Arts Council England Programme | Julie's Bicycle

Julie’s Bicycle works in partnership with Arts Council England to deliver an ambitious Environmental Programme for National Portfolio Organisations and the wider cultural sector. As the climate and nature crisis accelerates, the arts and culture community is needed more than ever, to focus our creativity on this moment and the solutions we need.

Our Programme

Cultural organisations and practitioners are taking climate action with practical and creative responses celebrating and centering people and planet, nature and justice. The Arts Council England Environmental Programme ensures that the cultural sector can meet the challenges the climate crises presents by supporting organisations to take action, and accelerating and scaling our collective response.

Read our latest annual environmental report Get support with your environmental data reporting

Who can take part?

While the programme will support National Portfolio Organisations and Investment Principles Support Organisations, its reach extends beyond the portfolio, offering the wider cultural community free access to training, resources and carbon calculators, as well as guidance relevant for individual practitioners to support environmental action. Read on to find out more about our programmes and how you can get involved.

How can you participate?

While reporting environmental data is the essential foundation for understanding your impact and reducing your footprint, there is so much more that the cultural community can do to take meaningful action, and to work together to tackle climate change.

For the Environmental Programme Julie’s Bicycle provides:

Programmes for NPOs focusing on decarbonisation, resilience, justice and governance (more information below)
Knowledge sharing and examples of best practice from across the sector.
Find out more about reporting your data and the support on offer.
Creative Climate Tools – free carbon calculators designed specifically for the creative industries, with data entry support and a helpdesk for NPO users. Find out more about reporting your data and the support on offer.
Regular training events and workshops.
A Climate Justice Hub with free multimedia resources to understand the systemic causes of the climate crisis and how it intersects with issues of social, economic and environmental injustice.
A free library of over 250 resources including guides, case studies, factsheets, templates, webinars and toolkits.
An annual report featuring benchmarking information, news and case studies.

Join our mailing list for news on programme registration, upcoming webinars and new resources.

Transforming Energy

This new programme builds on the learnings of our Spotlight programme, and focuses on decarbonisation and working towards Net Zero for buildings-based organisations.

The Capital Investment Ready strand of this programme is currently inviting Expressions of Interest. Find out more about the criteria for the programme.

Board Environmental Champions

We will provide training and new resources for Board members of arts and culture organisations, enabling them to build the knowledge, skills and confidence to embed environmental responsibility within their organisations at governance level.

Applications for a pilot open this summer.

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Leading Resilience

Our new training and mentoring programme will allow NPOs to build resilience to future changes in the climate with two programme strands divided into ‘organisation’ and ‘place’.

Organisation: In its first year, two cohorts of senior leaders will gain the skills and knowledge to adapt and respond to climate change within their organisations’ strategy and operations.
Place: In the subsequent years three place-based partnerships will be identified to receive practical support to adapt to changes in climate, working in collaboration with local networks to find creative and practical solutions.

Applications for this programme will open in Autumn 2023.

Creative Climate Leadership Lab

Through this programme a new diverse generation of environmental leaders will emerge. It will support them to build skills and confidence to act as agents of change. They’ll bring with them the diverse backgrounds, perspectives, experiences, ideas and solutions we need to address the crises and champion justice nationally and internationally.

Applications for this programme will open in Autumn 2023.

The First of its Kind – The Environmental Programme’s History

Arts Council England and Julie’s Bicycle’s Environmental Programme was launched in 2012 and was the first of its kind. It has built literacy, confidence and leadership skills, allowing 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.

PICTURES: (from top to bottom) Header – Zadie Xa performing at We Make Tomorrow. Photo: Ben Darlington // Sinfonia Viva Energy. Photo Chris Webb // Creative Climate Leadership UK in March 2023. Photo: Ruth Davey Look Again; // Ian Solomon-Kawall from May Project Gardens, We Make Tomorrow 2020 // Creative Climate Leadership UK in March 2023. Photo: Ruth Davey Look Again // We Make Tomorrow 2022 at Birmingham Rep. Photo: toastandpost