Finds of the day

Working in FM in Higher Ed has its downfalls.
1) scheduling vacations during the school year is rough
2) essential employee - on call ALL THE TIME, even during vacations, sick days, personal days.... :(

Working in Higher Ed has a lot of perks.
1) vacations - when the students go on long vacations generally admin goes on long vacations (10 days for the 'winter' break)
2) stability - students really don't go away so there's always servicing that has to happen
3) tons of publications are sent to the office
4) totally awesome libraries

This week's cool publication find?
Student Housing Business

Question of the Month: Are Millennials Green?

The resounding answer to this question was... YES. There is one contributor, Jason Seyler (author, Mastering Millennials), that even goes as far to say that "if you're going to make a 'green' claim make sure it's of substance, if it's not, don't make it. Millennials' smell B.S."  --- So true, so true! 

Eco-Friendly (Green) Theatre

At the present time, I believe that the phrase of Eco-friendly is quite the misnomer. Theatre technology has giant obstacles that the must over come to be true part of the green community. One of the biggest issues is cost... Cost cost COST.

Cost is always an issue, regardless of what industry that we are talking about, especially in the arts. However, theatre facilities themselves are often times the deal breakers. Almost all the "high tech" and eco friendly theatre equipment is extremely costly, and the type of power that is needed to accommodate them, are not readily available to small old theatres. Even new theatres that have a steady economic footing can't afford eco-friendly.

Publicly, the only theatre that is "LEED Certified" on broadway is the Henry Miller Theatre, but even then, there is very little information on how "green" the productions are that are produced. In general, I can't seem to find much information on how green the theatre actually ended up being; at least when you google it on surface value.

Also a new development was announced in July in regards to greening the Signature Center home of the Signature Theatre Company.

I think what bothers me the most about the current Green trend is that it seems to be a bandwagon which people in the theatre industry seem to keep jumping, without really thinking about the whole green issue. It seems that often companies or programs are choosing "green" as a facade of sorts. Again, for me it boils down to the technology of the theatre is what we need to "green".

It is an extremely difficult need to address, before other industries that we rely on, force us to do it. (Example: The US Government has placed laws that restrict the production of high wattage Edison incandescent bulbs; they are to be phased out by 2012.)

I posed the question on twitter as to how a production could be more eco-friendly. The answers were:

- scenic coops, zero landfill shops, thoughtful intentional design, #2amt #sustainable

- Also careful sourcing of new stuff, reusing/redesigning/reimagining existing stuff #2amt #sustainable