Imaginate recognises that climate change is a serious threat to life, well-being, culture, social justice and opportunities, particularly for future generations and people currently living in climate-vulnerable regions of the world. Climate change is also a threat to the delivery of Imaginate’s programme of events and our aspirations. Therefore, we are committed to minimising our impact on the environment and climate change, both at our business premises and throughout our annual programme of events. We will strive to use our profile and platforms to influence the arts sector, wider society and government policy to make positive changes towards environmental sustainability.
Climate Justice
- We seek to embed climate justice principles in our decisions and planning for our transition towards net zero by 2045.
- We recognise that the people who have contributed the least to climate change are the ones most at risk – globally at the time of writing and in the UK in the near future.
- The climate crisis is a child’s rights issue, they will be facing the consequences of past actions they had no control over. Recent research shows that Leith schools are at risk of being under water by 2050.
- Living in an extractive economy based on the exploitation of natural resources, we recognise that our power is limited. However, we believe in the importance of access to arts and culture to make systemic change happen. We recognise we have control over our carbon emissions, which we are committed to reducing.
- We wish to ensure our carbon reduction planning decisions are just and do not impact vulnerable groups (e.g. a lack of public transport infrastructure and electric charging points in rural Scotland should not stop us from touring shows to these impacted schools).
Travel
Travel is our carbon emissions hotspot, which is the reason why we are focusing significant efforts on this. We have developed a carbon budget tool, enhanced by Creative Carbon Scotland, allowing us to forecast our travel emissions and amend plans accordingly. Our net zero target is 2045 and our annual carbon budget is set, based on yearly targets, which have been set up to achieve this target. Using 2019 as a baseline, we have committed to:
- Reduce international travel by staff 20% annually
- Reduce international travel by artists 10% annually
- Plan efficient national touring routes
- Facilitate international travel by Scotland-based artists by ground or water
Key travel principles & support
- We do not take domestic flights (barring exceptional circumstances or access needs).
- All staff have committed to identify at least one journey per year for which they take a lower-carbon form of transport (e.g. train instead of plane).
- Where we cannot directly control, we encourage artists to travel by train, lobby delegates with strong examples of the impact of different forms of travel and offer resources to support low-carbon travel. We offer schools audiences a 100% travel subsidy if they come to the festival by public transport.
- We consider whether we need to take each trip and look for alternative ways of achieving our aims, e.g. through videoconferencing, attending annual events every two years, and combining multiple trips into one.
Programming
- We actively seek out high-quality productions which deal with climate or other environmental themes in ways appropriate for young audiences, to present at our Festival.
- We actively support the development of work for young audiences which deals with climate and other environmental themes, by artists in Scotland, which can form part of our Schools Programme.
- We commit to offer a digital strand within our Delegate programme for national and international delegates to participate.
You can read our full Environment Policy here.
This is a live statement of intent; it will evolve through time as we work on discovering the best ways to respond to the climate emergency and as relevant technologies develop.
