An international congress entitled ‘Culture: Key to Sustainable Development’, organised by UNESCO with the support of the Government of the People’s Republic of China, will be held in Hangzhou, China, on 15-17 May 2013.
This is the first international congress specifically focusing on the linkages between culture and sustainable development organised by UNESCO since the Stockholm Conference in 1998. As such, the congress will provide the very first global forum to discuss the role of culture in sustainable development in view of the post-2015 development framework, with participation of the global community and the major international stakeholders.
The congress will examine the multifaceted role of culture in achieving sustainable development goals. It aims at informing the global sustainable development stakeholders’ decisions, at engaging the international community in an open debate on the contribution of culture to sustainable development, and at providing state-of-the-art knowledge, research and best practices on the contribution of culture to sustainable development at the policy and operational levels.
Input for post-2015 sustainable development agenda
The results of this Congress will also serve as a substantial input to the discussion on the framework for the United Nations post-2015 sustainable development agenda. While culture was absent from the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), integrating the cultural dimension into actions and goals in achieving sustainable development is an approach that is making its way on the international level. The outcome document of the MDG Summit, Keeping the Promise: United to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals (2010), emphasized the importance of culture for development and its contribution to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.
Despite the progress made, the most recent United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20 held in June 2012, accorded a very modest weight to culture. The Rio+20 experience shows that unless a broad and in depth examination of the nexus between culture and sustainable development is done within the global community, the post-2015 development framework and decision makers will not be fully informed on the effective contribution of culture to sustainable development.
For further information on the Congress, please consult its website, unesco.org.
What future and what missions for UNESCO by 2020
The contribution of culture to sustainable development was also the central theme of the lecture recently organised by the French non-profit association Group for Studies and Research on Globalisations, GERM, and held by Biserka Cvjeticanin (Culturelink/IRMO) under the title Quel avenir et quelles missions pour l’UNESCO à horizon 2020? in Toulouse, France, on 27 March 2013.
The specific role of culture in development processes is that culture transcends the sectorial divisions and the very sectorial approach, facilitating communication between various realms/categories of human creativity, as well as between different societies, countries, groups and individuals. The interdependence of cultures as developmental interdependence represents a pluralism of values and relations between cultures.
The lectures may be downloaded from the website of Group for Studies and Research on Globalisations:Â mondialisations.org.
Source: Culturelink Newsletter No. 078 / March 2013
Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.
The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.
Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society. Go toThis post comes to you from Culture|Futures
Within the framework of the Joint Programme ‘EU-Brazil Sector Dialogues’, the Ministries of Culture and Planning, Budget and Management will hold a seminar on Culture and Sustainable Development, which will take place from 21 to 23 May 2013, in Brasilia, Brazil.
The seminar aims to strengthen the role of culture as a catalyst for global governance as well as to promote the importance of culture for sustainable development, exploring the three axes of this concept — social, economic and environmental.
The event will have three discussion tables, which will debate the contribution of culture to each of these three axes. These tables will be composed by distinguished guests from the European Union and Brazil, with recognized experience in the academic field, in public administration or in cultural production. At the closing session, there will be a moment to reflect on the relevance of culture as a fourth pillar of sustainable development, and how cultural cooperation between the EU and Brazil can strengthen the culture in global governance.
In order to enhance the quality of this dialogue, Olaf Gerlach-Hansen of Culture|Futures has been invited to take part in this seminar as a speaker who will address the theme ‘Culture and Environment’.
Programme description
The development of any culture arises from the constant interaction between the environment and human needs. As cultural identity and social stability may be strongly influenced by environmental conditions, cultural factors may influence consumption behaviors and attitudes related to environmental management. Therefore, culture and cultural diversity are key pieces for attitude changes towards environmental values.
On issues ranging from the erosion of biodiversity to climate change, cultural diversity has an important role to play in the way it addresses the current ecological challenges and ensure the future of sustainable environmental. In order to face the current ecological challenges, primarily technical and scientific responses are usually sought. However, the recognition that cultural practices are intimately linked to environmental integrity has been greater than ever.
