Lyric Theatre

NI's full-time producing theatre, we are dedicated to reducing the environmental impact of our actions.

The environmental impact of the theatre is broad – public buildings use energy; audiences, staff and artists have to travel; and the numerous operations that the theatre needs, all add to our carbon footprint. With the support of the Theatre Green Book, we aim to reduce our impact on the environment and create a more sustainable future.

Internally we are ‘greening’ our own practices and operations, making improvements to lighting and are working towards a zero-waste production thanks to the transformative work of our new Scenic Construction Workshop. 

Importantly we are also keen to ensure that we promote and encourage conversations around sustainability, touring to primary schools across Northern Ireland to educate young people on the climate crisis. 

Scenic Construction Workshop

The new Lyric Scene Shop aims to make the Lyric more resilient for the future and to improve our environmental sustainability practices. Scenic construction is not only an integral part of the creative process, but it also represents one of the most significant areas of cost and potential for waste.

As a full-time producing theatre, we create up to 10 in-house productions every year. Our Scenic Construction team is committed to minimising the adverse environmental effects caused as a result of what we do, reducing the use of raw materials in our sets, and reusing materials where possible.

We are committed to working with the Theatre Green Book and are delighted to report that in the last year all the sets for Lyric productions have achieved Theatre Green Book baseline standard, made from over 50% recycled material from previous sets which would otherwise have gone to waste: Our productions of Little Women and Burnt Out achieved the Theatre Green Book baseline standard of at least 50% of materials having had a previous life; our productions of Anne Boleyn, and The Beauty Queen of Leenane achieved the Theatre Green Book intermediate standard of at least 75% of materials having had a previous life; our two Christmas productions Hansel and Gretel and Have Yourself a Scary Little Christmas hit advanced level with 95% recycled material! On productions where significant quantities of new materials are used, these are planned to be processed and recycled for use in future productions.

We have also worked with external creative organisations on both their scenic delivery and expertise in scenic recycling and disposal. To date we have worked with Bruiser Theatre Company, Replay Theatre Company, Northern Ireland Opera, and The Belfast Operatic Society.

Our Building 

We benefit from being a purpose built modern building, and we were extremely energy efficient when we were built 13+ years ago. We have solar thermal panels on our roof which heat our water, and every space is naturally ventilated with the exception of the two performing spaces.

But there is much more to do. We are making constant improvements to lighting, and are currently looking for funding to install LED lighting in two large spaces in the theatre. Most significantly, we recently installed a new Building Management System, supported by Theatres Trust and the Wolfson Foundation. This has been transformative, giving us greater control over heating, ventilation and energy use, and enabling us to achieve our energy saving targets.

Our Operations

We are making an effort to 'green' our operations - moving to paperless within our Finance and Admin departments; changing our recycling supplier to ensure that our waste is managed more sustainably; and we promote a culture of sustainability in the Lyric led by our Green Team.

In 2022 we replaced all Single Use Plastic glasses with reusable cups, saving 36,000 plastic cups being binned per year.

‘Wastebusters’ - the Eco Musical

‘Wastebusters’ has visited primary schools across Northern Ireland and aims to raise awareness of littering and plastic pollution.

Through our outreach programme, we are actively promoting and encouraging conversations around sustainability.

In the last three years, the Creative Learning Department have toured a production for primary schools across Northern Ireland – a brand new, Theatre-in- Education project highlighting environmental issues affecting life here to educate young people on the climate crisis. 

So far it has played to an audience of over 5,000 young people across all 11 council areas in Northern Ireland and has been supported by environmental charity Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.

Awards & Recognition

We are very proud of our Green credentials, and delighted to have been recognised for our achievements in this area.

- Shortlisted for a Business in the Community Responsible Business Award for Best Climate Action for sustainable theatre making through our Scenic Workshop (Sep 2023)

- Bronze Green Tourism Award (Aug 2022) from Belfast City Council and Visit Belfast.

- Shortlisted for a Business in the Community Responsible Business Award for Best Education Partnership for our Eco Schools/ DAERA partnership (May 2022)

- Nominated for Theatre of the Year by The Stage for a number of reasons, including our work in advocating for a creative response to the climate crisis as part of the Green Arts Collective (2021).