This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

At our November 4th open meeting Imagine a Different Future: The Arts Shaping a Sustainable Scotland we announced a new training programme for arts organisations that want to measure, report and reduce their carbon emissions. Free workshops throughout Scotland from January to March will provide arts organisations with the tools and knowledge to measure and reduce carbon emissions from energy, water, waste and travel.

The project follows the arts funder Creative Scotland’s announcement that it will invite arts, screen and creative industries organisations to report their carbon emissions as part of its contribution to achieving Scotland’s climate change targets. As a Public Body, Creative Scotland is updating its own environmental sustainability policy. From 1 April 2014 it will measure its own carbon emissions and ask organisations and individuals that it funds to provide information about their own environmental impacts.

Creative Carbon Scotland’s Director Ben Twist said:

We support Creative Scotland’s decision to introduce carbon measurement and reporting as the evidence is clear that measuring is the essential first step to reducing carbon emissions. Recent reports show that climate change is affecting us all. Scotland has world leading targets to reduce its carbon emissions and we think the arts should be at the heart of this. We have therefore worked with Creative Scotland to make this reporting as easy as possible and useful to organisations in reducing their carbon emissions. We will provide free training to arts organisations beginning to improve their environmental sustainability so that the arts world is helping lead the drive towards a low carbon Scotland.

Creative Carbon Scotland already works with 70 arts organisations, from Edinburgh’s Festivals to theatres and galleries, to help reduce their carbon emissions and save energy and money. Its unique website, www.creativecarbonscotland.com, brings together news about projects and events joining the arts and environmental sustainability in Scotland. It also includes the Green Arts Portal, a specially designed site providing hundreds of tips on carbon reduction and useful resources to help take action and free access to the Julie’s Bicycle IG Tools – a cultural sector carbon calculator – and sMeasure, a building energy and water management system.

(ENDS)

NOTES TO EDITORS

Creative Carbon Scotland is a charity initiated by Edinburgh’s Festivals with key partners the Federation of Scottish Theatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network. It is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland and the City of Edinburgh Council’s Culture and Sport division. For more information visit www.creativecarbonscotland.com or call Director Ben Twist on 0131 529 7909/07931 553872

Creative Scotland Director of Communications Kenneth Fowler outlined Creative Scotland’s revised environmental sustainability policy at the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation on 4 November. The policy states that from the financial year 2014/15 Creative Scotland will report its own carbon emissions and ask recipients of its funding to report their own emissions, in line with its responsibilities as a Public Body under the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009.

Workshops CCS will run three phases of workshops in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Dumfries and other locations depending on demand, as well as offering video-conference workshops for remotely located organisations. Workshop 1 introduces the project and provides the basics of measuring energy, water and waste; Workshop 2 focuses on measuring business travel; the 3rd phase is the first of regular Green Meets, providing informal knowledge sharing and advice between local Green Champions. All workshops will be free for arts organisations supported by Creative Scotland.

IG Tools CCS works in partnership with Julie’s Bicycle, the leading London-based agency working on carbon reduction in the arts, to provide a special Scottish version of the Industry Green tools, used widely throughout England, Wales and abroad.

sMeasure CCS licenses this powerful building energy and water management tool especially designed for small and medium sized businesses, provided by Pilio Ltd, for free use by Scottish arts organisations.

Image: Artist Nic Green speaking speaking at Image A Different Future

The post Press Release: Free Training to Help Arts Organisations Reduce CO2 Emissions appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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