The ‘Culture for Climate’ guide aims to support cultural practitioners in implementing pro-environmental changes in the cultural sector.
The advice in our guide is written from the perspective of a cultural institution, i.e. the most structurally extensive form of organisation. In an attempt to fully reflect the complexity of cultural activities, it concerns both ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ areas, those related to creation and relationship-building as well as those connected with administration and budgets. We hope that by adopting a multi-layer perspective and including various fields of activity, the advice included in the guidebook will be of interest not only to employees of institutions, but to those associated with informal cultural organisations or independent creators.
Our approach to greening in the cultural sector is holistic. This guidebook is not only about the classically understood ‘pro-environmental’ practices (e.g. waste sorting, energy saving, recycling). For us, these practices form just one element of a wider model of cultural ecology. We regard institutions as organic, consisting of interconnected and interrelated areas, which in turn constitute part of a wider ecosystem.
There are so many essential tasks at the intersection of ecology and culture that it may seem overly difficult and complex. The myth that ecology has to be expensive is also still very much alive. However, a lot of the solutions are simple, based to a large extent on changing one’s habits. It is not without reason that ‘step one’ in our guide, which concerns examples of change ‘available at one’s fingertips’, contains the most recommendations. The greening of culture does not mean introducing all the changes perfectly and at once. It is worth starting with potential changes which we have direct influence on and then successively implementing others.
There are so many essential tasks at the intersection of ecology and culture that it may seem overly difficult and complex. The myth that ecology has to be expensive is also still very much alive. However, a lot of the solutions are simple, based to a large extent on changing one’s habits. It is not without reason that 'the first step’ in our guide, which concerns examples of changes 'available at one’s fingertips’, contains the most recommendations. The greening of culture does not mean introducing all the changes perfectly and at once. It is worth starting with potential changes which we have direct influence on and then successively implementing others.
Our collective action may be a chance for instigating real systemic change to the way the cultural sector operates. It may become a common response to the challenges of climate and ecological crises. With Culture for Climate we can achieve more together.
How to use this guide? Choose a way convenient for you:
If you wish to check what exactly you can do in a given area of culture and want to begin with the field you have the biggest influence on.
If you wish to carry out a systematic (and systemic) change encompassing the whole organisation, starting with the simplest steps and proceeding to more complicated activities.
