This month Ben’s been talking to RFO leaders and Creative Scotland officers about ways to reduce their climate impacts and why they’ve only got a limited amount of time to do it. 

I’ve spent the last 10 days travelling the country running discussions with (mostly) the leaders of arts, screen and creative industry organisations that receive three-year funding from Creative Scotland, and some of the Creative Scotland officers who work with the 121 Regular Funded Organisations or, as they’re known, RFOs. We planned these discussions in the light of the increasing public awareness of the climate emergency, the challenging  targets in the Climate Change Bill going through the Scottish Parliament and the fact that RFOs are beginning to think about their applications for the next round of three-year funding, which will take them up to 2024 or 2025. They need to start thinking now about actions they can take to reduce their climate impacts up to the middle of the next decade. 

The response from the cultural sector to our invitation was very encouraging: over 100 people will have participated by the last session in early August. They represent about half of the RFOs and a similar proportion of Lead Officers. Moreover, whilst Creative Carbon Scotland has generally found it easy to work with Green Champions, we’ve had less success in getting the attention of their managers. This time it was quite different, and I received many emails both before and after the sessions saying how this was just the right time for discussions about reducing their climate impacts. 

I was keen to involve both RFOs and their Creative Scotland counterparts in the discussions so that when those Regular Funding applications arrive at Creative Scotland in due course, it won’t be a great surprise when RFOs say they’re changing their organisational models or programmes for environmental reasons. And this reflects one of the main conclusions from the sessions: partnership working, often with new partners, is required so that cultural organisations (along with everyone else) can achieve the significant reductions in carbon emissions. 

The shape of the discussions

In the course of the sessions I took the groups through the Scottish Government’s new targets for Scotland to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to ‘net-zero’ by 2045. These targets are based on the IPCC’s calculation that, after taking into account the GHGs we have added to the atmosphere already, globally we can only add between 420 and 580 Gigatonnes (Gt) more climate crisis-causing carbon dioxide and other GHGs if we want to keep the global temperature rise to a maximum of 1.5°C. As many GHGs remain in the atmosphere more or less indefinitely, this ‘carbon budget’ is the total amount of GHGs that humans can ever safely add to the atmosphere, not just a temporary cap. With annual global emissions currently at 42 Gt this gives us only a few years to make the change.  

I also explained the slightly nebulous concept of ‘net-zero’. Whilst some GHG emissions are inevitable, Scotland has the advantage that we have lots of space to plant more trees and world-class peat bogs that we can restore to soak up lots of carbon. But these opportunities are limited, and while artists may think their work is crucial to humanity, when the time comes to decide where the last tonne of carbon could be ‘spent’, I feel it’s more likely to go to healthcare or agriculture than keeping a theatre open. To this end I referenced the point made by Chris Stark, Chief Executive of the UK Committee on Climate Change, that ‘Within the UK, a 100% all-GHG target sends a clear signal that all greenhouse gases matter and all need to be reduced. No sources of emissions can qualify for special treatment. All emissions from all sectors must be eliminated or offset with removals.’ (UKCCC Net Zero report May 2019 p17) 

It can be different

The current crisis is as much a result of recent history as the remoter past. As David Wallace–Wells points out in The Uninhabitable Earth, we have emitted more greenhouse gases globally since the 1992 Rio Summit (i.e. since we have known about the issue). But, he remains optimistic, and this stems from the fact that our current crisis is a result of just one generation’s failure; the spur to action is that we have just one more generation to ameliorate the situation. And at the age of 57, I can testify to the fact that the way we live and work now is different to the way we did so at the beginning of my career in the arts in the mid-1980s. So, it can be different again in another 25 years’ time – but we’ll have to move fast. These two points are important to remember. It’s often difficult to believe that things can be different to the way they are now, but surely cultural organisations ought to be good at imagining different futures? That’s what artists do! 

Ideas for change

I used another slide from Chris Stark’s presentation to remind us all that magical technology isn’t going to solve the problem for us: the UKCCC scenarios reckon that 38% of the work to achieve the 1.5°C maximum will be achieved by technological means or new fuels, 9% by purely societal/behavioural change and the remaining 53% will be a mixture of the two. In other words, we are going to have to fundamentally change our society. 

