Environmental reporting update

Emissions

Total emissions from energy, water, travel and waste were 10043 tonnes CO2e. That is 17% greater than in 2022/23. The number of reported datapoints is approximately the same this year and last year, so this is a real increase in emissions. The following graph shows the total energy, water, travel and waste emissions (in tonnes CO2e) reported by Scottish cultural organisations from the 2018/19 reporting year to 2023/24 (the most recent year of reporting).

We also saw increasing emissions reported from additional sources not included in the graph above. Commuting, digital and procurement emissions were all up on the previous year. It is difficult to determine if this increase is caused by an increase in activity or an increase in reporting. We have only been asking about these sources for a couple of years and not all organisations are able to provide the data.

For the organisations that report procurement emissions, it becomes a significant portion of their report, suggesting that there are a lot of hidden procurement emissions from organisations that don’t measure these. Additionally, for organisations with small carbon footprints, digital emissions become a very significant proportion of their emissions. This suggests a good area of action for smaller organisations could be to investigate their digital carbon footprint.

We also had 35245 tonnes CO2e of audience travel reported. This is over three times all the other emissions combined. The graph below shows all reported emissions in 2023/24 in tonnes CO2e including these additional sources of commuting, digital, procurement and audience travel.

It shows how audience travel emissions really surpass all other categories. With only 19 organisations reporting their audience travel, the true scale of these emissions is likely much greater.

The difficult aspect of audience travel is that it is not within an organisation’s control, unlike for example their building energy or their tour travel. Organisations are now exploring how they can use their influence to support their audiences to travel in more sustainable ways. This could be by signposting sustainable ways to travel to a venue, giving discounts to audience members who travel by public transport or shifting show times to align with public transport timetables.

Why are emissions increasing?

It is somewhat of a setback to observe that the total emissions have returned to the scale of the figures in 2018/19. Has all our work over the past six years been for nothing? Below we dig into the data to explore what factors could be causing these increases, to show that all hope is not lost!

Changes in the cohort

The first thing to note is that the grouping of organisations has changed since 2018/19. We now have 10 more organisations reporting their emissions data. If we were to scale the emissions by the number of organisations to give an estimate for the average organisational carbon footprint, this would be 84 tonnes CO2e in 2018/19 compared to 77 tonnes CO2e in 2023/24, a decrease of 8%. That’s definitely a move in the right direction!

With these changes as well as the increased awareness and understanding of the organisations, we now see almost 200 more reported non-zero emission data points than in 2018/19. This works out as approximately one more data point per organisation when the changes in organisation numbers are considered. Therefore, we have more organisations reporting more data, which from the perspective of disclosure and understanding is extremely good news. Any comparison of year-on-year data should always be viewed in this context.

Plane travel

Plane travel emissions were at their highest level since 2015/16. They were 20% higher than last year at 3001 tonnes CO2e. However, it is worth noting that the UK Government emission factors for plane travel increased by an average of 23% in the last year. If we reverse calculate the emissions to estimate how many air miles were actually travelled by the organisations, it suggests that there was actually a slight decrease in plane travel and this emissions increase is driven by the increase in the emissions factor.

Plane travel emissions have always been significant. Historically, plane travel has been the third highest source after electricity and gas. In the past two years we have seen it overtake electricity as the grid decarbonises and organisations find ways to make their energy consumption more efficient. With it consistently being one of the largest emission sources, organisations that travel internationally need to not only explore ways to reduce emissions from plane travel but be actively trying them out in their operations and programming if they want to meet net-zero targets by 2030 or 2045.

Below we highlight two examples of organisations that are transforming the traditional ways of working to reduce the impact from plane travel:

Barrowland Ballet – Poggle/Poggle and Me in Turkey

In September 2023 Barrowland Ballet collaborated with Atta Festival in Turkey on the creation of a new sensory production, ‘Poggle and Me’, with the Turkish cast also learning their original production ‘Poggle’. This allowed the work to be seen across the country whilst eliminating any travel required from Barrowland Ballet. Atta Festival initially have rights to tour the work for one year, and if successful, this will be negotiated for a longer duration. Following the success of this project Barrowland Ballet are now looking for further opportunities to create local casts outwith Scotland.

Moniack Mhor Writers’ Centre – slow travel residencies

In 2023 Moniack Mhor developed two international residencies that integrate slow travel at a creative level. The residencies begin at the start of a journey as the international artists make their way to Moniack Mhor via land and sea rather than by flying. This drastically reduces emissions from travel and addresses a common problem with slow travel of how to compensate artists for the time it takes.

Other travel

We saw a slight increase in all other main forms of travel, suggesting that organisations were travelling more this year as a continued impact of the pandemic. We expect to see travel from other modes of transport increase as plane travel decreases, but the modes of transport we would want to see increasing are the more sustainable ones such as public transport and electric cars, rather than single occupancy car journeys. With a 4% increase in emissions from paid mileage this year, this shift to sustainable transportation still has some way to go.

Some organisations doing interesting work around their travel are:

ATLAS Arts – electric vehicle aspirations

ATLAS Arts has submitted a funding application with other local organisations for a shared electric car with the aim of reducing its reliance on petrol/diesel cars. In rural and island locations, the availability of public transport is often very limited, meaning the only alternative is electric vehicles. With cost being a major barrier to the purchase, a community ownership approach offers a more affordable option that benefits multiple organisations.

