ABOUT | SUSTAINABILITY & THE GALLERY CLIMATE COALITION
Sustainability and The Gallery Climate Coalition
Environmental sustainability is at the heart of our business values
Integral to Plowden & Smith’s Corporate Social Responsibility policy is our commitment to operating sustainably. We are aware of the impact our day-to-day operations have on the environment, and we place the utmost importance on operating in an environmentally responsible way.
Within the constraints of providing high-quality conservation services that frequently require the use of chemicals, woods, paper or packaging materials, we are committed to identifying and using more sustainable alternatives where possible.
To ensure continuous improvement in our environmental performance we regularly review and update our Sustainability policy and check our suppliers’ sustainability criteria.
Our Sustainability policy is focused on the key areas of our business that have a negative environmental impact and can be summarised as follows:
• Careful planning of collections and deliveries, thereby keeping the use of transport to a minimum and from 2021 starting to introduce the use of carbon neutral vehicles. This has significantly reduced the number of journeys our vehicle makes, and as such lessened our fuel emissions
• Encouraging the reuse of materials where feasible
• Operating a minimum waste practice in our studio, reducing the use of raw materials, energy and supplies
• Wherever possible, choosing non-harmful, non-polluting chemicals and technologies
• Sourcing materials and products responsibly from suppliers and companies committed to operating in a sustainable way. This involves researching and selecting suppliers and contractors with similar environmental standards
• Having multiple paper, plastic and glass recycling bins throughout the building
• Operating a Paperless Office, and ensuring that on those rare occasions when documents have to be printed (for example, when submitting tender applications that require a hard copy), all office stationery is sourced from a sustainable supplier
• Continuous improvement, for example keeping abreast of relevant local and national green initiatives
• Encouraging employees to walk, cycle or take public transport to work, and for work-related activities
• Raising awareness, encouraging participation and training employees in environmental matters
Plowden & Smith and The Gallery Climate Coalition
Plowden & Smith is proud to be a member of the Gallery Climate Coalition (GCC), an NPO made up of a wide range of organisations operating across the art world (including galleries, shippers, insurers, art technology firms, specialist suppliers and artists) that are united by a shared concern that not enough is being done by the art world to tackle our collective environmental impact.
The goal of the GCC is to facilitate a greener and more sustainable commercial art world, by providing guidelines and the necessary resources to help enterprises across the art world collectively reduce our carbon footprint by 50% over the next ten years (in line with the Paris agreement), as well as promoting near zero-waste practices.
As a member of the GCC, Plowden & Smith has committed to various measures to help us operate in the most sustainable way, including:
• A carbon estimate using the GCC online calculator.
• Carrying out more detailed carbon audits to monitor sources of emissions that need reducing, and to track ongoing progress.
• Reducing waste.
• Compensating emissions by donating to companies committed to systemic change.
The GCC is a charity supported by voluntary donations and in-kind support. To find out more, and to support their work or to become a member visit: https://galleryclimatecoalition.org/