Settle in, catch your breath and enjoy a freshly made brew, served from the PoliNations tuk tuk. Accompanied by an original audio score and live dance performance, this immersive and interactive experience celebrates the ritual and the history of tea.

Have a well-deserved TEABREAK in this heart-warming new show from Trigger, the creators of PoliNations. As you stir your cup, gently glide through the journey of tea with a transportive audio piece and live dance performance. Follow tea across continents and centuries, onto our shores and into our teapots as the great comforter of our time.&nbsp;
With freshly brewed tea served from Trigger&rsquo;s beautifully hand painted Tuk Tuk, this gentle performance brings an uplifting moment of pause as a weaving tapestry of voices reflect on the meaning of tea. From personal stories of love, loss and ritual come something universal: an invitation to rest awhile, appreciate all that we have, honour moments that have passed and ready ourselves for what is to come.
Trigger are creators and producers of participative and socially engaged live events. Trigger reimagine and revive public spaces and put audiences and togetherness at the heart of everything they do; from flying dragons to city-centre super gardens, their varied output is inclusive and accessible.
TEABREAK is a free, ticketed performance for anyone who enjoys tea. Tickets can be reserved&nbsp;via individual festival websites.

Norfolk and Norwich Festival

Have a well-deserved TEABREAK in this heart-warming new show from Trigger, the creators of PoliNations. As you stir your cup, gently glide through the journey of tea with a transportive audio piece and live dance performance. Follow tea across continents and centuries, onto our shores and into our teapots as the great comforter of our time.&nbsp;
With freshly brewed tea served from Trigger&rsquo;s beautifully hand painted Tuk Tuk, this gentle performance brings an uplifting moment of pause as a weaving tapestry of voices reflect on the meaning of tea. From personal stories of love, loss and ritual come something universal: an invitation to rest awhile, appreciate all that we have, honour moments that have passed and ready ourselves for what is to come.
Trigger are creators and producers of participative and socially engaged live events. Trigger reimagine and revive public spaces and put audiences and togetherness at the heart of everything they do; from flying dragons to city-centre super gardens, their varied output is inclusive and accessible.
TEABREAK is a free, ticketed performance for anyone who enjoys tea. Tickets can be reserved&nbsp;via individual festival websites.

Brighton Festival

Have a well-deserved TEABREAK in this heart-warming new show from Trigger, the creators of PoliNations. As you stir your cup, gently glide through the journey of tea with a transportive audio piece and live dance performance. Follow tea across continents and centuries, onto our shores and into our teapots as the great comforter of our time.&nbsp;
With freshly brewed tea served from Trigger&rsquo;s beautifully hand painted Tuk Tuk, this gentle performance brings an uplifting moment of pause as a weaving tapestry of voices reflect on the meaning of tea. From personal stories of love, loss and ritual come something universal: an invitation to rest awhile, appreciate all that we have, honour moments that have passed and ready ourselves for what is to come.
Trigger are creators and producers of participative and socially engaged live events. Trigger reimagine and revive public spaces and put audiences and togetherness at the heart of everything they do; from flying dragons to city-centre super gardens, their varied output is inclusive and accessible.

Certain Blacks - Ensemble Festival

Have a well-deserved TEABREAK in this heart-warming new show from Trigger, the creators of PoliNations. As you stir your cup, gently glide through the journey of tea with a transportive audio piece and live dance performance. Follow tea across continents and centuries, onto our shores and into our teapots as the great comforter of our time.&nbsp;
With freshly brewed tea served from Trigger&rsquo;s beautifully hand painted Tuk Tuk, this gentle performance brings an uplifting moment of pause as a weaving tapestry of voices reflect on the meaning of tea. From personal stories of love, loss and ritual come something universal: an invitation to rest awhile, appreciate all that we have, honour moments that have passed and ready ourselves for what is to come.
Trigger are creators and producers of participative and socially engaged live events. Trigger reimagine and revive public spaces and put audiences and togetherness at the heart of everything they do; from flying dragons to city-centre super gardens, their varied output is inclusive and accessible.
TEABREAK is a free, ticketed performance for anyone who enjoys tea. Tickets can be purchased via the festival website.