There is an interdependence between biological diversity and cultural diversity, although is of little knowledge in what degree they relate. It goes far beyond what is commonly perceived in common sense. The reciprocity between both elements is clear: many cultural practices come, in its existence and expression, from certain specific elements of biodiversity. In a similar way, important sets of biological diversity are developed, maintained and administered by specific cultural groups, whose cultural aspects are the core of this special management practices.
The way of life of the majority of indigenous people embodies biodiversity. The cultural and religious beliefs, and spiritual values of these traditional societies, often have the effect of preventing predatory exploitation of resources and ensure the viability of the ecosystems on which they depend on.
The traditional indigenous practices of management and use of environmental resources, including construction techniques, represent a more sustainable way of land use, consumption and production, and also contribute to food security and access to water. These practices are based on a knowledge developed after centuries of adaptation. Therefore the concept of sustainable use of biological diversity — which is one of the three objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity — is inherent in the indigenous and traditional society’s value systems.
Culture|Futures is an international collaboration of organizations and individuals who are concerned with shaping and delivering a proactive cultural agenda to support the necessary transition towards an Ecological Age by 2050.
The Cultural sector that we refer to is an interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, inter-genre collaboration, which encompasses policy-making, intercultural dialogue/cultural relations, creative cities/cultural planning, creative industries and research and development. It is those decision-makers and practitioners who can reach people in a direct way, through diverse messages and mediums.
Affecting the thinking and behaviour of people and communities is about the dissemination of stories which will profoundly impact cultural values, beliefs and thereby actions. The stories can open people’s eyes to a way of thinking that has not been considered before, challenge a preconceived notion of the past, or a vision of the future that had not been envisioned as possible. As a sector which is viewed as imbued with creativity and cultural values, rather than purely financial motivations, the cultural sector’s stories maintain the trust of people and society. Go toThis post comes to you from Culture|Futures
Whether its climate change or the health of our oceans, air, and soil, the planet is worse off now than it was 40 years ago, and rapidly declining. Yet, corporations have more rights than our communities or ecosystems and are doing just fine.
This weekend I will be presenting a motion at the 2013 Irish National Green Party convention on ecocide; the post below explains why I’m trying to get the term ‘ecocide’ into the Irish political and public domains. If you are interested in measures against fracking and other environmental destruction, a law of ecocide and nature-based rights are developing in response. Please feel free to share this post.
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Could an ecocide law prevent environmental destruction?
One of the key concepts and terms in my PhD work ‘Seeing and Tending the Forest: beyond ecocide toward deep sustainability‘ is – ‘ecocide’.
‘Ecocide’ is a term I kept coming across in my research and reading. In fact I first used ecocide almost without thinking. To me it so well conveyed the exponential accelerating ecological suicide that is occurring globally. Particularly the horrifying rate of destruction since World War II, that some are calling ‘The Great Acceleration’, that characterises our now globalised, extract-at-all costs, industrial growth society.
However, one of the fundamental principles in undertaking doctoral level research is that you fully define all terms and concepts. I had some years ago been alerted by one of my blog followers that I should look at the work of UK legal barrister, Polly Higgins. Polly Higgins’ work in organising high profile mock legal trials against corporate ecocide, her award-winning books on ‘eradicating ecocide’, her well received ecocide talks has developed quickly in recent years to become an international campaign; to have corporate ecocide recognised in international law as the missing 5th international crime against peace.
What is ecocide?
In March 2010 Polly Higgins proposed to the United Nations that Ecocide be the 5th international Crime Against Peace. This is the definition she proposed:
Ecocide is the extensive damage to, destruction of or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been or will be severely diminished.
Her website www.eradicatingecocide.com is a comprehensive resource for the history and current research into ecocide legal developments. It is also the site for the growing global campaigns to raise awareness of how we can all become involved in outlawing ecocide (taking part in the AVAAZ, Wish20 Eradicating Ecocide and if you live in Europe the endecocide.eu online petitions are a good place to start, you can also follow and share the posts from the Ecocide is a Crime Facebook Page too).
How can a law against ecocide work?
Polly Higgins and Thomas Linzey, a leading lawyer working in the US (quoted above),and growing numbers of leading international legal people and researchers, are arguing that in much the same way that slavery and disenfranchisement against women were perpetuated by seeing other races and women ‘as property’,that changing laws to overturn the erroneous idea that natural ecosystems be regarded as property, will powerfully and legally shift corporations away from committing crimes of ecocide.
