Dance North Scotland

A rural approach to sustainable travel

Dance North Scotland’s approach is underpinned by a simple recognition – sustainable travel in rural Scotland is fundamentally different from sustainable travel in urban centres.

Operating far from Scotland’s major transport hubs means staff and artists often contend with long distances, infrequent public transport, poor late-night connections and significant weather disruptions, particularly in the winter. Travel from the north of Scotland to central cities can take substantially longer than equivalent journeys from urban organisations, due to unreliable or limited public transport.

Rather than treating this geography as a justification for high-carbon travel, Dance North Scotland has used it as the starting point for a more thoughtful approach. Every journey is assessed individually, on its own terms, weighing the most sustainable option against the cost, timing, staff wellbeing and operational need. Lower-carbon modes of transport – rail, coach and overland travel – are always the starting point, but they also recognise what’s realistically achievable varies significantly depending on the journey, the season and the individual travelling. The guiding principle is therefore conscious decision-making – every trip should be considered and the most realistic, sustainable option is chosen.

Making zero domestic flights possible

This case-by-case philosophy has delivered a clear outcome. In 2024-25, Dance North Scotland reported zero domestic flights for internal work purposes. This was made possible through organisational change at Dance North Scotland, rather than restriction – eg a ‘no fly’ policy.

Three organisational shifts enabled this. Firstly, travel budgets were increased to make lower-carbon options financially viable, even when those options cost more than flying. Secondly, significantly more time was built into travel planning, recognising that sustainable journeys in rural Scotland often take longer. Finally, pressure on staff to travel by the fastest possible route was relieved.

This last shift is particularly significant. In many organisations, sustainable travel is undermined by an unspoken expectation that staff absorb the additional time and inconvenience of slower travel. Dance North Scotland has done the opposite.

‘We don’t want to tire our staff out. We make it explicit that you need to get there and come back in the most comfortable and sustainable way possible.’
Liz Egan, Dance North Scotland

This broadens the idea of sustainable travel – in the context of staff – to include considerations of fairness and working conditions, and well as environmental concerns.

Planning for cost, time and uncertainty

The main barriers to sustainable travel identified by Dance North Scotland are practical – cost, time, infrastructure and reliability. The first two barriers have already been addressed through the organisational shifts described above. The latter two are harder to plan for as they sit outside of the organisation’s control.

Rural public transport can be infrequent, poorly connected and difficult to rely on in winter. Severe weather conditions can disrupt travel entirely, requiring genuine contingency planning rather than an assumption that journeys will simply happen as scheduled.

The organisation addresses these two barriers through:

• Avoiding unnecessary travel altogether – asking ‘does this trip need to happen?’.
• Planning overnight stays where early morning starts would otherwise be required.
• Factoring seasonal disruption and winter weather into scheduling.
• Creating contingency plans for severe weather and transport cancellation.

Reducing emissions therefore, in this context, begins not only with how people travel, but with whether travel is necessary at all. Avoiding unnecessary journeys is treated as a core sustainability measure at Dance North Scotland.

Sustainable travel for artists

Dance North Scotland applies the same principles to artist travel, embedding sustainability into project planning and artist support. The organisation shares its travel approach with visiting artists and actively encourages lower-carbon travel, particularly for UK-based artists, where rail and bus services offer alternatives to flying.

For international artists, flights remain difficult to eliminate entirely – particularly for those travelling from outside Europe – but Dance North Scotland is working to reduce emissions by encouraging slower touring models and longer stays.

Rather than supporting short, high-frequency fly-in/fly-out engagement, the organisation encourages international artists to remain in the UK for longer periods, allowing travel impacts to be spread across a longer residency or tour. This is particularly important in the context of an international festival model, where travel emissions must be addressed more carefully to centralise artistic exchange whilst encouraging sustainable travel.

Reducing audience travel emissions

Dance North Scotland’s approach to sustainable travel extends beyond staff and artists to include audiences. Rather than expecting audiences to travel to a central venue, the organisation has developed programming approaches that reduce audience travel demand by embedding activity more locally.

These include:

• Scheduling workshops where participants live
• Programming activity that reduces the need for long-distance audience travel
• Offering shared transport to festivals, including buses from nearby locations
• Supporting audience travel costs where possible
• Encouraging car sharing
• Matching freelance artists to venues closest to where they live

This model recognises something that is often absent from wider sector conversations about sustainable travel – that audience and participant journeys are a significant source of cultural sector emissions. How organisations programme and locate their activity is as important a sustainability consideration as how their staff travel.

Looking ahead

Dance North Scotland’s next priority is to reduce emissions associated with international artist travel. While eliminating long-haul flights is not currently realistic for an organisation with an international festival at its core, the focus going forward is on reducing flight frequency through longer stays, encouraging overland travel where possible and building sustainability considerations more formally into artist engagement from the outset.

Beyond individual journeys, the organisation sees potential in more collective approaches. Rather than rural organisations travelling independently to sector gatherings in Edinburgh, there is an appetite for locally hosted convening in the north of Scotland – meetings that reduce collective travel demand, better reflect the geography of Scotland’s cultural sector and strengthen collaboration between rural organisations on shared challenges.

‘Maybe we could hold satellite meetings up here so we don’t all end up travelling to Edinburgh,’ Liz reflects. ‘We could work together in the north of Scotland instead.’

Lessons for the sector

Dance North Scotland’s experience offers several lessons for other rural cultural organisations navigating the challenges of sustainable travel for staff, artists and audiences.

The most important lesson is that sustainable travel in rural contexts cannot be approached with urban assumptions. Policies developed for organisations in central Edinburgh or Glasgow – where there is frequent public transport, shorter journey times and less winter disruption – do not translate directly to organisations operating at the edges of Scotland’s transport network. Rural organisations need frameworks that acknowledge their specific infrastructure constraints and give staff and decision-makers the flexibility to make appropriately contextual choices.

The second lesson is that organisational culture matters as much as formal policy. Dance North Scotland’s zero domestic flights outcome was not produced by strict rules, it was produced by a shift in organisation values and investments: time, budget and trust in staff.

The third lesson is that reducing travel demand is equally as important as changing travel mode. Asking whether a journey is necessary, programming activity locally and encouraging longer residencies are all meaningful ways of reducing emissions that sit outside conventional sustainable travel conversations.

Contact

Visit Dance North Scotland’s website for more information.

Get in touch with Liz Egan at [email protected] if you would like to discuss Dance North Scotland’s sustainable travel approach.