Organisational

• Our board member Kate Arthurs joined Julie's Bicycle Board Environmental Champions programme and undertook Carbon Literacy Training, leading change from the top. 
• Working with CLD Carbon we have developed our own bespoke carbon accounting methodology, understanding our carbon footprint including scope 3 emissions and onboarding relevant staff so the work and learnings are disseminated across the organisation to inform decision making.
• Rolling out our internal travel emissions form to accurately capture staff travel emissions.
• Continuing to deliver Carbon Literacy Training to new starters, and to support action across all levels of the organisation we have launched the Environment Group Small Projects Fund. This is available for any member of Watershed to support climate action in their teams or role.
• Carbon Literacy Training: We have now trained 70% of staff and are pursuing our gold accreditation from the Carbon Literacy Project. 

Building

To ground our building retrofit work, this year we undertook a research project with socially engaged architect George Lovesmith to map our priorities and understand the financial benefit of a fabric first retrofit. We conducted creative engagement workshops to understand how Watershed’s buildings can serve our communities into the future.

We were accepted into the Arts Council England Transforming Energy – Capital Investment Ready cohort, joining other determined cultural organisations to address the huge challenge of decarbonising our buildings.

• Cinema air conditioning upgrade: We replaced our ageing air conditioning chiller unit with a more sustainable unit containing environmentally friendly refrigerants.
• Led lighting: With support from Arts Council England, we have slowly upgraded lighting to LED which uses much less power, lasts longer and generates less heat, apart from our cinema lighting which is in progress - reducing electricity consumption used by lighting by 30% (in line with reductions indicated by the ARUP study).
• Kitchen Refit: When we completely refitted our kitchens we switched from gas to electric induction hobs, electric ovens and LED lighting, not only reducing our usage of fossil fuels but also making for a much more comfortable working environment. 
• Renewable electricity: From March 2018 all our electricity supplies have been using 100% renewable, clean electricity, generated by a mix of wind, hydro and responsibly-sourced, sustainable biomass electricity.
• Water: Monitoring of urinal usage enables us to adjust the flow of water to an optimum level and reduce water usage. All taps in the public toilets have been changed to aerated 7 second flow taps, to control water flow. These have reduced the amount of water used by the public for hand washing.
• Dishwashers in Watershed’s Café & Bar have been updated with more environmentally friendly models which are both energy efficient and water efficient

Materials and Waste

• Staff swap shop established to encourage reuse internally.
• Recycling: Wastage in the form of paper, cardboard, glass and plastics are all recycled. Separate waste disposal points are provided throughout the building to keep these items separate and encourage staff to recycle.  Recycling facilities are also provided for the tenants of our leased units to encourage their active participation in reducing landfill wastage. Used toner and ink cartridges are also recycled. Food wastage in the Café & Bar is minimised by effective ordering systems to carefully control stock levels and thorough training ensures that staff are efficient in their use of produce, thereby reducing wastage.
• Eliminated food waste: Our food waste is collected by the Bio-Bee. The food waste is then used to generate renewable fuel for the Bio-Bee, renewable energy for homes and communities and biofertilisers for agriculture.  
• Paper: Use of paper for printing is monitored and staff are encouraged to use paper conservatively and only to print or photocopy if necessary. When printing, staff are asked to print double sided and use scrap paper for the printing of draft documents. Many documents are stored electronically rather than as a paper document. Watershed uses recycled paper for all internal printing and photocopying.  The paper sourced for this purpose is made from 100% post-consumer waste using low Co2 production methods.
• Upgraded recycling system: We originally introduced recycling bins and waste separation in 2005, with recycling bins introduced to all workspaces in 2009 and to all public spaces in 2011. Our recycling rates have been gradually increasing and since the summer of 2018 65% of all Watershed waste is recycled.
• End of printed brochure: After over 30 years Watershed was one of the first cultural organisations to stop printing a monthly brochure. This action saved huge resources, hailed a digital first approach to our communications and contributed to start making Watershed more sustainable. Watershed communicates with its audience via an on-line newsletter rather than by printed media saving around 1.8 million sheets of A4 paper per annum.
• Food waste: Our events team can offer advice on how to reduce food waste to clients hiring spaces.

