Welcome to our Creative Climate Tools Engagement Platform
Overview of the Project (2022-23)
Over the last year, Julie’s Bicycle developed a new set of environmental impact measuring and learning tools funded by Arts Council England. The development was made in consultation with the cultural sector and built on the success of the previous CG Tools.
The new CC Tools are a free-to-access software designed to support users in capturing their environmental data and translate this into meaningful, quantitative and qualitative information. The outputs include carbon emission footprinting as well as creative, operational and inspirational responses which can be used to inform and track their organisation’s actions.
The development of the tools has been complemented by a new E-Learning Platform (Learning Management System). The aim of the platform is to give culture professionals the ability to develop their environmental knowledge, skills and leadership across different areas of creative practice. The E-Learning Platform consists of courses, learning programmes and a co-created library of resources. The objective is to make climate action accessible to everyone so that creative industries can collectively and globally work towards net zero targets and a green creative economy.
To get to this stage and ensure that we deliver a tool that is fit for purpose, Julie’s Bicycle encouraged the input of our stakeholders and existing users. We would like to thank the CCTools Engagement Group who were vital and valued contributors throughout the tools development project.
How can I get involved?
Although the 2022-23 project has now closed, we are still keen to get input from a wide range of organisations and users across the sector.
If you’d like to get involved in future projects or would like to leave feedback, please contact us at support@juliesbicycle.com.
Project Timeline
The CC Tools project was made up of a series of 5 software releases. This iterative development of the tools allowed each release to be designed, developed and tested with the input and valuable feedback of the appropriate stakeholders at each stage.
Release Cycles:
- Release 1 (Completed) – Security stability and improving accessibility.
- Release 2 (Completed) – Simplifying data input journey across the 6 footprint journeys and addition of requested features.
- Release 3 (Completed) – Re-branding and general user experience improvements.
- Release 4 (Completed) – New features including Carbon Budget Setting Tool, Return on Investment Calculator, Forecasting Tool and Beyond Carbon area.
- Release 5 (Completed) – Improvements to existing areas such as Waste Management and the Tour footprint, as well as launching the new Materials tab and final version of the Custom Project footprint.
For more details around the improvements being made to the tools in real-time, check out our Creative Climate Tools Project Tracker.
Sessions/Workshops:
Introduction to the Project (Completed) – introductory session for participants to get a high level understanding of the project and how future sessions will work.
Workshop 1 (Completed) – session to help understand the challenges and opportunities from practitioners. The outcomes of the workshop will help JB to influence what changes need to be made to the tools to keep them up-to-date.
Workshop 2 (Completed) – session to review the new features from the latest release and steer the prioritisation of future development.
Tools Advisory Group (Upcoming) – the role of the group will be to influence the product, keep it up-to-date with sector trends and maintain contact with the broader cultural community. People from across the arts and culture, including people with environmental expertise and newcomers will be invited to join.
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Update 22nd December 2023
We have recently launched and updated a group of guides and resources to help CCTools users navigate our exciting new and improved features. Check out our fresh user guides, updated demonstration video and data collection template through the CCTools Resources page or via our website.
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Update 20th November 2023
All new features and updates are now live on the Creative Climate Tools.
We would like to say a huge thank you to the CCTools Engagement Group who have been vital and valued contributors to the tools development project. We plan to arrange a ‘Tools Stakeholder Review’ session once you have had the chance to check out and review the changes. We have greatly appreciated your engagement and hope your invaluable feedback will continue.
Update 12th October 2023
This week saw the second of our CCTools New Features & Updates User Webinars. This series of webinars included a general overview of the tools for newcomers and a demonstration of the exciting new features we introduced into the Creative Climate Tools over the last few months such as:
- Our new and improved Waste tab
- Updated Tour footprint
- Addition of the Materials tab
- New Custom Project footprint
- New layout of the Beyond Carbon survey
- Forecasting tool
- Return on Investment Calculator
- Carbon Budget Setting feature
NOTE: Some of the features were shown in our testing environment and therefore will not yet appear for users accessing the CCTools. These will be live in the next few weeks.
