MANCHESTER CULTURAL LEADERS’ ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM

Strategic Report

2011/2012

Julie’s Bicycle, August 2012

Table of Contents

Executive Summary ...... 3 Context...... 5 The Science ...... 5 The Political and Regulatory Environment ...... 5 The story so far ...... 8 2011/2012 Goals ...... 10 1. Carbon emissions results and baseline...... 10 2. Carbon reduction strategy ...... 14 3. Case studies...... 17 4. Joint projects ...... 20 Recommendations ...... 22

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Executive Summary

In April 2011 International Festival and Renaissance North West contracted Julieʼs Bicycle to develop a yearʼs environmental programme for Manchesterʼs cultural organisations. The broad aims were to develop a robust greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions profile which would translate as financial and carbon savings, shape targets and prompt greater ambition; to enable the Manchester Cultural Leadersʼ Environmental Forum (MCLEF – working title) to compare their own sustainability performance to other national arts and cultural endeavours, and align their with regional and local policies; to realise the significant added value of working across a cultural consortium; and to identify priority areas for future action.

Manchester International Festival was the convening partner for MCLEF, having significant experience of and commitment to minimising environmental impacts, and a reputation for innovation and leadership that was used to leverage citywide support. The similarly positioned Manchester and Whitworth Art Galleries ensured that for the less experienced venue-based group members there was already expertise and case studies to build on.

MCLEF is unusual: it offers a model of hyperlocal leadership in the arts and cultural sector that could – and should – be used elsewhere. Therefore a key recommendation is that this consortium approach is described in a full Case Study Report and widely disseminated as a model of collaborative leadership. The elements – partnership, trust, hyperlocal identity, local authority engagement, and a commitment to sharing knowledge, data and supply chain relationships were all essential, alongside the critical senior level support which mandated the “green champions” working within the participating organisations to act.

This first year has focused on energy management in order to gather baseline information and to put in place requisite tools, resources, carbon literacy and organisational priorities. There is still work to be completed alongside an action plan for taking forward the Recommendations into a second year of programme.

Between March 2011 and March 2012 Julieʼs Bicycle gathered energy data from seventeen MCLEF organisations, out of a total of twenty-five participating organisations.

The most recent year of building energy use from the seventeen organisations equated to an annual spend of £1.92M and 9,108 T carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)– thatʼs equivalent to 9,108 hot air balloons of Carbon Dioxide per year.

JB was able to gather two years of energy data from eleven organisations, nine of which were happy for their progress to be shared within the group at

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the present time. Seven of the nine organisations made improvements or stabilised emissions – resulting in an absolute improvement in emissions of 312 TCO2e and saving ~£65,000. The remaining two increased emissions, although one of the increases was due to reopening a large building following a refurbishment.

Gathering multiple years of data and ensuring all participants are prepared to share progress within the group is an ongoing key priority.

The average improvement achieved across those improving and stabilising was 7%, with the largest improvement being 14%. This saving is equivalent to the year-on-year savings required to meet the 41% reduction by 2020 described in Manchesterʼs climate strategy report A Certain Future1. That seven out of the eleven organisations were able to achieve this scale of reduction is proof that the leverage gained by sharing ambition is remarkable. It provides an opportunity to stretch all group members to reach this target, and to extend it beyond the MCLEF participants as realistic and achievable.

To put this into a wider context, Julieʼs Bicycle has estimated the total predicted energy spend between 2012 and 2015 for the music, theatre and visual arts sectors to be £370 million. Total estimated money savings due to energy efficiency for the whole sector between 2012 and 2015 is £34 million: £24 million from the commercial sector, and £10 million from the subsidised sector. In this context MCLEF is on-track to reap these savings and is proving to the whole sector that efficiencies are achievable and affordable. There are very few national examples of reasonable reductions at this level that can be managed by different types and sizes of arts and cultural organisations.2

While Manchester is taking a city-wide lead it could also maximise this approach by linking up to UK-wide campaigns for arts and culture such as those that Julieʼs Bicycle is running for Rechargeable Batteries, Green Riders and its programmes investigating the future of cultural performance spaces “Energising Culture” and sustainable temporary power for festivals “Powerful Thinking”, while also connecting with other organisations that are exploring the relationships between the arts and sustainability such as Cape Farewell, The Case for Optimism and Tipping Point and the Two Tomorrows convened Digital Sustainability Group. Such participation will extend MCLEFʼs reach but also increase intellectual and cultural capital internally.3

1 www.manchesterclimate.com/home 2 http://www.juliesbicycle.com/about- jb/news/1034,Press+Release%3A+Julie%E2%80%99s+Bicycle+Research+Predicts+Carbon +Savings+of+Over+%C2%A335+Million.html

3 http://www.capefarewell.com, http://www.caseforoptimism.org.uk, http://www.tippingpoint.org.uk, http://www.twotomorrows.com/clients/individual/media-and-ict- industry-forum-examining-impacts-dig/ 4

