As the climate and nature crisis gains momentum, we need the arts and culture community more than ever. Together we must focus our creativity on this moment.
Our Programme
Julie’s Bicycle works with Arts Council England to deliver an ambitious Environmental Programme. It provides resources, tools, and training to support cultural organisations to take climate action. We aim to empower the sector to rise to the challenges that climate change presents, and to accelerate and scale our collective response.
The programme is for National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs), Investment Principle Organisations (IPSOs), but if you are from the wider cultural sector we’re also here to support you. Many of the resources from the programme are free and available to anyone working in arts and culture.
Sign up to the Environmental Programme newsletter Read the latest Environmental Responsibility ReportWhat can you do?
Many organisations are already familiar with the programme through reporting their environmental data. This is a great entry point for understanding your impact and reducing your footprint, but there is much more you can do.
Delve into our:
- Resource library – for guides, templates, practical tips, case studies and reports
- Creative Climate Justice Hub – its packed with multimedia resources to help you learn and talk about climate justice
- Free programmes focussed on emissions reduction, adaptation and resilience and governance (see below)
- Creative Climate Tools designed for the creative industries to help them track their environmental impact.
- Environmental Reporting Guidance for national portfolio organisations
- Creative Climate E-Learning course – a self-paced online training course to deepen your climate knowledge, covering key facts on climate change, climate justice, and its relevance to the culture sector.
Key Programmes
Reduce Your Energy Emissions
Our Transforming Energy programme is for organisations based in buildings. It will support them to decarbonise and meet their net zero targets.
Energy Resources
There are two strands to join:
Buildings Net Zero Energy: Join Buildings Net Zero Energy if you are starting out, or have begun to reduce your energy emissions but are keen to do more.
Capital Investment Ready. For organisations already making significant progress in energy emissions reduction. Applications are now closed, but you can find out which organisations are taking part in Capital Investment Ready, and the impact of the programme.
Board Environmental Champions
This programme provides training, resources and a peer network for Board Members of NPOs and IPSOs. It will enable them to build the knowledge, skills and confidence to embed environmental responsibility within their organisations.
Sign up to join this programme at any time.
Find out moreOpportunities for Individuals
We are running two programmes designed to support individuals.
Creative Climate Accelerator: a 6 part training programme for emerging climate leaders from diverse backgrounds, supporting them to transform knowledge into action, and implement a legacy project.
Creating Now for the Future: co-designing and developing new resources to support freelancers, creatives, artists, freelancer producers and community practitioners to make their practice more sustainable.
Leading Resilience
This discovery and mentoring programme supports the cultural sector to understand and adapt to climate impacts by offering practical support and skills development.
It emphasises the urgent need for cultural adaptation and resilience-building through collaborations with local communities as well as by adapting our buildings and venues, operations and infrastructure, and policies and strategies.
Find out more Reading and Resources on AdaptationSupport with Environmental Reporting
Measure your footprint with JB’s free Creative Climate Tools. By adding your environmental data, you will gain a better understanding of your impact, and can plan the next steps of your climate action and track your progress. Data collected from across the portfolio helps us to understand our impact as a sector, and to share knowledge and best practice. The official reporting period for 2024-2025 is 6th May – 3oth June 2025.
Reporting Information for NPOs Webinars and SessionsStories from Across the Sector
Read the latest inspiring stories from across the portfolio and see how the sector has been taking action. Download the latest Environmental Programme Annual Report.
Arts Council England Annual Environmental ReportThe Environmental Programme’s History
Arts Council England and Julie’s Bicycle’s Environmental Programme launched in 2012 and was the first of its kind.
Through bespoke programmes such as Spotlight, Accelerator and The Colour Green Lab, it has built literacy, confidence and leadership skills. It has allowed cultural professionals the agency to act on climate change. Environmental Responsibility is one of the four Investment Principles that Arts Council England’s 2020-30 Strategy, Let’s Create, is built around.
Watch the animation to find out more about the goals and achievements of the environmental programme to date.
Contact the team
We are here to helpOur Work
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