Section 3 – Mitigation

Options available:

• Mains electricity
• On-site renewable energy
• Gas
• Water
• LPG
• Fuel oil
• Diesel
• Hydrogen
• Cooking oil as fuel
• Biomass
• Coal
• Wooden logs
• No energy or water

Please select all sources of energy and water that were used in the planning, preparation and delivery of this event.

Selecting a source of energy and water will show the corresponding sections of 3.1a and 3.1b. Selecting ‘On-site renewable energy’ will show 3.1c. Selecting ‘Hydrogen’ will show 3.1d.

This is a mandatory question for all organisations that it is shown to.

Reason for question

This sets up the energy reporting section of this survey so that you are only shown the relevant options to report energy data.

Please report your data in the given units for every source that is shown. If any electricity comes from on-site renewable generation, please do not include that here. It should be added in question 3.1c.

We are asking for the consumption from each energy/water source used in the planning, preparation and delivery of this event.

You will see a row of this question for each source selected in 3.1 (excluding ‘On-site renewable energy’ and ‘Hydrogen’).

This is a mandatory question for all organisations that it is shown to.

If your organisation pays an energy supplier directly for its energy and water, please use meter readings or information included in bills to provide your organisation’s energy and water consumption. Equally, if you pay directly for fuel, please report the exact amount of fuel that was used.

If your organisation did not pay directly for the energy for this event (eg you rented a space and energy use was included), finding out how much energy and water you are consuming can be a bit more complicated. We recommend you try the following (in this order):

1. Speak with the space/building owner about estimating your energy consumption.
2. Use our tenant energy toolbox to calculate an estimate from staff numbers, space size and equipment use.

Reason for question

Measuring and monitoring all your emissions’ sources is the first step to understanding and managing them. This question requires you to do just that, so that you have the relevant data required to inform your carbon management plan.

Calculation methodology

Once we receive these figures, we multiply them by the UK Government emissions factor for each source for 2025/26 to get the kgCO2e value. This is calculated automatically for you in the survey.

Supporting resources

Carbon management planning tool

Options available for each energy/water source:

• Meter readings/usage data
• Billed consumption from supplier
• Billed consumption from landlord
• Estimated consumption from landlord
• Estimated consumption from typical equipment use / tenant energy toolbox

For each of the values you reported in 3.1a., please select an option for how you arrived at the value.

This is a mandatory question for all organisations that it is shown to.

You will see a row of this question for each source selected in 3.1 (excluding ‘On-site renewable energy’ and ‘Hydrogen’).

Reason for question

This answer gives us an idea of the accuracy of the data, since exact figures taken from meter readings or utility bills are more accurate than estimations using the tenant energy toolbox. This also indicates how we should continue to support you to improve data collection and reporting processes.

Please enter the type(s) of renewable energy used in the powering of this event and the amount of energy produced in kWh. Also include any additional information about your use of renewables that you would like to share.

You will see this question if you select ‘On-site renewable energy’ in 3.1.

Reason for question

This answer gives us a greater idea of the off-grid renewable capacity of the sector. It will help us to tailor our feedback based on what you already have in place, and ensure that your energy consumption generated from renewable energy is not included in the general emissions calculations.

Please enter the amount of energy that your hydrogen use generated in kWh. Also include any additional information about your hydrogen use that you would like to share.

You will see this question if you select ‘Hydrogen’ in 3.1.

Reason for question

This answer gives us a greater idea of the prevalence of hydrogen use in the sector. It will help us to tailor our feedback based on what you already have in place.

Options available:

• Bus
• Company vehicle
• Ferry
• Hired coach
• Light rail/underground/tram
• Motorbike/electric bike
• Paid for mileage
• Plane
• Taxi
• Train
• No travel

Please select all modes of transport that were used in the planning, preparation and delivery of this event.

This is a mandatory question for all organisations that it is shown to.

Selecting a mode will show the corresponding sections of 3.2a. Selecting any mode will show 3.2b.

Reason for question

This sets up the travel emissions reporting section of this survey so that you are only shown the relevant options to report travel data.

Please report emissions in kgCO2e from each transport source used in the planning, preparation and delivery of this event.

This is a mandatory question for all organisations that it is shown to.

We ask for emissions from travel to be reported directly in kgCO2e, which is the unit we use for carbon footprinting. This is because we know that many organisations use the claimexpenses.com tool to help understand their carbon footprint from travel and so have access to this data.

We’re confident of the accuracy of claimexpenses.com and it’s our top recommendation for any reporting organisation to use. Annual subscription is heavily subsidised for those working in the Scottish Arts at £50 a year (plus VAT).