Context

The Science Climate science is a subject of intense public and political debate that shows little sign of abating. However, majority consensus about anthropogenic climate change and awareness of the need to act is undisputed. We know that the earth is hotter than it has been for over 650,000 years, that temperature patterns are shifting, and that chaotic weather events are more common. We know that ecosystems are in crisis and that human intervention is the primary cause. There is a pressing need to act. The Political and Regulatory Environment Governments have been waking up to this need. The Climate Change Act 2008 set legally binding emission reduction targets for 2020 (reduction of 34% in greenhouse gas emissions) and for 2050 (reduction of at least 80%), and introduced five-yearly carbon budgets to ensure those targets are met. 4 Already local authorities and public buildings and services are subject to carbon reporting against these targets and some, including , are more ambitious.

The Green New Deal, being rolled out to homes and businesses, is designed to encourage long-term loan mechanisms in energy efficiency measures; energy security; and investment in low carbon infrastructure. 5 Most government-funded finance is directed towards innovation and technology for low carbon energy generation and supply.

2012 is the twentieth anniversary of the first Earth Summit in Rio, Brazil. This occasion led to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change and kick- started international political engagement. 2012 marks the end of the current Kyoto Protocol and is therefore widely considered to be the most important occasion for global climate change negotiations to date.

However, climate change as a theme does not feature as prominently as it needs to within the Rio+20 summitʼs focus on development and sustainability and it is likely that a universal legal agreement for the Kyoto Protocol will not be in place before 2015. Acknowledging that progress on climate change within this global policy framework is disappointingly slow, decisive action from the ground up that can be taken to scale is critical.

The onset of public cuts and energy price hikes has stimulated perhaps the most effective agency for change: money. It has been calculated that UK businesses could save £3.3 billion a year simply on their energy bills and the

4 Department of Energy and Climate Change 2008, Climate Change Act 2008, viewed on 19 January 2011, http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/legislation/cc_act_08/cc_act_08.aspx 5 Department of Energy and Climate Change 2010, Energy Bill 2010/11, viewed 19 January 2011, http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/legislation/energy_bill/energy_bill.aspx 5

volatility of energy markets makes the arguments compelling.6

Increasing public concern is also converting rhetoric into reality as the demand for green goods and services increases. There are few industrial sectors on which we can rely to grow: this is one of them. The global market for low carbon goods and services is worth £3 trillion and projected to grow to over £4.3 trillion by 2015. Recent figures have identified that in 2011 a total of $9.4bn was invested in wind, wave, solar and other renewable sources of power compared to $7bn in 2010 and the UK came seventh in the global ranking for total investment in the so-called Clean Energy Race 20117

Manchester has an ambition to transform itself into a leading city of low carbon living. The two strategy documents, Manchester: A Certain Future, and the Climate Strategy 2011 – 2020 both position the city as a leader in low carbon innovation, seeing this as a key mechanism to drive growth, resilience and international positioning. Manchester City Councilʼs Environmental Business Pledge is one expression of the citywide push for strategic changes and business accountability.

The arts and culture are on the margins of legislation, but pressure is beginning to step up. Larger companies are compliant with the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, effectively a carbon tax which is undergoing a review due to its unwieldy bureaucracy and ineffective early results; local authorities and public enterprises that support the arts are subject to carbon reporting in line with government targets; and there is a host of EU based legislation, including cap and trade mechanisms. While this might not appear to directly affect the arts and cultural sector the cost of taxes, compliancy and trading schemes will be passed on to the sector through increased prices.

A number of arts organisations are subject to HEFCE, Universities UK (UUK) and GuildHEʼs Carbon Reduction Target and Strategy for Higher Education in which requires HEIʼs to measure and reduce their emissions against a 2005 baseline, and a capital programme allocation for sustainability. This has certainly been a driver for certain MCLEF participants including , , John Rylands Library and Royal Northern College of Music.

And partly as a result of the confidence and commitment displayed by MCLEF, Arts Council England announced that environmental impact measurement and action is built into the funding agreement for all National Portfolio Organisations. This will significantly shift internal accounting priorities within companies themselves.

6 HM Government 2009, Investing in a low carbon Britain, viewed 19 January 2011, http://www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/What%20we%20do/A%20low%20carbon%20UK/1 _20090511124612_e_@@_hmLowCarbonBritain.pdf 7 As reported by the Pew Trust April 2012: http://www.pewenvironment.org/news- room/reports/whos-winning-the-clean-energy-race-2011-edition-85899381106 6

While this has yet to take hold, the arts and cultural sector across the UK is recognising that this is a business critical issue, and both artistic and operational responses are multiplying. This has already had the effect of putting MCLEF members into a leadership position, as few other organisations have the same level of expertise in implementing such systems as BS8901, or sharing environmental performance results and expertise in a cross-artform group.

