In 2016, Mulgrave Road Theatre started thinking about expanding — and Emmy Alcorn says environmental considerations were always “one of the key components” of the plan.

Alcorn is the artistic director of the theatre company, located in Guysborough, on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore (population: under 500).

“I started working here in 1987 as an actor and a musician and a technician, and I've been artistic director since 1995,” Alcorn says. “I came here for a two-year contract, and 29 years later, I'm still here — because I had this idea that I just couldn't shake, and it was all about having a space for the theatre as well as for the community, where people could gather.”

On July 2, 2024, the company broke ground for that new space: the Mulgrave Road Theatre Arts Centre. Slated to open in 2026, it will be on the site of a former Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation building, and incorporates the existing structure.

Long before plans for what would become the arts centre took shape, Alcorn was sketching out designs. Her original thought was, “off grid theatre,” she says. “But when I talked to different architects, they said that probably was not the best way to go. But there's this other way you can go, which is zero carbon, and solar power.”

The new arts centre is described on the Mulgrave Road website as “Atlantic Canada’s first purpose-built net zero-carbon cultural facility.”

Architect David Gallaugher, of Halifax-based firm Solterre, says working with an existing building means “there are some challenges from an efficiency standpoint.” One of those challenges is determining what to upgrade, and what to leave be. For instance, the building was constructed without much insulation under the concrete slab.

“You don't want to tear up the entire slab to make it a little more energy efficient, wasting all that concrete, and pouring new concrete, and all the carbon that comes with that. So you have to take a very practical approach to improving the efficiency of older buildings,” Gallaugher says.

His team’s plan calls for wrapping the building with insulation above code, adding lots of windows, and electrifying the heating, cooling, and ventilation systems. Insulation in the new section is double what code requires.

“Once we've reduced the energy needs as much as possible, we'll put in the most efficient mechanicals we can, and then we try to offset that electric use. We're looking at around 87 per cent of the building’s energy generated by their rooftop photovoltaic (solar cell) system,” he says.

Apart from being “the responsible thing to do,” Alcorn says, taking a green approach also helped the organization unlock funding from the federal government’s Green and Inclusive Community Buildings Program, and Nova Scotia’s Sustainable Communities Challenge Fund. Public funding is covering about 80 per cent of the cost, with the theatre fundraising the rest, in part through the sale of naming rights.

Alcorn says sustainability is “definitely” a hot topic of conversation for theatre companies across the country, noting that the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres — to which Mulgrave Road belongs — now offers a Green Award.

And, says Alcorn, climate change is a particularly pressing issue for rural theatres

“Climate change is a game-changer for some rural companies. When you talk about a rural company that's in British Columbia and they're doing outdoor theatre, well, they can't do it because of smoke from wildfires, right? Then there's another theatre company in Atlantic Canada that does outdoor theatre, and they had to cancel so many performances last summer because of rain.”

But even though these concerns are top of mind for small, rural arts organizations, Alcorn says “most theatre companies in Nova Scotia do not have the human resources and financial resources to do a lot of change. But we are looking at how we can change.”

In working on the building’s design, Gallaugher says he was always aware that its primary goal was to be what Alcorn calls “a factory to create art.” Ultimately, making the building as energy efficient as possible serves that goal.

“They're not spending thousands of dollars a year on heating and electricity, and all this stuff that doesn't really contribute directly to their making art,” Gallaugher says. “It’s a smart financial move on their part, really.”

And Alcorn’s closing thoughts mirror Gallaugher’s design direction.

“I want this building to take us into the future. I don't want it to be obsolete in 10, 20 years. And... as we all know, it costs so much to operate anything these days in terms of just the energy, if we can get some of that energy from the sun — hey, I'm all for it.”

The Climate Story Network is an initiative of Climate Focus, a non-profit organization dedicated to covering stories about community-driven climate solutions.