Direct GHG emissions from cultural organisations are not large, although the organisations do trigger a similar level of emissions as audiences travel to their events. But as social, as well as cultural institutions, they have an influencing role in the way in which they operate as well as through the artistic work they create, present and distribute. 

In the last part of the sessions, the RFO leaders came up with some ideas for changes they could make that demonstrate an interest in how climate change intersects with questions of well–being and equalities. Nearly all of these require some involvement with partners, ranging from discussions with Creative Scotland and the Scottish Government about reviewing their targets emphasising international travel and increased outputs to working with unlikely bedfellows, such as public transport providers, and joint working to increase the efficient use of capital assets. Some ideas are more radical than others and very few are simple to implement. I should emphasise that this was a quick brainstorming approach, and the projects have not been interrogated or thought through, but here are some of them: 

Buildings 

• Move to opening four days a week to reduce energy usage 
• Shift to genuinely renewable electricity – despite the increased costs 

• Undertake a long–term national capital assets review – i.e. work out what buildings we really need, use them collaboratively etc.

Festivals 

• Change model to a ‘distributed curator’ so less international travel by a central director, more ‘on the ground’ expertise in foreign parts 
• More joint programming with other local and distant festivals 
• Joined-up infrastructure planning (for everything from audience travel to power supplies) with relevant parties (local authorities, transport providers, utilities etc.) 

• Make every other festival a flight-free festival for artists 

Touring 

• Shift from reliance on international touring for income generation to working with funders on making UK work pay 
• Collaborate to get electric hire cars/vans available in Scotland 

Agencies 

• Use an office-less model to reduce energy use and travel  
• Reduce the current focus on expos, trade fairs etc as core business: we need to find ways to do things differently. Use digital means to achieve the same ends?  

All 

• Add a ‘green levy’ to budgets immediately so that we start pricing in the additional costs – and give ourselves, Creative Scotland and other funders time to understand the implications 
• Creative Scotland can help by starting the conversation about core success measures with other big players, such as the Scottish Government etc. 

• Work with public transport providers to facilitate sustainable audience travel 
• Consolidate back-office provision: storage, services etc. 
• Car pooling 
• Switch immediately to vegetarian catering: no-one would notice! 

What do you think of these ideas? Do you have others? Let me know!

The post Ben’s Strategy Blog: Climate thinking-caps on! 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

Powered by WPeMatico

Creative Carbon Scotland is once again supporting organisations with carbon reduction responsibilities under their funding agreements.

Caro Overy will again be working with Creative Carbon Scotland as our Carbon Management Planning Officer and will be available from mid-August to support all organisations required to submit emissions reports and carbon management plans under their funding agreements. This year, she will be supporting Creative Scotland Regular Funded Organisations (RFOs) to submit their information by 27th September 2019 and, for the first time, supporting organisations receiving cultural funding from City of Edinburgh Council to submit their information by 4th October 2019.

Carbon Management gives organisations an opportunity to measure, monitor, and ultimately reduce their impact in a practical way. While Creative Scotland RFOs have been required to report emissions since 2016, 2018 was the first year there was any requirement around carbon management planning. The organisations have committed to a carbon reduction project in each of the three years of their current funding. Examples from some of last year’s plans included organisations planning strategic reductions in flights, planning to provide artists with tools and expertise for green touring, and some organisations planning the replacement of existing lighting with LED alternatives. We saw high uptake and lots of positive engagement with carbon management planning and are looking forward to finding out how organisations have progressed against their plans.

As with all plans, there will be some carbon management plans that have been more successful than predicted, and others where challenges have held back progress, and others where things have gone as expected. All of this will be part of our collective learning journey in carbon management and help to build the overall picture of how the arts in Scotland deals with its carbon footprint.

You’ll find information on our Carbon Management pages. We hope you find them useful. Even if your organisation isn’t currently obliged to report on your emissions or create a carbon management plan, our Tools and Resources can help you take practical action to reduce your climate impact.

Green Champions from Creative Scotland RFOs and City of Edinburgh Council funded organisations can find Guidance on their environmental duties on our website and will shortly receive an email with full details of requirements for this reporting and planning.