Within one year MCLEF has become an international exemplar. This is not primarily because the data is proving significant reductions in emissions, or that companies are building in new business models, services and support. It is mainly because the arts and cultural sectors have come together at the most senior level to configure together a set of priorities that will bring about transformative change. This is what makes Manchester unique. It is important to recognise this, and to build on it.

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The story so far

The Manchester Cultural Leadersʼ Environmental Forum grew out of a desire to promote and share good environmental practice, and the recognition that working collaboratively can significantly enable good practice.

MCLEF was convened by Manchester International Festival (MIF) – an organisation that has sought to integrate sustainability considerations into its biennial event since its inception in 2007. The Festival has been awarded BS8901 and a Green Festival Award for its sustainable Initiatives which have included public waste recycling and composting at Festival Square, to 100,000 visitors across the 18 days, upcycling event banners into bags, and providing bikes for staff to travel between festival sites. However as a biennial and city-wide event, MIF is ultimately reliant on the permanent infrastructure of the city operating with strong environmental credentials all year long: its cultural venues, civic spaces, transport, power and waste management systems. By securing funding from Arts Council England to create a forum of cultural leaders working on environmental issues, MIF was in part seeking also to secure a stronger environmental starting point for its future events.

It is not just temporary events-based organisations that benefit from working collectively, however. For resource-strapped arts organisations seeking to address environmental sustainability as a new business priority, working collaboratively can bring a number of other benefits: sharing knowledge which saves money and time, opportunities for joint procurement and the opportunity to harness the collective to push for city-wide changes that are beyond an individual organisationsʼ control or capacity to influence. Market shifts come from creating critical noisy mass.

The membership reflects a diverse range of cultural organisations:

Band on the Wall ~ The ~ Chinese Arts Centre ~ ~ ~ Futureeverything ~ Greater Manchester Central Records Office ~Imperial War Museum ~ John Rylands Library ~ Library Theatre ~ ~ (Live Nation) ~ ~ Manchester City Council ~ Manchester International Festival ~ ~ Manchester Museum ~ Museum of Science and Industry ~ Opera House & Palace Theatre (Ambassador Theatre Group) ~ Peopleʼs History Museum ~ Royal Exchange Theatre ~ Royal Northern College of Music ~ Whitworth Art Gallery ~ Xtrax ~ Zion Arts Centre

Green Champions representing the organisations above met bimonthly (May, July, September, November and February) to share practice, advice and explore particular topics in greater depth. A CEO group, which included the City Council and Renaissance North West, underpinned the programme,

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conferring authority and accountability. This met only twice, but created a framework for the green champions that inspired individual and collective actions – the fact that such a group supported the green champions had a palpable effect on attitude, performance and inspiration.

A number of the organisations had been involved in the Renaissance North West funded Green Museums Northern Network (GMNN) professional development programme. By funding MCLEF, Renaissance North West was able to ensure that the learning legacy from GMNN was disseminated beyond the museums and galleries sector, building a wider profile. Connections are also being forged with the Sustainable Manchester Events Charter group, supported by Manchester City Council.

In this first year Julieʼs Bicycle supported the integration of energy and GHG emissions measurement into core operations as a priority. Water, waste and travel data was sought from a number of organisations although only a minority of organisations have provided robust data to date, so widening the scope of measurement is a core consideration for future years, and will align MCLEF with the Manchester A Certain Future goal of creating a Total Carbon Footprint Framework by 2013 (the IG tools developed by Julieʼs Bicycle and used in this first year of monitoring cover water, waste, travel and production)8. Carbon literacy amongst group members has massively improved, and Julieʼs Bicycle envisages that extending the scope will not present the same challenges as the first year of data gather in subsequent years, although it should be noted that some member organisations capacity to collect this data is limited. The Green Champion workshop sessions explored issues that extended well beyond energy considerations to include a broad range of environmental issues including production, materials, catering, behaviour change and marketing environmental sustainability. Each session included an opportunity for the participants to feed back on their current areas of interest and concern and find advice and solutions from the Julieʼs Bicycle team and crucially from their peers.

MCLEF is therefore based on the simple principle of a number of organisations working collectively on a small number of mutual priorities – in this case to measure and reduce GHG performance, joint training for green champions, and recommendations for the future which will mandate practical and operable responses from the ground.

8 www.ig-tools.com 9

2011/2012 Goals

1. Measure and assess the energy and carbon of MCLEF members and create a carbon baseline for the cityʼs cultural organisations.

2. Build carbon reduction strategies aligned with Manchester City Council and Greater Manchester climate change targets.

3. Develop an e-publication of information on MCLEFʼs work and case studies from across member organisations to be disseminated to wider sectors and for staff/public engagement.

4. Develop pilot joint projects for the group along the themes of the workshop where more intensive development, trialling, modelling, and resources are required to effect change.

The following section of this report describes progress on these four goals in the first year.

