This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Reporting back on the environmental information reported to Creative Scotland by arts organisations in Scotland

During our conversations with arts organisations, we have often been asked what are the best ways to reduce carbon footprints and how do we know whether we are doing well?

In this report, we’ve tried to answer some of those questions by analysing the environmental data provided last year as part of annual reports to Creative Scotland.

We were delighted to find that many more organisations had included information on environmental data as part of their annual reports with the number increasing from just over 50 last year to 90 this year. For many this was the first time they had attempted to collect the data and in a lot of cases the data were estimated but on the whole the Green Champions, who were largely responsible for the data collection and reporting, found the process much easier than expected. You can find out more about the process involved in our Carbon Reporting pages.

Although very few organisations were able to provide complete information as requested on water, fuel waste and travel we were able to see some trends emerging which will help us build up a picture of the carbon impact of the arts in Scotland. Find out more on what data should be recorded in ourGuidance for Carbon Reporting

Many organisations have requested information on how much fuel and water they should expect to use. To provide this and to allow a comparison with industry standards, rudimentary baselines and metrics have been calculated to provide an indication of the performance of the organisations which provided utilities data.

We found that although theatres and arts centres have a much larger carbon footprint overall, when looked at in terms of floor area, there was less of a difference. For each
utility, the values were broadly similar between all three groups:

• electricity (100-120kWh/m2),
• gas (120-260 kWh/m2),
• water (0.8-2.6 m3/m2).

We compared these values with information contained in a recent report issued by Julie’s Bicycle. Although the sectors were defined differently, the calculated metrics for gas and electricity were roughly in line with the values reported by both CIBSE and Julie’s Bicycle for performing arts venues:

• electricity (101-150 kWh/m2),
• gas (139-420 kWh/m2).

Find out more on this report from our Resource page on Voluntary Carbon Reporting

The post Voluntary Carbon Reporting for 2014-15 appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

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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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