank you to Jo Lyons for introducing us to this useful concept. Our approach is also guided by the pillars of Arts Council England’s Environmental Responsibility Investment Principles - Understanding the Data; Plan, Action and Change; Influence, Educate and Advocate. 

Team knowledge
Crucial to our Plan’s success is the continuing commitment of all our staff and trustees. It’s been created with the whole team’s input, gathered through questionnaires, meetings and training sessions, and we know that understanding why is central to effective action and sustaining motivation. Climate knowledge and learning opportunities will be included in our monitoring documents, as well as climate-related training sessions and regular sharing at team meets. Learning will be supported by our Ethical Consumer magazine subscription, attendance and involvement with Sustainable Arts West Midlands, input from our Board Environmental Champion, Alison Blank, and the Theatre Green Book events and training.

Monitoring
Monitoring is vital in helping us know whether we are making a difference, but we’ve also learned from experience that tracking data on everything we do is unmanageable and overwhelming. To help, we’ll continue to use our monitoring documents to measure our aims and actions within  principles 1-3, and create a series of Guidelines to help us apply the learning and experience we’ve been through within principle 4. Our Guideline documents are there to define best ethical and sustainable practice for the company in four areas – travel, purchasing, digital data and energy use, as well as to help us know what’s best to do when the ideal just isn’t possible, whether because of time, money or resources. We will gather quantitative data, alongside qualitative insights and understanding, and monitor our progress at bi-monthly team meetings, through quarterly reports to the Board and an annual assessment of progress. 

Sharing and Influencing
Our influence is a strength. Alongside our actions, it is the importance of sharing and encouraging others to behave in new ways that positively impacts the climate crisis. Influencing, in its kindest sense, takes a central role in our Plan - we know it is within our power to affect the way our audiences, peers and venues think and act for the better. We’ll share our aims and actions, our learning, knowledge and discoveries with our audiences, peers, our local community and the wider world.

Going forward
Vamos Theatre’s Environmental Action Plan aims to be an evolving, living, practical and dynamic set of aims and actions that guide us as we go forward and allow us to flex and change as needed. Putting our company ethos at the heart of the Plan is an authentic way in which we can hold ourselves accountable to our vision and ethos – to create a kinder world where empathy, connection and community is at centre stage. These qualities help us all to understand our interconnectedness with the natural world and act with justice and responsibility.