"Inspired by Orbital's responsible attitude to battery recycling and their use of re-chargeable cells wherever possible, we wanted to place strict limits on our battery consumption levels. With a typical large-scale musical getting through hundreds of batteries every week, there is also a straightforward economic benefit to moving to rechargeables..... Any initiative that means we can save a bit of money while helping to save the environment gets my vote!"
Bill Kenwright Ltd (BKL), the UK's largest independent theatre and film production company, is initiating a new green policy on equipment batteries that will eventually be rolled out across all its shows.
Whether powering radio microphones or back-stage communications, modern theatrical productions consume immense quantities of batteries and, for BKL, standard dry cells are no longer an acceptable option. Instigated by BKL's senior producer Julius Green, the new initiative involves an incremental programme to switch each show to use rechargeable cells for all its battery requirements, as its current dry-cell stock runs out.
Julius Green commented:
"Inspired by Orbital's responsible attitude to battery recycling and their use of re-chargeable cells wherever possible, we wanted to place strict limits on our battery consumption levels. With a typical large-scale musical getting through hundreds of batteries every week, there is also a straightforward economic benefit to moving to rechargeables. They are initially more expensive per unit and of course they don't last forever but, taking a longer-term view, they'll save us a huge amount of waste and a significant proportion of a show's technical maintenance costs. Any initiative that means we can save a bit of money while helping to save the environment gets my vote!"
The first shows to adopt BKL's green policy include
Blood Brothers, Dreamboats and Petticoats, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Save the Last Dance for Me, and the new touring production of
Starlight Express.
"Inspired by Orbital's responsible attitude to battery recycling and their use of re-chargeable cells wherever possible, we wanted to place strict limits on our battery consumption levels. With a typical large-scale musical getting through hundreds of batteries every week, there is also a straightforward economic benefit to moving to rechargeables..... Any initiative that means we can save a bit of money while helping to save the environment gets my vote!"