This is not to underestimate that this is complex area (leading legal experts in universities, particularly some University of London legal researchers, are working hard to address all the many legal details on this issue) and I have only briefly highlighted the key point here. Yet this key point, to extend a legal, enforceable ‘duty of care’ to ecosystems would be a paradigm shift for humanity, and the corporate world in particular.
Corporations are legally mandated to produce profits; this law would fundamentally change corporations actions and enforce eco-social responsibility and accountability. This will in turn legalise long term sustainability for the earth’s life giving ecosystems.
Ecocide legal frameworks already exist and has been enforced
Ecocide has since been recognised legally from the Vietnam war onwards, and some legal redress for victims of ecocide has and is occurring.
Oddly unsettling in my reading about ecocide, is that I found the term is exactly the same age as me.
I say this as the term evolved in the late 1960s from recognising the criminality behind the long term destruction and poisoning of the forest and food ecosystems in the Vietnam war with industrial chemical herbicide agents such as Agent Orange (Monsanto/Dow Chemicals and other companies produced Agent Orange and an arsenal of other poisonous ‘rainbow agents’) used by the US military. Agent Orange in particular was noted for its disastrous long term residual poisoning of ecosystems and human populations with dioxins – lethal cancer and birth defect causing compounds, and other persistent effects of which health professionals and scientists are still realising and dealing with).
Ecocide law works: this is the card I have that gives me access to specialists doctors as my late father served and was fatally affected by the slow violence of Monsanto/Dow companies Agent Orange in the Vietnam war
Ecocide since Vietnam is legally recognised in war situations
As I’ve mentioned before in a previous post, this affected my family as my late father was a New Zealand Vietnam veteran. It was through the hard work of the NZ Vietnam Veterans associations and the then Labour Government under former Prime Minister Helen Clark, that a Memorandum of Understanding sought acknowledgement, compensation and redress to the children of NZ Vietnam veterans by the ecocide caused by these long lasting poisonous herbicides. My sisters and I are now on a official NZ Vietnam Veteran’s Children’s Register (my NZ Vietnam Veteran’s Children’s card is pictured here) that gives some support to descendants affected by cancers/diseases attributed to Agent Orange and the millions of tons of poisonous herbicides sprayed across Vietnam and other parts of Asia in the 20 000+ US military air raids (see notes at end of article for more details on this NZ landmark case).
On a personal note, my father, a very quiet man, could never speak easily of America or its culture again and the destruction he witnessed to a beautiful country and the peoples of Vietnam. I grew up knowing him interested in these things; reading the paper, vegetable growing, his love of the wild forested West Coast of the South Island of NZ, horse racing and Labour Party politics. He often bribed us as children (with chocolate) to deliver Labour Party political leaflets in our local area and he would have been so moved that it was the Labour Party that worked hard to bring some compensation to his engineer army colleagues and their surviving families (NZ sent 3,980 mainly non-combatant, engineer troops, to serve in the Vietnam war).
Nature-based rights development
Landmark nature-rights book, first published in 1972; now in 3rd edition, 2010, Oxford Uni. Press, USA
While the NZ military situation above is an example of legal retrospective redress for gross war-time ecocide, developments since the 1960s to bring the crime of ecocide into non-military situations have evolved slowly. Surprisingly there was much talk and legal efforts in bringing ecocide forward as a crime in non-war situations in the early 1970s due to the huge public awareness of the situation in Vietnam (many scientists signed an international petition to try and stop Agent Orange use during the Vietnam war) and the publication of Rachel Carson’s 1962 Silent Spring book alerted many to the long term environmental problems of pesticide/herbicide compounds. However such legal measures for non-war situations were stopped by several nations (see the eradicatingecocide.com website for more details). Even so, legal minds have for some decades further examined the idea of extending a legal duty of care to the non-human world, such as in the work and landmark book by US law lecturer and researcher, Christopher Stone, who wrote in 1972 Should Trees have Standing? – law, morality and the environment.