If you do not use claimexpenses.com, we ask that you choose a calculation method or tool using the emission factors published by the UK Government for the year your travel took place. Examples of these include (links can be found in ‘Supporting resources’ below):

• Culture for Climate Scotland’s quick carbon management calculator
• Julie’s Bicycle’s creative climate tools
• Gallery Climate Coalition’s quick carbon calculator (particularly for visual arts)

If the event’s travel is minimal, you might prefer to calculate the footprint yourself using the most up-to-date emissions factors.

If calculating your own emissions or using one of the tools linked above, take care to use the right units for the emission factor (eg passenger miles, kilometres, miles). If the unit is passenger miles, then the distance will need to be multiplied by however many passengers travelled to give the total distance in passenger miles.

For travel in vehicles owned, leased or rented by the company, emissions should be calculated by litres of fuel used. Emissions from travel in private cars or vans can be calculated from mileage. Emissions from travel in public transport can be calculated by mode of transport and passenger miles (miles travelled x number of people travelling).

Reason for question

Measuring and monitoring all your sources of emissions is the first step to understanding and managing them. This question requires you to do just that so that you have the relevant data required to inform your carbon management plan.

Supporting resources

Quick carbon calculator
Carbon management planning tool
claimexpenses.com
claimexpenses.com guidance
Julie’s Bicycle’s creative climate tools
Gallery Climate Coalition’s quick carbon calculator
Understanding the sources of emissions

Options available (see links in ‘Supporting resources’ below):

• claimexpenses.com
• Quick carbon management calculator
• Carbon management planning tool
• I used another method

This is a mandatory question for all organisations that it is shown to.

You will see this question if you selected a mode of transport in 3.2.

Reason for question

Knowing the method that you used helps us to understand the accuracy of the figures provided. It also indicates what additional support we could be providing to further help you with these calculations.

Supporting resources

Quick carbon management calculator
Carbon management planning tool
claimexpenses.com
claimexpenses.com guidance

Options available:

• Residual waste – Landfill
• Residual waste – Energy from waste
• Dry mixed recycling
• Food waste
• Waste electricals and electronics
• No waste

Please select all waste streams that were used in the planning, preparation and delivery of this event.

This is a mandatory question for all organisations that it is shown to.

Selecting a waste stream will show the corresponding sections of 3.3a.

Reason for question

This sets up the waste reporting section of this survey so that you are only shown the relevant options to report waste data.

Please state the amount, units and method used to measure for each waste stream used in the planning, preparation and delivery of this event. You should enter the value for each source shown.

This is a mandatory question for all organisations that it is shown to.

Options available for units:

• Bin bags
• Kilograms
• Litres

Options available for the method:

• Data from contractor
• Self-monitoring
• Estimate

If able, please use bills or information from your waste contractor to answer this question. If you don’t have access to waste information,, work with the owner of the event space to get your proportion of waste data. If you are unable to access this information, estimate the waste produced through gathering sample data.

When you enter any numerical data for a given waste stream, space to add the units and method used will appear.

Reason for question

Measuring and monitoring all your sources of emissions is the first step to understanding and managing them. This question requires you to do just that so that you have the relevant data required to inform your carbon management plan.

We ask for units to ensure we transform your reported amounts into emissions using the correct methodology. We ask for an idea of the accuracy so that we can establish how organisations are measuring their waste and we can tailor or feedback and future guidance accordingly.

Calculation methodology

Once we receive these figures, we will multiply them by the UK Government emissions factor for the source and unit that you have provided for 2025/26 to get the kgCO2e value.

Supporting resources

Carbon management planning tool
Understanding the sources of emissions
Culture for Climate Scotland’s Guide to preventing, reducing and recycling waste

Please select ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ depending on whether your organisation paid for any overnight stays.

This is a mandatory question for all organisations that it is shown to.

If you select ‘Yes’ in this question, 3.4a will be shown.

Reason for question

There are emissions associated with overnight stays. We would like to understand whether you are reporting this information or not, and if you are not, whether it is because you had no hotel stays this year, or if you did but you are unable to report the total amount of stays.

Please break down this figure by country.

Please enter a whole number of overnight stays paid for by your organisation for activities relating to the planning, preparation or delivery of this event. If multiple people are staying, please record one night per person, per night (ie two people staying one night would be two nights). You should break the figure down by country, adding a new row for each additional country.

This is a mandatory question for all organisations that it is shown to.

You will see this question if you select ‘Yes’ in 4.8.

Reason for question

When paying for travel, organisations often pay for accommodation too, and there are emissions associated with accommodation in hotels, Airbnbs etc. We are asking for this figure to ensure your footprint shows the whole picture. We ask for the country of these stays since the emissions differ depending on country.

