Join Ecostage’s global online community

Take the pledge as a public commitment to a sustainable future for yourself, your project, company or community, and help generate the collective momentum for global change.

Ecostage: Placing ecological thinking at the heart of creative practice

  • Tick each box and click the pledge button at the bottom of the page

  • Set up ‘my account’ and create a profile, this will appear on the ‘community’ page

  • Download the Ecostage Stamp to use on documentation and make your eco-commitment visible, inspiring others to do the same

  • Download the guide for more info on how to start

  • After pledging you’ll be able to upload case studies to share

Implement the 7 Rs

Principle: Sustainability

“A commitment to Reuse, Refuse, Reduce, and Recycle sparks transformative, creative opportunities for the performing arts to Rethink, Reimagine and Regenerate for a fair, flourishing, greener future.”

Ecostage 2020

  • Embed Ecological values and objectives from the outset, and make considered, ethical and sustainable choices
  • Work towards zero waste
  • Audit usage, track impacts, take action
  • Listen to what materials have to say
  • Recognise no decision stands on its own

Run the Marathon Not the Sprint

Principle: Wellbeing

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”

Lao Tzu, ancient Chinese Taoist philosopher

  • Care for yourself and the team
  • Uphold the right to fair pay and safe working environments
  • Go slow to go fast
  • Optimize access, inclusivity and equal opportunities for everyone
  • Find what makes your eco-heart sing

Nurture Nature

Principle: Interconnectivity

“Every living being is connected intimately, and from this intimacy follows the capacity of identification and as its natural consequences, practice of non-violence .. Now is the time to share with all life on our maltreated earth through the deepening identification with life forms and the greater units, the ecosystems, and Gaia, the fabulous, old planet of ours.’”

Arne Naess, Norwegian deep ecology philosopher

  • Acknowledge that humans are inextricably part of Nature's deep ‘web of life’
  • Recognize environmental personhood, which designates Nature the status of a legal person
  • Grow a deeper relationship with Nature to nurture, inspire and teach us
  • Value the co-dwelling on Earth of ‘the more than human world’
  • Be a custodian of the Living Planet

Cultivate Co-Creation

Principle: Creativity

"My experience of the arts comes from the idea of being an active participant in the stories we make. The arts involve practical, day-to-day creative activities we bring into every aspect of our daily lives. So, not just the storytelling, but the gathering, the hosting, the cooking, the making, the doing, and how we use a creative frame to interpret and translate that world in terms of the way we’d like to see the world."

Lucy Neal, British Theatre Maker & Writer

  • Value creativity and imagination in all forms and as tools for change
  • Discover different approaches, envision solutions through play and rethink the future together
  • Connect with what Place brings to the creative process
  • Consider the communities you are part of, and explore participatory, interdisciplinary and collaborative arts practices
  • Nurture curiosity, a beginner's mind, awe and wonder

Be a Changemaker

Principle: Transformation

“We can’t save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed. Everything needs to change – and it has to start today.”

Greta Thunberg, Swedish environmental activist

  • Embrace advocacy and activism to help build awareness, explore new and future narratives, inspire systemic change through the arts
  • Facilitate and participate to cross-pollinate ideas, encourage knowledge-exchange, and create learning and training opportunities
  • Celebrate regionality, and actively encourage decentralization in the performing arts
  • Challenge the status quo and accentuate the possibilities of 'what if?’
  • Recognize that our spheres of influence are greater than we think

Grow a Deeper Democracy

Principle: Inclusivity

“I am in the business of narratives and storytelling that counter violent dehumanisation, that build community. My medium for this rehumanisation is the arts - as a space for dialogue, for envisioning, re-imagining, focus.”

Zena Edwards, British poet & performer

  • Incorporate a Deep Democracy model within projects, groups, communities and organizations which fosters a deeper level of relating and is proactively inclusive
  • Welcome the diversity of viewpoints and communication styles, and engage with the complexity of our stories, feelings and dreams, to support our local and global communities to grow and flourish
  • Bring awareness of the intersectionality of social, climate and environmental justice
  • Actively listen and make space for the quieter voices in the room, who may hold the keys to what comes next
  • Appreciate the small steps

Build Positive Legacy

Principle: Regeneration

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

Arundhati Roy, Indian writer

  • Recognize that, whatever art form, whatever communities we serve, the arts can contribute to regenerative legacies beyond the project
  • Explore how being at an ecological tipping point in history places each of us in a unique position to take meaningful action
  • Play your part in decolonizing climate change
  • Consider how the performing arts are placed to convey complex ideas and connect people with ecological thinking
  • Become an eco-ancestor through the legacy of the arts with powerful opportunities to express shared humanity, connect diverse people, challenge assumptions, inspire joy and wonder, and dream solutions for the sustainable journey ahead