Timber Festival

Tour Locations

Trigger Teabreak Photo Katja Ogrin1

TEABREAK

Catch your breath and enjoy a free, freshly made brew in this heart-warming new show. Join us at Certain Blacks' Ensemble Festival, an explosive mix of art and performance set to inspire and entertain audiences on 21st-23rd July!&nbsp;

Certain Blacks Ensemble Festival

Catch your breath and enjoy a free, freshly made brew in this heart-warming new show. Join us for our first showing at the flagship arts festival for the East of England, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, on 13th and 14th May!&nbsp;

Norfolk and Norwich

Catch your breath and enjoy a free, freshly made brew in this heart-warming new show. Come and see us at the largest curated annual arts festival in England, Brighton Festival, on 27th and 28th May!

Brighton

Catch your breath and enjoy a free, freshly made brew in this heart-warming new show. Join us at the family friendly garden adventure and joyous celebration of nature, Timber Festival, between 7th-9th July!

Impact

The city centre bloomed into a vibrant living oasis filled with thousands of plants and brought to life through free garden tours, audio baths, live music and light shows, costume design workshops, sensory experiences, poetry and performance and more!

Screenshot 2022 09 27 at 10.47.40

PoliNations Highlights: Birmingham 2022

Yoga and Wellbeing

Iconic Works of Plant Life

PoliNations in Birmingham - Sunset Shift Live

PoliNations in Birmingham - Tea Ceremony

PoliNations Trailer

PoliNations App

Plant Giveaway

Using the PoliNations App

Listen to the Sunset Shift

Joey A Frenette Residency at BCU

Spectra - From Soil to Sip

Jaivant Patel Dance - Tea Ceremony

Audio Tour

The Wondersphere

Iconic Plant Costumes: Chrysanthemum

Iconic Plant Costumes: Honeysuckle

PoliNations in Birmingham

Sunset Shift

Euphorica

<h5>Opening Times</h5>
Friday 2nd September: 14:00 &ndash; 22:00 Daily: 08:00 - 22:00 Saturday 17th September: 08:00 &ndash; 00:00
<h5>Accessibility</h5>
<ul>
<li>The whole PoliNations site is accessible via wheelchair</li>
<li>The closest Accessible/Blue Badge Car Park is Pinfold Street parking and Waterloo Street parking. More information on this can be found on the Birmingham City Council Website.</li>
<li>We will have an accessible viewing platform available during the Poetry &amp; Perfomrance Festival and Ballistic Seed Party</li>
<li>Many of the events will have BSL interpreters and Audio Description available.</li>
</ul>
<h5>Getting here</h5>
<h5>By Train</h5>
The nearest train station to Victoria Square are Birmingham New Street (0.2 miles, 6-minute walk) and Birmingham Snow Hill (0.4 miles, 9-minute walk).
<h5>By Bus:</h5>
The closest bus stops to Victoria Square are for buses 9, X10, 82, 87 and 89. Bus services are operated by <a href="https://nxbus.co.uk/west-midlands">National Express West Midlands</a>.
<h5>By Tram:</h5>
The nearest tram stops to Victoria Square are: &bull; Colmore Row (Stop Sh11) is 222 meters away, 3 min walk. &bull; Colmore Row (Stop Sh1) is 246 meters away, 4 min walk. &bull; Baskerville House is 300 meters away, 4 min walk. &bull; Colmore Row (Stop Sh2) is 312 meters away, 5 min walk. The West Midlands Metro runs regularly. For more information on where it runs and how to buy tickets visit the <a title="" href="https://westmidlandsmetro.com&nbsp;" target="_blank" rel="noopener">West Midlands Metro Website</a>.
<h5>By Bike: </h5>
Bike racks can be located on the corner of Edmund Street and Eden Place or in the Southwest corner of Victoria Square. Birmingham benefits from segregated cycle routes into the centre from Selly Oak and Perry Barr as well as an extensive canal network providing traffic free routes. Find out more about Birmingham's cycle routes on Birmingham City Council website. Don&rsquo;t have a bike? Don&rsquo;t worry you can hire an E-bike! A dock is located near Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. To find out more visit West Midlands Cycle Hire.
<h5>Parking:</h5>
Access to parking will be limited and we want to avoid congestion within Birmingham City Centre, so we encourage you to get to the site via walking, cycling or public transport. Birmingham is a 'Category D Clean Air Zone'. What this means is that owners of high-polluting vehicles will get charged for driving within certain parts of Birmingham &ndash; including around and near the location of PoliNations. To find out if your vehicle will be charged visit the Brum Breathes website.
Nearest parking to Victoria and Chamberlain Square is Paradise Circus Car Park and Town Hall multi-storey car park. It is operated by Birmingham City Council and charges will apply. If you display your Blue Badge, parking is free with no time limits.