Calculation methodology

Once we receive this value, we will multiply it by the UK Government emissions factor for hotel stays in each country for 2025/26 to get the kgCO2e value. This is calculated automatically for you in the survey.

Please select one of the following options based on whether you can provide emissions from audience travel:

• ‘Yes.’
• ‘No – our audiences travel but we can’t provide emission values.’
• ‘No – we have no audiences or no audience travel.’

This is a mandatory question for all organisations that it is shown to, but we acknowledge audience travel data is difficult to gather, hence reporting of complete audience emissions is encouraged but not mandatory.

If reported, audience travel emissions will not be included in your event’s total emissions. This is because audience travel is seen as outwith your control.

If you select ‘Yes’ in this question, 3.5a, 3.5b and 3.5c will be shown.

If you select ‘No – we have audience travel, but we can’t provide emission values’ in this question, 3.5c and 3.5d will be shown.

Reason for question

Audience travel can account for a large proportion of an event’s wider footprint. We would like to understand whether you are reporting this information or not, and if you are not, what are the barriers preventing you from reporting.

Supporting resources

Culture for Climate Scotland’ audience travel emissions tool
Culture for Climate Scotland’s Guide to audience travel
This year’s emission factors

Through surveying your event’s audiences, we encourage you to estimate the emissions from audience travel. Please enter the estimate in kgCO2e in the textbox.

If you do not already collect travel data from your event’s audiences, you can find guidance for how to do this on our website. The key data points you will need to collect are distance travelled and mode of transport.

We generally encourage using surveys to get a representative audience sample, then scaling this up to cover the whole audience.

This is a mandatory question for all organisations that it is shown to.

You will see this question if you select ‘Yes’ in 3.5.

Reason for question

In 2008, a report from Julie’s Bicycle identified that annual audience travel to music events accounts for 43% of GHG emissions from the UK music industry. These findings can be extended to other cultural events. Since audience travel represents such a large proportion of emissions, all organisations should endeavour to record and report this information.

Supporting resources

Culture for Climate Scotland’s audience travel emissions tool
Culture for Climate Scotland’s Guide to audience travel
This year’s emission factors

Options available:

Data collected:

• Postcodes
• Approximate distance
• Exact distance
• Mode of transport

Method used:

• Audience Answers from the Audience Agency
• Other audience surveys
• Culture for Climate Scotland’s audience travel emissions tool
• Other

Please provide details about the method you used to calculate these emissions. If you select ‘Other’, a box will appear for you to describe the method used.

This is a mandatory question for all organisations that it is shown to.

You will see this question if you select ‘Yes’ in 3.5.

Reason for question

Knowing the method that you used helps us to understand the accuracy of the figures provided. It also indicates what additional support we could be providing to further help you with these calculations.

Supporting resources

Culture for Climate Scotland’s audience travel emissions tool
Culture for Climate Scotland’s Guide to audience travel
This year’s emission factors

Please use this space to add any information not already covered about your audience travel emissions or understanding. If you don’t collect emissions but you collect other information to give you insights into how your audiences are travelling to your event, please use this questions to share these details.

You will see this question if you select ‘Yes’ or ‘No – we have audience travel, but we can’t provide emission values’ in 3.5.

Reason for question

Collecting emissions data is not the only way to have an insight into how your audiences are travelling to and from your event. This question gives space to share in more depth what you know.

Supporting resources

Culture for Climate Scotland’s Guide to audience travel

Please use this space to share how Culture for Climate Scotland could support you to report audience travel emissions for future events.

You will see this question if you select ‘No – we have audience travel, but we can’t provide emission values’ in 3.5.

Reason for question

We know that audience travel data is difficult to collect so we would like to understand how we can best support you to gather these insights in the future.

If you have anything else you wish to mention, please write it in the text box.

Reason for question

This gives you space to explain any other figures provided above or to add any additional information you think is required.

Provide details of the actions taken for your event this year to reduce emissions. This could be a decision made to use a different fuel type, a different mode of transport or to deliver your event in a lower impact way.

Please use this space to talk about any key achievements and milestones, but also any barriers or difficulties you faced.

This question should be used to report what has already happened. Question 3.11 is where you can talk about future actions.

Reason for question

Reducing emissions is one of the main ways you can reduce the environmental impact of your event. It is the reason that we have asked you to report data in the first half of this section. The data is meant to inform action.

Understanding the actions that you are already taking will give you the opportunity to reflect on your event and celebrate success, but also to let us know about the barriers faced so we can provide support. We will be able to build in your current actions to our feedback to ensure it is relevant and useful.