In recent years I have also noticed some nations in South America are leading the way for the ‘rights of nature’ to be legally recognised in their countries’ constitutional framework (for e.g Ecuador). Often such legislation is evolving with lawyers working with indigenous peoples, peoples who have not forgotten their nature-centred worldviews that respects all life, fundamentally ensuring long term sustainability for all species. Also in South America, one of the most important cases against corporate ecocide is ongoing, the multinational petrochemical Chevron is facing $18 billion in redress to thousands of indigenous peoples whose livelihoods and waters were affected by Chevron’s disregard of the gross and poisonous pollution it was creating (see Amazonwatch.org for details of this case – Chevron has engaged 64 law firms trying to overturn this decision!).
An online book of my great Grandmother’s 1890s paintings of the New Zealand Whanganui River. A river ecosystem that since 2012 is now one of the first in the world to have achieved legal agreement that ‘recognises the river and all its tributaries as a single entity, Te Awa Tupua, and makes it a legal entity with rights and interests, and the owner of its own river bed.’
And nature-based rights are developing in New Zealand. In fact, I was startled last August, while back in NZ to see that NZ’s third largest river, the Whanganui river, was granted legal standing from long years of work from Maori tribes and other river stakeholders. This river has a particular connection to my mother’s family as our Great Grandmother was an early European settler in the northern reaches of this river (I created a book on her paintings with my mother a few years ago – my great grandmother witnessed and painted both the beauty and the rampant deforestation by early European settlers way back in the 1890s near this river). Also last September I noticed online that the Green Party of England and Wales had invited Polly Higgins to their national convention and the Green Party of England and Wales unanimously adopted a motion to support a motion against ecocide. I made a promise to myself back then that I would at some stage attempt to bring it to the attention to the Irish and New Zealand Green Parties (NZer’s, please feel free to share this post) in a hope it would spread across the political and public domains.
Law against corporate ecocide and nature-based rights could prevent fracking, other ecosystem destruction
Land and water degradation – gas and coal extraction, sewage sludge, factory farms, massive water withdrawals, landfills, and more could be addressed
Over the last few months, I was busy with other aspects of my project but I was fortunate to come across a new book Earth at Risk (Dec, 2012) from leading US author/activist/deep green philosopher Derrick Jensen. In it I read a fascinating interview by Derrick with US lawyer Thomas Linzey. While Polly Higgins has been tackling ecocide law at an international/UN level, I was excited to read Thomas Linzey also describe how modern law often legally enables ecocide and how despite the best of intentions, environmentalism has largely failed. I was even more excited to read how Thomas was working from the ground up, assisting grassroot local communities across the United States, to stop fracking and other forms of pollution or degradation in their areas etc by fundamentally changing the legal framework in regards to their local environments. Thomas Linzey is founder of the Community Environment Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), an organisation which since 1995 has been assisting and educating ordinary concerned citizens in towns and municipalities to fight for new nature/community based rights. In recent months, its been great to see on the eradicatingecocide.com website, both Polly’s and Thomas’s new legal ideas and work are beginning to influence local and international law. On the CELDF website you can also see how rights based successes are spreading across the US, with some communities having success in preventing fracking in their localities.
Here is a short video trailer from an upcoming documentary film from Thomas Linzey on the work that the CELDF organisation is undertaking (note, you’ll see the NZ Whanganui River rights case briefly highlighted in this trailer too). Thomas’ groundbreaking plenary 30 min speech from a US Bioneers conference is also worth listening to, see here) .
If you are involved in local politics, concerned about fracking or other types of environmental destruction, I would also recommend you watch the more detailed video below by Thomas on how this area of legal reform is developing swiftly across many US states.
Higgins and Linzey’s work acknowledges that ecocide is a crime and a move to install nature/community based rights are important and urgent. In my own writings I point out that ecocide isn’t just happening in the Arctic or the Amazon, that the slow violence of ecocide, in our culture and local environments, threads its way through our everyday lives. To me, short rotation monoculture tree plantations are a form of ecocide, leading to eventual soil fertility collapse and limiting severely resilient ecosytems from developing; the very opposite of an ecosystem thriving sustainably in the long term. My work will continue to show alternatives to industrial forestry. Perhaps one day I might even fight for legal standing for the small forest in which I live, a living community that supports me and which I am interdependently connected to.
