Our Sustainability Journey

Our Sustainability Journey

We’re putting sustainability at the centre of The Vale’s development.

Our staff team are environmental champions and have been collaborating and learning together to explore solutions to help us reach our goal of becoming Greater Manchester’s first carbon neutral arts centre.

We are working towards this through;

Venue improvements to reduce carbon emissions

  • Solar Panels with an estimated generation of 14,300kWh per year
  • Removed gas from our Annexe building replaced with heat pumps
  • Heat pumps in our main studio and venue places
  • Live power monitoring by space to reduce wasted power
  • Energy audits to improve venue efficiency

Gardening and growing activities

  • Our Space
  • Muddy Buddies
  • Growing with Incredible Edibles Mossley
  • Exploring permaculture methods to increase biodiversity

Learning

  • Staff are Carbon Literacy trained
  • Action research through Community Knowledge Fund Hydro Project
  • Staff and volunteers regularly explore sustainable themes through monthly ‘lunch and learn’ sessions
  • Actively seek opportunities for learning and sharing ideas to reduce our impact on the environment

Sustainable focused programming to engage visitors and communities through the arts

  • Interactive plays eg Cardboard Cosmos by Stute Theatre
  • Crafty Saturdays weekly craft activity
  • Walks and trails
  • Film screenings such as In Our Hands

Local Partnerships

  • Champion local communities and work together on sustainable initiatives
  • The Growth Company’s Green Economy to explore our Scope 3 and 4 emissions
  • Saddleworth Community Hydro
  • Greater Manchester Sustainable Arts network members

Ethical purchasing

  • Local beer such as Millstone Brewery. 0 delivery miles as the casks are rolled next door to our venue!
  • Reusable over recyclable materials
  • Local purchasing wherever possible.
  • Purchasing based on the lifecycle of the items and longevity over price.

Below you can see our progress to date towards our vision of self generated energy. Our solar array, installed in June 2024 is already paying dividends. These were kindly funded by our partners Saddleworth Community Hydro. We are currently exploring the installation of an onsite micro hydro generator with the local community to complement this work.  You can follow our journey and learn more through our dedicated blog pages. Our hydro research and development efforts have been funded by UKRI and The Young Foundation as part of the Community Knowledge fund.

Solar Generation

Music Venue nett energy reserves

Weather @ The Vale

The Vale Forecast

Solar Generation (7 days)

For more information you’ll find our Environmental & Sustainability Policy here.

If you have any suggestions for further carbon reducing activities or if you have more questions please get in touch via email [email protected].