1. Carbon emissions results and baseline

Seventeen organisations contributed energy data Over the course of 2011/2012 Julieʼs Bicycle gathered energy data from seventeen MCLEF organisations: Ambassador Theatre Groupʼs Opera House and Palace Theatre, Band on the Wall, Bridgewater Hall, Chinese Arts Centre, Contact Theatre, Cornerhouse, Imperial War Museum North, Jewish Museum, Live Nationʼs O2 Apollo Manchester, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester International Festival (Office), Manchester Museum, Museum of Science and Industry, Royal Exchange, Whitworth Art Gallery and Zion Arts Centre.9

Noting that more organisations continue to join the MCLEF community, Julieʼs Bicycle will ensure that references to the 2011/2012 baseline are consistent while new comparisons are made to respond to the communityʼs growth. Using metrics which track relative improvements (e.g. per square metre, per employee, per ticket) are useful in this context and are discussed in this section.

9 Very few organisations were able to report water and waste use or other issues (such as business travel), so these impacts are excluded from the carbon emissions results for the group. However where they have been reported, they have been shared with the organisations in their individual reports. 10

Total energy spend and carbon emissions The most recent year of building energy use from the 17 organisations equated to an annual spend of £1.92M 10 and 9,108 T carbon dioxide 11 equivalent (CO2e) – thatʼs equivalent to 9,108 hot air balloons of Carbon Dioxide per year.

Carbon emissions reductions With two years data from eleven organisations, of which nine wished their progress to be shared within the group, seven improved or stabilised emissions. We can report the following individual improvements in absolute carbon emissions from energy:

• 14% improvement in 2 years by Whitworth Art Gallery • 13% improvement in 1 year by Manchester Museum • 8% improvement in 1 year by The Bridgewater Hall • 7% improvement in 1 year by Imperial War Museum North • 7% improvement in 1 year by Chinese Arts Centre • Stabilisation (0%) in 1 year by Cornerhouse • Stabilisation (0%) in 1 year by Royal Exchange Theatre

The overall result from these seven organisations is an improvement in emissions of 312TCO2e (7% average) and a saving of ~£65,000.

These figures show absolute results (i.e. not analysed by a unit of comparison that normalises activity). The next section addresses relative results, which show that some organisations increased their floor area (such as the Museum of Science and Industry) or increased their visitor numbers (such as Cornerhouse and Manchester Museum) and so achieved improvements or even greater improvements in their relative results compared to their absolute results. It is vital that this level of reporting is achieved and shared when Manchester wishes to see an increase in cultural activity and output.

Relative results within the group Julieʼs Bicycle undertook further analysis of the energy data to show how the different buildingʼs carbon emissions compared with one another. These comparisons are made possible by applying common metrics such as per square metre, per seat, per ticket, or per visitor.

While each building is subject to its own unique variables, comparisons can still be useful as they illuminate how those variables could be affecting energy performance and the resulting carbon emissions.

10 Assuming conservative energy tariffs of 10p/kWh for electricity and 5p/kWh for gas. 11 Greenhouse gases like methane have varying effects on climate change; converting them all into their global warming potential equivalent to CO2 allows direct comparison between groups of different greenhouse gases. 11

These results are taken from the most recent year of energy data from participating organisations (generally 2010-11 or 2011-12), organised by sector.

Theatre venues Organisation kg CO2e/sqm kg CO2e/seat kg CO2e/ticket Palace Theatre 65 193 - Opera House 115 227 - Royal Exchange (inc Swan St) 160 - - Contact Theatre 62 468 10.2

The variability between these venues are largely due to two factors: the efficiency of the buildingʼs systems, particularly related to heating, cooling and ventilation, plus how active the building is throughout the day. Activity is related to when the building is open to the public, the number of staff based there and whether the venue produces or receives. For example Contact Theatre is passively ventilated but is open all day with a lot of community and training activity, compared to the Palace Theatre that is air-conditioned and opens only for shows.

Music venues Organisation kg CO2e/sqm kg CO2e/seat kg CO2e/ticket Band on the Wall 190 278 3.5 O2 Apollo 80 55 6.4 Bridgewater Hall - 498 - Zion 44 - 8.1

It is interesting to note a nearly 10-fold difference between the carbon emissions of O2 Apollo and Bridgewater Hall when analysed per seat. As with the example already cited above, Bridgewater Hall is open throughout the day, unlike the O2 Apollo that opens only for shows. The venues can learn much from each other about the systems and controls they have, and how they are managed. The richness of this data and improvements over time create valuable new knowledge; ongoing investigation of the data results forms a key recommendation.