Finance

• Paperless: Watershed’s finance department employs paperless systems wherever possible. For example, invoices, remittances and statements are produced and sent out electronically. Pay slips are available to staff via an on-line service. 
• Pensions: Signing the Make Money Matter declaration to push for increasingly ethical pensions, and created the ethical pensions guide to support staff switching to ethical funds.

Procurement

• Our Café & Bar team have led the way on buying locally and sustainably, including:
  • Buying gin and vodka from a local supplier in bulk, ten litre barrels instead of 70ml bottles.
  • All our draught products are local, travelling far less distance than the ones we had previously.
  • We have installed post-mix soft drinks in Undershed meaning virtually no bottles for coke, diet coke and lemonade.
• IT systems: Watershed continues to regularly upgrade with the latest energy efficient equipment and endeavors to purchase equipment with as long a life span as possible in order to reduce wastage and energy used for production. In addition, old ICT equipment is sold on or given away if it is still in working order. Equipment at the end its life is recycled wherever possible to minimise landfill.
• Service Providers: Maintenance and cleaning contracts to service Watershed’s own premises and that of its head lease tenancies are serviced by local providers.
• Local Beers: We’ve slowly been replacing our old beer suppliers by sourcing locally as much as possible and cutting down the number of suppliers to reduce emissions from transport, which includes sourcing three of our beers from breweries under a mile away!
• Local wines: New wine suppliers which hold the green mark in suppliers using majority small family growers and working to reduce waste in the supply chain.
• Mixers: Using mixer suppliers who use 100% Cornish Spring Water, partnered with the Eden project to use most sustainable options for ingredients
• Gin: Moving to 6oclock Gin which uses a refill pouch system to minimise waste from bottles.
• Cinemas and donors: We now have our dedicated plaques honouring our donors on the back of cinema seats made from recycled wood, sourced from the local Bristol Wood Recycling Project.

Travel

• Staff travel: Staff are encouraged to travel to work in a manner that minimises environmental pollution. Cycling is encouraged through the provision of Cycle racks on the covered walkway to provide bicycle parking facilities for staff and visitors. A small changing/shower facility is also available to staff.

Programming, audiences and network

• In our creative teams, we have brought in a project overview & briefing document at the start of all new projects, which introduces in climate action toolkit and sustainability prompts to ensure climate action is considered at the start of every new project across talent development, cinema, research, creative technology and comms
• As part of Bristol and Bath Creative R+D in partnership with WECA, we have launched Grounding Technologies, bringing artists, creative technologists and activists together to explore how creative technology can support, enhance and build on the brilliant environmental action happening in our region.
• We joined Julie’s Bicycle Creative Climate Leaders 2023 cohort, an international training and transformation programme empowering motivated artists and cultural professionals to take action and ecological crisis with impact, creativity and resilience.
• Inspired by James Bridles Ways of Being, we have launched two calls exploring how we can use ideas like AI to expand our understanding of the world and many diverse intelligences within it, rather than creating new ways to exploit it?
• Creative Climate Action Toolkit: We co-created a toolkit for climate action for creative freelancers, SMEs, and micro-businesses to begin their climate action journey, aimed at supporting our collaborators and networks to transition along with us.
• Cross team sustainability focus: Our programming across our creative team has increased events, labs, and screenings related to sustainability and the climate emergency including a 2021 climate season in the run up to COP26.
• Future is Collective: Our studio and talent development teams undertook a programme of work propelling community and climate activism by offering support and development to eleven freelance creatives.
• Gathering Moss: We supported a group of young artists from Seoul and Bath in the creation of a digital landscape populated with ideas in response to the climate emergency, inviting visitors to explore, imagine the future of our world, to be hopeful and to act.

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