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In the three years since launching GCC, membership has grown to more than 1,000, including institutions, artists, art fairs, auction houses and commercial galleries as well as a wide range of individual professionals from over 40 countries.
The Active Membership initiative marks an evolution in GCC's strategy from awareness raising and community building to focussing on near-term tangible action. The Active Member initiative has been introduced to distinguish those who have taken action, as well as incentivising those yet to do so. Anyone who doesn't meet the active membership criteria can still remain a member of GCC.
For any further enquiries, please contact our member liaison.
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Active Membership Definition & Criteria
Active Member status is awarded to GCC members who can demonstrate that they or their organisation has implemented environmental sustainability best practice in line with GCC guidance, via three simple criteria:
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Completed a CO2e report or audit for a 12 month period*
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Established and maintained a Green Team.
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Published an Environmental Responsibility Statement.
*Ideally this should be a report from 2019 or 2021, which will then act as your baseline. If this isn’t possible, or you’ve already submitted data for those years, please submit a report from 2022 or 2023.
You can find detailed breakdowns of these criteria, including guidance on how to achieve them, as well as templates for evidencing them throughout this document.
Active Member Badges
Qualifying members receive badge assets. Members may choose to display their badge on their environmental responsibility statement, social media channels, websites, email footers etc. GCC advises members to include a link to our Active Membership page and tag GCC in any posts on social media.
Badges are year-stamped and members will have to re-submit annually if they would like to retain an up-to-date Active designation. Badges are currently available for 2022, and will be produced annually until at least the 2030 target. GCC has also developed a favicon to easily denote and celebrate Active Members on the GCC member list.
Active Members also qualify for additional benefits and discounts from carefully selected partner organisations. Further details can be found here.
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Completing a CO2e Report or Audit
Why complete a CO2e report or audit?
Before we can start talking about 2030, we need an accurate starting point. Completing an annual audit or report is a core coalition commitment — each and every member has pledged to do this — and is vital to understanding and taking responsibility for the carbon emissions of the art sector.
By publishing carbon reports GCC hopes to inspire transparency and collegiality across the sector. Making the results available also helps establish best practices across the sector, track progress, and build up a bank of data, which in turn will improve GCC’s tools and resources. Over time, we will be able to see how the data evolves and how emissions change with new practices and conditions. These data sets will, in turn, allow us all to tackle the problems facing us all more effectively. This sector-wide approach to data and carbon reduction efforts has already proven successful across a range of global sectors such as the higher education sector.
We see that the best results come when the targets are clear, and that data is being continuously generated to allow for on-the-fly monitoring and alterations to any existing strategies. This simple approach, grounded in data and realistic targets, is by far the most common and effective strategy for change, and is employed across the world by companies and organisations from the Carbon Trust to Julie’s Bicycle.
Active Membership Criteria
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A carbon report or audit for a 12 month period, either via GCC’s free carbon calculator or through a reputable external auditor*. Ideally this should be a report from 2019 or 2021, which will then act as your baseline. If this isn’t possible, or you’ve already submitted data for those years, please submit a report from 2022 or 2023. After having completed your CO2e report, you should set reduction targets accordingly.
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This data does not need to be published - although this is encouraged - but members are required to share their results with GCC for verification, which will remain confidential.
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If you’ve used an external auditor, please provide your report in PDF format with information about the individual or organisation that conducted it.
* In order to be compatible with GCC’s carbon auditing and targets, please ensure any non-GCC carbon audit complies with the standards in the World Resources Institute’s Greenhouse Gas Protocol. As a minimum, it should include all Scope 1 and 2 emissions from buildings and vehicles, as well as emissions from staff travel, art freight, and the manufacture of packaging. Any flights counted in your audit will need to include the extra radiative forcing (RF) from burning jet fuel at high altitude (as included in the UK Government's greenhouse gas emissions factors), and will need to report location-based (not market-based) Scope 2 emissions. Note also that GCC does not count carbon offsetting as a method for reaching carbon reduction targets.