Victoria Square

Birmingham

TEALIGHT is a vibrant participatory light installation that combines the joyous spirit of Diwali with the warming comfort of tea; illuminating hearts and minds through ritual and togetherness. 
Join in as the rich history of tea is interwoven with the celebratory essence of Diwali. You are invited to light a candle with us and enjoy a comforting cup of freshly brewed chai, served from a beautifully hand painted tuk tuk.  

Sip your cup and be transported across continents and centuries; scan a QR code and listen to the evocative story of tea unfold alongside an original composition from Rakae Jamil.

&nbsp;Saturday 4th November 2023, St Peter's Square, Leicester

Leicester Diwali

16:00 - 20:00, Saturday 2nd November 2024

Greenwich Peninsula Diwali Festival

Tour Dates

Tealight   Leicester   Credit Robin Hardman51

TEALIGHT

Around the Lake Festival

Redbridge Outdoor Arts & South Asian Heritage Month

BD:Festival

Feel Good Family Picnic

Birmingham Weekender

Harbour Fest

The Full Shebang

Edible Grimsby

The National Festival of Making

Basingstoke Festival

Tout Locations

Creative Crawley   around The Lake Day 2 Web 61

Digital technology is transforming arts and culture, making things more accessible to wider audiences, allowing for amazing visual displays and connecting us in ways that wouldn&rsquo;t otherwise be possible. It has made collaborating with team members across the UK for this project easy. Perhaps even reducing our impact as we haven&rsquo;t all had to travel around the country too much for meetings. But what is the cost of this digital age and how has PoliNations tried to mitigate our impact in this area?
&nbsp;
There&rsquo;s an invisible impact in our daily digital lives &ndash; our phones and laptops use a lot of power not just in keeping them charged but powering the servers and transferring information across the world. Apps stored on our phones use memory and space which in turns uses more energy, and incredible websites that move fast with beautiful graphics use unbelievable amounts of energy. The life cycle carbon footprint of the Information Computer Technology (ICT) sector accounts for 1.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 4% of global electricity use1. This is a phenomenal amount and when you start to think about all the people in the world using phones, computers and other digital systems, it starts to make sense. Put another way, if ICT were a country, it would be the 3rd highest consumer of electricity after the USA and China. And that is the situation now. Scientists predict that in the worst case scenario, electricity used by communications technology could contribute up to 23% of global greenhouse emissions by 2030. That&rsquo;s 8 years away.
Enough doom and gloom. What can we do about it? Well, if the whole ICT sector switched to renewable energy, the carbon footprint could be reduced by 80%. That&rsquo;s huge. And for PoliNations we have tried to minimise our digital carbon footprint too. <a href="https://triggerstuff365.sharepoint.com/sites/FOREST202286/Shared%20Documents/0_PoliNations%20Team%20Folder/02_Technical%20&amp;%20Production/05_Sustainability/Website/Sustainability%20Blogs/PoliNations%20Co%20Grow%20Project%20Blog.docx">Peter and Paul</a> have designed our website and app to be low carbon impact. One thing that uses loads of energy is fast loading imagery so you&rsquo;ll see that our website loads slowly and uses simple imagery to not use up to much energy. It also uses a system which allows the website to use substantially less power than a website built using open-sourced scripting language. In the traditional approach using PHP, each time a user interacts with the website, the site has to connect to the database, fetch the data and send it back. In our approach when content is changed, deleted, or added in the content management system, the content is retrieved by the server and saved as a complete version of the website. This means the server only needs to retrieve content when the content is updated rather than each time someone visits the site, therefore lowering the footprint per user.
The website has also been designed in phases to be efficient and avoid energy intensive rebuilds. It&rsquo;s hosted on <a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/">Digital Ocean</a> which uses 100% renewable energy to power their servers in the UK. The website won&rsquo;t around forever &ndash; a lhuge amount of energy is taken up by websites that are no longer in use but still loitering around on the internet. Closing the website down after the event will save unnecessary carbon emissions.
Without building a more carbon intensive version of the website, it&rsquo;s hard to make a like for like comparison and know how much carbon we&rsquo;re actually saving.&nbsp;
<h5>What can I do to reduce my digital footprint?</h5>
<ul>
<li>A great thing to do is use refurbished laptops and phones. New devices are energy intensive to make and are reliant on the often unethical mining of raw materials.</li>
<li>Think about the design and energy source for any website you run or ask your work whether they&rsquo;ve considered switching to a renewably powered website.</li>
<li>Move data to the cloud &ndash; 72-93% carbon savings can be made in comparison to conventional computing according to Microsoft.</li>
<li>Delete all the apps, email subscriptions and online services you don&rsquo;t use or need as they take up previous data and energy.</li>
</ul>
Thanks to <a href="https://juliesbicycle.com/">Julie&rsquo;s Bicycle&rsquo;s</a> Digital Guide for the statistics!
For more info see:
1Malmodin &amp; Lunden, 2018, The Energy and Carbon Footprint of the Global ICT and E&amp;M Sectors 2010&ndash;2015. Sustainability. vol. 10, no. 9. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/9/3027
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Screenshot 2022 08 19 at 10.13.06