If you have any questions please contact Caro Overy to arrange support.

The post Emissions reporting and carbon management planning update 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

Powered by WPeMatico

The fifth in a series of blogs from playwright Lewis Hetherington about his work with Glasgow cycling charity Bike for Good and Creative Carbon Scotland.

Stick with me on this one folks. I’ve let my thoughts wonder freely.

Do you feel like you’re single when you film? That you’re not in the video or something?

This quote is from one of the young members of the Bike for Good community. She was asking Geraldine about the nature of filmmaking.

Turning the camera

As the film making process has gone on we’ve been encouraging them to take the camera from us. To point it at whatever they want to see captured.  And in this moment she quite unexpectedly turned the camera away from the group to point it at the two of us. As you can see I didn’t even have my jumper on yet. She asked me some questions about why I liked cycling, whilst I was still catching my breath from just stepping off my bike.

And then she turned to Geraldine and said:

Do you feel like you’re single when you film? That you’re not in the video or something?

Which has lodged in my brain as such an interesting question about what we’re doing as artists making this film, are we in it? Instinctively I think yes, we are in it. But in what way?

In a literal way now that we’ve encouraged the young people to point the camera at us. But also of course Geraldine and I are making choices about what to film, when to film. We capture things that interest us, in a way that we find illuminating, or pleasing, or thought provoking. Those points of interest though are always part of a feedback loop with Bike for Good as an organisation and the people who are part of it. They direct and guide the choices we make. It made me perhaps understand better my job title on this project, as ‘embedded artist’.

The importance of embedding

Beyond that though it made me think even more deeply about art and nature. It’s obviously a fairly massive topic and one I increasingly find myself preoccupied with, and this quote made me think about the importance of embedding myself and my making in the living world that I’m part of.

That sounds very grand, but I suppose it’s about trying to move away from the way that, one can argue, art distances us from nature. A beautiful landscape painting on the wall, is like a window we look out of, nature is over there, we are here. But in fact we are nature, nature is us, we are nature. And by extension art is part of of nature because it’s something we seem to have always done naturally. Mark making, meaning making.

I’m lightly dipping my toes in deep waters here and if any of this feels interesting I’d recommend a book called Queer Ecologies in particular an article called queernaturecultures by David Bell, or reading Timothy Morton who writes (a lot) about the importance of collapsing our romantic ideas around nature and waking up to the reality of the ecology that we are part of.

Co-created communication

That opening quote also made me think about some of the fascinating theories around communication which I encountered when I used to work with deafblind people for Sense. There was a broad term which covered the gestures, sounds and body language used to interact with those who did not have formal language, and that term is co-created communication. It means you create your own micro language in the moment with your conversation partner/s. It demands real heightened presence, to be able to receive and transmit meaning when you don’t have a pre-existing set of rules to rely on. And really that could describe any meaningful interaction.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this as I wonder about making art in a climate emergency, perhaps we need an aesthetic revolution were we don’t just document and observe nature but acknowledge our non human collaborators as we attempt to co-create this world we find ourselves sharing.

The images in this blog are screenshots from moments which may or may not make the final film. I was trying to capture cleaner images at first until I realised how much I liked the blurriness. It reflects that everything is alive. It’s all permeable. There is no neatly composed image that says everything we need to say. There is just a constant loop. Of communication. Of meaning making. Of co-created communication.

Lewis is working embedded with Bike for Good for two years in their VeloCommunities project to contribute to their activities widening access to cycling and helping Glasgow to become a more sustainable city.

This artist in residence is part of Bike for Good’s VeloCommunities Project, which is funded by the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund. We’ll keep you posted of updates and developments on this blog, and please get in touch with any questions or ideas!

                                      

The post Guest Blog: Meaning Making 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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This spring we hosted a competition for Green Arts Initiative members to find creative, innovative and exciting idea springing up across the Green Arts community. Now we’re revealing our community winner!

The Competition

Earlier this year, Creative Carbon Scotland was a runner-up in the Sustrans Scotland ‘ Scottish Workplace Journey Challenge‘, coming runner-up in the category of organisations with less than 20 employees. As a runner-up, we won the opportunity to donate £50 to a charity of our choice! We discussed it as team, and decided we wanted to use the donation to help support the sustainability work of the cultural sector.