Fèis Rois – encouraging car shares

Fèis Rois has introduced a slightly higher mileage payment for people who car share to encourage this more sustainable form of transport. As another organisation doing a lot of work in rural areas, car sharing offers a much more sustainable solution to the lack of public transport than multiple single occupancy cars – two people in a car can have lower emissions than two people travelling by bus.

Often there are many barriers to choosing the more sustainable option whether that be cost, access or even the availability of an option. We and other organisations in this cohort are actively exploring how to tackle these structural issues and we will be exploring solutions in a session at our SPRINGBOARD Assembly in March.

Energy

We saw a 22% increase in emissions from electricity and a 2% increase in emissions from gas. Whilst this increase was driven by a small number of large venues it highlights a barrier that many organisations face: they want to reduce emissions from their energy, but the improvements required are either out of their control if they are tenants in buildings, or too expensive if they are building owners. We will be exploring solutions specifically around the heating of buildings in a session at our SPRINGBOARD Assembly in March.

However, there are organisations making interesting steps towards reducing energy emissions, such as the following two examples:

An Tobar and Mull Theatre – peripatetic winter touring

In 2023, An Tobar and Mull Theatre delivered a peripatetic winter touring model where the theatre was closed and shows toured the local community. This resulted in an energy emissions reduction of 9 tonnes CO2e and also brought shows to local community spaces, improving access over the winter period where those with mobility issues may struggle to get to the main theatre.

The Stove Network – ownership of their building

The Stove is planning to go through a community asset transfer process with Dumfries and Galloway Council, giving them full ownership of the building to undertake the required capital development work to reach net zero.

Waste

Emissions from waste continue to decrease and are now only responsible for 1% of the emissions reported. Every year we are seeing less waste going to landfill and more being recycled. We are also seeing an increasing number of performance-focused organisations using the Theatre Green Book to help make their shows and operations more sustainable. It encourages theatre makers to reduce the use of new materials, props and costumes in favour of second hand and rentals, among many other ways of making theatre more sustainable.

Despite the apparent increase of emissions in the graph above, the whole picture is a bit more nuanced and there is some really great work happening in the reduction of emissions.

Other reporting areas

Our environmental reporting looks beyond emission reduction. Other areas we also ask organisations to report on are their adaptation plans and the way they are using their influence.

Adaptation

We introduced detailed questions about climate adaptation – adjustments that organisations are making to be resilient to the changing climate – in 2022/23. In that year, the number of complete adaptation plans was four. This year, it increased to 53. This impressive increase is due to a number of things:

• Climate adaptation was one of the criteria for Creative Scotland’s multi-year funding application which most of the organisations in this cohort applied for.
• We ran an adaptation webinar in collaboration with Verture (previously Sniffer) with 100 participants receiving an introduction to adaptation planning.
• We ran a six-month adaptation learning set with 17 participants from organisations of all different sizes, types and artforms. Through this, organisations supported each other in working through our adaptation toolkit to produce an adaptation plan.

From the 53 organisations who now have adaptation plans, we’ve drawn out some interesting examples:

Cove Park – making their site resilient

Cove Park has resurfaced its main track and upgraded the drainage throughout the site to cope with increased rainfall. The ponds on site will be upgraded within the next year, to increase the ability to cope with excess rainfall. These are all specific actions for Cove Park’s site, highlighting that an adaptation plan must be tailored to localised needs.

Publishing Scotland – supporting their sector

Over the next few years, Publishing Scotland plans to provide training for members to produce their own climate adaptation plans and climate risk registers to help prevent, anticipate and absorb climate extremes in the supply chain. They are using the knowledge gained through working on their own climate strategy to help a wide range of organisations and individuals.

Head to the adaptation planning section of our website to learn more.

Influence

In environmental reporting, we also explore how cultural organisations have the potential to contribute to Scotland’s wider net-zero targets through influencing and storytelling. As stated in Creative Scotland’s Climate Emergency and Sustainability Plan:

‘Artists can facilitate difficult conversations and can elicit emotions, which are often squeezed out of more technical debates. Cultural organisations reach enormous and diverse audiences and can provide buildings and spaces for events, conversation and communal, collective thinking and learning.’

With 91% of organisations reporting on their influence actions, this is clearly an area of impact that the sector recognises as being important. Some examples of actions being taken are:

Travelling Gallery – environment and climate crisis programming

Travelling Gallery’s 2025 programme is going to be entirely committed to the environment and climate crisis. It aims to discuss the different ways climate change affects us all and what we can do to help. It will start with work by Rachel McBrinn and Alison Scott, previously artists in residence at St Andrews Botanical Garden.

Edinburgh Art Festival – audience travel

EAF has been thinking about how audiences move through the city to experience its programme. The festival guide is grouped in geographic layout to promote active travel between venues and minimise high carbon transport for audiences. For events outside the city centre EAF has offered subsidised coach travel after events to minimise individual car/taxi journeys. In 2023 EAF x Jupiter Rising offered 200 coach seats to return audiences to Glasgow and Edinburgh.

What's next?

The 2023/24 reporting period marks the final reporting from the Creative Scotland RFO cohort. With almost all the organisations reporting their data to us every year since 2018/19, we want to thank them for their dedication and hard work. The environmental action from these organisations is a journey of continuous development and improvement and we look forward to supporting them in their progress for many years to come.

Keep an eye on our environmental reporting guidance as we develop our support for the Creative Scotland multi-year funded cohort and organisations receiving revenue funding from the City of Edinburgh Council.

If you have any questions about the information in this article please email: [email protected].