What is the environmental cost of the digital world?

Helen Freudenberg, PoliNations Sustainability Consultant
<blockquote>
Tell us a bit about your role in PoliNations.
</blockquote>
I support the whole team but particularly the sustainability lead in making environmentally sustainable decisions. I advise on and research things from materials for sculptures to energy use for the site and think about the carbon impact of the whole project.
<blockquote>
How does sustainability fit into your role?
</blockquote>
It is everything! I sleep, eat and breathe sustainability.
<blockquote>
What has been the biggest sustainability related surprise for you since starting on PoliNations?
</blockquote>
How responsive people are. I was expecting to have to convince people to do the most sustainable thing but if you show people the impact, they are very happy to adapt to make things more sustainable.
<blockquote>
What has been the most challenging aspect of trying to be sustainable?
</blockquote>
Sometimes society isn't ready for the most sustainable option. It's not always possible to make the most sustainable decision because the systems aren't in place or are not affordable.
<blockquote>
What advice would you give to other members of your profession who also want to put sustainability at the heart of what they do?
</blockquote>
Go for it! Just get on and do it. We don't have time to be perfect and it&rsquo;s easy to spend a lot of time dwelling on things rather than actually reducing your environmental impact.
<blockquote>
What sustainability initiative are you most excited about for PoliNations?
</blockquote>
I'm a data geek so I'm really exciting about measuring the carbon impact of the event.
<blockquote>
When I need a boost, where can I get inspired about sustainability?
</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.positive.news/">Positive News</a> - positive global news stories with a social/sustainability slant
<blockquote>
If you had a sustainable super power what would it be?
</blockquote>
To digest plastic and turn it into something useful.