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I will be proposing that the following motion will be adopted by the Irish Green Party on 13 April 2013. My thanks to Carlow Law lecturer John Tully, former Green Minster for Equality, Mary White, Cllr Malcolm Noonan, Dr. Paul O’Brien, Martin Lyttle, Dr. Rhys Jones, Alan Price, Duncan Russell, Nicola Brown, John Hogan and others for enthusiastically supporting my proposing this motion.
‘The Irish Green Party supports the proposition that a crime of ecocide be created in international law, as a crime against nature, humanity and future generations, to be defined as ‘the extensive damage to, destruction of or loss of ecosystem(s) of a given territory, whether by human agency or other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants (human and non-human) of that territory has been or will be severely diminished’; and that the proposed crime of ecocide be formally recognised as a Crime against Peace subject to the jurisdiction of  the International Criminal Court.’
Do take a minute to sign and share the petitions, click on the links above or the AVAAZ and also the End Ecocide in Europe (if you live in Europe) logos at the bottom of this page. If a million Europeans sign the End Ecocide in Europe it helps enforce an EU wide directive against corporate ecocide (170 000+ have signed so far).
Please feel free to share this post and comments are always welcome. Thanks for reading. (Please add the #ecocide hastag if you are reposting this article)
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Notes on redress for Vietnam veterans and their children in NZ
In December 2006, the New Zealand Government, the Ex-Vietnam Services Association (EVSA) and the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association (RNZRSA) agreed to, and signed, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) following the recommendations of the Joint Working Group, designated with advocacy for Veteran’s concerns.[7] The MoU provides formal acknowledgement of the toxic environment New Zealand Vietnam Veterans faced during their service abroad in Vietnam, and the after-effects of that toxin since the service men and women returned to New Zealand. The MoU also makes available various forms of support, to both New Zealand Vietnam Veterans and their families.[8] New Zealand writer and historian, Deborah Challinor, includes a new chapter in her second edition release of Grey Ghosts: New Zealand Vietnam Veterans Talk About Their War that discusses the handling of the New Zealand Vietnam Veterans’ claims, including the Reeves, McLeod and Health Committee reports, and the reconciliation/welcome parade on Queen’s Birthday Weekend, 2008, also known as ‘Tribute 08′.[9]
From 1962 until 1987, the 2,4,5T herbicide was manufactured at an Ivon Watkins-Dow plant in Paritutu, New Plymouth which was then shipped to U.S. military bases in South East Asia.[10][11][12] There have been continuing claims that the suburb of Paritutu has also been polluted.[13][14]
An Arts & Ecology Notebook, by Cathy Fitzgerald, whose work exists as ongoing research and is continually inspired to create short films, photographic documentation, and writings. While she interacts with foresters, scientists, and communities, she aims to create a sense of a personal possibility, responsibility and engagement in her local environment that also connects to global environmental concerns. Go to An Arts and Ecology Notebook
The world famous Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam re-opened on April 13th, offering the public access to some of the world’s most famous paintings including Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. The €375 million renovation project, which took ten years to complete, includes the world’s most advanced LED lighting system in a museum. Created by Philips, the system was designed to closely mimic the colour rendition of natural daylight, allowing visitors to see details of masterpieces that were previously not visible.
The result uses the latest LED technology from Philips to offer an overall effect similar to natural daylight. Moving away from the heavy amber tint that is characteristic of conventional museum lighting, Philips has used light with a neutral white tone that offers a greater range of colour visibility, giving an effect that is similar to viewing the painting in ‘high definition’. It meets international standards for art conservation and also emits no ultraviolet light and hardly any infrared light.
“We are very proud of working with the Rijksmuseum on this innovative and monumental renovation,†said Rogier van der Heide, Chief Design Officer and Vice President at Philips Lighting. “The lighting solution is the result of a unique collaborative effort with the Rijksmuseum and the architects, using Philips’ knowledge of the art and science of illumination to achieve a quality of light that truly brings out the detail of each masterpiece.â€
World’s most advanced lighting solution in a museum of fine art
The new LED lighting illuminates artworks that date back to the Middle Ages. In total, the lighting illuminates 7,500 artworks spanning several centuries. Philips’ lighting solution consists of ¾ of a million LEDs, including 3,800 LED spots, more than 1.8 kilometers of LED lighting the ceiling and an advanced LED lighting control system via a mobile application for museum employees to use.
