We are delighted to have been awarded a £150,000 grant from the City Bridge Foundation - London’s biggest independent charity funder, to improve the environmental performance of our building and operations.

Our purpose-built building on Tooley Street is now 20 years old. It is a priority for us to provide a space that meets the needs of children now and in the future.

In late 2023 we undertook an eco-audit with 3-Acorns Consultancy, kindly funded by the City Bridge Foundation’s Greening the Third Sector programme. The audit acknowledged the actions the Unicorn is already taking to reduce our environmental impact and identified a list of recommended priorities to further improve our environmental performance.

The Foundation’s most recent grant will enable us to:

• Install infrared heating across multiple levels of the Dana Broccoli Foyer – reducing energy use in the space by up to 40% and enable us to programme and monitor the system’s use according to need, creating a more comfortable experience for those using the space.
• Replace our traditional bathroom taps with sensor taps to reduce water consumption and limit the risk of flooding.
• Install cistermisers in the urinals – combined with the sensor taps, we estimate that this will reduce our water waste by up to 35%.
• Replacing the stage lighting in our Clore Theatre with modern LED and transition our back of house lighting to LED which will further reduce our energy consumption and combat the overheating of our studio theatre – reducing our energy use in this space by approximately 50%

We are enormously grateful to the City Bridge Foundation for making this possible.

Further information about the Unicorn’s sustainability action plan and achievements

We declare a climate emergency. As a sector leading theatre dedicated to children, we recognise that climate action is vital to protecting their futures and we aim to model good environmental practice for our audiences and our industry. We continually work to reduce our environmental impact across our organisation. Our Sustainability Action Plan is updated annually, setting ever ambitious targets for change.

Sustainability is at the core of everything we do;

• We work with a sustainability consultant to implement new systems that reduce our impact on the planet
• We provide carbon literacy training for core staff, and freelance creative/technical staff, leading to a 5-15% reduction in personal footprint and supporting a larger cultural shift in our industry
• We aim for all our productions to meet baseline Theatre Green Book standards or higher
• We track purchasing and emissions across all departments
• We are working on best practice around how to address climate anxiety with children through our artistic programme and our Creative Hub.

We are proud to work with City Bridge Foundation, which bridges London and connects communities through grant funding and progressive partnerships and alliances.