About Us
Our Mission
The Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) is an industry-wide initiative that educates, motivates, and inspires the entire theatre community and its patrons to implement environmentally friendlier practices on Broadway and beyond.
Our Story & Vision
We were launched in 2008 as an ad hoc committee of The Broadway League. From the beginning, we partnered with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to serve as our environmental advisor, and in 2013, we became a fiscally sponsored program of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. We aim to help fight climate change by providing free programs and services at the intersection of theatre and sustainability.
We envision a future where sustainability is embedded in the fabric of how theatre is created and experienced. We meet theatre-makers and audiences where they are in their sustainability journeys and empower them to go further by championing creative, equitable, and scalable solutions that reduce our industry’s environmental impact while harnessing the power of storytelling to inspire change.
Our Principles
It is impossible to be 100% “green” - we can only be greener. We can begin by doing something to benefit our environment today, no matter the size of the action.
The climate crisis results in millions of decisions and it demands action - big and small - from each of us. Change results from the cumulative effect of our actions.
Climate neutrality is insufficient. In order to lessen the damage caused by climate change and restore our climate to safe levels of atmospheric CO2, the BGA works to promote climate positive action and commitments.
We must build an equitable and just climate movement and address the disproportionate effect of environmental degradation on poor and BIPOC communities. There is no climate justice without racial justice.
Our Impact
We led the change of all the marquee lights on Broadway to energy-efficient LED and CFLs. That’s over 100,000 actual bulbs and saves over 800 tons of carbon each year.
There are over 1,600 BGA Green Captain volunteers nationwide - including representation on every Broadway show and at more than 110 colleges and universities.
Through BGA collection programs, our community has diverted over 22,000 pounds of textiles and 63,000 pounds of electronics from the landfill.
Our binder “lending library” has kept over 10,000 binders in circulation across the city.
We’ve provided $45,000 in NYC Theatre Greening Grant awards to artists across the city.
We present to theatre-makers around the country and the world, offering support and guidance for sustainable practices in the arts. To date, we’ve delivered over 500 presentations across 26 U.S. states and 11 countries.
Our community of artist-activists continues to grow exponentially, with BGA membership increasing 185% over the past eight years.
Sustainable Spotlight: The Battery Breakthrough
Championing and amplifying industry-wide changes, such as when Wicked switched to rechargeable microphone batteries, cutting usage from 15,808 to just 80 per year - preventing over 250,000 batteries from entering landfills to date and inspiring widespread adoption across Broadway and beyond.