We decided to run a small competition for the members of our Green Arts Initiative – all Scottish-based cultural organisations committed to reducing their environmental impact – asking for submissions of ideas which tackled environmental sustainability in a small or a big way!

The Winning Idea

We had some really interesting and innovation entries, but after a serious deliberation process in the Creative Carbon Scotland office (voting rounds, people defending their favourite submissions – it was almost a European election!) it was Lisa, Green Champion at The Beacon Arts Centre, whose idea triumphed:

“The Beacon are looking for some seed-funding, quite literally! We want to buy bean seeds to supply to local schools, encouraging them to participate in a green class project. Once the seedlings have grown into ‘mini beanstalks’, we will host a green arts workshop and showcase for all local schools involved at the end of the year, in-line with our panto, Jack & the Beanstalk!”

Although it was a close call, there were a few reasons why we chose this idea from those submitted:

• We liked that their green work was integrated into their creative programme: identifying green opportunities within regular or special programming is a great way to align sustainability with the identity and activity of your organisation!
• We thought it was an innovative way to engage audiences: combining schools engagement with activities such as growing and the concepts behind the production and the process sounded like fun! Public-facing initiatives have the potential to impact our wider society’s approach to climate change.
• We thought it was something which could inspire others: although each organisation is distinct, many of the planning cycles and traditional seasonal events (e.g. the panto) are common the cultural sector, or sub-sectors. Thinking ahead and seeing where green arts can fit in in the coming months and year is a great way to make it ‘green business as usual’.

You can keep up to date with the progress of the show on the Beacon’s website.

Thank you to all those Green Arts members and Green Champions to entered the competition! There was such a range of fantastic ideas, and it was hard to choose. We’ll be in touch if we think there are other ways we can help to make them a reality.

Our Green Arts Initiative

The Green Arts Initiative is a networked community of practice, made up of over 225 cultural organisations in Scotland committed to reducing their environmental impact. Free to join, the community is working on everything from reducing their carbon emissions, to engaging staff, to producing artistic work that tackles climate change head-on.

We provide monthly updates for members on the news, events and opportunities which support their work as Green Champions, as well as programming our annual Green Arts Conference (this year on Tuesday 8 October 2019) and providing year-round advice. Find out more (and join!) on our Green Arts Initiative project page.

The post Green Arts Competition: Winner Announced! 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

Powered by WPeMatico

In Ben’s latest strategy blog he uses his experience as a seasoned ‘train-setter’ to look at why, and give practical tips of how, to travel Flight Free.

I pledged to go ‘Flight free 2020’ recently – it’s a campaign to get 100,000 people pledging to do the same in the UK and beyond. Creative Carbon Scotland has a general ‘no flight’ policy. Interestingly, ‘flightshame‘ is now so common in Sweden that an orchestra is banning conductors and soloists from travelling by plane to get to them, so we’re not alone. I’ve seldom flown in the last few years so it’s no big deal for me, but people are amazed that you can travel – even live! – without flying. So here are a few thoughts about how to do it. 

Don’t travel at all! 

Of course the first thing to do is question whether you need to travel at all: would a phone call, video conference or email do the trick? Or a holiday nearer to home? Travel wastes lots of time, is tiring, is quite often rather boring and lonely, is never risk-free and is environmentally unfriendly. It may be flattering to be asked to speak at that event or seem crucial to attend that conference, but consider whether it’s really time well spent. We’ve delivered talks by recorded video in the last few months.

There’s a lot of talk about the importance of artists making international connections, but Mozart, Shakespeare and Caravaggio, to name a few dead white men, seemed to do pretty well despite travelling a lot less than we do today. And will a holiday including a long trip to Turkey be better than renting a house in the hills or by the coast in Scotland? To coin a phrase, ‘Is your journey really necessary?’ 

Cost  

Everyone always says that trains are so expensive compared to flying or driving. Well, it’s not necessarily the case. Depending on where you’re going and when, you may need to do a bit more planning, but not always. However, you do need to know some tricks. 

