- Our environmental policy is a working set of principles delivered through an Action Plan which is reviewed annually.
Creative Spaces Burnley’s Environmental Principles
- We believe the climate and ecological crises are the greatest threat facing humanity. We believe this threat is existential.
- Artists should be at the front and centre of endeavours to counteract climate change and species loss.
- That all creative communicators have a key role to play in the re-politicisation of public creative spaces for the purposes of realising climate and ecological action.
- We believe climate action is a social justice issue.
- We recognise that poverty and education are the most significant barriers to climate action in our community.
We recognise the challenges faced by many people in our community when it comes to taking climate and ecological action1. There is are significant barriers to action for local people who:
- are time poor
- are economically disadvantaged
- are routinely under represented in the conversation, including those from minority ethnicities
- are excluded by their education
- are not first language english.
We invite all our members and member organisations to join us in signing up to our Climate Justice Pledge and to demonstrate their commitment in the work they support or make with us:
Our Climate Justice Pledge
LOCAL
As artists we will work in ways that focus wealth locally and attract money into the town for the benefit of the poorest in our communities.
LITERACY
We will foster carbon literacy in our community to better help ourselves address the impacts of the climate crisis. We will look to each other for local solutions and take responsibility for our carbon footprint.
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
We support artists with the fewest advantages and means to make work. We actively seek out work that amplifies the voices of the majority world or those experiencing climate impacts.
LICENSE TO OPERATE
We never accept sponsorship or investment from carbon intensive or fossil fuel companies, nor support nor contribute to events that are sponsored by the oil or petrochemical industries. Read more here.
Action Plan
Creative Spaces Burnley has published the following action plan for 2024/25. There are currently 4 areas of action, with associated targets.
WE WILL TAKE ACTION ON:
- Our buildings (sustainable energy, materials, operations that reduce waste and carbon emissions, includes how our team travels to work).
- Our audiences (how they travel to get to us, or can experience the work remotely)
- Our artists and members (encouraging work that addresses the environment, is critical and challenging and responds to the climate crisis).
- Our town (how we can be a climate crisis leader in the town, how we communicate our commitment and expectations for partners, how we embed value in the town and lock value into the town and benefit the poorest).
TARGETS
These are our goals for 2024-25. We will record actions against these targets and report to our Board every six months. The Board will recommend further action or adaptation, including additions or adjustments to our overall policy and plan where necessary. We will make any recommendations public.
Buildings
- We will continue to invest in the highest standard for refurbishment materials. Choosing materials that have a low carbon footprint in production and operation will be monitored for the following purchases made during 2024-25: Furniture, heating, decoration, lighting, IT equipment. Where impact information is available this will be gathered and a record kept of any effects / savings. These will be used to set reduction targets for 2025/26.
- We will audit our choice of energy suppliers. We will choose suppliers that are committed to net zero and use renewable energy creation that is environmentally sustainable, we interpret this to exclude nuclear power from our energy mix as this is not a safe and renewable technology. Where impact information is available this will be gathered and a record kept of any effects / savings. These will be used to set reduction targets for 2025/26.
- We will continue to seek to generate our own energy supply from renewable sources. We will explore opportunities and present these to the Board by Autumn 2025.
Audience
- We will monitor audience travel to and from our venues and events through a paper questionnaire available at 123. We will aim for a minimum of 50% of all journeys to be by public or active travel.
- We will work with local providers to make available to our visitors comprehensive and up to date public transport connections.
- We will require all commissioned artists to address how their commission may be experienced remotely or digitally to reduce unnecessary travelling by audiences.
Artist / members
- We will invite our studio members and resident associate organisations to join us in declaring 123 a Culture Declares Emergency Hub.
- We will make practical action against climate change and species loss from a local perspective the focus of our 2024 open call.
- We will work with our artists, exhibitors and associated organisations to monitor where possible the carbon impact of any commissioned new work and to work with them to limit impacts.
- We will connect to other arts organisations that are working on climate justice campaigns.
- We will be active members of networks committed to environmental responsibility in the sector and provide opportunities for our staff and associates to attend training sessions we host. We will establish a regular Climate Action forum at 123 and record time pledged and action taken, with a view to establishing an annual ‘time bank’ and monitored inclusion targets.
Town
- We will continue to advocate for the repurposing of derelict empty spaces for the arts. This is the best way to reduce carbon emissions when developing new space for the arts. We will bring forward proposals for future repurposing projects on St James’s Street Burnley with Burnley Borough Council in 2025.
- To better educate ourselves and our communities in the role Burnley has played historically in the industrial revolution and its global impacts, we will lay the foundations for a ‘Climate Justice’ 2025/26 commission.
Footnotes
1)
The richest nations must pay as they create the most emissions, however within this there is nuance and discrepancy. Burnley people are in general relatively poor and they are not responsible on the whole for the most damaging behaviours (long haul flights, owning SUVs, over consumption of resources), studies show that the richest decile is responsible for 16% of total emissions, more than three times as much as the poorest decile at 5%. Burnley residents are also the most politically, socially and economically disadvantaged (the poverty premium) when it comes to being able to afford ethical and sustainable choices.
“While they only make a relatively small contribution to carbon emissions, some low income households are subject to a triple injustice: they pay disproportionately for the policies to mitigate carbon emissions, and benefit less from those policies than higher income households.” (www.climatejust.org.uk)