- Posted on October 19th, 2020
The Creative Green Awards 2019
The winners of the third annual Creative Green Awards have been announced celebrating the many outstanding organisations and individuals taking action on climate and the environment.
This years’ Awards took place at Curzon Bloomsbury on Monday 1st July 2019, as part of the Mayor of London’s inaugural London Climate Action Week. Featuring a rousing keynote from leading international environmental lawyer and XR activist Farhana Yamin, contributions from climate champions across the sector and hosted by spoken word artist and Barbican Young Poet Amani Saeed, with music from Orchestra for the Earth, and a special showreel of sustainability films presented by Curzon. Specially commissioned commemorative plates made from recycled materials and bio-waste by ECOR and MaterialDriven are setting the standard for the next generation of ethical awards cabinets. See the Facebook gallery here.
Prizes were presented by a roll-call of luminaries from the arts world, including acclaimed international artists Michael Pinsky and Heather Ackroyd, folk musician Sam Lee, Baroness Lola Young, artist and activist Judy Ling Wong CBE OBE, Head of Communications at Universal Music UK Jonathan Badyal, Festival Republic Managing Director, Melvin Benn, Lyric Hammersmith Chief Executive Sian Alexander and international climate lawyer and activist Farhana Yamin.
“The climate and ecological emergency needs action like never before. The Creative Green community of cultural organisations is a community of action – and these winners are showing the way.”
– Farhana Yamin
With the magnitude of the climate emergency now finally reaching the mainstream, our Creative Green programme frames the actions that each and every UK cultural organisation can take, right now, within the climate battle to drastically reduce their carbon footprint and drive change across the sector. With over 350 Creative Green certificates awarded, the awards are a moment for the sector to showcase their leadership in climate action.
The Winners
Congratulations to all of the organisations who were nominated.
Outstanding Achievement Award
SHORTLIST:
- Almeida Theatre
- Battersea Arts Centre
- Lyric Hammersmith
- Sadler’s Wells
- Shambala
WINNER:
Shambala
Shambala is a truly inspiring festival – demonstrating the possibility of creating a festival that treads lightly on the Earth. For over 10 years they have been trailblazing green practices on energy, food, plastic and travel. They are also founders of Powerful Thinking and Festival Vision 2025 – initiatives that are transforming the festival sector.
Highest Achievement for Commitment
SHORTLIST:
- Electric Picnic
- London Theatre Consortium
- Shambala
WINNER:
London Theatre Consortium
The London Theatre Consortium has for a decade now committed to joint climate leadership through their practices and creativity. In this last year: 11 of the 14 theatres now use green electricity; they are developing a low carbon roadmap on the Accelerator Programme; and they ran an Artists Climate Lab focused on how to creatively represent the environment on stage.
Highest Achievement for Understanding
SHORTLIST:
- BRIT Awards
- Festival Republic
- National Theatre
WINNER:
Festival Republic
Festival Republic takes an evidence-based approach to intelligently and ambitiously reduce their environmental impacts from energy, plastic to tents. They also study the effectiveness of their environmental communications to report and track progress. They have also set ambitions to make festivals more circular in resources as part of the Accelerator Programme.
Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic, said: “We are thrilled to have won the Highest Achievement for Understanding and Best Festival awards for Electric Picnic. It is an honour to be recognised for our commitment to sustainability alongside such prestigious organisations, all working hard to take their impact on the environment seriously and engage with audiences in creative ways.”
Highest Achievement for Improvement
(sponsored by Good Energy)
SHORTLIST:
- Battersea Arts Centre
- Norwich Theatre Royal
- Sadler’s Wells
- Theatre Royal Stratford East
- Unicorn Theatre
WINNER:
Norwich Theatre Royal
Norwich Theatre Royal shows us that the low carbon transition is achievable. Over the last 10-years they have reduced the emissions from their building energy use by 72%. Two-years ago they installed solar PV to generate electricity. They are also in partnership with New Adventures to work collaboratively with touring companies on green practice.
Stephen Crocker, the Norwich Theatre Royal’s Chief Executive, said: “I am delighted that we have been presented with this fantastic award…This is a fantastic accolade that not only marks our achievements to date but gives us renewed impetus to continue driving forward new innovations and approaches to reducing our impact on the environment”
Best Newcomer
SHORTLIST:
- Barbican Centre
- Bow Arts
- HOME Manchester
- Onassis Cultural Centre
- Opera North
WINNER:
Opera North
Opera North is threading environmental sustainability throughout procuring a 100% renewable energy supply, integrating the environment into their major capital project and setting Science-Based reduction targets as part of the Spotlight programme. Opera North have been instrumental in setting up a new network of arts and cultural organisations working collaboratively on sustainability within Leeds.
