Green Policy

Clonmel Junction Arts Festival is an annual 10-day multi-disciplinary arts festival set in Clonmel, Tipperary’s largest town. Connecting artists and audiences since 2001, CJAF has evolved into a vibrant arts platform, offering opportunities to local, national and international artists to collaborate and create work by, about and for the people of Clonmel and its visitors.

Clonmel Junction Arts Festival recognises that festivals and cultural events have an impact on the environment, including energy use, waste and travel, as well as the opportunity to positive influence the local community and engage audiences to change our behaviours for the better.

This policy sets out our commitment to reducing our environmental footprint and contributing positively to the local and national response to climate change. It provides a framework for how we plan, deliver and review our activities with sustainability in mind.

It is our priority to ensure our environmental policy is implemented, and we actively encourage all our staff, volunteers and artists to adopt a responsible approach toward the impact of their actions on the environment.

This policy applies to:

• Staff, CE/Tús participants and volunteers
• Board members
• Contractors, artists and partners working to deliver festival activities

It includes guidelines for planning, programming, production, marketing, transport, catering and audience experience.

Overall responsibility for the approval and delivery of this policy sits with the Artistic Director of the festival, Rebecca Lenehan.

All staff and volunteers are expected to:

• Follow the procedures outlined in this policy.
• Take reasonable steps to reduce waste and resource use in their own role.
• Raise any environmental concerns of improvement ideas with Rebecca Lenehan (Artistic Director)

To deliver a vibrant, inclusive multi-disciplinary arts festival that is climate-aware, resource-efficient and aligned with local and national sustainability goals.

Key Objectives

• Reduce carbon emissions related to energy, travel and production.
• Minimise waste and increase reuse and recycling across all festival activities.
• Use resources responsibly, including water, materials and digital tools.
• Influence positively by engaging artists, audiences and partners in climate-conscious practices.
• Continuously improve by monitoring, reviewing and updating our actions each year.

The following policies apply to minimise our environmental impact.

Energy Use

Use energy-efficient lighting and equipment where possible (LED lighting, timers).

Ensure lights, projectors, sound equipment and heaters are all switched off when not in use.

Work with venues and encourage them to avoid unnecessary heating/lighting during set-up, rehearsal and performances.

When hiring extra equipment, prioritise energy efficient options.

Waste & Recycling

Printing should be kept to a minimum – circulate internal documents, contracts, invoices etc. digitally only unless absolutely necessary.

If printing is unavoidable, double-sided printing and multiple page printing should be used as much as possible to minimise paper usage.

Provide clearly labelled recycling and general waste bins at festival venues and within The Platform (where workshops and events are held throughout the year).

Encourage artists, staff and audiences to use reusable cups, bottles and containers where possible. For some events offering artists and staff/volunteers reusable CJAF branded water bottles to reduce waste and promote the message.

Provide guidance to volunteers on how to help audiences sort their waste correctly.

Work with suppliers to minimise single-use plastic waste, favouring reusable or compostable packaging (e.g. wooden cutlery instead of plastic).

Travel & Transport

Encourage staff, volunteers and artists to walk, cycle, car share or use public transport where reasonable.

Where travel is necessary, aim to coordinate journeys to reduce the number of trips.

When booking guests’ travel consider lower-impact options where feasible (e.g. booking a train instead of domestic flights).

Provide clear information on low-carbon travel options on our website and our programmes.

Use local suppliers where possible to reduce transport distances.

Water Use

Encourage responsible water use in festival offices and venues.

Work with venues to ensure taps, toilets and other facilities are in good working order and not wasting water.

Materials, Sets & Production

When purchasing office or festival supplies, consider the environmental impact (e.g. use recycled paper and refillable pens, refill printer ink instead of buying new cartridges, use eco-cleaning products where possible).

Favour local suppliers and ethically produced goods where budgets allow.

Reuse and repurpose materials (e.g. props, signage, sets, decorations) across festival years where appropriate.

Maintain a festival storage area of the above reusable materials for use by staff and volunteers.

Where new materials are essential, favour wood, recycled or recyclable materials, and non-toxic paints and finishes.

Events & Venues

Include environmental considerations in event and venue planning (e.g. bin provision, access to public transport, energy use).

Include events that address environmental issues and artists’ responses to climate action, offering professional development opportunities to the local arts infrastructure.

Communicate expectations around waste and recycling to venues and partners.

Reduce the use of single-use plastics at events where practicable.

Green Volunteers

Each year in January staff and/or a member/s of the Board of Directors will volunteer to be ‘Green Champions’ for the festival, who will be responsible for the coordination and reporting of the implementation of these policies to the Artistic Director.

During the Festival a dedicated team of Green Volunteers will be appointed to encourage audiences to recycle properly, choose environmentally friendly travel options within the town, reduce single-use plastic waste, etc. They will also carry out short surveys to gather data on our audience’s methods of transportation and green habits as well as asking for ideas and ways to improve our implementation of our Environmental Policy.

Over the next 1-3 years, Clonmel Junction Arts Festival will:

Record our current impact:

• Record basic data on electricity use in the office, waste volumes (where known), and staff/artist travel where practical.

Improve office practices:

• Reduce unnecessary printing and move towards digital documentation where possible, adopting a digital-first approach.
• Ensure all staff and volunteers know how to recycle correctly in the office.

Greener festival operations:

• Include a short environmental checklist in event planning templates (bins, signage, travel options, reusing materials).
• Work with artists and suppliers to reduce our shared environmental impact.

Engage audiences:

• Add a short section to the festival website/programme about our sustainability actions and how audiences can help (e.g. walking/cycling, bringing reusable bottles).
• Continue to encourage audiences to opt into email newsletters and follow our social media channels in preference to paper mailouts and printed programmes.
• Include a short survey undertaken by Green Volunteers during the festival to gather data on green habits for travel and waste.

The Artistic Director and the Board of Directors will review this policy annually.

Each year, we will collect data where possible (office energy bills, estimated waste, number of venues with recycling bins readily available) to track our progress.

Key actions and improvements will be reported to the Board of Directors as part of our annual review in January.

This policy will be shared with staff, CE/Tús participants and volunteers during induction and planning meetings. It will also be freely available to all staff members and volunteers.

Contractors, artists and partner venues will be informed of relevant sustainability expectations where appropriate.

We will use our website and social media to highlight key environmental initiatives and encourage audience participation.

Date: January 2026