Philips’ LEDs light the museums public spaces including the shop, the atriums and the restaurant, as well as the outdoor area and building façade. Philips worked with the Rijksgebouwendienst (the Government Buildings Agency part of the Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations, the owner of the building) to realize plans for the outdoor lighting.
This year’s Theatres Trust conference provides a unique opportunity to look at how theatres can create a more resilient future by using their buildings to achieve financial self-sufficiency.
thriving theatres takes place on the 11 June 2013 at St James Theatre, the splendid new 312-seat venue in the heart of Victoria in London.
The title of the conference, thriving theatres is in part provocative as many theatres consider the question of how best to survive in these times of austerity and deal with major changes in the role of the public sector to both deliver and fund services. It is also a call to all those who aspire towards a thriving economy, more engaged communities, and healthier people and innovation, to see that theatres can provide solutions and are worth the investment.
thriving theatres will provide an opportunity to hear from theatres undertaking capital projects and initiatives designed to help them thrive into the future.
The conference provides an opportunity to meet and share ideas with other theatres, professional specialists, government and arts policy makers, theatre consultants and architects. So if you are planning a capital project – or want to find out how you can make the most of your theatre building book now for thriving theatres.
Conference Chairman
Vikki Heywood CBE
Session chairs
Nigel Hugill, Chair, The Royal Shakespeare Company and Executive Chairman, Urban&Civic
Dave Moutrey, Director & Chief Executive, Cornerhouse & Library Theatre Company
Anna Stapleton, Administrative Director, Citizens Theatre, Glasgow
Conference Fee includes a light lunch and attendance at the Conference Reception.
Contributors include
Deborah Aydon, Executive Director, Liverpool Everyman
Ian Pratt, Vice Chairman and Technical Director, Kings Theatre Southsea
Jessica Hepburn, Executive Director and Joint Chief Executive, Lyric Hammersmith
Moira Swinbank OBE, Chief Executive, Legacy Trust UK
Martin Sutherland, Chief Executive, Northamptonshire Arts Management Trust
Martin Halliday, Chief Executive, Lowestoft Marina
Alan Bishop, Chief Executive, Southbank Centre
Trudi Elliott CBE, Chief Executive, The Royal Town Planning Institute
Peter Steer, Director, Derby Hippodrome Preservation Trust
Jim Beirne, Chief Executive, Live Theatre, Newcastle
Colin Marr, Director, Eden Court, Inverness
Rob Harris, Director, Arup
Neil Constable, Chief Executive, Shakespeare’s Globe, London
Jack Mellor, Theatre Manager, Theatre Royal, Plymouth
The first annual reporting deadline is May 31st 2013. To meet it, the reporting process must be started now.
Julie’s Bicycle are running a series of webinars to help organisations report.
Webinars are free but you must register to attend. You may attend any number of webinars.
Those organisations or individuals new to environmental reporting are advised to start with Module 1. Those with more experience may wish to begin at Module 2 or 3. Some webinars will be run multiple times to give everyone a chance to attend.
We are in the process of subtitling the webinars and improving other aspects of accessibility. In the mean time please do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any specific needs.
Module 1 – An Introduction
1.1. Environmental Reporting: what is it, how does it affect you and why is it important?
This webinar is for Arts Council England’s major revenue funded programmes. It is for the staff tasked with creating an environmental policy and action plan, and submitting energy and water data through the Julie’s Bicycle IG Tools.
Aim: This webinar will provide an introduction and overview of the Arts Council’s environmental reporting requirements. It will explain the necessary steps to comply and the help on offer.
The webinar will include:
Introduction to the Arts Council’s environmental reporting and Julie’s Bicycle.
Why is this happening now?
How does it affect you?
What are the benefits for your organisation?
What help is available?
What is an environmental policy and action plan?
What are the IG Tools?
Q&A
Dates: March 13th 10am – 11am | March 27th 10am – 11am
2.1. How to Create your Environmental Policy and Action Plan – Environmental Reporting for Creative Organisations
This webinar is for Arts Council England’s major revenue funded programmes. It is for the staff tasked with creating an environmental policy and action plan, and submitting energy and water data through the Julie’s Bicycle IG Tools.