Travelling in the UK, buying a ticket to your final destination can be very pricey but splitting the journey can make it much cheaper. For example, going to my parents’ in Shropshire near Craven Arms always involves a change in Crewe. Advance tickets to Crewe, plus a standard ticket from Crewe to Craven Arms work out much cheaper than a through ticket. Even booking today Thurs 27 June for Monday 1 July, so not far ahead, a through ticket will be £177.45 one way, while booking an Advance Single to Crewe is as cheap as £33 and the ticket from Crewe to Craven Arms is £22.70. It’s worth splashing out on an ‘anytime’ ticket from Crewe, just in case your first train is a bit late, but if you’re happy to take the risk you can go even cheaper and buy another Advance for £15.50. So instead of paying £177.45 you will pay about £50.  

There’s a website https://www.splityourticket.co.uk/ that will do this work for you but it charges a small fee and it’s easy to do yourself: just book the first ticket then most rail company websites invite you to ‘book another ticket’ before you pay, so you get it all in one transaction. By the way, I always use LNER.co.uk to book my tickets as it doesn’t charge fees and is pretty straightforward. All train company websites offer the same trains and same prices (except Raileasy – see Europe below). 

Booking to London needn’t be so pricey either. Edinburgh to London trains booked today to travel on Monday go from £70 upwards for an Advance ticket with city centre to city centre journey times of about 4 ½ hours and trains every 30 minutes. Air travel + getting to the airport + security + boarding + getting out of the airport + getting into town will take you about the same time and at today’s price, Easyjet will cost you £61 at the lowest, flying to Stansted, and you’ll have to pay to get to/from the airport at each end, plus any baggage costs. 

Get a railcard 

If you are travelling in the UK regularly with someone else, or sometimes even for one long journey, get a Two Together Railcard. You don’t even need to be friends! £30 for two for a year gets you 33% off most tickets. You  need to travel together but you don’t have to have the card when you buy, as long as you have it when you travel.

Time – and not wasting it 

By the way, driving to Craven Arms takes about the same time and is maybe 300 miles: at 50 miles a gallon that’s about 30 litres of petrol, say £33. But that doesn’t take into account the wear and tear of your car or the hours of time you’ve wasted. If you’re sharing a car with others it obviously makes it much cheaper (although almost as much of a time-waster). And four people travelling in a small car is actually pretty carbon-efficient, so feel free to do that! 

Europe 

If you’re going further afield to Europe, the website you need is www.seat61.com. This will tell you just about everything you need to know. It’s a bit dense, but it’s worth the read. Choose the country you’re going to and it will tell you about the routes, the timings, the prices and where to buy tickets etc. Most of the information assumes you’re travelling from London, so remember to factor in the Scotland-London trip in times and prices. 

The site for buying tickets to most places is www.loco2.com, but Seat61 may direct you for particular offers to Deutsche Bahn for trips to Germany, or to other operators for night trains etc, so read the details.  

Eurostar, booking alerts and Raileasy 

One thing to remember is that Eurostar tickets can be expensive, especially for trains that weekenders are likely to use, and they go on sale long before most European tickets. You can buy the Eurostar ticket separately early and so cheaply, but the advantage of a through ticket to your final destination is that if your Eurostar (or any other train) is late, you’ll be put on to the next one at no cost, whereas if you have separate tickets they may not be so obliging. Use the ‘booking alert’ system on loco2.com to hear when tickets are available.

If you want to book your European trip but advance tickets for the UK leg aren’t yet available so you can’t get a cheap through ticket, here’s a crucial tip: www.raileasy.co.uk is the only place to sell tickets to ‘London International (CIV)’. What this means is that if your train from Scotland to London is delayed and you miss the Eurostar check in, you’re entitled to get on the next one and any subsequent trains. And similarly you can book from London International (CIV) and your ticket is valid for any train within 24 hours of your arrival on the Eurostar. Prices can be surprisingly good. Raileasy charges a booking fee but it’s worth it as you can book your cheap Eurostar/European tickets early knowing that you’ll be able to book an advance ticket to/from London later on with the confidence that you can manage any delays. 

