Environmental Policy

Brighter Sound recognises that its activities impact the environment in a number of ways, principally through:

• Energy – including the heating, lighting and electricity we use in our office and when working from home
• Travel – emissions to air from travel needs related to the business, audiences and participants
• Use of paper – through the paper we use in our day to day operations
• Use of project specific equipment and materials - generating waste and use of natural resources through our purchasing decisions for project work

Brighter Sound recognises the need to reduce its environmental impact. We are aligned to the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5c and endorse Greater Manchester’s target of becoming net-zero no later than 2038.

To support this ambition we’ll:

• Comply with all relevant legislation and standards, and the expectations of our participants, audiences and other key partners and funders
• Ensure systems and procedures prevent pollution
• Ensure our suppliers and partners are able and encouraged to support our
• environmental commitments
• Continually review how we can make improvements to our environmental
• performance

Specifically, we’ll:

• Reduce energy consumption in our office and when working from home through staff awareness
• Reduce business travel miles through better journey planning, car sharing and alternatives to flights for international work
• Plan projects where audiences and participants can attend by using active travel or public transport, and signpost to the easiest routes
• Reduce paper consumption through increased use of electronic communication and data storage
• Reduce the amount of waste produced by considering purchasing decisions, and whether items can be reused or recycled, before disposing of them
• Utilise recycling facilities available to recycle paper, plastic bottles, cans, and waste electrical items
• Be active members of Greater Manchester Arts Sustainability Team to learn and share best practices

This policy and the actions arising from it will be reviewed quarterly as part of the business planning process, which involves input from Brighter Sound’s Senior Management Team and board of trustees. As part of the Arts Council England’s National Portfolio, we have set out our actions for the Environmental Responsibility Investment Principle. This will guide our objectives for 2024-2026.

To realise our environmental objectives, Brighter Sound both recognises the need for, and is committed to, communicating our environmental commitments and performance to our suppliers, employees, board of trustees, participants, audiences and other key partners and funders. This is achieved through our sustainable travel, procurement and events policies, our review sessions with our employees and board and our regular reporting to funders.

We will use our programme to communicate our environmental commitments to artists, participants and audiences to encourage them to take action themselves.

Signed: Kate Lowes, Director

Version 1, January 2024