Sustainability

Living and working in such a beautiful part of the world is our daily reminder that we have a responsibility to protect the nature that surrounds us. The three counties we cover – Cumbria, County Durham and Northumberland – are home to three Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and three National Parks.

Rural Touring is a sustainable by its very nature. We deliver events in community spaces and our audiences are hyper-local.
But at Highlights we are always working very hard to improve our sustainability, whether this is reducing the amount we print,
helping our venues find ways to reduce their carbon footprint, or the smaller, simpler things such as car-sharing
or using a local milk vending machine for our morning coffees.

You can read more about our sustainable journey below.

Programming

A young white woman is sat inside a giant inflatable igloo. She is crouched down behind a stuffed toy in the shape of a penguin. The woman is wearing leggings printed with a koala bear pattern, a navy top. She has dark hair tied back in two pigtails.

We are proud to programme work with environmental themes to inform and stimulate debate.

In Spring 2025 we programmed Lila Dance through the Rural Touring Dance Initiative. They brought their latest piece of work, Fault Lines to two venues – an immersive experience that aimed to inspire audiences to engage with positive personal action for a more sustainable future.

In our Autumn 2024 season we hosted Penguins – a brand new sensory show for children. Audiences followed a puppet penguin’s journey as they unravel environmental challenges and the effects of climate change on their snowy habitat. The show was guided by verbatim recordings of young voices, whose wacky and wonderful ideas provide hope for a future led by an innovative, responsible generation.

Venue Case Studies

Many of our village halls and community spaces are doing great work in improving their green credentials. Heat pumps, solar panels, energy efficient windows and new recycling facilities are just some of the considerable tasks being undertaken by volunteers and fundraising committees across the region.

Venue Case Studies

Marketing and Print

All of our marketing materials – brochures, posters, flyers, postcards – are printed and supplied by two local, sustainable businesses. Both Cerberus Printing in Kirkby Stephen, and HH Reeds in Penrith, are members of the Woodland Trust Carbon Capture scheme. This means carbon from all the paper we use is offset by planting new woodland in the UK.

www.cerberusprinting.co.uk/sustainablity
www.hhreeds.co.uk/sustainability

Artists

An actor is performing on stage dressed as a polar bear. He has a fluffy wite hood with ears and is wearing a white suit and shirt. He has polar bear paw gloves on his hands. He is in the middle of pretending to roar, with two arms and one leg up in the air. The set behind him is made up of sheets and wooden boxes which are all white.

A man and a woman stand side by side. He has short blonde hair, a black moustache and soul patch, and he is wearing a black roll neck. The woman has medium length blonde hair with a center parting. She wears a white top with a fairisle patterned sleeveless cardigan on top. THe man looks off to the top right of the picture, while the woman looks out towards the camera with a confused look on her face.

As part of our celebration, and contribution to, the ‘greenness’ of rural touring, we asked our Autumn 2024 artists if they used recycled/repurposed materials on their tour with Highlights. Here are the responses we have received so far:

Badapple Theatre Company
Around 65% of the wood and materials for the set were reclaimed / reused. An estimated 30% of the costumes were preloved items repurposed by our designer.

Black Liver
We always reuse our props and set, plus we buy most of our costumes from charity shops.

Jam Jar Theatre
All of the props and puppets are made from recycled materials.

Teesdale Felt
Repurposed textiles and equipment used in felting e.g. silk fabric, sari silk, woollen nepps. bamboo mats, pipe insulation, massage rollers and dog brushes.

Investors in the Environment

We are delighted to announce that we achieved the Silver Award with Investors in the Environment (IiE) in May 2025, by demonstrating a commitment to reducing our environmental impact and to the continual improvement of our sustainability performance.

We are now working hard to continue improving our performance and have some exciting plans coming up over the next few months – watch this space!

You can download a copy of our Environment Policy here