Img 20200117 122854

Making PoliNations sustainable with Helen Freudenberg

<img src="https://cms.polinations.com/assets/f4a469d4-1316-4346-bb0f-85ee8524f296?width=2048&amp;height=1929" alt="Birmingham Czech and Slovak Club" />
Stemming from the fact that nearly 80% of plants in UK gardens originate overseas, PoliNations uses the garden as a metaphor for how different people, with different stories, can unite in celebration.
This core idea gave the participation team a challenge; we wanted to engage lots of different people around Birmingham in one uniting activity. The answer was obvious: PoliNations had to be literally co-grown by people across the city. Everyone involved has been encouraged to grow flowers to go into the PoliNations garden and invited to the opening of the garden to plant together. The challenge was where to start, and how to do the project sustainably.
There were no clear cut criteria for reaching out to different groups across Birmingham, except us asking the questions &lsquo;who would love this, and who should be part of a city-centre project?&rsquo; After lots of calls, suggestions from the council, emails, and word of mouth, over 50 groups, from all over Birmingham, from varied backgrounds and experiences, are currently growing flowers for PoliNations using our Grow Packs.
<img src="https://cms.polinations.com/assets/15f19a5f-9cef-418b-8072-801c305b010f?width=2776&amp;height=2082" alt="PoliNations Grow Packs" /><img src="https://cms.polinations.com/assets/e5c509b6-a561-4346-be69-91194e588fa9?width=2016&amp;height=1512" alt="PoliNations Grow Packs" />
Grow Packs
We have experts, beginner gardeners, non-English speakers, and children under 5 years old. This gave us our next challenge of creating a growing pack that was fun, simple, and sustainable.
Sustainability is hugely important to our garden groups, and a key priority for PoliNations as a project. This meant choosing, when possible, materials that could be recycled, were made in the UK, and affordable.
Our grow packs included:
Seeds: We chose the marigold as our flower. As a relatively simple flower to grow, it meant we could offer the grow packs to groups without outdoor space, with little to no growing knowledge. Marigolds are a much-loved flower across the world, from India to Mexico, and it&rsquo;s joyful, bright colours work with PoliNations garden colour scheme. We opted for Calendula seed; a marigold particularly loved by pollinators.
Pots: The most difficult product to source sustainably were the pots; we needed pots that would allow growing participants to carry their flowers to site, meaning biodegradable pots wouldn&rsquo;t work. We found a brilliant solution from Aeroplas: a kerbside recyclable product that is made up of materials from post-consumer waste streams. Another great bonus: they&rsquo;re made in the West Midlands!
<img src="https://cms.polinations.com/assets/a9c512c4-35a9-4db3-aad1-b061d306dfff?width=1080&amp;height=947" alt="Masefield Community Garden" />
Compost: The compost and jiffy pellets were easy to buy peat free from a wholesaler. Peat is found in a lot of compost products. But worryingly, 80% of our peatland has been lost or damaged contributing to global heating and harming the habitat of many rare species. Since is our largest carbon store, maintaining peatlands is incredibly important to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. The UK government will ban sales of peat compost from 2024. The compost we chose, Melcourt Sylvagrow, was made in the UK and vegan friendly, made from the by-product of sustainability managed British forests.
Our designers Peter and Paul designed colourful and bright eco-friendly packaging, in a sustainable and fair-trade tote .
Now hundreds of people across Birmingham are growing for PoliNations. We invite you to join our co-grow groups who will be planting their marigolds at our opening event on September 3rd, to plant your own plant. Head to <a href="about:blank">www.polinations.co.uk</a> for more details.
Written by Holly Bond, Engagement and Programme Coordinator
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The Community Environmental Trust Birmingham 4

Co-Growing for PoliNations!

Fenella Dawnay, Senior Producer&nbsp;
<blockquote>
Tell us a bit about your role in PoliNations.&nbsp;
</blockquote>
I lead the brilliant Trigger producing team. We work to make sure we're on track to deliver the festival. I manage the overall budget, oversee artists engagement, work closely with the production and design teams, liaise with our key partners and work to ensure the best possible experience for our audiences across the festival. All in all, the producing team are here to help the creatives and designers realise their vision!&nbsp;
<blockquote>
How does sustainability fit into your role?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
A big part of this project is the importance of biodiversity. We knew from the start that we wanted to go on an honest and educational journey with sustainability to see exactly how sustainable we could be when developing this event from scratch, and share our findings with the industry. One of our first actions was to engage a sustainability consultant who would act as a critical friend and guide our decision making from the start - pushing us to find the most sustainable solutions we could to the challenges of putting on an epic festival in Birmingham. It has been a really eye opening experience and an illuminating and educational process for many of our creative team on this project.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
What has been the biggest sustainability related surprise for you since starting on PoliNations?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
That biodegradable glitter isn't really biodegradable! And that there's always a better way. Just by asking the question, "how can we make this more sustainable?", you can identify solutions and understand more about the carbon footprint left by our industry.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
What has been the most challenging aspect of trying to be sustainable?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
The fact that the most sustainable thing you can do is not to put on the project. So if you start there and then work backwards, you're just trying to make the lowest impact on the planet while still delivering something awe-inspiring, long-lasting and extraordinary for the audience. It can feel like an uphill battle. And in many cases it's impossible to make something legitimately low carbon, let alone carbon free.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
What advice would you give to other members of your profession who also want to put sustainability at the heart of what they do?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
Engage a sustainability consultant - right from the off! Always ask - "can we do this better?". Have a materials policy!&nbsp;
<blockquote>
What sustainability initiative are you most excited about for PoliNations?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
I'm excited about some of the wins we've made by changing tack to pursue a more low carbon solution - but the audience might not see all of those - so I'll say donating our plants back to the city and seeing the results of the biodiversity assessment. I'm looking forward to seeing how bringing this green space into the centre of Birmingham, even for a short while, might impact the insects and air of the city.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
When I need a boost, where can I get inspired about sustainability?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
Read Jonathan Drori's "Around the World in 80 Plants" to get you excited about the extraordinary diversity of plants and their importance to human life, through medicine, folklore and our cultural history.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
If you had a sustainable super power what would it be?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
Ohhhh - probably cleaning water of impurities and pollution - we need clean seas/rivers!&nbsp;