Best Festival
SHORTLIST:
- Download
- Electric Picnic
- Latitude
- Leeds
- Shambala
WINNER:
Electric Picnic
Electric Picnic have signed up to Festival Vision 2025 – aiming to achieve a 50% reduction in festival related annual emissions by 2025. They also host Global Green, a pop-up ecovillage, and Greencrafts, a shared learning space inspiring new thinking around ethics and environment.
Best Cultural Venue
SHORTLIST:
- Almeida Theatre
- Battersea Arts Centre
- Lyric Hammersmith
- Sadler’s Wells
WINNER:
Almeida Theatre
As member of the London Theatre Consortium, Almeida have worked collaboratively with other theatres to understand and take proactive action to address climate change. Sustainability has become integrated into the theatre’s business plan and all staff job descriptions. They have a dedicated procurement policy with green credentials requested from key suppliers and contractors and are with a 100% renewable energy supplier.
Best Multi-Arts Centre
SHORTLIST:
- Barbican Centre
- HOME Manchester
- Somerset House
WINNER:
HOME Manchester
HOME Manchester is a highly active member of the Manchester Arts Sustainability Team (MAST), a network of 30 arts and cultural organisations working to drive sustainable change within Manchester. They worked with Carbon Literacy to create a sector-specific training package they run across MAST. They have excellent communications ensuring visitors appreciate their commitment and effort to protect the environment. They are also setting a Science-Based reduction target as part of the Spotlight programme.
Jon Gilchrist, Executive Director of HOME, says: “HOME are thrilled to receive the Creative Green Best Multi-Arts Centre award – a testament to the collaborative action of our entire team and our ongoing commitment to drive change as part of a cultural ecology.”
Best Creative Programming
SHORTLIST:
- National Theatre
- Old Vic
- Somerset House
- Studio Olafur Eliasson
WINNER:
Studio Olafur Eliasson
Studio Olafur Eliasson’s work connects and explores our relationship to nature and our surroundings. Ice Watch London 2018 brought to London large blocks of Greenland glacial ice to coincide with international climate talks. The work was carbon footprinted to understand its own material environmental impacts. As one of the world’s leading contemporary artists studios, they are catalysing a conversation on what the arts can do to address their own environmental impacts.
Best Creative Group
SHORTLIST:
- Curzon
- Festival Republic
- London Theatre Consortium
- Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums
WINNER:
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) is a consortium of nine major regional museums, art galleries and archives based in the North East. They are a leading example on what Museums can achieve in addressing climate change. TWAM is an active partner of Newcastle-Gateshead Cultural Venues (NGCV) network, a group of 10 cultural venues in the North East committed to working together to improve their environmental performance. They are committed to aligning with the Paris Agreement and are setting ambitious Science Based Targets as part of the Spotlight Programme.
Green Champions
Andrew Ashton, New Adventures
Andrew is a dancer with New Adventures in their hit production of Swan Lake and has supported New Adventures on their environmental programme as they go on tour.
Antonis Seitelmann, Onassis Cultural Centre
Antonis has led on building sustainability into procurement procedures at the Onassis Cultural Centre, including sourcing plastic alternatives, certified paper products and switching to green energy.
Karishma Rafferty, Somerset House Trust
Karishma participated in the first ever Creative Climate Leadership programme, curated a two-week Earth Day season in April 2019 and sits on the Somerset House steering group, supporting strategy, initiatives and join up across departments.
Andrea Bottaro, National Theatre
Andrea has worked hard to optimise the energy efficiency of the National Theatre, enabling them to set and achieve ambitious reduction targets. He shares his knowledge and experience with other cultural organisations.
Tref Davies, Battersea Arts Centre
Tref has worked at Battersea Arts Centre, part of the London Theatre Consortium, for ten years. He is committed to driving forward the fantastic environmental work happening at BAC.
We are incredibly grateful to this year’s judges who are:
- Juliet Davenport, Founder and Chief Executive of Good Energy,
- Bella Sereno, Environmental and Resource Manager at Tate,
- Jonathan Badyal, Head of Communications at Universal Music UK,
- Julie Godefroy, Sustainability Consultant and Chartered Engineer.
We are very proud to confirm that First Mile, Seacourt Printing, Pilio and Borough Wines all sponsored the evening, with our headline sponsor Good Energy also supporting the award for Highest Achievement for Improvement. We thank them all for their generous support.
To find out more about our Creative Green Community please get in touch – support@juliesbicycle.com.
About Creative Green
Creative Green is a programme of Julie’s Bicycle that offers a broad range of services that help organisations scope, understand, prioritise and advocate environmentally sustainable practices. A core part of this programme is the Creative Green certification scheme, which enables organisations to begin their sustainability journey to demonstrate best practice and leadership. The certification is a framework for sustainability action, representing a community of pioneering cultural organisations driving change. With over 300 certificates awarded since its launch in 2009, Creative Green remains the only environmental certification designed specifically for the creative and cultural sector. It supports organisations’ environmental impact reductions through its three strands: Commitment, Understanding and Improvement. Points are accrued within each strand and a one to five star certification is awarded based on the total number gained.
