Climate Emergency Declaration
There is a climate and ecological emergency. Climate change is the biggest threat to humanity; one of the greatest threats to biodiversity and we know that nature recovery is an important part of the solution. We believe in protecting the environment and our planet’s precious natural resources.
In 2020 we joined the Culture Declares movement – a network of individuals and organisations, sharing knowledge and practical support to seek justice, work towards regenerative change and provide care, through culture, heritage and the arts.
As an organisation we work to:
- Support artists
- Enable high quality performing and outdoor arts to thrive
- Remove obstacles to participation in the arts created by rural isolation, ill health and social deprivation
- Bring communities together through events that are remembered and talked about for decades
- Celebrate our natural landscape and sense of place.
We are committed to providing a quality arts programme in a way that ensures safe and healthy workspaces, events and gatherings for participation, and minimising our impact on the environment.
What we are already doing:
We cut down our consumption by reusing things first wherever possible and when we do need to buy new things: choosing fair trade, organic, environmentally friendly products such as green cleaning products and natural hand sanitizer in refillable bottles
- We keep our energy use to a minimum – such as minimising emails and data transfer
- We produce a range of our events and outreach programmes in natural landscapes like the Dorset National Landscape to raise awareness of their environmental importance in creative and thought-provoking ways; our event management planning ensures we create no negative environmental impact
- We provide drinking water points and ask artists, crew and audiences to bring their own water bottle to all our events
- We provide vegetarian and vegan food
- We partner with organisations who share our values and help communicate the climate emergency. For example, Cape Farewell and Pollution Pods in 2019
- We loan out our event kit free to artists and partners to cut down on consumption
What we’re working on:
Our biggest impact in normal circumstances is our travel: Dorset is a rural county with minimal public transport. We plan to work with our local authority to support what they are doing about the climate emergency and how they are going to improve public transport infrastructure.
- We’re exploring with our landscape partners if we can gather evidence on how the arts can encourage people to act in a more environmentally-friendly way
- We’re putting the climate emergency on the agenda for all our team and board meetings
- We’re working with the Culture Declares movement in the South West to encourage more cultural organisations to declare a climate emergency
- We’re trialled a solar-powered generator at our festival in 2021
- We’re reducing our print across our projects by making more digital materials but making sure we remain inclusive and provide environmentally friendly print when it’s needed
- We’re adding a budget line to our festival/live events to support greener travel for artists
- We’re researching our suppliers and stocking up on event kits that include environmentally friendly products and supplies e.g. reusable cable-ties.
What you can do to help:
- Speak up, be vocal about the climate emergency. You can write to your local MP and councillors to ask them what they are doing about it
- Use public transport, walk, cycle or car share to get to our events – and elsewhere
- Check out Friends of the Earth’s helpful guide on practical steps you can take to tackle the emergency – from moving who you bank with to eating more plants!
