Sustainability

Oily Cart is a champion of children’s wellbeing. We worry deeply about their future. The climate emergency and many connected environmental challenges are diminishing the chances of enjoying a safe and fulfilling life. Action isn’t a choice, it’s an existential necessity.

To us sustainability is a mindset, a way of viewing our relationship with nature. It’s about interdependence and care; it’s also about valuing things correctly. We’re a small organisation, but we believe there are many ways we can contribute. Part of this relates to how we operate, and part to how we educate and advocate for change.

We have a policy and plan to reduce our environmental footprint. To monitor our impact we use Julie’s Bicycle, a not-for-profit that is helping the arts and culture take action on the climate and ecological crisis. We are also integrating sustainability into the development of future shows, including a project supported by Arts Centre Melbourne and the British Council. This uses ‘biophilic’ principles and explores ways of making and touring shows with minimal environmental impact. Intersectionality is an important theme in all our efforts, and we are always looking at ways to address overlapping issues, such as ableism and environmental problems.  

Areas of focus

Climate change – We track our carbon footprint and aim to reduce this significantly, both in our day-to-day operations and for our shows. Unsurprisingly, travel is our single largest source of emissions. Part of our current research is looking at ways of making our shows transferrable to other geographies, i.e. using local performers, equipment and materials. In the shorter term, we are looking at credible ways of offsetting some of our unavoidable emissions, and we have set an internal carbon price to this end.

Materials & waste – We are mindful of the need to eliminate waste and looking at ways we can support a circular economy. This includes things such as reuse and recycling, and minimising the use of non-recyclable materials. It also means thinking carefully about who we source materials from, making sure that we buy local where we can, as well as understand the sustainability profiles of our suppliers.

Collaboration – The environmental challenges we face require collective action, so we are keen to collaborate with communities, partners and like-minded organisations. We also firmly believe in advocacy and are ready to work with local and national governments to accelerate change.

Data and monitoring – We are working to improve our data gathering and monitoring, to get a more granular understanding of our environmental impacts. Our ambition is to set specific targets at the outset of each production and to evaluate our performance at the end. This will help us identify areas for further improvement.