A climate of change

Arts organisations regularly lead the way in developing sustainability policies that cover social issues, such as working with local communities. Some may extend this to include a few environmental ideas, but energy usage and carbon footprint management are not yet commonly incorporated. It will become increasingly important for arts professionals to understand carbon footprints and how to reduce them. Energy prices have doubled over the past decade, and this trend is set to continue. New climate change regulation is likely to start impacting on the industry. The UK has targets to make an 80% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. At present this means that all public buildings with a floor area greater than 1000m2 must have a Display Energy Certificate and all organisations forming a group which collectively spends over around £500,000pa on electricity are required to participate in the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme. There are government discussions underway which could lead to all UK businesses being required to report their carbon footprint from 2012.
 

NAME YOUR PRICE
Consumer opinion is also changing and research carried out with Bristol’s Tobacco Factory Theatre (TFT) suggests that this could already be influencing arts audiences. For example, 92% of audience members were willing to pay a higher ticket price if the extra money was spent on reducing the organisation’s carbon footprint. Twenty-six per cent would pay up to 50p extra per ticket, 51% would pay between 50p and £1 and 15% were willing to pay up to £2. Taking the first step in measuring your organisation’s carbon footprint can be daunting, however the Carbon Trust provides an excellent free online calculator that meets the latest government guidelines . The following steps, taken with the TFT could easily be copied by any organisation.

DEFINE YOUR BOUNDARIES
For the TFT analysis the scope included its main 350-seat venue, plus its 10 staff, 100 visiting companies and 80,000 audience members in the 2009/10 financial year. The TFT, shares its building with other users and the building manager estimated its percentage of the building’s overall energy consumption.
COLLECT THE DATA
The Carbon Trust’s calculator will prompt you as to what data is required. This will typically be gas, electricity, oil and other energy consumption relating to your buildings, plus travel data for the groups included in the scope. Your energy invoices will give the relevant consumption totals and the box office is a good starting point for gathering audience travel data.

CRUNCH THE NUMBERS
The calculator gives a carbon footprint figure in tonnes CO2. The annual carbon footprint of an individual in the UK is about 11 tonnes, 10,000 miles of driving is about 3.5 tonnes and 10,000 passenger miles on a bus or train is about 1 tonne. It is worth avoiding publishing your preliminary figures until you are confident of their accuracy and how they will be managed.

TAKE ACTION
Tackling audience travel habits represents the largest single opportunity for the TFT. Our audience survey suggested that the TFT could consider providing secure bike racks and storage for cycling gear, and promoting public transport in their literature. They could also extend this to offering incentives such as discounts at the bar or premium seats in exchange for the bus or train ticket that was used to get there.
Electricity consumption is the second largest contributor to the TFT’s carbon footprint. A good first step in tackling this would be to order a free energy campaign pack from the Carbon Trust, which includes material for building energy awareness and running a staff engagement campaign. Air conditioning almost certainly represents its biggest draw on electricity. Regular maintenance and careful setting of controls can improve efficiency. For example, switching the thermostat from 23°C to 26°C could save about 10% of their air conditioning costs. Air conditioning systems more than 10 years old may be 30–50% less efficient than today’s technology and might be worth replacing. Larger energy efficiency investments could be funded through ticket surcharges or through a grant. A search of Business Link’s grants directory gave 30 leads that the TFT could investigate.
Being able to produce and manage an effective carbon reduction strategy is going to become increasingly necessary for all arts organisations. We hope that we have demonstrated that regardless of resources or technical knowledge, meeting this challenge is perfectly within reach of all arts managers.