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The Arts and Environmental Sustainability: A Guide to Key Areas

In September 2015 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” with 17 ambitious, universal goals to transform our world.

While included in a limited number of the targets of some of the sustainable development goals (SDGs), culture’s full role is not explicitly laid out in the UN text. But in 2019 at the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, 2021 was declared the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, making it clear that culture is both an enabler and a driver of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.


This article focuses on environmental sustainability and highlights key actionable advice for six key areas for arts institutions. 


Establish messaging and positioning 


Arts institutions are platforms for awareness, discussion, questioning, convening, and education on today’s issues and evolutions. Artists and arts institutions can make a difference simply by taking a stand on the issue of climate change, especially when public and visible. The Serpentine Gallery has a set of Environmental Policy statements to make their commitment clear.   The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a common framework to communicate what you are doing to be more sustainable.  The Centre Européen de Musique’s project aligns with 13 of the 17 SDGs


Beyond policy, adjusting your collection or repertoire, supporting engaged artists, hosting or participating in events that promote climate actions, organizing workshops, or communicating with staff are all ways to make a difference. The Serpentine here too has developed a project  that invites over sixty leading artists, architects, poets, filmmakers, scientists, thinkers and designers, to devise artist-led campaigns, protocols and initiatives responding to the environmental crisis, called Back to Earth. 


Optimize building and logistics operations


It is challenging for arts organizations to adapt their building management and operations to be more environmentally sustainable, often because old buildings are costly to renovate and protected by regulations. But there’s plenty of room for improvement in older buildings.


A first step would be to determine your institution’s annual carbon footprint. Smaller institutions can use a carbon calculator, while larger ones can use the business side of carbonfund.org. All institutions can invite donors to fund the purchase of carbon offsets for that amount, and use UN-certified offset programs.


Next, it is useful to arrange an energy audit. This is often free or subsidized by the utility. The resulting priority list of improvements and any links to incentives and grants will help with planning replacements for efficiency or renewal and in making the funding case to donors. You will be able to implement sustainable practices into daily operations, such as tracking recycling, composting and electronic waste; training cafe staff in best compost practices; undergoing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning audits, and implementing energy-saving methods.


Examples of organizations with visible building/logistics commitments:



Use eco-design of exhibitions, shows, or events


The eco-design of a product aims to reduce its impact on the environment at every step of its lifecycle while retaining its serviceability and complying with all typical constraints of arts organisations (communication, esthetics, economic viability, security standards, etc.)


This mainly involves suggesting avenues of improvement for reducing the overall “ecological footprint” of projects. The lifecycle approach is critical because each component impacts the environment, ranging from the choice of the concept, media, materials and manufacturing processes as well as end-of-life recovery. The environmental dimension must be incorporated from the start, just like other criterias like cost, quality, technical feasibility, comfort and public expectations, esthetics and compliance with standards.


For each phase of the lifecycle - design, construction, operation, desinstallation, recovery - there are several solutions to be more sustainable. Here are some examples from the guide published by Universcience on eco-design of exhibitions: 

  • Implement throughout the project a management process which monitors that the eco-design and sustainable development goals of the exhibition are on track.

  • Favour local artists, suppliers, and collaborators.

  • Think “light” in design choices. Use materials sparingly for equivalent quality outcomes.

  • Reducing the consumption of materials and energy by resorting less to new and disposable materials.

  • Knowing about eco-friendly materials, labels and standards in order to enable use across the lifecycle of the exhibition.

  • Promoting a pleasant and healthy visit to visitors

  • Keeping the energy consumption of exhibitions as low as possible

  • Reducing pollution on installation and deinstallation construction sites of exhibitions and ensuring optimal waste disposal


Resources and Examples:



Improve impact of the touring model 


The touring model, whether it is for touring companies or travelling exhibitions, remains costly for the environment. It is very expensive, time consuming and requires large staff. In addition the carbon footprint of such activities is extremely high because of the need to transport huge sets, large numbers of people, or very fragile works of arts. According to a study of July’s Bicycle of 100 organisations from the UK, touring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2010 totalled the following:

  • Bands: 85,000 tonnes of CO2 

  • Orchestras: 8,600 tonnes of CO2  

  • Theatre: 13,400 tonnes of CO2 


The goal here is not necessarily to stop doing tours, but to reduce its impact on the environment. Some examples of concrete actions taken in the performing art sector have emerged: lowering the number of cities we tour in, choosing smaller productions, hiring local crews and taking a small core crew around the shows, use pre-recorded orchestra in some cases, sharing or reusing costumes, designing seasons with a sharing common set, using projections instead of set. 


Among museums, there are a lot of efforts made to rethink the model of travelling exhibitions: reduce the number of cities, favour closer cities, dematerialization rather than relocation of the exhibition set, donation of scenographic elements…


Resources and Examples: 



Use government support and tools


The UN acknowledges efforts and progress made at the local and sub-national levels, and recognizes the important role that such authorities and communities can play in implementing sustainable development, including by engaging citizens and stakeholders, and providing them with relevant information, as appropriate, on the three dimensions of sustainable development. 


The government and public bodies’ involvement in sustainable development policies is very unequal across countries.  Being aware of what’s available in your country is essential and looking at other countries’ resources can help you uncover new actions to implement. 


Resources



Partner for solidarity 


Finally it is clear to us that the efforts toward environmental sustainability will be made collaboratively. The involvement of public bodies in sustainable development policies is of course essential but a lot of actions can already be taken by uniting with other artists, arts institutions and organisations, NGOs, and networks. Reaching out broadly and having access to ideas and information on the topic from everywhere is very easy because the climate crisis is the matter of everyone and impacts the whole planet. We are all facing its consequences. 


Collaborations can look like production sharing, climate declaration signature, data sharing, or building a shared sustainable storage center.


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