Museums and galleries Organisation kg CO2e/sqm kg CO2e/visitor Cornerhouse 23 0.1 Jewish Museum 150 2.0 MOSI 63 2.2 Chinese Arts Centre 86 4.2 Manchester Art Gallery 183 3.8

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Manchester Museum 56 1.8 Whitworth 55 2.1 Imperial War Museum - 3.1

Again here we see an eight-fold difference between the smallest impact per sqm (Cornerhouse) and the largest (Manchester Art Gallery). When analysed per visitor, this increases to a forty-fold difference. As the Cornerhouse also hosts cinema screens, a café and bar, while housing exhibitions that do not have the same climate-control requirements as the other museums and galleries, its relative performance is unsurprising. The differences between the other venues, especially the Art Gallery, Museum and Whitworth, deserve more detailed ongoing analysis. Issues include the variability of the building fabric and systems each institution has inherited, as well as staff behaviour and collection management.

Relative results compared to national benchmarks Julieʼs Bicycle has combined anonymous data from MCLEF with data from over 100 other venues across the UK to create a new benchmark for performing arts venues. This is an improvement upon the current CIBSE12 benchmark for ʻEntertainment Hallsʼ that was based on outdated information from a very small sample of venues (mostly cinemas).

The table below shows the MCLEF venues against the new national benchmark. These results separate electricity and gas performance, showing the most recent year available for each venue:

MCLEF venues compared to the Julieʼs Bicycle Benchmark Elec Gas Elec Gas Venue kWh/m2 kWh/m2 kWh/seat kWh/seat Benchmark 110 140 320 370 Band on the Wall 217 371 318 543 Bridgewater Hall - - 717 594 Chinese Arts Centre 164 0 - - Contact Theatre 65 137 490 1032 Cornerhouse 32 29 - - Jewish Museum 135 386 - - Manchester Art Gallery 259 229 - - Manchester Museum 104 8 - -

12 CIBSE is the Chartered Institute of Building Surveyors and Engineers, mandated by Central Government to provide the national benchmarks for public building energy performance and responsible for Display Energy Certificate (DEC) ratings. CIBSE has partnered with Julieʼs Bicycle and adopted a ʻco-displayʼ benchmark system whereby cultural buildings and festivals will display their Julieʼs Bicycle ratings alongside DECs in recognition of Julieʼs Bicycleʼs more accurate and up to-date energy performance analysis. 13

MOSI 90 140 - - O2 Apollo 150 4 103 3 Opera House 143 193 283 382 Palace Theatre 103 55 305 164 Royal Exchange 236 175 - - Whitworth 66 101 - -

These results give extra credence to the conclusions from the within-group analysis above and additionally highlights that it is gas use (space and water heating) that is proving most difficult for many venues to control.

Julieʼs Bicycle has also calculated the environmental impacts of music festivals, based on the results of twelve UK events with capacities over 20,000 people. Julieʼs Bicycle looks forward to gathering data from more events, especially smaller, community-based and wider performing arts events, to test how these emerging benchmarks compare with event in Manchester.

Julieʼs Bicycle Festival Benchmark Per audience Diesel Waste Water use Resulting member day use (kg) (litres) CO2e (litres) emissions (kg) Average 0.5 1.6 10 1.8

2. Carbon reduction strategy

In the first year of the programme, Julieʼs Bicycle mapped a pathway for MCLEF to achieve the Manchester City Council target of a reduction in carbon emissions from energy by 41% by 2020. Given that the organisations are starting from 2011/2012 rather than Manchester City Councilʼs baseline of 2005, the reductions need to be steeper each year to achieve the target. That said, our analysis shows it is feasible – and examples of some of the highest achieving of our cultural organisations (e.g. Whitworth Art Gallery) are already well exceeding the annual reductions that would be required to meet this target.

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41% carbon emissions reductions to 2020 – a pathway for MCLEF

The starting point for this pathway is Julieʼs Bicycleʼs understanding of the standard energy use of a venue, as the result of the following:

• Exterior lighting • Production materials • Overnight power • Show power • Offices and Back of House • Rehearsal and pre-production • Front of House and auditorium

This first column in the graph (the 2010 starting point) is based on Julieʼs Bicycleʼs analysis of theatres and music venues, however this breakdown can also be applied to galleries, museums and other types of venues because the first slice of the column (pale blue) can be seen as the energy being used where the public is, and the next four slices of the column (from pale pink to dark pink) is the energy being used behind the scenes.

For offices, energy use is probably two-thirds electricity (lighting, computers, maybe some heating and cooling) and one-third gas (heating and hot water).

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Practical steps to achieving reductions of 41% to 2020

Early years 2011-2014 1. Switch off – Engage staff to change their behaviour and switch of lights and equipment when not in use; adjust programming of timed equipment and lighting and invest in sensors to control lighting. 2. Lighting investment – In low energy bulbs and LEDs in all kinds of lighting applications, from front of house to back of house. 3. Reduce air conditioning – Explore and introduce a wider ʻdead bandʼ that reduces the amount of time the building is heated and cooled. Support with staff and public engagement strategies that explain the changes, goals and how staff and the public can play their part. 4. Rest years – Important to build into your plan, rest years can be used to revisit and consolidate the existing initiatives and take stock for future steps.

