Arts Council England Environmental Report 2012/13

The Arts Council England introduced environmental reporting as a requirement for 704 funded organisations in 2012, based on a conviction that the arts and cultural sector in this country should take a lead in making the world a more sustainable, responsible and equitable place. It established a three year partnership with Julie’s Bicycle to support the funded organisations through the process.

Key findings from Year One

In the first year an outstanding 90% of all 704 organisations engaged in some capacity with the environmental reporting programme, notably using the Industry Green tools and on-line resources, creating environmental policies and action plans and/or attending workshops and webinars
The results have been compiled into the single biggest data set from arts organisations globally.
Of the 62 cultural buildings which provided more than one year’s worth of data, two thirds achieved combined carbon savings of 4,000 tonnes through energy efficiency measures, representing of an £810,000 energy bill reduction. Scaled up across the 301 Arts Council funded cultural buildings which reported overall, this would represent a 13,000 tonne carbon saving and £3 million energy bill reduction.
Of the 354 year one evaluation survey respondents, nearly 90% agreed or strongly agreed that ‘Arts Council environmental reporting has made or can make a positive difference to the arts sector as a whole’.

“Effective change will take the combined efforts of many organisations – change needs the momentum of organisational machinery. But that momentum is driven by individual voices and choices… It looks like a daunting challenge, but we should be optimistic that we can make a difference: history shows us that when humans work together they can move mountains”

– Alan Davey, Chief Executive, Arts Council England