NIE as a touring company recognises the importance and value of presenting work in-person locally, nationally and internationally, and the carbon cost of this. We bring together artists and audiences to share stories and be engaged with the power of live theatre.  As a theatre company delivering work for and with young people, we believe we should minimise our environmental impact to make a sustainable world for their future.

We are committed to the principle of reduce, reuse and recycle. We will promote more sustainable ways of working to our workforce, partners and stakeholders. As part of local, national and international networks we will use our platform to share best practice and learn from peers.

Each team is committed to achieving the highest standards of sustainable operation in all our activities to minimise our impact on the environment.

In the UK we are committed to the following objectives within our environmental action plan, which we will benchmark via Julie’s Bicycle and using Theatre Green Book.:

— Establish current carbon emissions as a basis for goal setting.
— Consider all areas of our work in our goal to improve sustainability.
— Improved organisational understanding to inform policy and processes.
— Explore carbon reduction and offsetting options
— Advocate and share how we are working to stakeholders

Our Environmental policy is supported by a detailed action plan, which is regularly reviewed by the staff and board.   We welcome any new suggestions on how we can reduce our carbon footprint across all our operations.

UK Update 2024/25

In 2024/25 we reviewed our sustainability policy, recognising there had been a number of organisational changes since the original policy was developed.  During this process we were able to reflect on the progress we had made, celebrating the sustainable practices that have become embedded in our activities.  We also now have a clear plan in place for 2025; with realistic deadlines, and measurable goals, for our small team to enable us to demonstrate our progress. Our 2025/26 aims include:

• — Establishing areas we can further improve on
• — Setting a target for a reduction in carbon emissions
• — Researching effective carbon off-setting for necessary journeys
• — Working with venues to reduce the amount of printed marketing materials produced for shows