RECAP: BFI SUSTAINABLE SCREEN PEER SHARING SESSIONS
The BFI Sustainable Screen programme ran three peer-to-peer learning sessions on sustainability: audience travel, indoor events, and sponsorships and banking. If you didn’t make it, some key insights and learnings are below – including the slides.
ETHICAL FUNDRAISING & BANKING
Money matters! Where you keep your money (bank, pension, investments, insurance) and where you get money from (grants, core funding, sponsorships, loans) can have a big impact, and inadvertently support the ongoing expansion of environmentally destructive industries. Divestment can send a strong message to financial institutions and investors, and help advocate for a transition to a new financial system which puts environmental and social justice at its heart.
- We started by highlighting today’s complex funding landscape, as funding cuts increase and organisations decide where to draw the line when applying for or accepting funding from companies tied to certain industries (e.g. fossil fuels, gambling, military investment). JB noted a growing awareness for organisations to align to ethical environmental values, with some organisations attracting new opportunities and ethical philanthropy as a result.
- Exeter Phoenix outlined their process of getting funding for measures such as new solar panels, thermal insulation, public engagement, and a green wall installation. They outlined their work to change savings accounts and pension schemes, and spoke about successes and challenges with recent funding schemes.
- Tipping Point talked about what boycotts are, why focus on finance, and outlined some of the biggest banks and insurance companies that invest in fossil fuels, migrant detention, and/or millitary equipment used in the Gaza genocide. They also highlighted the role of cultural organisations, some of the alternatives commonly used by cultural institutions, and the 3,100 organisations that have taken action.
- Resources to explore: JB’s funding resource for screen organisations, more information on money and finance, the BFI FAN session on Retrofit Funding for Community Cinemas, and JB’s Counting on Culture report. Tipping Point shared their Bank Better and Boycott Bloody Insurance campaigns, and noted you can email hussein@tippingpointuk.org for further information, or if you would like to explore switching insurer or bank/starting a campaign.
- Group discussions afterwards focused on transparency with funding, and the need for ethical funding guidelines for your organisations. Participants also discussed other complicit technological platforms or softwares that organisations use, and alternatives to this.
Use the questions on slide 50 to discuss possible actions within your organisation.
Indoor Events
Many screen sector organisations hire out spaces for temporary events, or host events in their own venues. This requires multiple sustainability considerations, across food, materials, audience communications, procurement, working with suppliers, venue energy and water, and more.
- We discussed the difficulty of working with different venues at varied levels of sustainability, but how ongoing, recurring partnerships can help create powerful change if a screen organisation can support a venue to change. Events are often on a short timeline, but can be a powerful point for change and leverage.
- The National Saturday Club talked about their Summer Show, which was delivered at Somerset House. The NSC’s sustainability journey has developed over time, and their work on this event included recyclable and reusing materials, modular systems, and waste minimisation.
- Cinema for All talked about their Climate Action Cinema Collective, which has supported carbon literacy training, shared resources, and set goals for the organisation. Their New Leaf Film Festival supported organisations to host climate-related films, and they want to expand this programme next year.
- Resources highlighted include the Taking Action area on the Sustainable Screen Resource Hub (including energy, food and drink, materials and waste, and programming), and JB’s Sustainable Events Guide with Manchester City Council.
Audience travel
Audience travel is a complex area of environmental action – a mix of behaviour change in individuals, providing support such as bike racks or incentives at your cinema, and influencing infrastructure change at a city or council level. It’s often the largest source of GHG emissions and other pollutants, and can be hard to accurately measure. However, cinemas are innovating such as installing EV chargers, bike servicing stations, or using travel data to get different or better-timed public transport services.
- The Courtyard outlined how they reduced their annual audience travel emissions by 130 tonnes of CO2e. This was through a coordinated plan including adding EV charging points, working with their council, offering free parking for car clubs, increasing parking tariffs, installing a bike sharing scheme (and bike repair station), and joining ‘The Good Journey’ travel planner to audit journeys.
- CoMo UK talked about their work on shared transport, including e-scooters, shared bikes, car clubs, and mobility hubs. Mobility hubs were noted as a particular option for cultural centres, as they are often in central locations and open to piloting mobility hubs if they own their cinema and have space.
- Group discussion covered initial approaches so far, such as post-event travel surveys, combining event types to incentivise people travelling and connecting (e.g. hosting bike fixing days or markets at the venue), working with community transport schemes for some audiences (e.g. those who can’t travel), and adapting for rural areas (e.g. focusing on carpooling). It was acknowledged that contacting and working with transport providers was difficult, especially for smaller venues.
- Resources include the recent Sustainable Scenes: Audience Travel Guide for the Screen Sector, and other top tips on the Sustainable Screen Resource Hub.
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