On 25th March, The University of ’s Contact Theatre played host to an event from  Art Sustainability Team (MAST) in collaboration with Julie’s Bicycle. Titled ‘Making Creative Places Sustainable’, the venue was fitting for such an event.

MAST, a based initiative, aims to bring together cultural leaders of the city in a bid to match the ambitious carbon reduction targets that have been set by the city council.  City Council’s climate change strategy; ‘; A Certain Future’, has pledged to dramatically reduce the city’s carbon emissions by 41% by 2020. In light of this, MAST has also pledged to make the same levels of reductions in terms of carbon emissions, but specifically within the city’s arts and cultural sector.

Julie’s Bicycle is an international charity that aims to narrow the gap between environmental sustainability and the creative sector. Working with over 2,000 organisations in the sector, both big and small, Julie’s Bicycle helps these organisations with measurement, management, and reduction of their environmental impacts. Through the provision of expertise, capacity building, and thought leadership, Julie’s Bicycle aims to create a cultural sector with sustainability at its heart. A live feed of the event was remotely broadcast on Julie’s Bicycle, in order to allow participants unable to attend to watch the talks, and to participate in the Q&A session.

The aim of the event was for MAST to showcase some of the incredible work that has been undertaken within the arts and cultural sector, both in and nationally, in order to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainable development.

With a front of house display by the Carbon Literacy project, and a networking lunch upon reception, the event got off to a great start, before moving into the main event space of the Contact Theatre, for the main address, and the presentations that was to form the bulk of afternoon. Following a short welcome and introduction by the MAST team, it was time for the first talk of the afternoon, delivered by Jack from City Galleries. Kicking off the talks, Jack identified some of the problems that large galleries can face when beginning to think about moving in a more sustainable direction. Talking of the transition that Art Gallery has made between 2009-2014, Jack told of how through the use of new low energy lighting, the gallery has been able to save over £45,000 per year on lighting costs compared to before the changed. Of other measures that the gallery took to increase its sustainability, many were surprisingly simple, such as changing to revolving doors, and switching of air conditioning units at night (None of which has had any effect on the air quality needed for the art works). In addition to these works, Jack talked of the ‘Greening’ that the gallery has been through, including the introduction of bee apiaries to the roof!

The second case study of the afternoon focussed on The Lowry in Salford Quays. Dave Woodward, the theatre’s Technical Manager reported on the recent £5 million renovation project, which saw around £1.5 million being spent on more efficient and sustainable LED lighting.

Investment in more efficient lighting systems, such as the Arc LED system that were used, have enabled the Lowry to save up to 90% on lighting costs, and simultaneously reduce the amount of energy needed during events.

Up next was Gawain Forster, delivering a talk on the recent renovation works that have taken place at legendary music venue ‘Band on the Wall’. Closing its doors for four years back in 2004, Band on the Wall underwent a radical transformation, with a strong emphasis on reducing waste and energy, for both environmental and cost reasons. Gawain took the audience through many of the difficulties that arts venues can face when trying to engage the construction industry with new technologies, whilst simultaneously describing many of the innovative new features that the venue managed to employ during the refurbishment (Of particular interest was the flooring created from recycled chewing gum!).

The final case study came from Steve Connor, CEO of Creative Concern; a based communications agency with a strong emphasis on the power of sustainability. Talking about Creative Concern, Steve outlined the role that their Platform website plays in the way that the city of  talks about sustainability. Acting as a repository for information, Creative Concern’s series of Platform style websites host stories, articles, and news on sustainability issues and initiatives in the region, acting in many ways as an online magazine. Much of the engaging talk focussed on the need to be proactive with the dissemination of knowledge, which for Creative Concern seems not to be a problem, with a readership of around 20,000 people!

Moving on to a larger city perspective, it was now time for a presentation from Beth Perry of University of Salford, and Mistra Urban Futures. As an international centre for sustainable urban development, Mistra Urban Futures aims to make positive contributions to the lives of people on cities across the globe through the sharing of research and knowledge between practitioners and researchers. For much of the talk, Beth focused on the importance of creating safe places for the sharing of knowledge, and how this knowledge can blend both academic and policy based work in practice. The role that cultural institutions can play in developing this dialogue was a key point of the presentation, and it is these institutions Beth argued that can perhaps most effectively create dynamic urban local carbon environments that cities need so much.

Moving more towards a panel style discussion, the event now took a focus upon perspectives from across the country. As co-host of the event with MAST, Shola Johnson from Julie’s Bicycle demonstrated some of the work that Julies Bicycle has been involved with in the UK.

With an identifiable shift in values currently being witnessed across the sector, Shola examined how this shift has led to a greater emphasis on sharing, transparency, and collaboration. The key victory that she identified, in terms of the arts and cultural sector, was the overall £2 million saving in energy costs alongside considerable carbon emission reductions. These savings have come at a time when the sector has experienced a 16% growth, showing that growth can be achieved in a sustainable way, mitigating any further damage in an environmental capacity.

Overall, the talk was thoroughly engaging, and painted a full picture od where culture has come to stand in the global experience of environmental issues.

Emma Rees, Senior Coordinator at the London Theatre Consortium (LTC) delivered the next presentation. Representing 13 producing London theatres, LTC works on cross-consortium projects that beyond the capacity of the single venues to achieve. With 4,000 theatre go-ers attending events at LTC represented theatres daily, Emma acknowledged the incredible number of people LTC are able to engage with every day, and how this can be done effectively. Telling of the Lord Mayors ‘Greening London’s Theatres’ initiative, Emma described the target of 60% reductions in carbon emissions by 2025 that have been set for the venues, and how the LTC set about approaching this. It is the collaboration between the venues that proves to be most influential in the ability to reduce carbon emissions, and Emma gave examples from many theatres in how they have approached this collectively; from wormeries in the green room of the Almeda Theatre, to a resuable-water-bottles- only policy at the Lyric Theatre. These schemes have been effective, with a 13% reduction already, and a strong commitment to meet the 60% target by 2025.

Following a similar theme, but moving the conversation to Wales, Deborah Keyser of Creu Cymru delivered a presentation focusing on the importance of collaboration between venues. With 44 member venues across Wales, Creu Cymru represents venues both big and small, helping them to focus on audience and content engagement, and more recently, sustainability. Deborah spoke of the impact that collaboration with Julies Bicycle had lent in the measurement and monitoring of sustainability in member venues, and of some of the difficulties that such a diverse range of venues presented.

The final presentation of the afternoon, again with a focus in Wales, was delivered by Fern Smith, of Emergence. Seeking to consciously embed the values of care, compassion, and creativity, Emergence collaborates on projects in order to promote living ecologically within the finite limits of the planet. Fern talked thoroughly on the need to create intimate spaces for deep dialogue that can help to bring about change, these spaces can include artist conferences and ‘land journeys’ (Immersive walking conferences in natural environments). Fern, similar to Shola, talked of the need for a collective shift in consciousness, and the need for new models to facilitate dialogue, which for artists may mean moving beyond the stage.

Following the fascinating array of presentations, there was time for a Q&A session, which saw the panelists answer a diverse range of questions from other panelists and audience members, both in the room, and those watching online.

The concluding remarks of the afternoon, given by Shola Johnson, reiterated many of the main themes of the afternoon, and succinctly framed culture as the emerging fourth pillar of sustainability, alongside environmental, social, and economic factors. Given the importance of culture, it was the notion of collaboration between cultural institutions that was most dominant in this afternoon of wonderfully inspiring stories from around the UK.

By Matthew Millet