Fenella Dawnay Website

Making PoliNations sustainable with Fenella Dawnay

Carl Robertshaw, Lead Designer
<blockquote>
Tell us a bit about your role in PoliNations.
</blockquote>
I'm responsible for all elements of design from costumes and props to the large architectural trees and iconic plant sculptures alongside a team of architects, designers and costume designers.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
How does sustainability fit into your role?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
It comes into the thinking about the types of materials - how far have they travelled? How much do they weigh? As well as the design and legacy of anything we create.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
What has been the biggest sustainability related surprise for you since starting on PoliNations?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
Installing solar and wind power on the site would be more costly to the environment than using power coming into the site that is already green. [Birmingham City Council have 100% renewable electricity!]&nbsp;
<blockquote>
What has been the most challenging aspect of trying to be sustainable?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
We've had to adapt our design to be more sustainable but I think of this quite philosophically - any adaptations are generally going to make the project better and are a natural part of the process for a designer. &nbsp;
<blockquote>
What advice would you give to other members of your profession who also want to put sustainability at the heart of what they do?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
Design out non-sustainable aspects of your project. Think about how far things travel, resources that are used to make them, being conscious about single use - what can we reuse things for? Be creative with what you already have. Us designers can help figure out new ways of using things in an artistically attractive way. Things don't have to be heavy (!) and they can be implied, not literal. Keep these things in a corner of your working mind so that you are constantly interrogating what you're doing so that it leads to a more sustainable result.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
What sustainability initiative are you most excited about for PoliNations?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
The rainwater capture from the large architectural tree sculptures. Each tree can capture up to half a cubic meter of rain which will be used to water the plants onsite.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
When I need a boost, where can I get inspired about sustainability?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
David Attenborough's TV series&rsquo; e.g. The Private Life of Plants.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
If you had a sustainable super power what would it be?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
I'm really into things that fly and fluid- and aero- dynamics so I'd love to be able to fly without such a high environmental cost and have that amazing privilege of being held up by the air.&nbsp;

Carl Robertshaw Square

Making PoliNations sustainable with Carl Robertshaw

Angie Bual, Creative Director
<blockquote>
Tell us a bit about your role in PoliNations.&nbsp;
</blockquote>
The dreamer, weaver and developer of the vision. The cheerleader, joker and overall enthusiast.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
How does sustainability fit into your role?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
It's every part of the vision, scoping and shaping of the project. From plant pot to tree top - how can we make our programme tread lightly as we try to switch on power, move objects, erect an installation. How can we feed our team sustainably, transport them and make the whole programme work.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
What has been the biggest sustainability related surprise for you since starting on PoliNations?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
It's been extremely eye opening. We thought we could put in wind turbines and generate our own power. But it would do more harm than good... in this case the energy used to transport and make the turbines would outweigh the amount of energy that could be created in a city centre for a couple of weeks!&nbsp;
<blockquote>
What has been the most challenging aspect of trying to be sustainable?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
Seeing ideas that sound nice on paper turn out to be simply green washing.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
What advice would you give to other members of your profession who also want to put sustainability at the heart of what they do?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
Bring on a sustainability consultant. You'd be surprised at what mistakes we make without realising.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
What sustainability initiative are you most excited about for PoliNations?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
The great plant/ tree giveaway [at the end of the project we will give away plants used in the installation].
<blockquote>
When I need a boost, where can I get inspired about sustainability?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
The Guardian&nbsp;
<blockquote>
If you had a sustainable super power what would it be?&nbsp;
</blockquote>
Solar!

