Member Article

Building an epic partnership with Newcastle Cinema

Newcastle’s iconic Tyneside Cinema has made the ‘epic’ decision to become one of the most environmentally friendly arts facilities in the UK.

Sustainability is of utmost importance to Tyneside Cinema and it even has its own ‘Green Team’ dedicated to driving environmental change throughout the business.

In 2012, the cinema achieved Industry Green certification in recognition of its commitment to managing its carbon and improving its environmental impacts.

The Industry Green certification scheme was developed by Julie’s Bicycle, a not-for-profit organisation which aims to make sustainability intrinsic to the business, art and ethics of the creative industries, helping them measure, manage and reduce their environmental impacts.

Such is Tyneside Cinema’s dedication to sustainability, that it is working in partnership with its long term property management partner Sanderson Weatherall to put a strategy in place to drive forward carbon reduction measures.

Venue Manager at Tyneside Cinema, Leigh Venus, said: “Tyneside Cinema has been a popular venue since it opened as the ‘Newcastle News Theatre’ in 1937 and today it is the UK’s last operational former newsreel theatre.

“The arrival of television spelled the end of the newsreel business and in 1968 the venue was relaunched as the Tyneside Film Theatre, screening the best in cinema from across the world. By the late 1990s the cinema had grown its audience significantly, but the old building was in need of some love and investment so CEO Mark Dobson spearheaded a campaign in 2006 which raised over £7.5m to restore and redevelop the cinema and led to the award-winning reopening of the venue in 2008.

“Now spread over four floors and featuring two stylish bars as well as the Tyneside Coffee Rooms which have been trading for over 70 years, the cinema continues to screen the best films from around the world across three luxurious auditoria. The wealth of original features revealed during the redevelopment led to the venue fast becoming a popular heritage attraction too, and we have welcomed record numbers of people through our doors since reopening.

“We are the custodians of the cinema for the people of the North East, so sustainability and the ongoing care of our venue is extremely important to us. When we reopened in 2008 we found ourselves with a building which was both beautifully restored and fitted out with the latest equipment and services, so in order to best manage this unique venue we made the decision to utilise the expertise of a property specialist who could provide advice and manage relationships with our contractors and tenants.

“Through a competitive tendering process, we found the ideal fit with Sanderson Weatherall.

“Sanderson Weatherall understands our commitment to customer service and our need to cause as little disruption to our very busy film and events programme as possible, so that the experience of our customers is never compromised. As the age-old saying goes ‘the show must go on’ and Sanderson Weatherall provide a service that fits in wholly with the cinema’s operations and our increasingly important environmental responsibilities.

“As part of our ongoing efforts to become more sustainable we are looking into alternative and renewable technologies which could reduce our environmental impact, and we will continue to work with Sanderson Weatherall as explore these options and develop our environmental action plan.”

Alex Slack, Facilities Manager for Sanderson Weatherall, said: “We recognise the importance of the venue in Newcastle’s cultural landscape. We have great expertise with heritage/cultural venues and have a wealth of suppliers/contractors that we can call upon to ensure the cinema is operational at all times. Where possible we aim to procure local suppliers/contractors in order to minimise the carbon footprint as well as boost the local economy.”

Sanderson Weatherall is ISO: 14001 accredited which means it has the measures in place to help organisations minimise their operations and reduce any negative environmental impacts.

Picture caption (L-R): Leigh Venus and Alex Slack.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sanderson Weatherall LLP .