About

Sustainability

Jai Redman, Scene, 2017

Culture Declares

Following Manchester City Council’s resolution in July 2019, Manchester Art Gallery has signed up with Culture Declares to declare a Climate Emergency and commit to radical action in relation to its own carbon footprint. The gallery is currently reviewing its policy and approach, built around the following priorities;

Making the physical gallery green

And working towards being carbon neutral – focusing on exhibitions, loans, business travel, energy use, cafe, retail and events. A carbon budget will be allocated to all activities, overseen and monitored by a gallery panel drawn from across the gallery.

Encouraging social responsibility

Through community and stakeholder involvement, supporting community climate champions. The gallery will establish a citizen-assembly (with external partners and stakeholders) to determine strategic direction of the gallery and to set key policy.

Becoming a public platform

For climate activism as a respected and trusted educational organisation promoting public dialogue and raising awareness. The gallery supports community activation (including Extinction Rebellion, Manchester Families: Rising Up!, and Youth Strike) and is exploring options for a permanent space within the gallery to support awareness raising and dialogue. It aims to act with transparency and will use its social media and online presence both to communicate challenges and progress and to engage with and support other activity in the city.

Greening Manchester Art Gallery

We are committed to promoting environmental sustainability and are working hard with our Partner organisations (Manchester Museum and the Whitworth art gallery) to reduce the environmental impacts of all of our activities.

Here’s what we’re doing

Improving the way we run our buildings

We are reducing our energy consumption by 7% pa to meet the City Council’s Carbon Reduction Commitment of 41% by 2020.

Reducing waste and increasing recycling

By making more efficient use of resources and reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill.

Supporting sustainable procurement

By working with our suppliers to ensure that all purchasing decisions take environmental impact into account.

Supporting greener travel

By encouraging and supporting staff and visitors to choose sustainable ways of transport. For example we offer staff bikes to borrow for work-related journeys.

Encouraging biodiversity

We encourage biodiversity across all our sites through our Derek Jarman Pocket Park and wild flower planting.

Involving staff and visitors in making our vision a reality

Everyone working for Manchester City Galleries actively supports our green initiatives and is committed to their success. We share what we’re doing with our visitors to include them and engage their support.

We’ll be developing this web page to expand on all our areas of activity; sharing our progress as we tackle each challenge