How to Complete your GCC report
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For help starting your GCC Carbon Calculator Report, you can find a video tutorial and user guide, as well as a data collection template.
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In line with our Privacy Policy, all the data input into the calculator is anonymised and aggregated. This means that GCC is not able to view, access or download your carbon report on your behalf.
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Once you have finished your annual calculation, please select ‘Final’ from the drop-down option and scroll to the bottom of the page, then select ‘download latest saved version’.
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This downloaded PDF should be filed as your final carbon report with your organisation records, as well as being shared with GCC over email as part of your Active Membership submission.
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Establishing and maintaining a Green Team
What is a Green Team?
A Green Team is a group of employees engaged in advancing sustainability within an
Individual Professionals & Artists
This might look like:
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An email to your studio provider/gallerist/commissioner/fabricator about their commitment to and any action taken towards environmental responsibility.
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If you’re in a group show, setting an environmental action plan with the artists you’re exhibiting with.
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Stipulating to collaborators that no single use packaging materials be used when transporting works.
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Requesting sea shipments and/or zero emissions local transport in line with GCC’s Sustainable Shipping Campaign.
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Reaching out to your waste management company. For an example template, click here.
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Switching to a reputable renewable energy provider. More information on this can be found here.
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Implementing a ‘train first policy’ stipulating that any external collaborator who pays for your travel must utilise train or alternative low-carbon travel options (where the infrastructure exists).
Visit the Green Teams or Effective Actions resources for detailed suggested actions.
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Publishing an Environmental Responsibility Statement
Why publish an Environmental Responsibility Statement?
This is a way to take public responsibility for your environmental impact as an organisation. Your statement should acknowledge the seriousness of the environmental crisis, clearly state your position on this issue, and summarise the actions you are taking to address it. This will show your staff, audiences, and other stakeholders that you are serious, help motivate your organisation internally to follow your action pledges, and encourage your stakeholders and supporters to hold you accountable.
An Environmental Responsibility Statement is not a claim that you are doing things perfectly or have all the answers. None of us are at this point. We’re all doing our best to assess, report and reduce our impact, setting targets in line with science, taking any actions we can, and working out other solutions as we go. We are all doing our best to be honest, work together and with others, and learn as we progress. Your statement is also not set in stone. It’s something that can – and should – evolve as your knowledge and plans develop.
Once members have achieved Active Member status, they may include their year stamped Active Member badge on their environmental responsibility template.
Active Membership Criteria
Active Membership criteria requires that members publish an Environmental Responsibility Statement outlining their commitment to action.
We ask that you:
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Have your statement signed and dated by yourself.
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Publish your statement on your website or public facing platform.
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Inform your audiences and stakeholders that you have published this statement and send them a link so they can read it.
If you don’t have a website you can share your sustainability statement (signed and dated) across social media, or as a link on your email footer. If you don’t have social media or don’t want to share on social media, please reach out to our member liaison who will be able to advise.
To evidence this as part of your Active Membership submission, please provide a link to the webpage as well as a pdf of the signed and dated holding copy.
GCC Environmental Responsibility Statement Template
Example 1 Environmental Responsibility Statement
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How to Submit Your Active Membership Application
Members can submit their active member application via email to info@galleryclimatecoalition.org. Please provide all the required information in pdf format and any additional materials / proof that is relevant. Please use the email subject line: "Active Membership - [Year] - [Name/ Organisation Name]".
Applications will open every year for the year just gone, with a March 1st deadline. However, we suggest you submit sooner rather than later.
This is a rolling initiative, so those that miss the March deadline are still encouraged to apply at a later date. Any successful late applications will still receive an Active Member badge and be celebrated on the GCC website, but can not be included in any social media campaigns and press outreach that will take place over the Spring.
Active Membership Submission Checklist
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Results of an Annual Carbon Report (PDF)
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Demonstration of 'Green Team' actions (PDF)
Individual Professionals and Individual Artists should include evidence of action taken within the last calendar year, compiled into one PDF document.
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Link to Environmental Responsibility Statement online
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Signed and dated copy of your Environmental Responsibility Statement (PDF)
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