Before attending this webinar you should begin developing your policy and action plan in line with our guidance.Â
Aim: This webinar will take you through the process of creating an environmental policy and action plan in line with the Arts Council’s environmental reporting requirements.
The webinar will include:
Introduction to the Arts Council’s environmental reporting and Julie’s Bicycle – what is expected of you.
What is an environmental policy and action plan?
How can they benefit your organisation?
Top tips for creating an environmental policy and action plan.
What help is available?
Trouble shooting Q&A – your chance to ask the experts about any problems you are having with the environmental reporting process.
Dates: March 20th 10am – 11am | April 10th 10am – 11am | April 24th 11am – 12pm | May 1st 10am – 11am
2.2. How to Use the IG Tools - Environmental Reporting for Creative Organisations
This webinar is for Arts Council England’s major revenue funded programmes. It is for the staff tasked with creating an environmental policy and action plan, and submitting energy and water data through the Julie’s Bicycle IG Tools.
Before attending this webinar you should have created an IG Tool account.
Aim: This webinar will take you through the process of using the IG Tools in line with the Arts Council’s environmental reporting requirements.
The webinar will include:
Introduction to the Arts Council’s environmental reporting and Julie’s Bicycle.
What are the IG Tools?
How can they benefit your organisation?
Collecting data – how to ensure you have the information you need in the correct format.
Creating your first IG Tool entry – step by step.
Trouble shooting Q&A – your chance to ask the experts about any problems you are having with the environmental reporting process.
Dates: March 6th 10am – 11am | April 10th 11am – 12am | April 17th 11am – 12am | May 1st 11am – 12am
3.1. Small is Beautiful – Specialist Advice on Environmental Reporting for Organisations with Five Employees or Less
This webinar is for Arts Council England’s major revenue funded programmes with five employees or less. It is for operational staff tasked with creating an environmental policy and action plan, and completing an IG Tool entry.
Aim: This webinar provides practical guidance for organisations with five employees or less on complying with the Arts Council’s environmental reporting requirements.
The webinar will include:
Introduction to the Arts Council’s environmental reporting and Julie’s Bicycle.
What you need to focus on as a small organization.
Using the IG Tools as a small organisation – where the benefits lie.
Creating an environmental policy and action plan for a small organisation – focusing on what counts and amplifying your efforts.
Industry case study.
Trouble shooting Q&A – your chance to ask the experts about any problems you are having with the environmental reporting process.
3.2. Planning, Engaging and Acting – Specialist Advice on Environmental Reporting Organisations with 100 Employees or More
This webinar is for Arts Council England’s major revenue funded programmes with 100 staff or more. It is for operational staff tasked with creating an environmental policy and action plan and completing an IG Tool entry.
Aim: This webinar provides practical guidance for organisations with 100 employees or more on complying with the Arts Council’s environmental reporting requirements.Â
The webinar will include:
Introduction to the Arts Council’s environmental reporting and Julie’s Bicycle.
Setting the scope: realistic targets and recruiting help from across your organisation.
Using the IG Tools as a large organisation – dealing with large amounts of data.
Creating an environmental policy and action plan for a large organisation – creating useful tools for use throughout your organisation.
Industry case study.
Trouble shooting Q&A – your chance to ask the experts about any problems you are having with the environmental reporting process.
Dates: April 17th 10am – 11am | May 15th 11am – 12pm
3.3. Finding Opportunities in Complexity – Specialist Advice on Environmental Reporting for Mpm’s and Large Multi Venue/Activity Organisations
This webinar is for large Arts Council England’s major revenue funded programmes with multiple venues and/or activities, including arts festivals. It is for operational staff  tasked with creating an environmental policy and action plan, and completing an IG Tool entry.
Aim: This webinar provides practical guidance for Mpm’s and other large multi venue or multi event organisations on complying with the Arts Council’s environmental reporting requirements.Â
The webinar will include:
Introduction to the Arts Council’s environmental reporting and Julie’s Bicycle.
Setting the scope: how to manage large estates and complex reporting structures to fulfill requirements.
