- Posted on December 15th, 2021
Ones to Watch in 2022
Read on to find some of our recommendations for sector-influencing Creative Climate Action coming up in 2022…
Music
Keep your eyes out for the Global Recorded Music Climate Pact, born out of the UK by the Association of Independent Music (AIM) and in collaboration with the BPI (both long standing JB friends and Creative Green clients), as a response to COP26 and the urgent call for collective action to combat the climate crisis. We’re a supporting partner of the Pact, and are currently working in partnership with IMPALA to create an adaptation of our Creative Green Tools carbon calculators to help IMPALA members and Pact signatories to meet their commitments on transparent accounting and reporting of their climate impacts – to be launched in early 2022.
Literature
Festivaletteratura, Italy’s most important literature festival, is leading the way in its approach to sustainable events. This is down to the commitment of the festival’s Arianna Tonelli and its involvement in C-Change, a network on city-based cultural collaboration on climate based on Manchester’s model. The festival calculated its footprint with support from the city’s climate change team. It has launched a new environmental action plan focusing on travel and programming and is collaborating with the city to create a new forest ‘Bosco di Festivaletteratura’ as a means of ‘carbon compensation’. The festival is also a founding member of ARC3A – Mantova’s cultural collective on climate action.
“C-Change has brought new life to our sector. Thanks to C-Change we have realised that it’s not enough to talk about climate emergency, but that we also have to take action.” – Arianna Tonelli, Sustainability Manager Festivaletteratura
Art Festivals
The Unboxed 2022 commissions materialise across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and online next year. Featured projects include Green Space Dark Skies, celebrating natural landscapes and our responsibility towards looking after them. This project is led by friends of JB Walk the Plank, who have a long track record of advocating for environmental sustainability in the arts, including as members of the Manchester Arts Sustainability Team, Julie’s Bicycle 4* Creative Green certified for Manchester Day parade, and co-founders of the Green Production Lab 2021 with Without Walls. See their detailed sustainability plan for the project.
Also part of Unboxed 2022 is Dreamachine, an immersive light and sound experience – our Creative Green team has been working with Collective Act in collaboration with Assemble to help the project develop its sustainability strategy and action plan. This project also involves Music Declares Emergency signatory composer Jon Hopkins.
Other festival projects include Dandelion, a reinvention of the harvest festival for the 21st century, PoliNations, a celebration of colour, beauty and natural diversity through city-centre forest gardens and GALWAD, a multi-disciplinary journey into the future anchored by The Well-Being of Future Generations (Wales) Act with partners including the Centre for Alternative Technology, where we held our first Creative Climate Leadership course in 2017.
Lewisham is the London Mayor’s Borough of Culture in 2022. With a call to action on the climate emergency and a celebration of Lewisham’s diverse communities, the year-long programme is inspired by the borough’s rich history of activism and standing up for equality.
Expect commissions like Breathe:2022, Sun & Sea and Hope For Justice that will inspire climate action and address local climate issues as well as the global climate crisis. Plus Climate Home will be Lewisham’s new low carbon creative space, designed, built and led by, and for, local young people.
Network Organisations
SAIL is a membership organisation working to support the cultural and creative industries in Leeds to become more sustainable. 2022 is already shaping up to be another exciting year for them. In January, they are supporting the Leeds City Council & Lille project by advocating for sustainable best practice in the creative sector, on an international level. They’re also facilitating several sessions as part of Leeds Arts University’s Employability week, speaking to the next cohort of local creative graduates about how they can consider sustainability in their individual practice and future careers.
Throughout the rest of 2022, they’ll continue to collaborate with their members, to work towards their 2030 net zero goals. They’ll be working closely with LEEDS 2023 as the city builds towards an exciting year of culture with sustainability at the heart of it. On a wider scale, as local sustainability networks such as GMAST and Shift continue to develop, they’ll also be collaborating nationally to amplify the work we do at Julie’s Bicycle on a local grassroots level.
Vision 2025, the outdoor events industry network focused on climate action, is preparing an innovative Outdoor Events Green Code of Conduct to provide consistent clear minimum environmental standards for all UK outdoor events. The code has been developed by Vision:2025 member associations, including AIF, AFO, NOEA, EIF, and organisations such as Festival Republic and Julie’s Bicycle, with support from live event promoters across the UK. There’s still time to input into the consultation, which is open for feedback until 14th Jan.
The Climate Heritage Network (CHN) launched the #RaceToResilience campaign during COP26. Race to Resilience is a global campaign – the sibling to Race to Zero – catalysing a step-change in global ambition for climate resilience, putting people and nature first in pursuit of a resilient world where we don’t just survive climate shocks and stresses but thrive in spite of them. The campaign aims to catalyse action by non-state actors that builds the resilience of 4 billion people from vulnerable groups and communities to climate risks, by 2030.
Gallery Climate Coalition is a membership organisation providing environmental sustainability guidelines for galleries, aiming to reduce CO2e emissions of the sector by 50% by 2030. Their decarbonisation action plan is a step-by-step carbon reduction strategy for the art sector, and this year they intend to establish international volunteer teams, build artist and collector networks, and launch campaigns on Shipping, Travel and Packaging.
Exhibitions
Our Time on Earth looks to transform the conversation on climate emergency. This major exhibition of art, science, design, music and philosophy at the Barbican next year will invite you to experience different global perspectives on our shared planet, and consider Earth as a community we all belong to. You’ll be treated to interactive experiences, immersive installations and digital works that come together to take you on a journey of self-reflection, discovering how technology can connect us to the natural world and leaving you feeling empowered to make positive change.
Back to Earth is a new multi-year project by Serpentine Galleries that invites over sixty leading artists, architects, poets, filmmakers, scientists, thinkers and designers, to devise artist-led campaigns, protocols and initiatives responding to the environmental crisis, with the support of partner organisations and networks. Throughout the course of the project, Serpentine will be tracking how each campaign, as well as the programming and organisational structure that subtends them, can become a prototype that can be translated or applied throughout other organisations. These methodologies and practices will be open-sourced as a toolkit, on the Serpentine website and via podcast.
Our Creative Green team have been supporting Serpentine on their long term sustainability plan including specialised support around sustainable exhibitions and energy management.
Image courtesy of Mandip Singh Soin, Ibex Expeditions collection, Serpentine Galleries
