Comprehensive Sustainability Framework
At the meeting, you asked for the development of a shared sustainability framework that everyone can work towards so that we as a collective can work towards common goals. However, instead of creating a new framework from scratch, instead we’ve adopted the Theatre Green Book and Arts Green Book, and are setting up a collaborative group for members who wish to explore these frameworks together. If you’re interested in joining this working group, please email us at [email protected].
Training and Education
You told us that training and education was a key blocker for moving forward with your sustainability objectives. To address this, we’ve expanded our educational offerings to include a free Sustainable Events Management Course available on our members’ area, and we are in the process of developing a new one-hour “Introduction to Sustainability in the Creative & Cultural Sector” Course, and a detailed course on “Circularity in the Creative and Cultural Sector”.
Additionally, we have made Part 1 of our accredited Carbon Literacy Training available for free to all of our members. Whilst we always aim to offer training for free, budget constraints have led us to charge for the Part 2 of this training and the certification with the Carbon Literacy project. We’re constantly exploring funding options to potentially offer the training for free to members in the future, but until then we continue to run open call sessions. Details on our next open call session can be found here.
Resource Sharing
At the meeting, we discussed how SAIL should make it easier for members to share resources amongst themselves. SAIL had already facilitated the sharing of equipment from Leeds Beckett and the University of Leeds by emailing the membership and distributing the resources on a first come, first served basis, but this was labour intensive from the SAIL side and also not the most efficient way to distribute materials.
To try and encourage better resource sharing, SAIL started our “Circularity Working Group” which meets monthly to discuss the blockers to implementing circular practices, and what SAIL can do to remove these blockers. The group now has 21 representatives from across the creative and cultural industries of West Yorkshire!
Additionally, in April 2024 SAIL hosted an event titled “Creating a Circular Economy in the Creative & Cultural Sector”. Funded by the Ignite Fund from the University of Leeds, this event included a practical workshop on the concept of Industrial Symbiosis, whereby organisations closely collaborate to share resources between each other. This workshop has already resulted in many resources being shared between our members!
Finally, we are currently working on implementing our own version of the Circular Arts Network onto the SAIL website which we hope will be live shortly, as well as investigating what a physical circularity hub might look like. Watch this space!
Understanding Best Practice and Peer Learning Opportunities
At the members meeting, you told us that it was often challenging to understand what best practice looks like, and also that you wanted to know what the rest of the network was doing. In response, we have launched our resources area of our members area for organisations, students, and individuals, and we have also hosted multiple events in more places to get more of you to meet each other and talk.
We have published stories on our knowledge exchange programme with Leeds Arts University, as well as an introduction to Sand In Your Eye and we’re always looking to share with the network what everyone else is doing. If you’d like to tell us what you’re up to, get in touch by at [email protected] and we’ll tell the network!
Financial Support
Lack of finances was listed as a major blocker to being able to implement sustainable practices, and whilst we’re not able to offer grants or funding ourselves, we instead hunt for suitable funding opportunities and put them into the “Funding Watch” section of our newsletter. If you don’t already receive our monthly newsletter, please click the button below to sign up.
Sustainable Suppliers
Understanding who is and isn’t a sustainable supplier was discussed as a challenge, and in response we are working to create a sustainable suppliers directory for our members. We are in the initial stages of this work, but we have already begun aligning sustainability criteria for suppliers to the requirements from the Carbon Disclosure Project for Small and Medium Enterprises, an internationally recognised standard for quantifying scope 3 (supply chain) carbon impacts.
Advocacy and Policy Development
At the meeting, we discussed policy being a blocker to progress and that SAIL needs to use its influence to advocate for policy level change. SAIL is in active conversation with members of the local authorities in West Yorkshire, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Arts Council England and other stakeholders around our blockers to progress.
Additionally, SAIL spearheaded a new national “network of networks” named “Constellation”. This network, comprising of similar membership organisations from Manchester, Liverpool, Lancashire, Oxford, Scotland, London, Devon and Cornwall, Wales and the West Midlands intends to foster a coordinated approach to sustainability within the cultural industries across the United Kingdom.
Carbon Footprinting Support
Understanding the carbon footprint of your organisation was discussed as a challenge, and to combat this we have gained funding from Leeds City Council through the Leeds Cultural Investment Programme to support Leeds based organisations report on their carbon footprints using the creative climate tools from Julie’s Bicycle, something which is already used by the National Portfolio of Organisations funded by Arts Council England.
We will be launching this support officially within the coming months, and it will include webinars on data capture techniques, how to use the calculator, 1-2-1 support meetings on calculation and data verification. By mid 2025, we will aim to have a full understanding of the carbon footprint of the culture sector in Leeds, and will be looking to roll out this support wider, dependant upon funding.
Event and Project Planning Support
We were asked by members for support in planning sustainable events, and as above we have made our Sustainable Events Management Course and Resources area available, free of charge for all members.
Additionally, we have made our calendar link available for anybody who wants to talk to us about specific challenges they are facing and are always happy to discuss with you any challenges you may have, and how we may be able to help.
Communications of the Climate Crisis
Members told us that they don’t feel they can talk about the climate crisis in the right way, and so in response and in collaboration with Leeds Arts University, SAIL created the “From Imagination to Action” guide, a practical guide to communicating the climate crisis to our audiences. This guide, offering practical examples and best practice, is again available to all our members for free.
To download the guide, please click the link below.
We are thrilled by the progress we’ve made and the initiatives we have in the pipeline. As always, your participation and feedback are crucial to our shared success. You can always email us, at [email protected] or call us on 01134607245.
We love hearing from you and welcome your stories, suggestions, and involvement as we continue to grow. Let’s keep the conversations going and the ideas flowing!
Jamie, Helen, Pip and the rest of the SAIL team.