Later years 2015 – 2020 5. Building investment – Significantly reduce the fossil fuel needed to heat, cool and ventilate, e.g. improvements to insulation and glazing, new/improved Building Management System and controls, new boilers and chillers, or new shared infrastructure such as connection to a heat and cooling network 6. Building use – Challenge assumptions about how the building should function to achieve the most efficient use of the building, e.g. revisiting the climate conditions needed for collections such as that undertaken by Manchester Art Gallery, or turning off auditorium chillers from October to April as piloted by the Young Vic (London). 7. Renewables investment – Aim to achieve12% of the building energy a use coming from a renewable source by 2020. This could be a communal ground source heat and cooling system, a photovoltaic installation or a ring fenced investment in an offsite solution, such as a wind farm or hydroelectric dam. 8. Staff and public engagement – Continue to work on changing the occupantsʼ perceptions of how much building heating and cooling is required. Staff turnover, new suppliers and new audiences will require regular revisiting of staff and public engagement strategies.

Julieʼs Bicycle has included these recommendations – tailored to MCLEF participantsʼ operating contexts – in the individual carbon footprint reports provided to all organisations that contributed data in the first programme year.

This pathway raises interesting questions about the source of the capital investment and potential partnerships. Can MCLEF find new ways of working together to make these investments as cost and carbon effective as possible?

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Strategies could include joint procurement of building-integrated technologies or off-site renewable energy sources, or joint lobbying for citywide infrastructure.

Depending on investment it would be possible for MCLEF to achieve the Manchester A Certain Future target as early as 2018. This would reduce the cumulative carbon emissions in the atmosphere sooner, which is critical as it means less adaptation required in the future. Achieving the target early would also make MCLEF a leader for the cultural sector, for the city and for the UK.

Finally, itʼs important to note that transport (production, staff, audience) is also part of the Manchester A Certain Future 41% reduction target. Obviously action from public transport providers and other transport solutions are important here. However there are also actions that can save money and carbon – reducing the use of couriers in transporting artworks, reducing set and staging requirements, using the lightest equipment, hiring local suppliers and switching local business travel to bikes are other areas that have been discussed within MCLEF workshops.

Targets If everyone achieved improvements of 7% (as achieved by the leaders in 2011-12) in 2012-13 it would save almost 650 T CO2e, approximately ~£136,000 in energy spend savings, and weʼd be on track to meet the Manchester A Certain Future target. Achieving a 41% reduction by 2020 compared to 2010 will take a 6% reduction in 2011-12 and every year until 2020.

Manchester A Certain Futureʼs target is for absolute emissions reduction. The real challenge is how to maintain and build artistic output in the context of decreasing emissions and impacts. This will prompt deep changes in the practice and aesthetics and so re-thinking what is made, how it is distributed/disseminated and what legacy is left are questions for all those involved in MCLEF.

3. Case studies

Case studies have been prepared that detail the activity and achievements of 15 of the participating organisations to date:

• Band on the Wall • The Bridgewater Hall • Chinese Arts Centre • Contact Theatre • Cornerhouse • Greater Manchester Country Record Office • Imperial War Museum North

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• Manchester Art Gallery • Manchester International Festival • Manchester Jewish Museum • Museum of Science & Industry • People's History Museum • Royal Exchange Theatre • The Whitworth Art Gallery • Zion Arts Centre

Highlights from the case studies include:

Staff and public engagement

Manchester Art Gallery have undertaken an occupancy survey of all staff areas to move away from air conditioning in back of house areas and encouraging appropriate ʻseasonal dressingʼ. Manchester International Festivalʼs careful planning and effective communications with staff and volunteers ensured 79% of festival waste was diverted from landfill at Festival Square in 2011. Royal Exchange Theatre created a short film to talk about its sustainability work with staff, patrons and funders. The Whitworth Art Gallery includes environmental sustainability in staff personal development reviews to encourage environmental action. Band on the Wall give training on their environmental policy to all employees upon joining the organisation. The policy outlines how they are committed not to deal with suppliers who exploit non-sustainable resources. Zion Arts Centre has only recently joined MCLEF but has already got recycling in place.

Small Change Big Change Funding provided by Renaissance North West further encouraged MCLEF organisations to undertake staff and public engagement initiatives including:

Chinese Arts Centre produced “Life Friendly” - A series of talks, workshops and interactive events that investigate sustainability in the context of being a practicing artist. Cornerhouse introduced a raft of measures to improve staff and audience engagement including Front of House recycling bins, website podcasts and a film trailer to play before films for audiences. Royal Exchange Theatre developed a staff engagement campaign to communicate plans to convert lighting in public spaces to LED and improve public communications about being a more environmentally sustainable including through the use of energy monitors, information in public programmes and brochures and visible displays in public area The Whitworth Art Gallery created signage and interpretation for the green roof, an exhibition showcasing green elements of the Whitworthʼs capital

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development, and improved media coverage of the green roof and other environmental actions.

