Our story so far
Timeline
SAIL attended the first ever Exhibition One, a landmark event featuring inspiring talks by Chris Packham, Swarzy, and Dale Vince. The day offered insightful lab sessions on Cleaner Arenas, Audience Engagement, Powering Productions, and Upskilling for a Sustainable Future, sparking ideas for greener practices in the creative and cultural sector.
November marked the final session of 2024 at SCRAP Centre of Creative Reuse, where Mari and employee at SCRAP gave us a tour of their facilities and shared the incredible stories behind the materials they’ve rescued.
The SAIL team attended POP29 at Future Yard, a climate symposium brining together professionals across the industry to discuss the big challenges for making live events more sustainable, we discussed three big themes: Audiences, Operations, and Collaboration.
At the Mode Shift Conference, SAIL delivered a presentation on the importance of sustainable audience travel. We shared strategies to make travel more accessible, helping events reduce their environmental impact while continuing to support audiences overall experiences.
SAIL delivered 3 Carbon Literacy Training Session this November.
SAIL presented to the Priestley Climate Scholars at the University of Leeds, covering topics such as low-carbon power, virtual production, circularity, audience travel challenges, and the arts’ role in building emotional connections to the climate crises.
SAIL hosted on webinar covering carbon footprint scopes, the GHG Protocol, calculation methods, and tools like Creative Green Tools and the GCC Calculator. The session explored what to calculate, how to do it, and the pros and cons of different approaches.
SAIL became a Members of the Carbon Accounting Alliance. The Alliance is a coalition of 500+ organisations who collectively represent 85,000+ company carbon footprints.
During Green Careers Week, SAIL partnered with Leeds Arts University to deliver a workshop for creative students. The session explored pathways into green careers and developing green skills in the arts and provided practical tips for more sustainable art practices.
SAIL has partnered with Leeds Night Light to develop a comprehensive Environmental Policy Plan that aligns with LCC’s commitment to sustainability and the Eurocities call for low-carbon and inclusive culture. We also will deliver a detailed action plan followed by calculating the Light Night Carbon Footprint.
SAIL participated in the UK Centre for Events Management Day at Leeds Beckett University, showcasing practical ways to make events more sustainable.
SAIL organised the 4th Theatre Green Book Cohort Meeting at Northern Ballet. Emily Deller and Jim Malkin kindly facilitated a group tour of Northern Ballets facilities, followed by the cohort sharing their progress with reaching ‘Basic’ by the end of 2024.
On the 8th October the Indigo Team and SAIL presented the results for West Yorkshire’s Act Green 2024 Survey. We shared insights into audience attitudes towards the climate emergency and facilitated a discussion on key topics such as sustainable audience travel.
This month we launched The Skoon Decision Tool Lite for SAIL Members. Now our members can easily explore options for more sustainable power solutions for their upcoming events.
This month we announced that the SAIL Circular Arts Network Platform is live and ready to use, so users can now share resources with others in the network, who can re-use them rather than going to waste.
SAIL launched a new online course ‘An Introduction to Climate Change and Sustainability in the Creative and Cultural Sector’. The one-hour course is designed to equip learners with a foundational understanding of climate change and practical tools to begin integrating sustainable practice into their creative worlds.
On the 18th September, SAIL hosted an online webinar to showcase the capabilities of the Microsoft Power Platform to help those interested in automating data capture for reporting to funders, developing their customer relationship management system, and integrating disparate digital systems together.
SAIL organised the September Members Meeting at the Thackray Museum of Medicine on the 16th September, 9:30am – 13:30pm. Our members had the opportunity to meet one another, share their success and challenge stories with others, and listen to presentations from some of our SAIL members.
SAIL delivered Carbon Literacy Training to Calderdale Key Commissions team on the 5th September.
SAIL delivered Carbon Literacy Training to the One Dance UK team on the 13th August.
SAIL published the Green Book Cohort’s Press Release: Making Theatre Sustainable in Yorkshire
Mary Lawrence joined the SAIL team on the 5th August as Sustainability Manager.
SAIL hosted delegates from Italy who are working on a project called 4C Cultural and Creative Carbon Cut in order to assess and understand how to activate a just transition in the Italian Cultural and Creative Industry.
Our Green Book Cohort is launched with our first meeting, will all members aiming to achieve ‘Basic Level’ by the end of 2024.
At the Yorkshire Sustainability Festival in the Cloth Hall Court in Leeds, SAIL delivered two presentations on ‘Creating Sustainable Events’.
SAIL delivered 2 Carbon Literacy Training sessions.
We attended the Launch of Theatre Green Book Version 2.
SAIL supported Indigo in their Act Green 2024 Survey.
SAIL delivered 3 Carbon Literacy Training sessions where 23 more people received their Carbon Literacy Certificates.
We delivered a presentation at the Creative and Artistic Knowledge Exchange Event at the University of Leeds, organised by the Cultural Institute.
SAIL confirmed as Bradford’s 2025 UK City of Culture Sustainability Partners. Throughout 2025, we will be supporting Bradford with reducing waste and energy demand, adopting sustainable transport, regularly measuring and evaluating impacts, promoting diversity and inclusion, and building a lasting positive legacy for sustainability in the Year of Culture.
SAIL joined the Theatre Green Book Trailers and Production Committee.
We attended the Theatre Set Reuse and Recycling Centre Workshop in London.
SAIL and the University of Leeds hosted the ‘Creative Bridges Event’ at Opera North to bring together sector experts and PHD researchers to identify collaboration opportunities in Sustainability, Diversity and Inclusion research.
SAIL and the Yorkshire Circularity Lab hosted ‘Creating a Circular Economy in the Creative and Cultural Sector’ Workshop at the Royal Armouries, funded by the Ignite Fund 2024.
SAIL begin supporting CultureDale, Calderdale’s year of culture 2024 as their sustainability partners
SAIL receives funding from Leeds City Council to support the Leeds Cultural Investment Programme, 24/25 and 25/26
SAIL hosts “Creating Sustainable Events” as part of knowledge sharing programme between LEEDS 2023 and Bradford 2025
Clare Jackson joins the board of SAIL as our first non executive director!
Our Innovate UK Creative Catalyst project concludes: producing a route map & framework of sustainability support for the Creative Sector of West Yorkshire
SAIL completes project working alongside Opera North as their sustainability support for their Autumn 2023 Green Season
Our Circularity Working Group is launched with our first meeting!
SAIL part of panel discussion on “How to Reach Net Zero & Persuade Colleagues” at the 2023 Yorkshire Post Climate Change Summit
SAIL delivers two events as part of the Climate Action Leeds Arts & Climate week: our first SAIL members meeting, and our ‘Reuse, Reshare, Reimagine Workshop’: exploring Circular Economy principles within our sector
SAIL’s fourth Employee, Pip Tuffin, joins the team as Project Assistant. SAIL’s internal capacity has more than doubled since last October
SAIL are “Highly Commended” for the Green Award at the BBC Radio Leeds “Make a difference awards” 2023
SAIL’s new website launches, with revamped members area, training courses, and more!
SAIL complete Operational Carbon Footprint and Building Project plan review for Kala Sangam (Bradford Arts Centre)
SAIL’s third employee, Sean Cooper, joins the team as Project Assistant
Second SAIL event: ‘From Imagination to Action’, exploring the effective communication of sustainability