Vivid LIVE goes Co2-neutral for second year running

The Sydney Opera House announced today that the annual contemporary music takeover, Vivid LIVE, will be carbon neutral for the second year running as part of the Opera House’s commitment to reducing environmental impact across the board, from day-to-day building operations to the world-class art performed on Sydney’s most famous stages.

A number of green initiatives will be implemented at this year’s Vivid LIVE, as part of the overarching sustainability plan for Vivid Sydney, the world’s largest festival of light, music and ideas.

• Green Lights: All electricity used for Vivid LIVE 2016 events, including the centrepiece ‘Songlines’ Lighting the Sails, will be powered by 100% Green Power from accredited renewable sources.
• Waste not: A successful Vivid LIVE 2015 pilot that provided surplus edible food to the food-rescue charity OzHarvest will be extended this year, with the Opera House installing dedicated cold storage for the 2016 event. Alongside these food donations, all non-edible food waste from Opera House restaurants will be sent to Earth Power – a nearby facility that uses food waste as a green-energy source.
• Thinking outside the bottle: 200 artists and crew will receive reusable water bottles rather than bottled water – saving an estimated 6,000 plastic water bottles across the event.
• Foot traffic: Vivid LIVE attendees will be encouraged through the event’s website to take public transport where possible and, for the first time, an estimated carbon footprint from audience travel will be calculated post-event. E-marketing will also be used where possible to reduce printed materials.
• Celebrating local foods: To celebrate the first Indigenous Lighting of the Opera House sails, local produce will take centre stage at bars and restaurants across the precinct – from Opera Bar’s special oyster shots inspired by the Indigenous history of the site to local craft Aussie beers at the Deep Purple Pool Hall.

Highlighting the year-on-year impact of the Vivid LIVE sustainability program, a team of staff recently travelled to Varroville, 50 km south-west of Sydney, to plant almost 1,000 trees, which contributed to offsetting the 490 tonnes of carbon emissions generated by 2015’s contemporary music takeover.

These trees, which will become a biodiverse native forest, mean that the Opera House is not only reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the long-term, it is improving native vegetation in the Sydney region.

Sydney Opera House Environmental Sustainability Manager Naomi Martin said: “One-off initiatives are fine, but it is only through ongoing action to reduce our environmental footprint that we can have a genuine, long-term impact.”

“We have committed to making Vivid LIVE 2016 fully carbon neutral and continuing our partnerships with fantastic organisations such as OzHarvest and Earth Power to that end.”

“We’re also looking for new ways to engage staff in our environmental efforts through projects such as the recent tree-planting day, which we hope will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions well into the future.”

Today’s announcement builds on the Opera House’s ongoing environmental sustainability plan, which, as a result of last year’s program, saw the world-famous performing arts centre awarded with a 4 Star Green Star – Performance rating from the Green Building Council of Australia.

To find out more about ‘Greening The House’, check out a series of videos online.