This is the first time that the outside it is beautiful (oiib) team has worked together. oiib is also a gathering of artists and is not yet a company. We don't plan to become a charity.
However, our first project, oiib itself, holds nature and wildlife at its heart, as well as communities. Our future projects will also continue to promote not only a greater love for the planet we live on, our local environments and wildlife, but also a greater sense of shared responsibility for it and how we use its resources. This means we can't champion the wildlife, or the beautiful landscapes and invite Yorkshire Wildlife to tell stories about peat restoration and take part in our sessions, if we our selves are not committed to a sustainable culture as a project. We can't ignore that we are in a climate crisis and that every action we take not only has political meaning, but affects the environment too.
Therefore, as a group of freelancers working on this project we aim to put in use sustainable practices as much as possible.
During the project we will making reports on our sustainability efforts. These will become available on our website after the project has ended and will form the basis for some of our reporting to Arts Council England.
What oiib is doing now, will be doing during the project and in the future to help promote sustainability
1) We will be using public transport at all times. This one is easy, as our project is set on a train. At other times we will be using local bus services and our own two feet. We also made a commitment to Arts Council England as part of our sustainability principles that we would use public transport at all times.
2) We will be using services local to the area as much as possible. This includes printing services. We will, where possible, be using recycled paper and stationary for our creative sessions.
3) Our three T-shirts, which will advertise our logo, tagline and website, will be made by TeeMill, the world's first open access sustainable supply chain.
4) We are looking into how our website can be powered by 100% renewable energy by companies such as Solve UK. This will be something that we will put into force in our next round of funding, as it is an expensive business, and not something we can currently afford.
5) Where we can, we use the search engine Ecosia. It's not always possible, as google has the monopoly on most of the internet, but at a guess, we use it for around 50% of the time.
6) Where possible we have tried to book accommodation straight with the owner and not through companies who don't have good track records on sustainability or environmentally friendly policies. Due to the last minute bookings we had to make, this has been 50% possible this time round. We aim to make it 100% next time.
7) Any refreshments we buy for our creative sessions will be fresh and healthy food and won't be putting coppers into the hands of the big food giants. We will also use sustainable crockery and not single usage plastics.