Stopovers 

One thing to think about is whether it makes sense to do a stopover. When one of the Creative Carbon Scotland team and I had to go to Brussels for our EU project, she stopped over in London and saw an old friend while I went to see some family in Kent and got the Eurostar from Ebbsfleet. We both did a full day’s work on Tuesday, had a good evening and a good sleep and arrived in Brussels on time and relaxed. Colleagues from another Scottish company got up at 3:30am to catch the early flight, slept badly, were knackered at the meeting and had a lot less fun! 

Hotels in London can be awful and expensive but check out the Hub by Premier Inn five minutes’ walk from King’s Cross and 10 from St Pancras International which has nice, modern rooms fairly cheaply and a decent breakfast for £5. And Premier Inn has fairly good environmental credentials, too.  

Sometimes the recommended itineraries on Seat61.com don’t work if you’re coming from Scotland unless you stopover in London, but look at your itinerary and think about stopping in Paris – always cheaper and it has a certain je ne sais quoi, too. Brussels can be pricey, but you can get to Bordeaux, Strasbourg or various other places on the way to points south and east where you can have a good cheap sleep and be on your way the next day. Strasbourg has a cathedral that’s well worth visiting and cheap Ibis hotels right next to the station, Bordeaux is a pleasant place with no end of places to stay and eat: why not enjoy the travel? Use Booking.com to find a decent hotel near the station you’re leaving from in the morning and then book the hotel direct if you can – often better prices and better for the hotel.

Caledonian Sleeper and checking in for Eurostar

I used to recommend catching the sleeper to London, but it has become very expensive since it had a makeover:  gone are the happy days of the £19 Bargain Berths! It might be worth it, but I’d check the price of the Hub hotel first. Note that the sleeper usually gets you in by about 7.30, but it can run a bit late so leave a good margin. Check-in for the Eurostar at St Pancras is a good 15 minutes’ walk away from Euston where the sleeper arrives, and you need to leave at least 45 minutes in my experience, preferably a bit longer.  

By contrast, King’s Cross, where the East Coast trains arrive, is about two minutes from the Eurostar check-in desks. (Exit at the front of King’s Cross and turn right and head slightly away from the busy Euston Road, cross the smaller road and take the large side entrance into St Pancras International and you’re there.) 

No need to stop 

But you may not have to stop over. Catriona and I went to Dusseldorf in February. The train journey took about 11 ½ hours door to door and it was solid good work/relaxing time: easy connections, good wi–fi all the way, no hassles. And if you can book in advance it’s not so expensive: booking today, Glasgow to Paris in early September will cost you about £100 city centre to city centre and takes eight hours. Easyjet will cost you a minimum of £54 plus getting to and from the airports etc. It takes two hours in the air, but add another 2 ½ hours at least for checking in etc. And the time will be stressful and wasted hanging around in queues rather than working or relaxing on the train. (Booking today for next week the prices are pretty much the same for train and plane.) 

Of course if you have a railcard it will reduce the price a bit – but it only applies to the UK leg. 

Interrail

One other useful thing to know is that InterRail, that thing you did when you were young and impoverished, has modernised and is now both available  and feasible for all of us. It’s worth looking at the Seat61 InterRail page, as it explains it pretty well, but a few key things to know are:

• It will cover your journey from within the UK as well as the European bits, but only to the Eurostar and back
• You will have to pay supplements to go on the Eurostar (£28.50 each way), some high speed trains, sleepers etc, but they generally don’t add up to much and get you the reserved seat
• The total including supplements may well be cheaper or at least not much more expensive than the point to point tickets, and it gives you more flexibility and allows you to book later
• You can get passes that cover 3 or 5 days, so they may be good for longer and more complicated journeys, like the ones we’re taking to Sweden in November for our EU project Cultural Adaptations
• You can get a first class one if it takes your fancy!

So do the calculations and see whether it works out better or more convenient. You could even do a little side trip if you have an extra day of travel free. And let us know: I haven’t actually used an InterRail pass yet, although I think I will in the summer.

Summary 

To sum up, here are a few things to think about: 

Cost 

• Planning – book early;  
• Planning – check whether it’s really more expensive  
• Split tickets if in the UK; use Raileasy if you can book the Eurostar early 
• Consider all costs: getting to and from airports, baggage 
• Consider timings – trains may be more frequent so no extra overnights etc 
• Would an InterRail pass be better value or more convenient for complicated journeys?

