THE ROAD TO GREEN

ARTS ON TOUR’S ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT

A core value of Arts on Tour is caring for the wellbeing of people and our planet. We take responsibility for the need to balance the positive impact of live arts experiences for artists and communities with the negative environmental impact of making, touring and presenting work.

We do this by bringing an environmental lens to our operations and touring practices, and by offering upskilling and eco literacy programs to the performing arts sector as part of our ongoing Green Touring Initiative.

Arts on Tour has the privilege of touring artists and productions to communities across this vast continent. We do this work with an awareness and deep respect for First Peoples’ wisdom and knowledge in caring for the land, the sky, the rivers and the sea in a sustainable and regenerative way for over 60,000 years. 

OUR APPROACH

Our approach to climate change and caring for the environment is constantly evolving. In 2019 we launched the Green Touring Initiative with the aim of carbon neutral touring and a remove, reduce, offset strategy. In 2021 we developed and signed a Net Zero Commitment Statement, featured in the Green Touring Toolkit, committing to net zero emissions by 2024. But then we learnt more, and the picture got more complicated.

Working with environmental consultants Bea Jeavons and Aimee Smith in 2024, our strategy has evolved into a three-pronged approach in which we are no longer pursuing a net zero goal. We have kept remove and reduce, replaced offsetting with investing in biodiversity protection and restoration, and added climate advocacy, recognising that as a sector, we can harness the power of the artist’s voice and the gift of our storytelling.

This approach sees us step away from carbon neutral/net zero claims that are achieved by buying carbon credits to offset the emissions that we can’t remove or reduce.

Now we have learnt more, our thinking is that this gives a false sense of security, when research (e.g. this Climate Council report) tells us that it is impossible to offset fossil fuel emissions with carbon credit projects. We can’t buy our way out of the climate crisis.

So, instead of purchasing carbon credits to offset emissions, we are measuring our emissions and investing at least the same amount of money into planting native trees where the focus is on restoring native ecosystems and building critical habitat for wildlife. Although these plantings also remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere, a net zero claim is not the goal.


A THREE-PRONGED STRATEGY

1.  DECARBONISE: measure and reduce emissions across our operations and touring program

2. RESTORE: invest in nature conservation and biodiversity projects to protect and restore nature

3. ADVOCATE: use our voice to advocate for climate action

ARTS ON TOUR’S EMISSIONS BOUNDARY

An emissions boundary transparently discloses which activities have been included within an organisation’s emissions calculations. Where the line is drawn is based on how much control the organisation has over these activities. (See the Green Touring Toolkit for more info.) AOT includes all Scope 1, 2 & 3 activities in our emissions boundary for both our office operations and AOT-produced tours. For the tours we manage on a producer’s behalf, touring emissions sit within the producer’s boundary rather than AOT’s. This is the majority of activity we do as a touring service organisation.

What do we measure and include?

• AOT operations: electricity (sourced from a renewable energy supplier), water, waste, telecommunications, paper, printing, employee travel and accommodation, employee commuting, office IT and furniture purchases.
• AOT produced tours: emissions from all touring-based activity, including travel, freight, accommodation and food.

What about emissions relating to producing and presenting the productions we tour?
Based on the guideline of including in our boundary what we have control over, AOT does not include emissions from the making of a work (within the producer’s boundary) or those from presenting the work, including audience travel (within the presenter’s boundary). However, given the interconnectedness of the making-touring-presenting cycle, we work with our producer and presenter partners to support lowering emissions across the whole cycle with resources and projects such as the Greening Production Making series and by including a Green Rider in our presenter contracts. 


HOW MUCH DOES AOT ACTIVITY EMIT?

Arts on Tour delivers on average between 15-20 tours/year, with up to 200 people on the road, reaching over 150,000 audience members nationally. We measure emissions for our operations and our touring activity – both the tours we produce (emissions within AOT’s boundary) and those we manage on a producer’s behalf. In 2024, emissions were:

• AOT operations, including the office, staff travel and industry events: 16 tonnes CO2e
• AOT produced tours (3 tours): 45 tonnes CO2e
• Tours we managed for Producers (18 tours): 666 tonnes CO2e

Touring is a high emissions activity, hence our commitment to this work. If you’re interested in what types of activity contributed the most, see here for a breakdown. You can also see here the complexities of benchmarking tours on emissions levels, depending on if emissions are assessed per tour, per performance, per week, or per person.


ACTION PLAN 2025

Our current Environmental Policy and Touring Environmental Action Plan are in the Resources menu opposite. In summary, current actions are:

 1. Decarbonise

• Green Programming: in 2025 we are delivering the following low emission tours:
  • Terrapin Theatre’s The Paper Escaper
  • The Listies’ 110% Ready
  • Dance Makers Collective's The Saturday Night Social
• On the road: we are implementing our Touring Environmental Action Plan to measure emissions and apply remove and redesign strategies
• In the office: we are minimising office emissions with a range of measures, outlined in our Environmental Policy

 2. Restore

• Conservation: we are partnering with Greenfleet, who plant native, biodiverse forests in Australia and NZ to restore native ecosystems, build critical habitat for wildlife, and help fight the impacts of climate change.
• Investment: in 2024 we invested in planting 400 native trees at their biodiversity site at Ledcourt, on the lands of the Jardwadjali & Djabwurung people, where four threatened woodland ecosystems are being restored.

 3. Advocate

• Green Programming: in 2025 we are delivering the following environmentally-themed productions to generate audience awareness, conversation and action:
  • Belvoir’s Scenes from the Climate Era by David Finnigan
  • Legs on the Wall’s Beetle
• Stakeholders: we will advocate to suppliers, government agencies and other stakeholders to adopt and support climate action and emission reduction targets
• For the sector: we are presenting our Green Touring Initiative program to provide resources and run programs that increase eco literacy and support climate action
• Campaigning: we have signed the Culture Declares movement and are working with Creative Climate to support collective action across the arts in Australia and globally
• Divestment: we are a member of A Climate for Art who are working to switch the arts sector to fossil fuel-free banks, superannuation and power providers. Join the movement!