Angie Bual Headshot 2

Making PoliNations sustainable with Angie Bual

Sustainabililty has been at the heart of PoliNations since day one, and as the project progresses, we are keen to share our thoughts, decisions and learnings on how we're making this large-scale outdoor event as sustainable as possible. Production &amp; Events Manager and Sustainability Lead Jenny Hutt and our Sustainability Consultant Helen Freudenberg will be sharing a number of blogs, posts and Q&amp;As to track our impact. This is the first one - welcome!
PoliNations is being created and produced by a diverse collective of like-minded independent creative companies working together to produce an epic outdoor cultural &amp; horticultural arts event in Birmingham in 2022, celebrating colour, beauty, natural diversity, nature and greening cities, to which everyone is invited!&nbsp;
With a creative staff team of around 30 people and an additional 250 people working on the project including dancers, musicians, speakers &amp; artists, crew, production and events teams and 100 volunteers, sustainability is at the heart of what we do and it has been since the very start of our conversations about this fantastical, floral project. We want to make sure that sustainability is considered in every decision we make.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cms.polinations.com/assets/3c0b29e0-a66b-4d32-84b6-16f51a967bcf?width=3780&amp;height=2126" alt="Globe 1850 2021 Mo Bars" />Credit <a title="" href="https://showyourstripes.info/b/globe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">#ShowYourStripes</a> <a title="" href="https://showyourstripes.info/b/globe/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">[1]</a>
The image above shows the huge increase in global temperatures and research tells us we have 7 years to stop the world from warming so much that we can&rsquo;t go back [<a title="" href="https://www.ipcc.ch/2022/04/04/ipcc-ar6-wgiii-pressrelease/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2</a>]. The festival industry is responsible for over 24,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK every year <a title="" href="https://www.vision2025.org.uk/the-show-must-go-on/" target="_self">[3]</a>, which is a sobering statistic. But the good news is, the industry has the power to not only reduce the direct impacts of live events, but also to lead by example and show its audiences sustainable alternatives at the events they love so that we can continue to enjoy festivals like this for years to come.&nbsp;
For PoliNations, this means thinking about sustainability from the beginning to the end and beyond, and we&rsquo;re lucky that we have an amazing team who don&rsquo;t need any convincing that being sustainable is the right thing to do! In practice this means looking at the sustainability of different materials used to build a stage or sculpture or in a costume, as well as its design; working out the power requirements for the shows; making sure waste is appropriately sorted and disposed of; limiting team flight travel; designing a website that has a low negative environmental impact; bringing sustainably sourced plant-life into the space and working out where it will go afterwards; working with sustainable suppliers and low carbon logistics to name a few. Everyone working on the creation of our project has sustainability on the brain, and we&rsquo;re also taking guidance and advice from professional sustainability consultants along the way to ensure we&rsquo;re really considering all the options. The aim? To show that it is possible to produce outstanding, high impact arts events whilst minimising the detrimental impacts on the environment.&nbsp;
We&rsquo;re doing this within the framework of our <a title="" href="https://cms.polinations.com/assets/4cb4ac18-4379-49b2-80b7-ca41402d8499.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sustainability Policy</a> and Action Plan which the team created together to keep us on track.&nbsp;
One of the main commitments of the project is to publicly share knowledge and our experience about the processes and choices made to inspire others so you&rsquo;ll find lots of info in our blogs in the coming months from &lsquo;Making drag sustainable&rsquo; to &lsquo;The Future of our Plants&rsquo;.
Written by Helen Freudenberg
<img src="https://cms.polinations.com/assets/347fdce3-e0b1-4de7-806f-6d32865117dc?width=300&amp;height=400" alt="Img 20200117 122854" />

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