Investment

The Bridgewater Hall is replacing all FOH light fittings in the building with low energy LED lights and over 800 fairy lights in the main Auditorium with energy saving bulbs saving 35,818Kw p/a. Manchester Art Gallery is installing Xicato Artist Series LEDs for the gallery (costing £96,000 on a five-year payback scheme but estimates payback within 13 months) and is considering radical reduction in the heating and cooling of their gallery spaces. Manchester Museum is opening up old Victorian airshafts to allow nighttime cooling of the exhibition spaces. Imperial War Museum North has a canal water cooling system, introduction of PIR (passive infra red) sensors, installation of LED lighting and sensor taps and flushes in washrooms. Greater Manchester Country Record Office has purchased a bike for shared staff use to encourage low carbon travel to meetings. Museum of Science and Industry since 2008, the Museum has halved its annual gas consumption. This has been achieved by investing in modern energy efficient heating plant and expanding its BMS systems, Gas AMR and electricity sub-metering across all of its buildings.

Energy

Contact Theatre is checking weekly energy use against programmes to identify what the impacts of different activities are, so that areas for reduction can be prioritised. Manchester Jewish Museum has isolated the upstairs and downstairs heating systems in order to gain better control over the heat level in the building and have introduced a new waste management system. Peopleʼs History Museum is currently in the course of producing a full carbon footprint and energy assessment. A rechargeable battery system has been procured for use in portable appliances in the office and museum. The museum also has a policy for sustainable exhibition production, sourcing all materials locally and recycling as much material, especially wood, as is practical.

Next steps

While these achievements are notable, more could be done by individual organisations to communicate their environmental results, initiatives and ambitions. For example, currently less than half of the participating organisations provide a platform for environmental information on their websites.

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The March 20th “One Year On” event established/confirmed that MCLEF organisations are ready to communicate their individual achievements and promote their joint achievements and ambitions as a city-wide group and this should be a priority for MCLEFʼs second year. The ideas proposed and that will be taken forward include:

• Share the individual stories with the public (audience/users/visitors) to engage them in the journey. • Share the joint story, particularly about collaborative leadership; getting everyone on the right track; targets & goals moving forward; what achieved so far; improved viability (savings) for the long term. Share with sector, with local government forums and stakeholders, professional/industry events and magazines. • Recognise the value this communication holds for the cultural organisations that market their venue spaces for conferences and other non-cultural events – venues are finding that they are increasingly asked to demonstrate sustainability credentials in this context. • Present MCLEFʼs strategic report to Manchester A Certain Future Steering Group. • Connect to Marketing Manchester to develop a new green angle on Manchester as a cultural destination. • Create campaigns that all organisations can sign up to, either internally generated e.g. Cultural organisation directors on bikes or joining external public campaigns such as Give me tap (http://www.givemetap.co.uk/). • Maintain and develop links to the communications and marketing functions within each of the cultural organisations: hold further events specifically to address marketing. • Change the name to something meaningful and catchy.

These case studies will therefore be used both individually and collated into a Case Study Report to promote MCLEF organisationsʼ achievements to staff and the public, in line with Manchesterʼs A Certain Future goals to make progress on CO2 reductions visible; share and promote common "carbon accounting" data throughout the city; conduct climate change awareness and engagement campaigns; and promote sustainable tourism.

4. Joint projects

In 2011/2012 MCLEF took its first forays into joint procurement with the aid of funding from Renaissance North West. The focus of the joint procurement was developing staff or public engagement programmes and took the form of:

• Rechargeable battery charging • Improved monitoring and display of energy consumption.

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The organisations that took up rechargeable battery sets can take advantage of joining the Julieʼs Bicycle Better Batteries campaign to help promote their use of these energy and resource saving systems, while the organisations that do monitoring and display will scale up a concept modelled by Manchester Art Gallery.

Over the course of the first year of workshops, the Green Champions have identified a number of additional projects to work on collectively. The list below summarises the ideas that were captured at the “One Year On” event on March 20th, 2012. The final section of this report, “Recommendations” prioritises and analyses these projects in more detail.