Focus on the IG Tools: how to collect data and create an account for multiple activities, accounts and entries.
Focus and prioritisation – environmental policies and action plans for complex, multi activity organisations.
Industry case study.
Trouble shooting Q&A – your chance to ask the experts about any problems you are having with the environmental reporting process.
4.1. Changing Light Bulbs or Changing Minds? The Case for Sustainability and Future Proofing of the Arts
This webinar is for heads of Arts Council England’s Major Revenue Funded Programmes.
Aim: This webinar explores the issues and implications of Arts Council England’s environmental reporting requirements and builds the case for cultural leadership on sustainability.
The webinar will include:
Opening address by Alison Tickell, CEO of Julie’s Bicycle.
Introduction to the Arts Council’s environmental reporting and Julie’s Bicycle.
Key note and discussion from leading voices within the creative industries.
If you have any suggestions for organisations you would like to see feature in this webinar, or topics you would like covered then please let us know atsupport@juliesbicycle.com
4.3. Big ambitions for year two – What are the opportunities beyond the May 31st reporting deadline?
This webinar is for Arts Council England’s major revenue funded programmes. It is for all employees of Npo’s and Mpm’s already making progress on sustainability.
Aim: This webinar demonstrates the organisational, financial and reputational benefits of a continued commitment to sustainability.
This webinar wil include:
Introduction to the Arts Council’s environmental reporting and Julie’s Bicycle.
Sustainability benefits beyond the scope of the Arts Council reporting.
4.4. Arts Council England’s Environmental Reporting 2013: Troubleshooting
Environmental experts Julie’s Bicycle host an open troubleshooting clinic on Arts Council England’s new environmental reporting requirement for Npo’s and Mpm’s. Please send any specific questions in advance to support@juliesbicycle.com.
Set designer Sandra Goldmark is starting up a new sustainability project with her husband, Michael Banta, a production manager and technical director, along with several theatre colleagues. They are opening a 4 week Pop-Up Repair shop in northern Manhattan, this June. The shop is a challenge to the cycle of use-and-discard consumer goods, and will be staffed by theatre artists. This experimental project is asking the question: can we as theatre artists create social change, not only with the theatre that we make, but with the way we make theatre – by hand.
We wanted to give you an update here at the end of our second week of the LA STAGE Space campaign! Thanks to the over 130 of you who’ve stepped up to make this happen, we are 95% of the way to our initial $25,000 goal!
We’re pushing over the next few days to hit the $25,000 mark, and then the campaign will continue to accomplish our stretch goal to build out some other aspects of the space and to have a STRIKE TRUCK that can make transporting the shared materials easier between theatres and the Warehouse.
Please continue to tell your friends, family and colleagues about the campaign. The most valuable thing you can do at this point is to think of one other person who you know would love this idea and who could make a donation, and email or call them directly to encourage them to join you. That direct request helps tell them that you really mean it and really care about this, and that makes all the difference!
As a fun other note – here’s a photo from the warehouse today, showing some scenic racks we had built this week, and some of the items that are already in, just waiting for shelves to be inventoried!
The Goethe Institut Thessaloniki, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Greece and the European theatre network Mitos21 are happy to invite you to the International Conference:
SUSTAINABILITY AND CULTURE / Sustainable Cultural Management
which will take place on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 April 2013 in Thessaloniki, Greece, at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall (“Maurice Saltiel” conference room)
If you wish to attend the conference, please note that there is a special arrangement with ABC Hotel in Thessaloniki, with a rate of 52 euros/single room and 72 euros/double room, inclusive of breakfast and free internet. For reservations please write directly to info@hotelabc.gr or call 0030 2310 265421 / key word: green-conference.
Does the (natural) world exist to provide ‘services’ for human beings? Should we attempt to justify the importance of bees or trees or rivers or mountains or bacillus acidophilus in terms of an ecosystems services analysis, i.e. what services they provide to us?
Alternatively should we analyse what services we provide to ecosystems? This question was raised by Shai Zakai recently during a discussion about ecosystem services. It seems to focus precisely the problem with the ecosystems services approach, which is that it leaves us as the beneficiary of the services, limiting our responsibility to those we can comprehend.
ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.
It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology. Go to EcoArtScotland
