Sustainability Policy

INK’S GUIDING PRINCIPLES

• To comply with, and exceed where practicable, all applicable legislation, regulations, and codes of practice.
• To integrate sustainability considerations into all our business decisions.
• To ensure that all staff, volunteers and technical crews are fully aware of our sustainability policy, and are committed to implementing and improving it.
• Where possible minimise the impact on the environment of all activities.
• To encourage low carbon movement of the audience, production, and artists/exhibitors/talent.
• Ethical procurement to encourage all clients and suppliers to follow best practice and encourage them to adopt sound sustainable management practices.
• Share policies internally and with all suppliers – set up regular reviews and continually strive to improve our sustainability performance.
• Wherever feasible, support staff in any voluntary work within the local community or environmental organisations undertaken in a personal capacity.
• Aim for our event to leave a positive legacy wherever it goes, and to continually learn from any good processes and procedures we encounter.

PRACTICAL STEPS BY THE INK FESTIVAL TEAM

Travel and Meetings (outside the Festival):

• We aim to limit physically travelling to meetings, etc, where virtual alternatives are available, and ensure the efficient timing of meetings to avoid multiple trips.
• Our bi – weekly team meetings are always held on Zoom, and face to face meetings are kept to the minimum.
• Staff and volunteers are to walk, cycle, car pool, and/or use public transport to attend face to face meetings, site visits, etc, wherever possible.

Purchase of Equipment and Consumption of Resources

• Minimise the use of paper and other office consumables, for example by printing double-sided and identifying opportunities to reduce waste.
• As far as possible arrange for the reuse or recycling of office waste, including paper, computer supplies, and redundant equipment.
• Reduce the energy consumption of office equipment by purchasing energy efficient equipment and good housekeeping, e.g., turning off all equipment at source when the office is not used.
• Use software from carbon neutral suppliers where possible.

INK Festival: Travel and Transport

• During the Festival, encourage our creatives to travel to Suffolk on public transport. We accommodate them nearby, and move them between the accommodation and Halesworth in a minibus.
• One of the reasons we hold our event in Halesworth is that it is served by a railway station, we work directly with Greater Anglia’s East Suffolk Community Rail Partnership to advertise our event on stations, and promote the ease of travelling to us by train, (no onward travel by bus or taxi is required for our Festival).
• Provide locally run charity shuttle buses for the less able attendees to move about the Festival rather than drive themselves.
• In 2023 we intend to include a question about travel in our survey so we can plan an awareness campaign to reduce the number of car journeys made in 2024 and beyond.

INK Festival: Suppliers

• Consider the legacy of the event on the environment.
• Ensure that the selection and recommendation of venues and suppliers includes consideration of their sustainability practices.
• Select local suppliers to reduce delivery distances.

INK Festival: Consumables

• In 2022 we have moved to e-tickets only and no wristbands for our Festival. We are working towards using an App in future for the event instead of printed programmes, (finances permitting).
• Limiting printed programmes to one per person, replacements for lost programmes not permitted.
• Information packs, directories, etc, for staff and crew are no longer printed but sent as emails or shared documents.
• Where printing is unavoidable, we use a local printer which has been part of the Carbon Capture Scheme in association with the Woodland Trust.
• Use chalk boards for temporary signage and reuse laminated signs
• Our costumes and props are always second hand and given to charity or sold on after the Festival.
• Bunting and Signage – all our street and road signage, and decorations. are reusable with a life span of at least 5 years.
• Catering – we insist on the use of recyclable or multiple use utensils and cutlery, our suppliers must have a sustainable food sourcing and waste policy.
• We buy food and drink supplies from local suppliers, or a supermarket with an environmental policy, eg the (Co-op).

INK Festival: Use Of Resources

• Waste – we have a defined re-using or recycling policy for materials used at the event – highly visible, well-marked, and grouped bins are situated at every venue. Post event waste collection is formally organised and reviewed.
• Water and sewage – our venues have toilet and washing facilities of their own. We do not use portable toilets or showers.
• We need to liaise with our theatre design and technical support teams to understand their objectives.
• We are based at The Cut, Halesworth which has an environmental policy which we support.
• Water and Energy – We don’t use portable toilets or showers and we don’t use water in our events. Our venues are responsible for their own usage bills. We ask and discuss their sustainability policies with them.
• We include sustainability training in our Festival Volunteer induction.

MEASUREMENT

In addition to our sustainability policy commitments, we plan to measure the impact of our Festival in the following ways in 2024.

• Co2 – we will use our survey to record how people travel to and around the Festival in 2023 and use the data try to reduce the number of car journeys and increase arrival by public transport in 2024 through education and incentives. We already have an existing relationship with Greater Anglia Rail and we will continue to work closely with them on advertising and incentives.
• Miles travelled, continue to analyse and reduce any expensed travel miles for staff/creatives/tech crew and reduce for 2024.
• Waste – we will track the amount of waste we create that cannot go to recycling in 2023. We will analyse the largest waste types and attempt to reduce them or store in subsequent years.
• Printing – We will consult our attendees on the pros and cons of using an app instead of a printed programme and see if we can address the existing resistance to this so that we can begin to research and fund an event app in the future.
• We will track and aim for 90% recyclability of our signage and decorations.
• We will track the food and utensil waste of our café and set a reduction target for 2024.

TRAINING

“Those in a position of upholding the events sustainability policies should also be suitably trained and informed about the latest actions, issues and best practice within the relevant field.”

• We have set up a working group and created a sustainability policy to cover the key areas at the Festival and in our operations year-round.
• We have discussed the document at a plenary team meeting, taken wider team feedback and incorporated changes where necessary.
• We are currently researching suitable quality training that is available within our budget as a charity.
• Cate Evans is our Sustainability Officer.
• We will share our policy with suppliers and ask to review their policies, we aim to add a sustainability clause to contracts as appropriate.
• We have added it to our publicly available policy bank on the website.
• We will review the policy annually and include measurements attained in our post event reports.

Last reviewed Date: 01 November 2023
Signature: Chair: Anthony Mackintosh