Lilli Geissendorfer appointed as
Theatre Green Book Director
Theatre Green Book UK, the grassroots initiative that sets common standards for sustainable
theatre across all areas of theatre practice and operation, is delighted to announce that Lilli
Geissendorfer will take on the newly created role of Director.
Thanks to funding from Arts Council England, along with support from The Foyle Foundation, Lillihas been engaged as the Director to build on the success of the Theatre Green Book and take it on
the next stage of its development. The funding will also enable Theatre Green Book bring together
the growing number of European and international Theatre Green Book networks in spring 2025 toshare experience, knowledge and best practice.
Following the launch of the second edition of the Theatre Green Book in June, Lilli will beresponsible for increasing the use of the Theatre Green Book over the next year, developing asustainable business model for its future growth and expanding the Theatre Green Book network as
an active community, encompassing theatre, dance and opera of all types, at all scales, in all partsof the UK.
The climate crisis has been a golden thread throughout Lilli’s career - from putting on a ‘theatre bybike’ festival at Arcola in 2006, to embedding carbon reporting in Arts Council England funding
agreements in 2012, to six years as Director of Jerwood Arts (now Jerwood Foundation) where she
funded artist-led projects speaking to and/or about climate change. She was most recently Deputy
Director of the Creative Policy and Evidence Centre (Creative PEC).
Lilli Geissendorfer says, I have been so inspired by the extraordinary work happening across theatre
and performing arts to reckon with the climate crisis over recent years. Joining Theatre Green Bookat this moment I’m full of excitement and determination, and look forward to collaborating widely
to put net zero in sight.
Jon Morgan, Director of Theatres Trust, which acts as secretariat for the Theatre Green Book and isa member of the Steering Group says, The Steering Group is delighted to have Lilli on board. She isjust the right person to build on the achievements of the Theatre Green Book so far and drive theproject forward to the next level.

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Lilli will take on the role from September 2024 on a part-time basis. One of her first public duties as
the Theatre Green Book Director will be to speak at Theatres Trust’s Conference 24: Making
Theatres Thrive on 8 October at The Lowry, Salford.

Notes to Editors
Theatre Green Book
Theatre Green Book UK Theatre Green Book UK has brought together theatre operators, theatremakers and sustainability experts to create a common standard for making theatre sustainably. Itsets standards for making productions sustainably, for making theatre buildings sustainable, and for
improving operations like catering and front of house. It is a free resource for everyone in the UK
theatre sector. It has already been widely adopted across the sector, being used by all the major UKsubsidised theatres, all the UK’s national theatres, all UK opera houses, and won the Stage Award
for Innovation in 2022. A second edition was launched in June 2024 alongside an improved websiteand online tools.
As well as funding from Arts Council England and the Foyle Foundation the Theatre Green Book is
supported by grants and donations from the Steel Charitable Trust, the Frederick Mulder Trust andUnusual Rigging.
Theatre Green Book UK is led by a steering group comprising The National Theatre and National
Theatre of Scotland, with membership organisations Association of British Theatre Technicians(ABTT), and Society of London Theatre/UK Theatre, authors Paddy Dillon and Lisa Burger (RenewCulture), sustainability specialists, Buro Happold, and Theatres Trust, the national advisory body fortheatres, which is also acting as Secretariat for the project.
https://theatregreenbook.com/
Lilli Geissendorfer
Climate crisis has been a golden thread through Lilli’s career - from putting on a ‘theatre by bike’festival at Arcola in 2006, to embedding carbon reporting in Arts Council England funding
agreements in 2012 and working closely with Julie’s Bicycle, to six years as Director of Jerwood Arts
where she funded many artist-led projects speaking to and/or about climate change in amultiplicity of ways.
She was most recently Deputy Director of the Creative Policy and Evidence Centre (Creative PEC),overseeing the growth of the core team from eight to 18 including new Policy and Research Units,
and supporting the move to a new operating and strategic model led by Newcastle University with
the Royal Society of the Arts. She successfully introduced the first four State of the Nations research
reports, facilitated partnerships across academia and government, and worked closely with theGlobal Creative Economy Council.

Page | 2Previously, she was Director of Jerwood Arts (now Jerwood Foundation), a leading independentfunder, where she channelled £10 million of funding to over 1000 early-career artists, makers,curators and producers between 2018-2023 and significantly grew its reach and partnerships acrossthe UK. She led a national exhibitions programme of new work including Jerwood Collaborate!,featuring Array Collective, Turner Prize-winners 2021, and launched Jerwood Survey, now in its
third edition. With a strong focus on improving socio-economic diversity and inclusion, she createdalmost 100 year-long jobs through Weston Jerwood Creative Bursaries, and took an innovative
approach to inclusive funding processes, piloting random selection with the 1:1FUND.
As a producer and entrepreneur, Lilli co-founded HighTide in 2007, now an NPO, and has madeshows for theatres including Arcola (Monsters by Niklas Radstrom, dir. Chris Haydon) and Bush(Eigengrau by Penelope Skinner, Dir. Polly Findlay). She spent five years at the Almeida, where shetransferred numerous productions to the West End and Broadway including Ghosts, Charles III,
1984, Chimerica, Ink and Mary Stuart. As a researcher and relationship manager, she spent twoyears at Arts Council England, where she introduced environmental sustainability reporting forNPOs in 2012, and has worked at think tanks Demos and The Young Foundation.
She has been a Clore Emerging Leader, and a Salzburg Global Seminar Next Generation CulturalFellow.
She is currently a trustee of Fuel Theatre and Project Europa, an Advisor to the national movement
What Next? for culture, a mentor with Arts Emergency and really wants to start a podcast to go
where Front Row can’t.
Arts Council England
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out
our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which thecreativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us hasaccess to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. From 2023 to 2026 we will invest
over £467 million of public money from Government and an estimated £250 million from The
National Lottery each year to help support the sector and to deliver this vision.
Foyle Foundation
The Foyle Foundation is an independent grantmaking trust that distributes grants to UK charities.
Up until December 2023, the Foundation has disbursed £146.6m in grants. The Foyle Foundation
will complete its grant giving programme in 2025, marking 25 years of giving to the fields of thearts, learning, community small grants and state school libraries.
All enquiries, high res images and further information:
Isobel Jaffray, Chloé Nelkin Consulting
E: isobel@chloenelkinconsulting.com, M: 07772 643 959
W: www.chloenelkinconsulting.com

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