At Tricky Hat, we believe every government, organisation and individual has a duty to tackle the climate crisis. We believe small changes can lead to big ones, and are committed to contribute our share toward saving the planet by:
- Measuring our current carbon footprint to establish a baseline.
- Setting yearly targets to reduce our carbon footprint and reach net zero by 2045.
- Promote sustainable travel and procurement practice within our staff.
- Positively influence our direct environment’s behaviour by promoting good practice with our partners and the wider sector.
- Positively influence our audience behaviours with the content of our artistic work.
Creative Carbon Scotland has been created with the belief that cultural organisations have a crucial role to play to tackle the climate crisis. Their website offers a wealth of information and has helped us create bespoke sustainable policies, planning and carbon reporting processes.
1. Governance, measuring and reporting
Governance
We believe there should be an understanding and responsibility for climate change at all levels of the organisation. This is the reason why we have designated Tricky Hat Chair, Ondine Oberlin, as our new Green Champion.
Ondine currently works as Company & Finance Administrator at Imaginate and is the organisation’s Green Champion. She is responsible for environmental reporting as well as coordinating carbon budget forecasts across departments. Ondine has also enrolled the Creative Carbon learning set which is a programme of five sessions where Green Champions from multiple organisation meet, share practice and learn from each other. At Tricky Hat, Ondine will support the implementation of our environmental policy and report on key actions during board meetings.
We have joined the Green Arts Initiative to share and learn with other arts organisations and tackle climate change.
Measuring & reporting
Every financial year, we set ourselves the target to measure our environmental footprint by using Claim Expenses. We will measure March 23-April 24 and use this carbon footprint as a baseline in order to establish targets for the following years and reach net zero by 2045.
2. Travel, sustainable procurement & recycling
Travel
- We do not take domestic flights working nationally and budget to pay our staff additional hours for travelling by train/bus.
- We encourage staff members to walk, take public transport and cycle to work whenever possible.
- We consider whether we need to take each trip and alternative ways of achieving our aims. For example, we will plan a zoom call instead of travelling to a meeting, organise all in-person meetings in one day instead of generating multiple trips etc.
- Where possible, we hire local artists from the area where our project takes place.
Sustainable Procurement
- We reduce our need to print by using digital software such as Docusign for contracts and Xero for finance & book-keeping.
- We always use recycled paper for our office and always consider the eco-friendliest option while ordering stationary.
- We consider the energy label when ordering new electronic equipment.
- We minimise waste packaging and freight carbon footprint by buying from local shops where possible and based in the UK.
- We consider whether we can hire, borrow, re-use equipment instead of buying new ones.
Recycling
- Our premises at The CCA have recycling facilities which we use systematically.
- We donate items which can be re-used to charity shops instead of throwing them away.
Advocacy & influencing others
Creative Scotland Climate Emergency and Sustainability Plan recognises “the powerful role of culture and creativity as agents for change and for influencing society.” (p.2) Likewise, we believe the arts has a role to play in influencing behaviours toward tackling the climate crisis and change the conversation.
Our productions respond to the many challenges our world faces including the climate crisis. During COP26 in Glasgow, we created a show around the theme of Extinction and Survival which has been hugely impactful: “Thank you for an extraordinary performance. I can honestly say I have never seen something like it. I felt the need of quiet afterwards to make sense of what I have seen and the mixed emotions it elicited in me. I was left feeling I’d experienced something quietly profound.” (audience member, October 2021). As part of our residency with Glasgow Life Creative Community, we created a short video around children standing up for the planet. It is our aspiration to continue to create productions which are urgent, topical and relevant to the world we live in. This includes the climate crisis.