• Many organisations indicated they were ready to sign up to collective goals and identified a 7% reduction in GHG emissions in 2012/13 average as achievable and right first step for a route map to 41% reduction by 2020. (We recognise that some will save more than others; and that there is a need for metrics for organisations to understand/explain changes in own performance as well as in relation to a shared target (e.g. increase in floor area/activity etc)). • Share and align policies (where appropriate) to minimise the effort of individual organisations to come up with new guidelines, and to give clear message to (shared) supply chain and audience e.g. for business travel policy, catering guidelines and private venue hire contracts. • Develop a common framework for cultural organisations to rationalise and streamline data & reporting requirements, possibly also talking to ACE, HEFCE, Manchester City Council etc. • Create a shared toolkit of easy wins that can support staff engagement initiatives and carbon reduction within individual organisations and also be used to promote MCLEFʼs approach and achievements. • Lobby on public transport audience travel in 2012, to ensure cross- town buses and tram extensions have the right timings, stops, through- ticketing and branding. • Focus on catering and jointly procure food waste composting services. • Explore reliable video-conferencing/virtual meeting solutions and joint procurement of these technologies and services for MCLEF members. • Explore joint procurement of energy to save money (ring-fence savings for environmental initiatives?) and/or make green tariffs more affordable. • Run pan-organisation sessions for wider staff to raise awareness of environmental initiatives and issues, develop capacity and build peer support networks. • Continue to share best practice on managing buildings. • Share best practice on staff engagement, bringing environmental policies "alive" and giving them traction in organisations. • Collectively sign up to campaigns (see Communicate, above) • For those eligible for Invest to Save: o Explore collective approach to levering "Invest to Save" funding.

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o Procure jointly to reduce capital costs. o Create and share tools to articulate business case/payback for decision-making

Recommendations

1. Set joint targets for carbon reduction All MCLEF organisations should commit to a target of 7% emissions reductions from energy use in 2012/2013.

Organisations should continue gathering the relevant data on a regular basis so that Julieʼs Bicycle can investigate, analyse and share progress on this target and the result findings at quarterly Green Champion meetings and in a Strategic Report in April 2013.

2. Extend scope of carbon footprinting MCLEF organisations should extend the scope of their impact monitoring to include waste and water and travel so that the success of initiatives to reduce carbon emissions from these sources are better understood and to position MCLEF as exemplary in relation to Manchester A Certain Futureʼs goal to achieve a Total Carbon Footprint for the city.

3. Implement strategies to reduce carbon emissions MCLEF organisations should ensure all “quick wins” are implemented as soon as possible and begin to invest in lighting (if they have not already done so):

3.1 Switch off – Engage staff to change their behaviour and switch of lights and equipment when not in use; adjust programming of timed equipment and lighting and invest in sensors to control lighting. 3.2 Lighting investment – In low energy bulbs and LEDs in all kinds of lighting applications, from front of house to back of house. 3.3 Reduce air conditioning – Explore and introduce a wider ʻdead bandʼ that reduces the amount of time the building is heated and cooled. Support with staff and public engagement strategies that explain the changes, goals and how staff and the public can play their part. 3.4 Rest years – Important to build into your plan, rest years can be used to revisit and consolidate the existing initiatives and take stock for future steps.

4. Disseminate best practice and top tips Julieʼs Bicycle to work with MCLEF organisations to develop a toolkit that summarises the practical actions being undertaken and strategies for staff engagement as a reference guide for MCLEF and dissemination with industry peers.

5. Tell the story

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Establish a marketing steering group from within the green champions and their marketing colleagues to explore and develop communication and marketing opportunities and to identify the groupʼs new name and identity before the next meeting in June 2012.

Initiate meetings with Marketing Manchester and Manchester A Certain Future with several MCLEF representatives to share progress and explore marketing opportunities.

6. Collaborate on campaigns • Develop a campaign to promote cycling within arts organisations and to the public by encouraging all MCLEF CEOs to use bicycles more for commuting/business travel. • Identify the appropriate target for public transport lobbying. • Join UK-wide campaigns facilitated by Julieʼs Bicycle – currently “Better Batteries” (promoting the use of rechargeable battery systems) and “100 Green Riders” (promoting the use of Green Riders as a tool to drive change between artists and host venues and festivals).

7. Collaborate on policy development and reporting frameworks • Share and align environmental and procurement policies (where appropriate) to minimise the effort of individual organisations to come up with new guidelines, and to give clear message to (shared) supply chain and audience e.g. for business travel policy, catering guidelines and private venue hire contracts. • Develop a common framework for cultural organisations to rationalise and streamline data and reporting requirements, possibly also talking to ACE, HEFCE, Manchester City Council and others.

8. Expand joint procurement projects • Gather energy contract data from all organisations with a view to coordinating collective procurement of energy, and follow up on leads with Good Energy and the Co-op. • Identify video conferencing solutions and challenges. • Explore joint procurement of composting food waste.

9. Accelerate implementation Jointly fund a coordinator role that can drive the implementation of MCLEF targets and commitments with support from Julieʼs Bicycle.

10. Prepare for 2015-2020 and beyond. Think more radically about the shifts needed beyond the early wins. • Hold a standalone workshop session in 2012/2013 that is dedicated to exploration of the future and the shifts needed, using the recommendations around Building Investment, Building use, Renewables investment and Staff and public engagement outlined on

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page 22 as a starting point. This should be facilitated to push thinking beyond norm. • It would be useful to organise some trips to see inspiring examples (including beyond the sector) and to hear from experts/inspirational thinkers.

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