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SURGE ENVIRONMENT POLICY

 

Mission Statement:

Surge is committed to minimizing the environmental impact of our operations. This will be reviewed on a regular basis. The company will achieve this by taking action in the areas outlined below.

 

Responsibility:

Karen Veitch is responsible for ensuring the Environmental & Travel Policies are implemented. However, all employees have a responsibility in their area to ensure that the aims and objectives of the policy are met.

 

All staff, freelancers and participants of projects and programmes are made aware of this policy during their induction and are informed of their role in ensuring its implementation.

 

The Environmental Policy should be reviewed on an annual basis.

 

Pollution

  • Use of eco-friendly products and re-fills

  • Ensure waste products are properly disposed of – not down the sink

  • Check plumbing

  • Reduce water consumption

  • Buy Fair Trade products

  • Reduce waste and amount going to landfill sites

  • Repair, upgrade, recycle IT equipment before discard

  • Keep environment litter and graffiti free

 

Purchasing

  • Paper products – use recycled paper, re-use scrap

  • Plastics – avoid plastic products or make sure they have recycled content or can be re-used

  • Aluminium and steel drinks and food cans – buy recycled where possible – recycle your cans

  • Energy – buy energy saving products

  • Don’t over order

  • Buy local

 

Energy

  • Turn heating down by one degree – reduce gas/ electric bills

  • Do not heat space you are not using

  • Switch lights off when you leave a room

  • Use energy efficient bulbs

  • Replace fluorescent strips when they flicker

  • Switch off computer screen when not in use (this can save 50% energy if left on)

  • Do not leave equipment on standby or leave on overnight

  • Switch off when not in use

  • Report use of energy and carbon footprint via Creative Carbon Scotland tools

 

Publicity

  • Use digital and online methods to communicate with audiences

  • Use email, e-newsletters and social media communication instead of paper mailouts

  • Use local printers

  • Don’t over order printed material 

  • Programmes, posters and flyers for Surge Festival are no longer printed in accordance with our Carbon Management Plan

 

Waste

  • Surge will record and report waste and recycling data via Creative Carbon Scotland tools

 

Reduce waste by:

  • Using double sided paper

  • Using email not paper/ envelopes

  • Buy catering and cleaning supplies in bulk and use re-fillable bottles where possible

  • Record each time a bag is filled for waste

  • Surge only prints when absolutely necessary, for example all contracts and financial documents are all done online/ via email and Surge uses a shared drive to share/ work on documents rather than printing

 

Reuse:

  • Scrap paper

  • Envelopes – put on new labels;

  • Rechargeable batteries;

  • Artists, staff and volunteers at Surge Festival are no longer supplied with plastic water bottles, instead they are asked to bring their own re-useable bottles, which they can re-fill at the water stations. This procedure has been rolled out to all of our events, workshops and residencies

 

Recycle by:

  • Buy recycled paper products

  • Separate waste for recycling

  • Buy recycled glass and plastic products

  • Buy recycled photocopier and computer printer cartridges and donate old ones to recycling firms

  • Re-use, store or recycle old props and sets

  • Record each time a bag is filled for recycling

 

Surge Environmental Travel Policy

 

All staff, freelancers and participants of projects and programmes are made aware of this policy during their induction and are informed of their role in ensuring its implementation.

 

  • Encourage all staff, freelancers and artists to use public transport, and where possible book this for incoming staff, freelancers and artists. No UK based staff and freelancers will be provided with flights for UK travel, unless travel by another method would prevent them from attending the meeting/ event

  • Reduce car journeys

  • Encourage greater use of public transport by ensuring that venues for meetings, conferences and training events are fully accessible by all types of transport

  • Record and measure carbon footprint of freight

  • Plan transportation of equipment etc to ensure as few vehicles as possible are used

  • Surge will measure and report on staff, freelance and artist travel via Creative Carbon Scotland tools, including travel by Board members on Surge business (but not to/ from Board Meetings) and the Community Street Theatre Tour (CST) travel footprint

  • Data to be recorded: mode of transport, mileage (distance travelled, start & end point), number of people travelling, amount of fuel in litres (if hire van)

  • Karen Veitch will lead on the collection of this data, with each staff member responsible for recording their individual travel data via claimexpenses.com

  • The CST Stage Manager is responsible for collecting travel data from the tour

  • KV or the staff member responsible for booking/ liaising with the artists will collect travel data of artists. 

  • KV will provide staff training on how to use claimexpenses.com to any new staff

  • Where possible electric vehicles should be hired instead of petrol/ diesel vehicles

  • Travel choices should be prioritized as follows, where possible: 

1. Walking/ cycling 

2. Bus/ train 

3. Shared car 

4. Taxi 

5. Flying

  • The Travel Policy should be reviewed on an annual basis.

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