Time 

• Consider all time-costs: getting to and from airports; check in, hanging around uselessly
• Consider timings – fewer flights so you may need to arrive or leave too early or be hanging around until late 
• Consider work time – is the time more useful on the train for work/rest/research than on a plane, in airports, in transit, in queues?
  

And finally, if travelling both ways by train seems too big an ask, why not go one way by train and return by plane for your next trip? You’ll almost halve the carbon emissions and you’ll get the hang of it. Soon you may become an ardent Flight Free Fan like me! 

Flight Free

Flight Free UK is a people-powered campaign which asks people to agree not to fly in the year of 2020 – knowing that 100,000 others have pledged to do the same. It’s about taking collective responsibility to reduce the amount we fly in order to lessen our impact on the planet. If you’re not in the UK you can find campaigns in Sweden, Germany, France, Belgium, Denmark and Canada or start your own!

The post Ben’s Strategy Blog: Flight Free 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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Edinburgh International Book Festival, a leading member of the Green Arts Initiative, shows how they’re going greener through their new programme and the festival’s operations.

At Edinburgh International Book Festival we are working at reducing our environmental impact, increasing our sustainability and creating a forum for discussion to bring environmental concerns and the climate change debate to a wider public. This year’s programme theme is We Need New Stories, and climate change is one of the many pressing issues that have led us to seek new ideas in a world that requires creative solutions with increasing urgency.

The 2019 Programme

The Fragile Planet is a strand running through the 2019 programme bringing together environment specialists, scientists and activists to ask: how can we avert disaster?

Author and journalist Fred Pearce has been exploring science and environmental issues for two decades and comes to Charlotte Square Gardens to discuss his new book When The Rivers Run Dry, which revolves around the Earth’s water resources. UCL emeritus professor Steve Jones joins us to discuss how crucial our nearest star is to life on Earth through Here Comes the Sun. And award-winning Norwegian professor of Life Sciences, Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson investigates our Earth’s astoundingly fragile ecosystem.

Authors finding new ways to talk about climate change in a series of events presented in an exciting new collaboration with WWF include former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, sustainability expert Mike Berners-Lee and Alex Rogers, a pioneer in marine biology and consultant on BBC’s Blue Planet II.

One of the strand’s major highlights is From Carbon’s Casualties to Climate Solutions, part of the New York Time Debate Series in which Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times photographer Josh Haner comes together with Australian novelist and campaigner Tim Winton and Laura Watts, whose Energy at the End of World offers a way forward through Orkney’s role as a centre for energy innovation.

We also take time to celebrate the wonders of the natural world with writers, including Norwegian explorer Erling Kagge, Kathleen Jamie who previews her luminous new essay collection Surfacing, master wordsmith Robert Macfarlane takes a lyrical journey into the hidden worlds beneath our feet and artist Amanda Thomson’s first book is a paean to our ways with words about the world.

For younger readers Chris Mould has illustrated a new edition of The Iron Man, Nicola Davies brings her Country Tales series as well as an event for grown-ups that explores how to Inspire a Generation with Science Books to take action for the planet. Jill Calderpairs her award-winning illustrations with stories and facts from the BBC’s Miranda Krestovnikoff about our blue planet and how to protect it and YA writers Marcus Sedgwick & C A Fletcher introduce ideas about civilisation and its impact on the planet.

On Site in August

We strive to make our Festival Village in Charlotte Square Gardens and the west end of George Street as sustainable as possible. We have extensive recycling facilities and separate 100% of recyclable waste – we have also specially designed child-friendly recycling bins to encourage sustainability from a young age. Our caterers use compostable packaging, plates, cups, glasses and cutlery in all cafes and bars on site, and we have prominent public drinking-water taps across our Festival site to encourage people to use reusable bottles.

All our public and author toilets on site are connected to mains sewerage, avoiding the use of chemicals and waste collection vehicles. Staff uniforms use fairly-traded and, where available, biodegradable materials. In 2018, we introduced e-tickets, a more sustainable alternative to printed tickets. The Book Festival brochure is printed on 100% recycled paper and we actively encourage audiences to recycle their copies or pass them on to a friend.

