This guest blog has been written by Bethany Nicholson from The Odyssey Cinema on London Road.
The Odyssey Cinema Sustainability
Here at The Odyssey we aspire to improve our environmental and green performance year on year.
We are continuously examining ways in which we can achieve energy savings, reduce wastage and improve our sustainability strategy, working towards NET Zero.
Cinema Sustainability, an overview:
Over 350 people from across the wider UK cinema industry gathered at the UK Cinema Association 2023 conference – Greening the Big Screen Experience – held at Picturehouse Central in London in March this year.
Opening the event, perhaps the first cinema conference focussed solely on issues of environmental sustainability, UK Cinema Association Chief Executive Phil Clapp said:
‘We want this event to be very much a springboard for greater collective action by our sector, recognising that we are perhaps lagging behind a number of key other industries in terms of our understanding of the environmental impact of our activities, and the work that might be done to reduce those. None of those contributing across the next two days have all the answers or would say that there is not more that they could do, but all would I’m sure agree that what progress is possible will only be achievable if we all work together.’
Cinemas can actively contribute to climate protection by conducting themselves responsibly with resources. Sustainability in cinemas can be implemented with a variety of measures:
- Energy efficient measures in the operation of the cinema and the building
- Use of renewable energy
- Sustainable products at the concession stand
- Plastic ban and waste management
2023 at The Odyssey…
Seeds, sunflowers and sunshine…
We teamed up with Burston Garden Centre to raise awareness of how important our bees and pollination are. For each booking of the Bee Movie a packet of seeds was given out with all seeds being kindly provided by Burston.
By sowing bee-friendly wildflowers in your garden or community space, you can build a habitat for bees and other species, protecting pollinators. We also purchased a children’s gardening set to run a giveaway which we tied in with our green efforts by planting some bee friendly plants up on the roof which we hope to see thrive and be able to expand on to make a little roof garden.
Travel Choices…
We have largely increased focus on encouraging both staff and patrons to use greener travel. Did you know we have a bicycle rack directly outside? You can also pick up one of the many bus routes that have stops within the town centre and we are just a short walk away.
Package It Up…
We are always revising our packaging, to ensure our decisions are the most efficient choice. With selling glass bottled products, offering reusable glasses and switching to paper straws, we are already maximising our green efforts on the bar.
Did you know our sweet tubs and take-away coffee cups are all compostable? We dispose of all our compostable packaging with our food waste to ensure they are all composted- we’ve even increased the size of our compostable bins to fit larger items. You might be wondering if all our tubbed sweet labels are compostable too! We are currently working toward printing on biodegradable paper so every element is environmentally friendly.
I Scream, You Scream- We All Scream for Ice-cream…
We look at using local suppliers where possible, but any changes we make, we do take suppliers’ environmental choices into consideration – check out one of our newest suppliers Marshfield’s Ice-cream who focus on the most sustainable practise across their farm and straight into their ice-cream.
Toilet talk… (For good reasons!)
We know it’s never nice to talk toilets… but we have good reason to (we promise!). We have recently made the switch to more environmentally friendly paper products in our toilets
By using sugarcane and bamboo for paper products it reduces the harvest time from 30 years of Oak, Maple, Pines and Firs trees, used for our regular products, down to 8-11 months. A fact that was new to us!
Sugarcane is also a class C4 plant, which absorbs more carbon dioxide (CO2) and produces 35% more oxygen than trees.
Reuse, Recycling… Odyssey Style!
Want to do your bit for the environment? Embrace reuse and recycle and check out our new merchandise on your next visit!
Our water bottle, travel mug and tote bag (made from 100% recycled cotton!) is just a small way you can help reduce the amount of product packaging waste we create across the world (and in Odyssey style!).
To a Greener Future…
Although we know these are just small steps, we hope to continue to make the right steps. Here at The Odyssey, our next goal is to start ‘greenifying’ our projection department and switch to a laser projector which has a greater power efficiency. Laser light engines create the exact colours that are needed with a more focused energy and reduced heat dissipation. Needing less power for the same – or even a better and brighter – outcome, is great for the electricity bill, but also our green performance. We hope to take this step in the near future as we continue our sustainability drive!
Consulting with staff and patrons we hope to take on feedback along our cinematic journey on how we can improve our environmental impact, and together work toward a greener future.