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Changes to the survey this year

Each year, based on previous responses, feedback from organisations, and changes in the technical and legislative basis for the survey, we make changes to the questions. This page outlines the changes made for 2023/24.

New questions

QuestionReason
Questions 2.9a/b/c ask organisations who have control over their energy procurement whether they are interested in an agreement with a 100% renewable energy supplier (100RE, Good Energy, or Ecotricity) to offer Scottish cultural organisations a preferential rate on renewable energy.We are exploring the option of an agreement with a 100% renewable energy supplier (100RE, Good Energy, or Ecotricity) to offer Scottish cultural organisations a preferential rate on renewable energy. To proceed, we need to understand if there is interest for this within the sector.
8.1. Does your organisation consider the impact of its work on biodiversity? (Yes/No)As Scottish Government work towards their 2045 biodiversity strategy and rightfully entwine it further with their net zero strategy, organisations should understand the link between the two and act in a way that is both climate and nature conscious. This will be especially important with the rise of offsetting. Since it introduces a brand new subject for reporting, these questions will be completely optional this year.
8.1a. Please explain the measures your organisation takes to protect and/or enhance biodiversity through its work. (free text)As above
10.3. Based on last year’s proposed actions from your carbon management plan, what has been your progress in the past year? (free text)This question will give organisations a space to celebrate their progress but also remove the need to talk about what they have already done in their carbon management plan.

Removed questions

QuestionReason
7.2. Does your organisation have a sustainable procurement policy?There is a question in Section 12 that asks for information on organisation’s environmental policies. Instead of asking about procurement policies separately, organisations are now advised to include this information about their procurement policy in 12.1a.
7.2a. Please provide a summary of your organisation’s sustainable procurement policyAs above.
10.10. What provisions will be made to ensure these actions or projects are following climate justice principles?With climate justice questions already for carbon management and adaptation plans, including one for influence actions last year didn’t provide any additional information with many copying the text from the previous climate justice question or leaving it blank. Organisations are now encouraged to talk about climate justice actions in the same answer as their actions.
10.11. If relevant, please break down your organisation’s proposed actions/projects from 10.10 by year. Provide a description for each year.This question referred to breaking up influence actions over the next three years. Organisations will still be encouraged to break up actions in 10.10 if relevant, but for others these actions of influence didn’t fit into the ‘year-by-year’ action format.

Additional changes

QuestionReason
If ‘We do not use a premises’ is selected in 1.4 then the respondent will not see the following sections/questions: Section 2 – Energy and water (except from a question about off-site energy generation); Section 5 – Waste; Question 4.6 – Commuting.If organisations do not have a building, they will have no energy, waste or commuting to report. Any work from home energy will be reported in section 3.
Section 2 title changed from Energy and utilities to Energy and water.For clarity.
For organisations with no building, they are asked only if they have any emissions from off-site energy generation (such as diesel generators). This will be asked in question 2.0 and 2.0a.Since organisations with no building are not seeing the majority of the energy and water section, we have pulled out the questions about off-site energy generation. Organisations can answer ‘No’ and they will not see any more questions on energy and water.
3.2, 3.2a, 3.2b will be hidden from smaller organisations (under 5 FTE) to save any excess work.Work from home calculations are time consuming and often cause confusion. Therefore, if an organisation has under 5 FTE they will not be given the option to calculate these emissions themselves. They will just have space to enter FTE working from home and we will calculate the emissions. Larger organisations have this option, but they will also have the option to calculate the emissions themselves if they want a more accurate answer.
For questions 4.5, 4.6, 4.7 and 4.9 the options to select have changed. Respondent now has the option to select: Yes; No, we do [the activity] but we can’t provide emissions; No, we don’t do [the activity].Some organisations felt like they were having to explain that they didn’t have audiences or didn’t have a commute which felt like they were having to justify their activities as an organisation. Now they will just be able to select that they don’t have that activity.
Because of the above change, 4.5b, 4.6b, 4.7b and 4.9b have been slightly changed with the bit in italics added on: ‘Please explain why you aren’t providing information on emissions from [the activity] and how Culture for Climate Scotland could help you provide this information in the future'.Since this will only show if they select that they have the activity but can’t measure it, we have added an additional part to the question to understand how we can better support them to provide these emissions.
In question 4.6a, organisations are now encouraged to use Culture for Climate Scotland's commuting tool rather than the Zero Waste Scotland tool.Zero Waste Scotland no longer provides a commuting calculator tool. Culture for Climate Scotland has created a simple tool based on the process that Zero Waste Scotland developed.
In Section 9, additional calculations are added: Core emissions total (energy, water, travel and waste); Emissions generally within financial or operational control (energy, water, travel, waste, digital, procurement, hotels, freight); Emissions generally within influence (audience, commuting, WFH).This gives the organisation more insight into its emissions.
Wording of 10.1 changed from ‘Most of my organisation’s emissions are from…’ to ‘My organisation’s greatest source of emissions within its control is…’For clarity.
Added new logic so that organisations with carbon footprints of less than 5 tonnes are told to focus on influence and don’t see 10.7 or 10.8.To reduce the workload for organisations with smaller footprints and direct them to influence where they have the most impact.
10.9 (the organisation’s footprint by 2026/27) is calculated using the base emissions of ‘Emissions generally within financial or operational control’ rather than the total footprint.This shows the organisation that its climate action should be focused on the core emissions and other emissions that they control and will allow the communication of emission reductions in the feedback report to be clearer and more accurate.
Changed wording of 10.10 to include climate justice. It now reads “What actions or projects has your organisation committed to delivering before 2026/27 that will contribute to the wider reduction of emissions and/or delivery of climate justice outside your organisation?” We have removed the specific climate justice question here as explained above. This addition gives space for organisations to still discuss it and brings it within the actions to demonstrate that it is a crucial part of any action that should be considered holistically.
Changed wording of 10.5 and 11.5 (climate justice questions) from ‘What provisions will be made to ensure these actions or projects are following climate justice principles?’ to ‘Culture for Climate Scotland believes that climate justice is a fundamental part of the transformation required as we head towards a net zero Scotland. What provisions will be made to ensure these actions or projects not only reduce emissions or protect the natural world, but do so in a way that ensures fairness and equality?’ For clarity.
Section 11 changed back to ‘Adaptation’ instead of ‘Resilience’.To match the general language used by CCS, CS and the wider climate sector.