‘Tis the season of buying new and replacing old electronics, and The Broadway Green Alliance marked its one year anniversary today with an industry-wide electronic waste (e-waste) recycling collection. Actors, union members, producers, general managers and theatres from across the Great White Way honored the accomplishments of the first year by coming together to drop off their e-waste and celebrate with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Duffy Square.

David Stone, producer of Wicked and Next to Normal, said, “I’m thrilled with the way in which the theatre community has united to make theatre and our community greener. We have made great progress this year and built momentum that will lead to even greener theatre in the future.”

The BGA was created in 2008 as an Ad Hoc Committee of the Broadway League, and is an industry-wide initiative that seeks to educate, motivate, and inspire the theatre community and its patrons to adopt environmentally friendlier practices in theatrical production and everyday life. Working closely with the NRDC, the BGA identifies and disseminates better practices for theatre professionals and reaches out to theatre fans throughout the country. The alliance operates primarily through six committees: Venues, Pre- & Post-Production, Production, Membership, Touring, and Education & Outreach.

Stone, NRDC Senior Scientist Dr. Allen Hershkowitz, and the Director of the Office of Recycling Outreach and Education, Council on the Environment of NYC, David Hurd, joined the casts of several shows today to commemorate the year's accomplishments with the e-waste event and celebration, which included original songs and show numbers performed by Broadway casts, including Finian’s Rainbow, Guys & Dolls, Mamma Mia!, 9 to 5, Phantom of the Opera, Ragtime, South Pacific, The Little Mermaid and Wicked.

“Electronic waste is the fastest growing component of our waste stream worldwide, and among the most dangerous. When highly visible and culturally influential organizations like Broadway theaters help motivate people to manage their e-waste responsibly, they do a great public service,” said Hershkowitz. “The Broadway Green Alliance has made enormous progress in the first year of their wonderful environmental initiative. They've brought that Broadway spirit to help green the Great White Way and educate the millions of people who visit it each year.”

In its first year, the BGA has already made great strides toward improving the industry's energy efficiency, strengthening its recycling programs, and cutting its waste.

Specifically, the BGA has made the following accomplishments to date:

• Theatres have begun major recycling and energy curtailment programs, as well as switching to more eco-friendly cleaning products and appliances. Over 97% of the marquee and outside lighting of Broadway theatres have been changed to LEDs or CFLs.
• The Broadway community has adopted greener methods of disposing of sets from closing productions. Approximately 84% of scenery from shows that closed during the 2008/2009 season was recycled or reused, instead of going to landfill.
• Theatre professionals have identified and disseminated better practices to shows running on Broadway and touring throughout the United States through the BGA website and a bimonthly newsletter called The Green Sheet that is distributed digitally to over 500 shows, theatres, Broadway League members, and other subscribers.
• Backstage, many participating productions now use water filtration systems, turn off and unplug electrical devices, and limit paper and battery usage.
• Touring shows participating in Touring Green have offset over 4,000 tons of carbon emissions from moving their equipment by investing in wind power, methane digesters and other projects through Native Energy.
• BGA membership has grown to include: all Broadway venues in New York and throughout the country, producers, directors, managers, actors and individuals involved in the production of Broadway shows, theatrical industry labor unions, including Actors’ Equity Association, Local 802 AF or M, ATPAM, SDC, Local One and Local 764 TWU, set production, costume, lighting, sound, public relations, advertising, transportation and other companies that work primarily with Broadway.
• The BGA has also partnered with members of the entertainment industry beyond Broadway. The BGA collaborated with other organizations, including working with Mayor Bloomberg’s office as part of PlaNYC (the citywide green effort initiative), participating in Earth Hour on March 28, 2009 by dimming marquee lights from 8:30-9:30p.m. and working with the Times Square Alliance to find ways to promote the new pedestrian plaza in Times Square while encouraging mass transit to bring audiences to Broadway. The BGA worked with The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing to make the 2009 Tony Awards the greenest yet, including hybrid limousines for guests, recycling bins in the offices and lobby, a red carpet made from recycled materials, and renewable power donated by Suez Energy. For the first time, Playbills for the 2009 Tony Awards were printed on 30% post-consumer recycled content and included an article on the BGA.
• The BGA can now be found through a state-of-the-art BGA mobile site (reachable by texting BGA to 99222) and on Twitter at “broadwaygreen.” Thanks to Situation Interactive, the BGA re-launched its website at www.BroadwayGreen.com in early December. The comprehensive new website features information and resources for the entire theatre community as well as the general public.

Today's e-waste drive was organized by the BGA to help the community responsibly dispose off their electronics. But theatre fans can do their part by taking their old electronics to retailers with recycling programs, mailing them back to manufacturers, or organizing a recycling event in their community – visit nrdc.org/ewaste to find out how.

E-waste, or electronic waste, refers to old computers, cell phones, printers and other electronics that are no longer wanted. These products contain dangerous toxins like lead and mercury that should not be thrown in with the rest of the trash, but reused or recycled instead. The theatre community dropped off their personal e-waste for recycling today, including cell phones, home phones, desktop computers, printers, laptops/notebooks, LCD and flat panel monitors, CRT based monitors, keyboards, dry cell batteries, PDAs, VCRs, DVDs, computer speakers, computer mice, and video game systems.

The e-waste event is made possible by the generous contributions of talented Broadway cast and crew members and their unions. Special thanks also go to the participating shows, to John Carrafa and John Mercurio, and to companies and other BGA allies supporting this event, including the Mayor’s Office, Mobile Caviar, NRDC, Situation Interactive, Showman Fabricators, Sound Associates, The Times Square Alliance, Theatre Development Fund, and We Recycle!

For a complete copy of the official one-year report, please contact Elisa Shevitz at The Broadway League, [email protected].

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The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA), established in 2008 as an Ad Hoc Committee of The Broadway League, is an industry-wide initiative that seeks to educate, motivate, and inspire the theater community and its patrons to adopt environmentally friendlier practices in theatrical production and everyday life. Working closely with the Natural Resources Defense Council, the BGA identifies and disseminates better practices for theatre professionals and reaches out to theatre fans throughout the country. www.BroadwayGreen.com

The Broadway League, founded in 1930, is the national trade association for the Broadway industry. The League’s 600-plus members include theatre owners and operators, producers, presenters, and general managers in over 240 North American cities, as well as suppliers of goods and services to the theatre industry. Each year, League members bring Broadway to nearly 30 million people in New York and on tour across the U.S. and Canada. Visit www.BroadwayLeague.com.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is a national, nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has 1.3 million members and online activists nationwide, served from offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Beijing. For more information on how to green and event or organization, go to www.nrdc.org.

WeRecycle! LLC, was founded in 2003 and specializes in the recovery, management and environmentally responsible recycling of end-of-life electronics and other universal waste. We also serve municipalities in the Northeast by providing permanent public collection programs and one-day public collection events. Our IT asset recovery and recycling programs help protect our clients' liability and safeguard our environment by utilizing the most advanced methods for environmentally sound recycling and electronic data security.

Situation Interactive is a leading interactive agency for premiere live events clients. The agency creates comprehensive interactive marketing campaigns for theatre, music, art and sports brands worldwide using both online and mobile platforms. With offices in New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, they work with brands such as Disney, Universal, Blue Man Group, and US Open. www.situationinteractive.com