Sustainability in all forms is a priority for everyone at the ICO. Within our office or at any of the national and international events that we organise, we implement a range of initiatives to minimise our impact on the environment. Read about them here and let us know if you have any more ideas for how we can improve.
Our carbon and environmental footprint
We are using the Creative Green Tools carbon calculators developed by Julie’s Bicycle specifically for the creative industries, helping us understand how our organisation uses resources and identify peaks in usage (including of water and energy) and calculate the amount of waste we produce, so we can identify opportunities and areas for improvement.
We have an internal Green Committee who look at ways we can further reduce the impact we have on the environment and set short, medium and long-term goals on how we can achieve this.
We worked with Julie’s Bicycle to create a free downloadable resource for cinemas on how they can reduce their environmental impact.
We have also built an online learning guide which follows on from the resource to show cinemas how to meet the climate crisis head-on. Both of these guides are useful industry standards for how we can take better approaches to minimise our environmental impact.
Energy management and efficiency
In our office we are monitoring our energy usage and putting in place steps to reduce our energy and water consumption, such as:
- recently installing a new energy efficient eco-boiler and thermostat to replace our old inefficient boiler
- checking that thermostats are set up correctly
- switching off all electrical and IT equipment when not in use
- good maintenance of equipment to make sure that everything is running efficiently.
Before we moved into our new office we undertook a programme of refurbishment and as part of that we established ways to save energy and water.
Water
At ICO we encourage good housekeeping and efficient use of water within all areas of our premises. We are considering our current water cooler set up, replacing with a more sustainable resource for office water.
Food and drink
For ICO events we look to only provide vegetarian and vegan catering to reduce meat consumption where possible. Since these events can often involve several hundred attendees, there is a worthwhile impact to make this change. We also try and use local catering providers and suppliers who use sustainable practices e.g. using local, seasonal, organic and Fair Trade produce.
At our events we also encourage attendees to cut plastic consumption by bringing their own water bottles and re-useable coffee cups.
Waste: reduce, reuse and recycle
We have implemented a waste minimisation programme. This means reducing the amount of items we produce and purchase.
For our events we have reduced the number of printed materials and promotional materials that we produce. We encourage delegates to use electronic versions of delegate packs and to return badges, lanyards and tote bags from previous events. We purchase sustainably sourced bamboo lanyards and plastic-free delegate badges, which can be recycled. We have moved over into using smart-phone and electronic surveys to monitor feedback from events.
We use 100% recycled paper in the office and are trying to minimise our usage of paper in the office.
We recycle all of our paper, card and plastic waste from the office. We also recycle soft plastics from our office.
Working with suppliers
We endeavour to work with suppliers who minimise waste and promote environmentally friendly activities.
- We are using suppliers who provide green/ethical options e.g. our web developers, Wholegrain, are World leaders in digital sustainability, for hotel bookings we use Staze.com where you can filter hotels by carbon footprint and every booking you make is offset for free
- Buying products that contain or use renewable, reused or recycled content and that contain materials with a low environmental impact
- Choosing products with minimal packaging
- Selecting suppliers who are local where possible to reduce transport miles.
- Selecting suppliers that offer end of life reuse, recycling, recovery or remanufacture
- Use promotional materials and paper office supplies with recycled content or that are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified
Biodiversity
As our office is based in central London, all our staff and visitors use public transport to access the office, with many walking or cycling. We have a cycle to work scheme, via which employees can borrow up to two months’ net salary to purchase a bike. We have a hybrid working policy, which means staff only work half of their time in the office which has also reduced our travel.
We encourage our staff to use public transport for travelling to external meetings and events (although most meetings are now carried out online).
For our events we always provide information on public transport, walking and cycling options to encourage delegates not to drive to events. For international travel, we encourage guests to travel via train where possible to reduce the carbon footprint of travelling by plane.
Updated: February 2025.