Environmental policy

1. Purpose and scope of this policy

Afield’s aim is to resource those most affected by environmental injustice to lead artistic research and inquiry, and to shape community-based nature spaces. Our environmental policy is therefore an important part of its governance and accountability.

This policy sets out (a) our position on environmental justice, (b) the commitments we make about our own operations, money and grantmaking, and (c) how we hold ourselves accountable for them.

Scope: This policy applies to trustees, staff, freelancers and volunteers acting on Afield’s behalf, and to our suppliers and contractors. It outlines what we ask of grantees but does not impose conditions on them beyond section 3.5.

2. Our position

We recognise that we are part of the environmental systems we seek to challenge. Our energy, travel, procurement, banking and digital tools all carry an environmental and social cost, and that cost falls unevenly — usually on the communities we aim to resource. Afield is committed to reducing its environmental impact and being transparent about the basis on which we make decisions, through this policy.

3. Our commitments

Afield is a small organisation. These commitments are proportionate to our size, explain our environmental principles, and focus on the things that we can do as an organisation.

3.1 Carbon and travel

• Our internal team uses a hybrid model of working: at times we need to work in person, but otherwise meet online and reduce the amount of travel required.
• We encourage walking, cycling and public transport for all members of staff, grantees and volunteers. We offer the government’s Cyclescheme to staff as a way of buying a bike through salary deductions.
• No flying default: we do not fly for journeys reachable by public transport in a reasonable day’s travel. Any flight is an exception and requires written approval from both Founders and is reported to the board annually with the reason.
• Driving is only to be undertaken if public transport, walking, or cycling are unavailable, or where access needs require it.
• We will measure our emissions annually — energy, travel, and where possible significant suppliers, and publish figures alongside a reduction target agreed by the board.
• We prioritise absolute reduction over offsetting, and do not describe ourselves as “carbon neutral” through any use of offsets.

3.2 Procurement and suppliers

• We aim to buy less, buy used, and keep things longer. IT equipment is bought refurbished where available, and unless by exception, is kept for a minimum of 5 years, repaired in preference to replaced, and passed on for reuse or recycled at end of life.
• Where we control premises, we will use a certified renewable electricity tariff. We will campaign for sustainable policies on energy, waste and heating with any landlord or shared workspace we use. We will conduct environmental due diligence before signing an agreement with a new office or workspace provider.
• We favour small, local, cooperative, and where possible, global-majority-led suppliers, and pay them promptly and fairly.
• We aspire for catering at Afield events to be locally sourced and vegetarian, and planned to avoid waste. We will only print only when necessary.
• For contracts above £10,000 we ask suppliers about their environmental practice and record the answer; we will not contract organisations with direct links to our exclusion list (see Appendix).

3.3 Banking, reserves and pensions

• Afield banks, and holds its reserves, with providers that do not finance or provide banking services to organisations involved in:
  • fossil fuel expansion
  • extraction of minerals using deep seabed mining
  • degradation of areas that are critical stores of irrecoverable carbon
  • manufacture of chemicals that are persistent in the environment, bio-accumulative in nature or linked to long-term health concerns
  • unsustainable harvest of natural resources, including timber, fish and palm oil
  • development of genetically modified organisms where there is evidence of uncontrolled release into the environment, negative impacts on developing countries, or patenting, e.g. of indigenous knowledge
  • development of nanotechnology in circumstances that risk damaging the environment or compromising human health
  • activities that significantly contribute to the degradation of endangered animal species’ habitats
  • involvement in animal testing of cosmetic or household products or their ingredients, intensive farming methods (e.g. caged egg production), blood sports (e.g. the use of animals or birds in sport to catch, fight or kill each other) the fur trade or speciality/exotic leather.
• Any investment of reserves excludes organisations in our exclusion list (see Appendix). Trustees receive a screening report each year.
• We offer a workplace pension with a fossil-free or climate-aligned default fund, and tell staff clearly what their pension is invested in.
• We are transparent about the sources of our own income and will decline funding where accepting it would undermine this Environmental Policy or the communities we resource.

3.4 Digital tools and artificial intelligence

• We understand that digital infrastructure has a material footprint — in energy, water and minerals, and can negatively impact the communities where it is located.
• AI:
  • We use AI tools deliberately and sparingly: for defined tasks that demonstrably save time and further Afield’s purposes, at the smallest scale necessary to do the job, rather than by default or at volume.
  • We ask our software and hosting suppliers to report publicly on their energy sourcing and water use of their data centres.
• We practise basic digital hygiene — deleting redundant files and duplicate storage, limiting video where audio will do, and choosing lightweight, accessible web design.

3.5 Grantmaking, partners and nature spaces

• We aim to fund applications led by people with lived experience of environmental injustice, and we resource the time, travel and access costs that make leading a project possible.
• Reporting requirements are kept deliberately light and proportionate.
• Grants are made on nature-positive terms: we expect grantees to use peat-free growing, locally appropriate planting, avoid synthetic pesticides or herbicides, care for soil, water and habitat connectivity, and an expectation that spaces are designed for the species that occupy them as well as the people.
• We share what we learn openly, and we listen to and learn from grantees’ environmental practices.

4. Responsibility, monitoring and review

• The board of trustees owns this policy, approves the emissions baseline and reduction target, and receives an annual report against the commitments above, including where we have fallen short.
• The Founders are responsible for implementation, for the annual measurement and screening reports, and for ensuring the policy is covered in induction for everyone who works with Afield.
• Everyone at Afield is expected to apply this policy in their decisions and is welcome to challenge any decision that does not align with it - including a decision made by trustees or the Founders
• Grantees, partners and suppliers can raise concerns about our environmental practice at environment@afield.org.uk; we will respond and say what we intend to do.
• Review. This policy is reviewed annually by the board, and sooner if our size, premises, funding or programmes change materially.

Appendix: exclusions

• Companies engaged in growing or trading tobacco
• Arms manufacturers or traders
• Pornography companies
• Extractions or refinement of fossil fuels
• Harm to animals
• Gambling
• Human rights abuses, slave labor, and child labor