Environmental Strategy

Fashion in Film Festival creates spaces for conversation, debate, research, and knowledge production that each contribute towards ecologically informed citizenship. However, we also recognise the tension between the programmes we produce and the potential impact that organising multi-venue film festivals has on both climate and environment. As a result, we have identified five key areas in which to assess and minimise our emissions and their impact:

1)        Energy

There are numerous ways that organisers can reduce the energy required to produce film festivals. One key method is to work with partner institutions with a visible sustainability strategy, which identifies a clear, science-based approach to emissions reduction. In our own strategy we focus on changing both our internal practices and audience behaviours.

Key areas include:

·      Following guidance provided by the BFI’s Sustainable Screen Resource Hub to understand, communicate and limit the impact of our energy use as an organisation.

·      Where possible, working with partner venues that have committed to using a renewable energy provider. This includes any partnered screening venues or accommodation providers.

·      Reducing the impact of our website design, following the Sustainable Web Design guide. Our website is hosted by Squarespace, a platform actively aiming to reduce its environmental impact through a number of initiatives including partnerships with 100% renewable computing vendors and implementing environmentally conscious policies in its offices. Through our revised structure we aim for improved performance and reduced data payloads while ensuring our solutions are accessible.

·      Managing our internal cloud storage, archiving any digital materials appropriately to reduce unwarranted energy use.

2)        Travel

As the festival expands to reach new audiences, so too will the risk of emissions produced by both the travel of our festival team and our audiences. Although reducing emissions associated with travel remains a challenge, we are committed to reducing our impact in this area to demonstrate ethical and sustainable practices that align to our festival values. These include:

·      Calculating the carbon footprint (CO2e) of our internal team's travel (scope 3) to provide a benchmark figure from which we can seek to reduce. Exploring public transport options, or where necessary, carpooling to reduce emissions associated with travelling between venues.

·      Reduce any unnecessary travel for the team by prioritising virtual meetings to work internally and with partners.

·      Reduce the environmental impact of air travel by promoting rail travel as first option where possible.

·      Providing a ‘How to Fest’ guide that offers clear route maps for low impact travel like walking, cycling and public transport to encourage behavioural shift in our audiences.

·      Direct our speakers and audiences towards local hotel providers that have a clearly outlined sustainability or green credentials.

·      Through an audience survey, gather approximate attendance data that we can use to model the carbon footprint of our audiences travel to our festival. Use this figure (CO2e) as a benchmark figure from which we can seek to reduce (scope 3).

3)        Food and Drink

Global estimates of the impact of food systems upon climate change range from between a quarter and a third of the world’s annual emissions. Within this, food products with higher emissions include meat and dairy products, coffee, and chocolate. Although very little of our festival is directly catered, we recognise our ability to make impact in this area by:

·      Opting for vegetarian food wherever negotiable with our partners, aligning our operations with our festival values.

·      Minimising food and beverage waste by putting in conservative orders for any events associated with the festival.

·      Encouraging shifts in audience behaviours including bringing their own cup or ensuring waste is properly recycled. Working with partner venues to understand current and best practices in relation to low impact catering and waste management on site.

4)        Branding and Marketing

While some resources (print and digital) are required to increase the span and diversity of our audiences, we also recognise the need to be conscious about the ways in which we produce any marketing materials. Some of the ways we will make impact include:

·      Strictly no festival merchandise.

·      Adopting a ‘think before you print’ approach that minimises unnecessary or surplus branded materials for the festival. Extending this rationale to plan efficient signposting within venues.

·      Printing limited-edition posters and publications. Using institutional expertise at the University of the Arts London (UAL) to guide sustainable printing techniques and papers for these and any other branded materials produced. Produce a footprint estimate for these materials (CO2e) and add them into our festival benchmarking (scope 3).

5)        Education

We seek to implement educational information that can pull in practical information about emissions reduction. To do this, we plan to:

·      Have our internal team certified as Carbon Literate through the Carbon Literacy Programme.

·      Offer UN accredited Carbon Literacy courses to our audiences as a ticketed event for our festivals.

·      Where possible, seek to implement strategies to inform our audiences about the impact of the fashion and film industries on the environment, while also providing practical strategies through which to address change.

Our Environmental Impact Plan follows methodology aligned with the BFI’s Green Cinema Toolkit, The Sustainable Screen Hub on Julie’s Bicycle, and the University of the Arts London’s Climate Action Plan.