6 Ways Dancers & Organizations Can Help the Environment
Happy Earth Day! Today, we celebrate our generous home planet by raising awareness of climate change, sharing eco-friendly tips, and more - all with the hopes of keeping Earth alive. It’s everyone’s responsibility to find ways to respect our planet, including dancers. To help you make an impact, we put together a list of 6 Ways Dancers & Organizations Can Help the Environment.
Donate your dancewear.
Did you know it takes 2,700 liters of water to make one cotton t-shirt? According to this National Geographic video, that’s enough water for one person to drink for 900 days! Dancers are usually required to have a variety of clothing items, including tights, leotards, pointe shoes, and costumes. Many of these items are worn minimally - during practice, auditions, or performances - for a limited amount of time. Instead of tossing unwanted dancewear in the garbage, consider donating the items to other dances in the community. This will give each item of clothing a longer lifespan, helping to offset the environmental cost of its production.
Reduce plastic waste.
Single-use plastic is a large part of our everyday lives as Americans. When you think about it, just about everything we use to start our day incorporates single-use plastic: your toothbrush and toothpaste, your shampoo and deodorant containers, the granola bar you unwrap for breakfast, and even the coffee pods you use. Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, according to this National Geographic article. To help reduce the amount of plastic waste that pollutes the Earth, dance studios and individual dancers alike can swap out their single-use plastics for environmentally-friendly alternatives. For example, opting for paper bags instead of plastic grocery bags, using a pitcher with a water filter instead of individual plastic bottles, refilling soap dispensers and cleaning products instead of throwing out their containers, and more.
Embrace Virtual Benefits
If there’s one thing the COVID-19 pandemic taught us, it’s that the convenience of technology can be used for safety, productivity, and efficiency, even for creative industries. While it’s not always ideal for dancers to have to rely solely on virtual communication, there are some environmental benefits to implementing virtual options. If dancers and instructors continue to have the option to attend meetings, seasonal intensive training, and auditions virtually, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions it would usually take for them to commute to and from the dance studio could potentially be reduced or eliminated.
Volunteer in your community.
Connect with organizations that host volunteer events - such as community clean-ups, tending to city gardens, or sorting recyclables - and encourage your dance students to participate. If you own a dance studio, organize a volunteer committee dedicated to implementing environmentally healthy practices and rules for the studio.
Vote.
The rules, regulations, and standards we follow to prevent climate change are typically determined by our elected officials. Whether you are happy with the way things are going, or you’d like to see some changes, who you vote for will have a great impact. As individual dancers and dance organizations, it’s important to stay involved in local politics and keep one another informed. Notify your students and their parents about upcoming election deadlines and events.
Create incentives for eco-friendly dancers.
For all of the options above, if you are a dance studio owner, consider offering incentives to your staff, students, and their parents in exchange for their sustainability efforts. For example, students who can show proof of volunteering, or those who donate items, can receive a discount on lessons for the month. The goal is to get as many people involved as possible in the fight against climate change!