Thank you to everyone who completed the survey. This is the second time this annual survey has run, and we saw a 14% uptake in respondents on last year. HOW THEY UNDERSTAND THE ROLE OF SUSTAINABILITY IN OUR WORK
From Earth Day (22 April) to early May 2025, Birmingham Hippodrome staff and volunteers gave their time to consider our progress on sustainability. This survey was designed by the Environmental and Sustainability Advisor with valuable input from the Green Team staff working group. Any questions or comments can be sent to jesstaylor@birminghamhippodrome.com The survey aimed to learn... HOW STAFF FEEL ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT WHERE WE CAN IMPROVE 1 2 3
Who responded?
The survey was distributed via email to all staff, volunteers and flexible workers.
30 new participants compared to 2024... 14% 5 ...making up 54%
*All 56 compared to 2024
In Summary
Now in its second year, the 2025 Staff Sustainability Survey provides a unique opportunity for staff to share their opinions and create change.
Highlights of this year’s results include: take action in their personal life for the environment
say sustainability is reflected in their work at Birmingham Hippodrome more staff than a year ago have heard of Theatre Green Book (TGB) and ISO 14001 Environmental Management Standard
feel ‘that Birmingham Hippodrome has taken positive steps towards greater sustainability over the last 12 months’
feel we have a strong commitment to sustainability increase in staff commuting by public transport
I buy products that cause the least amount of waste, even if they cost more, so less products in plastic containers. I buy clothes made with sustainable means of production, but I also petition government and companies to be more sustainable, as that’s where the real impact is.
The survey has also revealed valuable insights into where we need to continue making improvements:
61% think we could talk about sustainability more 34% are unsure of who their Sustainability Champion is Cost is a problem, with 85.7% reporting that finances impact their sustainability choices
Staff want us to focus on improving the sustainability of our Building and Facilities, Waste, Transport and Communications
Organisational Sustainability
Birmingham Hippodrome staff’s opinions on how the business is handling sustainability.
Staff support more environmental action...
61% think we should talk about sustainability more think it is good for a theatre’s brand and reputation to make an active effort to be more sustainable 93%
Sustainability is a core value at Birmingham Hippodrome. Do you feel this is reflected in your area of work? ...and more than 2/3 of staff see sustainability in their work
This increase shows that our work on engaging staff with the environment is working. However, given that Sustainable is one of our five organisational values, we need to empower the 1/3 of staff who don’t see sustainability in their work. There’s lots of opportunity to improve, with 59% of respondents saying they haven’t done any projects which impact on sustainability or the environment.
“
Birmingham
Hippodrome has a strong commitment to sustainability and improving our environment.”
‘Agree’ answers are up compared to 2024, and no one Strongly Disagreed
As many respondents this year are new to the survey, the increasing proportion of staff supporting this statement suggests that our sustainability efforts are being recognised by almost all staff.
There have been large increases in staff’s awareness of our two major environmental frameworks in the last year - especially considering that in 2024, 57% of staff hadn’t heard of either! ISO14001, a standard for Environmental Management Systems, is likely more prominent thanks to our successful reassessment in October 2024, which involved many staff. However, there are still improvements to be made, so we will continue to promote our environmental initiatives related to TGB and ISO.
Top Areas to Improve
Building and facilities
Waste Travel Communications, marketing, information & signs
Also popular: Food & beverage offer; using resources better; green room; packaging; utilities/ building systems; low carbon travel incentives; physical print.
Top Achievements
Simpler recycling campaign
Raising sustainability’s profile
Introducing sustainability champions
New sustainability advisor role
Also popular: Reusable cups; internal comms; digital/tech initiatives.
Environment Engagement
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Travel Impacts
Results highlights:
Staff reported a significant uptake in public transport use to travel to work, with 39% taking the train and 20% the bus.
Though electric car use is up, cycle and electric car use are still relatively low considering our incentive schemes.
Non-electric car travel by staff is almost half compared to audiences. Our bike racks are often at capacity which discourages use.
*data from Indigo Act Green Survey 2023/24
The breadth of this successful engagement may explain why 69% (up from 58% in 2024, say sustainability is reflected in their work) and 89% take action in their personal life.
Personal Sustainability
Birmingham Hippodrome staff’s feelings about the environment and their impact on it.
