Hello everyone! My name is Peiyu Jiang and I am excited to share my journey since March 2023 as the Green Team Intern at ELIA. As you may know, ELIA is striving to reduce its environmental impact and promote climate action, this year particularly focusing on achieving eco-certification. This work is supported by expert organisations Creative Carbon Scotland and Green Leisure Group. We are also sharing our learning journey with colleague cultural networks, particularly our eco-partner ECHO (European Concert Hall Organisation).   

 

For the past few months, I have been supporting the ELIA team in implementing the SHIFT Eco-Guidelines for Networks, which address the ecological footprint associated with operating international cultural network and platform organisations and their potential areas of influence. Certification is a rigorous process that includes a professional audit at the end of the year for which we are collecting proof demonstrating ELIA's sustainability efforts throughout 2023. This is the first time ELIA is trying to get eco-certified – in fact, the certification scheme for networks is only in its pilot year. We are starting everything from scratch, trying to explore how certification can help create change.  

 

I am proud to say that we have achieved some first results in this half year! One significant outcome is the event checklist, which ensures that every event organised by ELIA adheres to the eco-guidelines, and that ELIA can be able to prepare, collect, and review all sustainability measures before, during, and after its events. Moreover, with the help of an Excel tool provided by Creative Carbon Scotland, ELIA also tracks and calculates its carbon footprint for every business trip. This empowers the team to make informed decisions and work towards reducing its carbon footprint in the coming years. 

 

It is important to mention that we are currently drafting ELIA’s sustainability policy and action plan, and we will share these with you by the end of the year. The policy and the action plan will serve as our guide, directing all of ELIA’s work towards a more sustainable future. Additionally, we are redesigning and updating our sustainability webpage to be the place where you can learn all about our actions and other interesting initiatives.  

 

We are committed to keeping our members and partners well-informed about our progress and upcoming initiatives through our newsletters. So, keep an eye out for the latest news from ELIA's Green Team! I hope sharing ELIA's journey can be a way to connect about sustainable practices and, maybe, even to inspire an eco-action, or two!  

 

Peiyu Jiang,

ELIA Green Team Intern