La La La’s owner Nathan Stratton has taken vital steps to make the venue greener. Photos: Chris Frape.
Illawarra music venues are leading the way in environmentally responsible practice and accountability, with the region boasting two of the first businesses to ever receive Green Venue Certification. The shift to sustainability is also helping to save money and attract artists.
La La La’s and Anita’s Theatre were among the nine venues to be given a green tick after an investigation into areas such as energy usage and waste production revealed both sites were taking positive steps to reduce their environmental footprint.
La La La’s owner Nathan Stratton said the venue had been working on minimising its impact since it opened in 2019, with the issue important to both him and the patrons who loved the site.
“I think we all can appreciate that bushwalks are better without rubbish and we like swimming in the ocean without plastic in them and we like the clean, fresh air without pollution,” he said.
“We care for the planet, but we also need to be a sustainable business to survive.”
After completing a program with Green Music Australia, La La La’s was chosen to be a part of the first trial to achieve the certification.
But it meant putting everything under the microscope.
“We had an energy audit and a waste audit,” Nathan said. “We had an environmental engineer come and assess the building of its insulation properties. He also looked at our equipment like our fridges and gave us a report on how efficient they were, also heating, air conditioning, etc.
“We also had essentially a bin audit to understand how much we were putting into landfill, how much was being recycled, how many things were being diverted.
“Then we also looked at little things like what the processes are, just simple things like turning lights off when they’re not being needed.”
La La La’s Green Venue Certification helps display its efforts to artists and customers.
Venues were awarded a rating out of five stars, with both La La La’s and Anita’s Theatre scoring three each.
“We’ve still got a long way to go, we’d like to be six stars if we could,” Nathan said.
“We don’t own the building, so we have to be a bit more creative in how we invest in a building that’s not ours for things like solar array and better insulation and all those things.
“Three out of five stars is still something that we’re proud of, but we’re still aware that we need to do more.”
Green Music Australia CEO Berish Bilander said artists were always asking which venues were environmentally conscious and taking actions towards sustainability, with the new certification to provide a directory to now help them make more informed choices.
“We deal with musicians all the time and we know that when they’re touring, or really in all aspects of their career, they’re trying to be responsible,” Berish said.
“They realise that climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, so when they’re travelling the country they’re really cognisant of the footprint associated with that travel and a really easy way for them to do better is to book into venues that are performing well.”
But the benefits go beyond helping the planet, with venues potentially saving an average of $10,388 a year by switching energy providers, improving efficiency through appliance maintenance and upgrades, and installing solar.
“Energy in Australia is quite costly,” Berish said.
“Waste is another thing. Getting a service provider to come pick up your rubbish is quite costly, so if you’re able to reduce the amount of energy you’re purchasing from the grid and also the amount of waste you’re pushing out through your venue, then you’ll see year-on-year reductions in costs.”
Now, after the success of the pilot program, Green Music Australia is taking expressions of interest from any venue in NSW to work towards certification, with tiered pricing to help support smaller operators to still be involved.
“I think the more venues that can be involved in programs like this the more can understand how easy it is and how beneficial it is for both the environment and for business,” Nathan said.
To find out more about the certification or to view the Green Venue Directory, visit the Green Music Australia website.
