Responding to the climate emergency

Rob Greenland, a member of our Advisory Board, wrote a paper for our board to help us inform the next steps for us in relation to how we can best respond to the climate emergency. We are extremely grateful for this pro-bono work and will be following his advice over the next few months. More discussion. More Action.

Here are his reflections…

Reflection 1 – What if The Performance Ensemble acted in all that it did as if we were in a climate emergency?

This is a question inspired by the work of Rob Hopkins – and his recent book From What Is To What If.

I think it would be valuable for the Board to ask itself this question, to help to inform how to make your response to the climate emergency central to your work.  This gives you much more of a chance of making a difference, as sustainability will become part of everything that you do, rather than an additional activity which sits apart from your core activities.

As a cultural organisation, taking a creative, imaginative approach could also inspire others to take action at a time when it can often feel that all hope is lost – thus amplifying your impact.

Reflection 2 – Think about what you’re required to do, what you’d like to do, and how you’ll go about doing it.

I think it’s worth considering three things:

• What are you required to do? This might be called a compliance-based approach – what are the things you need to do – eg in relation to any relevant legislation, and any requirements from key stakeholders such as ACE or the local authority?
• This is likely to be based around the development of an environmental policy and action plan, as outlined in your Investment Principle Monitoring.
• What would you like to do, above and beyond what you are required to do?  This is perhaps where things get more interesting – and it may be informed by exploring the question from Rob Hopkins that I outlined above.  How will you go about doing this?

As a creative, mission-led organisation, it is important to give consideration to how you approach what is a significant task for your organisation, as well as being the biggest issue of our time.

How can you involve key stakeholders, including ensemble members, audiences etc?  Working with SAIL on offering carbon literacy training could be a useful starting point (as you have already identified).

How can your creativity, your community connections, your story-telling expertise etc help you to develop an approach that works for you, whilst also exploring themes around intersectionality (eg in relation to climate justice, and the impacts of the climate emergency on older people)?

Given that you are an outward-facing organisation, how can you ensure that your approach inspires others to act too, thus amplifying your impact?

Reflection 3 – Make the most of all the support that is on offer

You are fortunate in that there is plenty of support available – specifically aimed at cultural organisations, including:

SAIL – including Carbon literacy training

Julie’s Bicycle

Arts Council Environmental Programme – Arts Council England Programme | Julie’s Bicycle | Culture & Climate Non-Profit

NPO Reporting | Julie’s Bicycle | Culture & Climate Non-Profit

Board Environmental Champions | Julie’s Bicycle | Culture & Climate Non-Profit Network (this programme launches in October 2023 and is currently open for applications)

NPO Reporting | Julie’s Bicycle | Culture & Climate Non-Profit

Creative Climate Tools | Julie’s Bicycle | Sustainability Strategy Tools

Creative Climate Tools – User Guides – Julie’s Bicycle

Julie’s Bicycle – Production Footprint User Guide

Environmental Policy and Action Plans: An Overview – Julie’s Bicycle

Other organisations in your sector that have explored these issues in more detail, including for example Leeds 2023, Leeds Grand Theatre, Space 2, and Bradford 2025.

It will be useful, as you have done already, to continue to make the most of the sector-specific support that is available to you.

Reflection 4 – Consider what resources – in particular staff time – you have available to explore this

Whichever way you approach this, it is clear that it will require a significant amount of staff and Board involvement.

It will be important to be realistic about the time and resources that you have available.  Whilst it is certainly positive that there is no shortage of support available to you to explore this, it is less clear whether there is funding available to make the most of this support, and/or whether you have existing resources to do this work.

It will be important to consider whether staff have time – or could be allocated time – to undertake these tasks.

It will also be important to acknowledge that Board members – including anyone who may join the Board with a specific focus on environmental sustainability – are unlikely to be able to allocate a lot of time to do detailed work on this.  Realistically, they will only be able to offer strategic direction to any staff members who are in a position to undertake detailed work.

This needs to be considered by the Board at an early stage (or it may have been considered already).  An understanding of the resources that you have available can inform what you choose to do and how you choose to do it.  It may also lead you to consider bidding for funding, if required.

Suggested next steps

Develop an action plan for the next 6-12 months, which includes what needs to be done (eg anything that funders require you to do) and which recognises limitations in terms of time and resources you have available to explore this – ie balancing your ambition with realism.

Consider how to develop the action plan in ways that involve key stakeholders such as staff, Board members and ensemble members.  I would be happy to explore facilitating a workshop to help you to do this.

Rob Greenland

September 2023