Provide details of the actions taken for your event this year to reduce the impact of food and drink. If your event did not have any food and drink, please leave this blank. This could focus on the type of food, sourcing of the food, food waste or sustainable suppliers.

Please use this space to talk about any key achievements and milestones, but also any barriers or difficulties you faced.

This question should be used to report what has already happened. Question 3.11 is where you can talk about future actions.

Reason for question

Food and drink is a key feature of many events, but also a key contributor to climate change and environmental degradation. Therefore, action on how your event engages with food and drink is vital to reducing its environmental impact.

Understanding the actions that you are already taking will give you the opportunity to reflect on your event and celebrate success, but also to let us know about the barriers faced so we can provide support. We will be able to build in your current actions to our feedback to ensure it is relevant and useful.

Supporting resources

Julie’s Bicycle’s guidance on food and drink
Future Festival food and drink case studies
Plant Based Treaty

Provide details of the actions taken for your event this year to reduce the impact of equipment and materials. This could focus on reuse and hiring, repurposing equipment, sustainable material choices or sustainable disposal methods.

Please use this space to talk about any key achievements and milestones, but also any barriers or difficulties you faced.

This question should be used to report what has already happened. Question 3.11 is where you can talk about future actions.

Reason for question

Materials and equipment are a key feature of many events, but also a key contributors to climate change and environmental degradation. Therefore, action on how your event engages with the materials and equipment it uses is vital to reducing its environmental impact.

Understanding the actions that you are already taking will give you the opportunity to reflect on your event and celebrate success, but also to let us know about the barriers faced so we can provide support. We will be able to build in your current actions to our feedback to ensure it is relevant and useful.

Supporting resources

Circular Arts Network
Arts Resource Management Scotland
Re-set Scenery
Theatre Green Book materials inventory
Report into shared storage and asset management systems in Scotland’s cultural sector, commissioned by Arts Resource Management Scotland

Options available:

• Electricity
• Gas
• Water
• Other fuels
• Staff travel
• Artist travel
• Waste
• Overnight stays

Using the information reporting in the first part of this section, please select the largest source of emissions for your event. We have not included audience travel on this list given it is outwith your direct control.

Reason for question

This question allows you to specify the largest source of emissions so that you can focus your emission reduction efforts on this main source.

This is where you write your actions for your period of funding to reduce your environmental impact, considering emissions, food and drink, and equipment and materials where relevant. If you have a carbon management plan or emission reduction plan, this question is the contents of that, broken down by year.

You are also asked to consider how these actions contribute to a just transition. This involves considering the fairness and equity of your actions so that no person is excluded through the actions you take. We recommend reading our guide to climate justice linked in the supporting resources for more guidance on this.

Please include all information that you think is relevant so that we can fully assess your plan and can provide relevant feedback.

Please provide emission savings related to these actions in 3.12.

If you have any actions focusing on influence (such as programming, advocacy or audience impacts), adaptation or biodiversity please write these in the following sections.

This is a mandatory question for all organisations that it is shown to.

Reason for question

Measuring and monitoring current emissions is the first step. Once you have these figures, you can use them to plan reductions for the coming years.

We want to understand the actions you are planning to implement to reduce your event’s emissions and impact from food and drink, and equipment and materials, so we can provide support and feedback to help you deliver them.

Breaking down large actions into smaller year-on-year actions/tasks makes them more achievable. It is also easier for you to hold yourself accountable across a shorter timeframe.

This also gives us a better understanding of your delivery plan so we can offer more tailored support and feedback.

A long-term plan for your event is also useful, but we won’t be asking for its details here.

Supporting resources

Carbon management planning tool
Carbon management planning guidance
Zero Waste Scotland’s guidance on setting targets
Culture for Climate Scotland’s guide to climate justice/just transition

Please enter a single figure in kgCO2e each year for the estimated total emissions savings from the actions you outlined in that year’s description in 3.11. Please use our carbon calculator tools and your own research to estimate this figure.

For example, if you are planning to use train travel instead of domestic flights for artists for next year’s event, how would this change emissions? You can use our quick carbon calculator to estimate the emissions from plane and train travel to estimate a reduction.

Values are cumulative, so if you report reductions of 1000kg CO2e in the first year, 500kg CO2e is the second year and 100 kg CO2e in the third year, your estimated total emissions at the end of the period would be 1600kg CO2e less than your event’s total emissions this year.

Reason for question

Estimating the emissions reduction that your actions provide is a good way to determine whether the action has impact or is just performative.

We will use this figure to help project your event’s future emissions against net-zero trajectories. This will give you an insight into how ambitious these targets are.

Supporting resources

Carbon management planning tool
Quick carbon calculator