Update 28th August 2023
More features are underway including our new Materials tab, the refreshed Tour footprint, improved Waste tab and the second iteration of the Custom Project footprint. Keep up to date with the latest changes and developments through the Creative Climate Tools Project Tracker.
We would also like to invite you to our two CCTools New Features & Updates User Webinars taking place on the 28th of September and 11th of October. Sign up through our Events page.
Update 31st July 2023
Our focus over the last few weeks has been developing the new Carbon Budget Setting Tool, new Return on Investment Calculator, new Forecasting Tool, the first iteration of the Custom Project footprint and improving the Beyond Carbon format. We are excited to be sharing these updates with you soon.
Update 26th June 2023
Over the last few weeks, we have been working in the background to get some new features prepped and tested, ready to roll out post-reporting period. Keep up to date with the latest changes and developments through the Creative Climate Tools Project Tracker.
Update 1st May 2023
As the 2023 ACE NPO reporting period begins, we’d like to invite you to our webinars lined up on the 17th of May and 8th of June. These have been designed to help users navigate the Creative Climate Tools platform, add and understand their carbon footprint data, and to interpret their results. There will also be an opportunity for Q&A at the end of the session. Don’t miss out, sign up through our Events page.
Update 3rd April 2023
Welcome to the launch of our newly branded Creative Climate Tools! This new look and feel has been introduced to improve performance across devices, work towards a more accessible standard (AA digital standard) and enhance the general user experience. Come check it out!
Update 6th March 2023
Last week we completed the second of our “Workshop 2” sessions with a range of participants from the sector. Both of these sessions started with a show and tell of the larger changes that have been made to the CC Tools – including the additions of the Homeworking and Custom Carbon Figure sections as well as the improvement of the Business and Fleet Travel tabs. The Workshops also consisted of activities relating to the Beyond Carbon survey, the prioritisation of future developments and exploring learning resources used within the group.
The next steps for our JB Team are to focus on Release 3 which is now due to be launched at the end of March. This release will concentrate on improving the general user journey of the tools and visual changes to the platform to ensure a smooth experience for our users.
Update 27th February 2023
We are happy to announce that our second release of improvements to the CC Tools has now gone live. You are now able to follow the changes that are being made to the tools in real-time and have a look at what developments are in progress – Creative Climate Tools Project Tracker.
Update 27th January 2023
Development work for Release 2 is underway. We will shortly be adding a feature to the Engagement Platform which will allow you to easily follow the changes that are being made throughout the project.
Our “Workshop 2” sessions have been booked in for the end of February/start of March. We have invited participants to see some of the development made following the topics discussed in “Workshop 1” and analysing other improvement topics that have been highlighted in previous sessions.
Update 15th December 2022
Both of our “Workshop 1” sessions have now been completed. The sessions started with border reflections on the tools and the importance vs complexity of the data. We then continued onto different activities and votes around the following topics:
- Introducing custom carbon entries
- Refining the Materials section (Production footprint)
- Introducing Homeworking
- Refining the Business Travel section
- Re-evaluating the Waste section
- Refining data reporting
Thank you to our participants for some great feedback and insights. Findings from these sessions will be used to inform the improvements being made to the tools for Release 2.
Update 28th November 2022
This week we will be kicking off our “Workshop 1” sessions. These sessions will focus on analysing specific areas of the tools in more granular detail and discussing improvement topics that have been highlighted through the introductory sessions, our support Helpdesk and internal feedback.
Update 10th November 2022
Our “Introduction to the Project” sessions have now been completed. As well as giving participants a general overview of the CC Tools project, the sessions also explored the following themes: what are the most important features of a carbon footprinting tool and which elements would encourage a user to continue using JB’s set of tools.
The feedback from these introductory sessions will be used to shape the areas of the tools to explore during Workshop 1 (due to take place Nov/Dec).