“
I feel I understand enough about climate change and other climate-related science to inform my actions.
”
of staff said they “cared about the environment” 98%
Despite care for the environment, it seems feeling uninformed is still a key barrier to action.
Both ‘Disagree’ and ‘Agree’ responses are down, with more people feeling ‘Neutral’ about their understanding of climate science.
Affording Sustainability
“To what extent are any sustainability choices you make influenced by money?”
85% (up from 76% in 2024 reported their sustainability choices were influenced by financial motivations and constraints. No one responded ‘Not At All’).
Respondents mentioned both home and work as places where money played a significant role in environmental decisions.
The time taken to purchase more sustainable options is off-putting. Many mentioned an interest in being better for the environment.
“[I] bring in home cooked food, to save the cost of buying food while out at work, and avoid the plastic packaging that bought food would
You Asked, We Did...
Discounts to encourage public transport
The HR People team ran two rounds of discounted bus passes and will continue to do so while the offer exists.
Better waste and reusable cup return signs
We created new ‘Tricky Trash’ posters for the Food Waste bin rollout as well as other guides and resources. Visitor Experience introduced reusable cup return bins.
Green spaces at the theatre
We built three microgardens during Great Big Green Week.
Look into energy use
Facilities are mapping our submeters and looking to use this information to improve energy efficiency. We are replacing all the house lights with more efficient LEDs.
Produced work to embrace sustainability
We produced our first Theatre Green Book TGB ‘Basic’ show - our festive family musical, The Jingleclaw. We will be tracking Hot Mess and No Such Thing as Wolves this year and aiming for Basic on both.
Complaints
about wasteful single-use cups and sweet pots
We will be replacing water cups and sweet pots with recyclable alternatives once current stocks run out.
Evidence that sustainability was a visible priority we were dedicating time, effort, and resource to
We hired a full-time Environmental and Sustainability Advisor (Jess Taylor) to comprehensively tackle our impact on the environment.
of staff feel ‘that Birmingham Hippodrome has taken positive steps towards greater sustainability over the last 12 months’ 82%
Our Next Steps
Following your feedback, we will be working on:
Rolling out our Sustainability Strategy, which includes many staff suggestions (launched July 2025).
Staff travel: Investigating further public transport discounts, looking into problems with over-capacity bike racks, encouraging use of the business travel tracker.
Cutting single use items: Looking into digital alternatives to print, tracking and eliminating single-use items where possible (especially plastic), making considered procurement decisions and disposing of any remaining single-use items carefully.
Getting everyone on board with simpler recycling. Communicating effective sustainability messages to our visitors. Finding sustainability opportunities with visiting shows. Planning any upcoming changes we can make to decarbonise our building.
Meanwhile, our staff are already taking action:
of staff report taking pro-environmental action when asked if “I take action in my life to increase sustainability or decrease my environmental impact.”
Staff Voice
We value hearing directly from our staff through the survey. Here is a taste of what was said...
Great practice...
“I educate young people on sustainability.”
“We repurpose old machines as test machines for upcoming IT services. We also salvage laptop components that we can add later to other machines. And we offer to give out old monitors (when these are changed with new) to Tech Department to use for their projects.”
“Unless it is genuinely unaffordable or unreasonable, I always seek to buy the most sustainable option (whether that means buying new from a good source or sourcing second hand).”
“By keeping the Sustainability Advisor on long-term, there’s been a great improvement in raising the profile of sustainability.”
Areas to target...
“Offer digital downloads of programmes to customers.”
“Cut down physical copies of the programme, and instead find alternative creative and sustainable ways to promoting events.”
“The meat industry accounts for 19-20% of global carbon emissions. Reducing meat and dairy and making the menus predominantly plant-based would have a huge impact on sustainability.”
“Lobby for better public transport and cycle lanes in Birmingham.”
“Initiatives to travel more sustainably e.g. railcards.”
“Better partnership opportunities.”
“Signposting of communities outside work.”
“Use green energy.”
“Improve efficiency of heating systems.”
“Ensuring sustainability is a key feature of our contracts/programming.”
Thank you to all the flexible workers, volunteers, and staff who gave their time to this research. Your views are incredibly important to our continuing sustainability journey.
