The Soraya At CSUN Honored With 2019 Ticketmaster Sustainability Award

The Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya) has been awarded the 2019 Ticketmaster Sustainability Award which was recently presented at the Ticketmaster Arts Summit. The Ticketmaster Award coincides with CSUN's 11th annual Sustainability Day to be held on its campus this Thursday, October 24th from 9:30am to 4:45pm.

The Soraya was honored for its dedication to eco-friendly and sustainable practices in all areas of its operations and programs. The 1700-seat Soraya is LEED Gold certified, the second-highest certification offered by the U.S. Green Building Council and a rarity among performing arts centers. The Soraya also uses biodegradable materials and reusable drink tumblers for patrons, and has launched a program that reduces single-use plastics, and provides patrons with real-time data about the theater's water and energy use and savings on a "Sustainability Monitor" in the theater's lobby.

"The Soraya is the epitome of Sustainability," said Ticketmaster founder Albert Leffler, "with its LEED Gold Certification for the structure, and operational policies in place, both backstage and front of house for keeping everything as 'green' as possible. When Ticketmaster recently created various arts and theatre client awards, I was pleased to nominate The Soraya, with the ensuing award most appropriate."

"The Soraya is a values-driven arts organization, with Sustainability being one of our highest priorities," said Thor Steingraber, executive director of The Soraya. "We strive to align with the CSUN campus strategic priorities in this regard, among others, and I'm proud to work for President Dianne F. Harrison, who is the pacesetter for our collective achievements."

For the past five years, Steingraber has prioritized Sustainability in all areas of its operations and programs including community arts programs on campus at CSUN. These programs include the "Global Currents" festival in 2017 with artists from 13 nations exploring themes around water conservation, and 2019's "Future Currents: L.A. River," a six-month large-scale collaboration between CSUN students and local activists and eco-artists to foster awareness of some of the environmental challenges faced by the Los Angeles River.

The CSUN campus scores highly for water conservation, peer-to-peer education, and student ambassadors through Associated Students Recycling. Some of the biggest accomplishments over the past several years include opening the CSU's Sustainability Center on campus, creating and implementing a campus-wide Zero Waste Plan, and reducing water consumption on campus by more than 55 million gallons per year. For the past two years CSUN made Sierra Magazine's nation-wide top 100 list for sustainability practices on a university campus. The Soraya was a proud partner in this accomplishment.

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