Blog by Kelly-Anne Collins, General Manager and Green Champion, Young at Art
Young at Art established our green working group in 2022 and in our first year of operation, we gained the bronze tourism award, working hard to establish operational baselines and developing an understanding of where we could do things more sustainably!
In the second year, we made further changes to how we work, and here are some of our biggest sustainability achievements from 2023-2024.
- Improving our Green Tourism accreditation from Bronze to Silver felt like a reward for our concerted efforts to engage with and address the environmental impact of our work;
- Becoming an active member of Green Arts NI;
- Opening up participation in the arts in our city through the free and accessible Festival Family Day Out events offered across city centre public spaces and reachable by public or active travel
;
- Making our service delivery offerings to clients more ‘sustainable’ and explore environmental themes e.g. workshops decorating reusable tote bags made of sustainable materials;
- Halving the carbon footprint of our Education & Engagement programmes over the previous year by artists committing to:
- car-pooling/using active/public transport to travel to activity; and
- an ‘Avoid/Reduce/Reuse/Recycle’ approach to materials purchase/use supported by the provision by YAA of a new ‘Sustainable Materials Allowance’ which financially acknowledges the additional time needed to make these improvements and recognises the value of reusing props/materials;
- Telling our ‘green’ story by including news about our efforts and achievements in our newsletter and social media; and
- Making sure that all air travel by staff is approved only after a comparison of options. Decisions are made on balancing impact with cost and travel time and programming needs.
While our overall carbon footprint increased this year because of the increased travel of artists invited to perform in Belfast Children’s Festival and distances travelled by the international delegates visiting the festival (invited by YAA and supported by Culture Ireland and British Council), our CO2 emissions remain modest for a festival of our size and scale in comparison to like events in the UK and Ireland.
As a children’s arts festival with an international programme and arts-based education/engagement programmes, we celebrate the cultural, social and economic value of our work while being mindful of its environmental impact. In finding our balance, we are guided by how our work contributes to the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals particularly:
- Good Health & Wellbeing
- Quality Education
- Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Sustainable Cities and Communities
- Responsible Consumption and Production
- Climate Action and
- Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
We know that travel is by far the largest contributor to our carbon footprint making up 96% of the total. It is the main area where discussions around our impact focusses with the key challenge being how to balance the social and cultural value of the festival’s international programme with its environmental impact. This is particularly challenging where financial support is limited to make the transitions needed. Despite this, YAA is committed to overcoming these challenges and improving the sustainability of our work in the coming years.
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