Using environmental data to drive real change

This year, 133 new arts and culture organisations across Scotland which receive multi-year funding from Creative Scotland or revenue funding from the City of Edinburgh Council’s Culture Service will join the existing 130 organisations which reported their environmental data last year.

Environmental reporting is not just about calculating figures or completing a survey. At its best, it can be one of the most useful strategic tools for organisations to help understand and quantify their impact, clarify risk, identify opportunity and plan more confidently for the future.

In April 2026, Culture for Climate Scotland will open the environmental reporting survey for the 263 organisations to report on their emissions, carbon management plans, adaptation plans, climate justice, influence, circular economy and biodiversity. This article is not about how to fill in the survey – see our ‘guidance for reporting organisations’ for this information – it’s about what organisations can do with the results. The numbers are not the end of the process, they are the beginning.

Your first year of data is your starting point

If your organisation is reporting for the first time this year, this will be your baseline year. The first year of data is important because it serves as the benchmark for your future reports and reduction targets. However, we recognise that for many organisations this first report may involve estimates where full-year data is not available. Establishing this foundation – even if it is refined in future years – allows you to begin identifying your impact and understanding what your results are telling you.

Where is your carbon coming from?

When you look at your data, the first thing is to ask is, ‘where are most of our carbon emissions coming from?’. If your biggest CO2e figures are from energy, this usually indicates most of your emissions are coming from your building. Consider how is it heated, how old it is and whether you have any control over your energy contract. On the other hand, if travel is your largest emissions category, this could refer to how your staff move around, how your productions tour and the distance your rental vehicles travel, for example.

For organisations which have been reporting for several years, it may be worth asking if your baseline year is a fair reflection of how you normally operate. For example, if your first report was during the pandemic – when buildings were closed and nobody was travelling – it might not reflect your typical carbon profile. That does not invalidate it but it does change how you interpret progress.

The year two problem

Something that a lot of organisations feel (but rarely say out loud) is that they submit their first report and it feels very meaningful, but then find that the figures from their second year report are disappointingly similar to the previous year. They’re not sure whether they making progress. They wonder if they should be doing more but aren’t quite sure what ‘more’ looks like.

This is completely normal and it is important to understand why

Meaningful emissions reductions rarely happen in twelve months. They require investment, infrastructure changes, procurement shifts or behavioural change across your organisation. These things take time. Therefore, if your numbers in year two look similar to year one, this is not a sign that you have failed. It’s important to remember that this environmental reporting process is giving you the information you need to plan properly to see your carbon footprint lessen in the future.

Reporting organisations should also consider thinking about what their emissions look like relative to their activity. For example, if your total emissions went up by 20% in year two but you ran 40% more events, you actually became more efficient – you did more work for less carbon per activity. This way of looking at the data gives a much fairer and more honest picture of whether your organisation is moving in the right direction. It is especially useful for arts and culture organisations whose programme’s size changes from year-to-year.

The impact beyond your direct control

The core emissions that organisations are asked to report as part of the environmental reporting survey include utilities, organisational travel, waste, hotel stays, digital and procurement. In addition to this, organisations are asked to consider their emissions outside of their direct operations (known as additional emissions) – audience travel, staff commuting and work-from-home emissions. These emissions outside of an organisation’s direct control can be complex and are not always easy to measure accurately.

However, it is still important for organisations to be aware of additional emissions because this awareness can influence better decision-making. For example, if an organisation recognises that most of its audience travels long distances to a rural venue, it might reconsider how it communicates travel options to attendees or explore whether hosting a satellite event closer to where audiences live would be more practical. Thinking in this way can help organisations better serve their audiences while also reducing their overall carbon footprint.

Carbon is decided earlier than you think

A large outdoor festival with international artists has a very different carbon footprint to a small regional touring show. However, the environmental impact of both events was decided upon in the planning stage – long before anyone switched on a light or booked a train. Therefore, by the time organisations are filling in their annual environmental survey, most of their carbon for the upcoming year has already been decided.

Being mindful of your environmental data and carbon footprint is not about limiting ambition or dictating what kind of work arts and cultural organisations should make. It is about bringing one more question to the planning table alongside all the others you already ask – about budget, audience etc. A simple question like, ‘what does the environmental impact of this project look like?’, does not need a precise calculation to be useful. It just needs to be part of the conversation in the initial planning phase.

From reporting to acting

Environmental reporting tells organisations what their current carbon footprint is. What organisations do next – how they read that data, what questions it prompts in their team and organisation and how they plan to manage it – is where the real work begins.

Your environmental data is a picture of your organisation’s relationship with people, nature and our planet. The more you understand it and the earlier in your planning cycle you bring it into the conversation, the more useful it becomes.

If any of the ideas in this article raise questions for you about your baseline, how to read your results, what realistic progress looks like or where to focus next – please get in touch with Matthew Belsey, Environmental Reporting and Data Manager at [email protected] or Sana Azeem, Green Arts and Data Officer at [email protected].

Further resources

• Read our guidance for reporting organisations.
• Read our 2024-25 environmental reporting summary report – ‘Culture in transition: A sector-wide view of environmental action’.

Image by Lina Darjan on Canva.