In Our Offices

We have our own Green Team – a cross-departmental team of staff who champion sustainability throughout the year. They ensure that environmental matters are considered at every stage of activity to help identify where changes can be made, however small, to reduce our impact. We separate all our office recyclable waste too, order milk for the kitchens in glass bottles and reduce paper waste by using an online HR portal and avoiding printing wherever possible. Most recently, the team have been working on creating a transport policy with the aim of reducing the number of domestic and short haul flights taken by our staff to reduce our environmental impact further.

Share your ideas

Have you got ideas for how the Book Festival could reduce it’s impact? We’d love to hear them, simply email admin@edbookfest.co.uk or call us on 0131 718 5666. Tickets for the 2019 Edinburgh International Book Festival are on sale from 8.30am Tuesday 25 June at edbookfest.co.uk

Read more about our organisational environmental work at edbookfest.co.uk/about-us/going-green

The post News: A Greener Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2019 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

Powered by WPeMatico

An Lanntair’s staff team and friends will be Walking to Work……. a whole 16.5 miles from the Callanish Stones to Stornoway!

The team is getting together to do a Sponsored Walk on Saturday 7th September 2019 – from the incredible Callanish Stones on the West Side of the Isle of Lewis, all the way across the island to Stornoway and An Lanntair! 16.5 miles in total.

An Lanntair’s team is embarking on this marathon challenge to raise money to purchase and install a new Covered Cycle Shelter on the forecourt of An Lanntair in the centre of the town of Stornoway for the public and staff to use.

The organisation has just launched its new organisational Travel Plan to help reduce negative impacts on the environment and climate change. This ambitious Sponsored Walk will help to celebrate this and buy a much-needed Covered Cycle Shelter to support local people and An Lanntair staff to travel into town by bike.

As well as all this, An Lanntair has pledged to reduce its plastic usage and has already stopped stocking plastic straws, cups and water bottles in its cafe bar. Any local business who is interested to join forces and would like to see a copy of An Lanntair’s Travel Plan is welcome to contact its Chief Executive, Elly Fletcher elly@lanntair.com, who would be happy to share all their plans.

Help support An Lanntair’s Team reach its target to install a brand new cycle shelter in Stornoway here: https://www.gofundme.com/an-lanntair-walks-to-work-for-the-environment

The post News: An Lanntair Walks to Work for the Environment 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

Powered by WPeMatico

On World Music Day (Friday 21st June) we launch the exciting outputs from ‘The Burnie Journey’ an exciting new example of creative community engagement.

Over winter 2018-2019, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Creative Carbon Scotland, with support from Aberdeen City Council, collaborated to deliver a project on arts-based community engagement with a focus on flood preparation and awareness in the Den Burn Valley in Aberdeen.

Unlike traditional forms of public engagement, this project sought the skills and expertise of musician, Simon Gall, to design and facilitate a number of workshops on flooding and flood risk management in the local community on behalf of SEPA.

Workshops were held with Fernielea Primary School’s P6 Class (ages 9-10) to explore how the Council is managing flooding of their local burn and how to prepare for flooding, using music and sound to reinforce the key messages.

On working with the Primary 6 class, Simon Gall said:

“It’s been heartening to see the children engaging so enthusiastically with the Denburn and flooding issues more generally. I think our hands-on, creative learning approach to the topic is key. The children use their creative skills to process and convert fairly pedestrian information – gathered first-hand – into something unique and memorable. I hope the experience leaves a lasting impression on them while also leaving some lovely creative work for others to use and enjoy.”

This type of approach has the potential to be used by Scotland’s other flood authorities , businesses or multi-stakeholder projects looking for more meaningful and exciting ways to engage communities in important issues, like flooding and climate action.

To learn more about this approach and its benefits, visit SEPA’s Floodline Scotland website to access the project report, videos and podcast. This project forms part of Creative Carbon Scotland’s culture/SHIFT project which supports cultural and sustainability practitioners to explore new ways of working together to address complex problems and bring about transformational change.

The post SEPA leads on creative engagement project in flood risk community 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

Powered by WPeMatico