Our friends at The Wow Company have launched BenchPress 2023. With agencies of all sizes participating, BenchPress is the largest survey of independent agency owners in the UK.
It’s the perfect opportunity for Bristol Creative Industries members to benchmark themselves against their peers and build a picture of the latest trends impacting agencies across the country.
By taking part this year you’ll be able to compare yourself in several key areas:
You’ll discover what the top performers do differently – insights that have the power to transform your agency.
Sooner or later, almost every agency owner will ask the question – how does my agency compare with others? Each year, BenchPress answers this question by surveying hundreds of agency owners. Everyone that takes part will receive a copy of the full benchmark results plus the chance to secure free early bird tickets to the launch event in March. If you haven’t seen a report before, here’s the 2022 report.
The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete so grab yourself a cuppa and get started.
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There are lots of brilliant events and other opportunities for creative businesses this February and March. See the full list below.
Events are either free or discounted for Bristol Creative Industries members. Some other opportunities are exclusive to members. Not a member? Join today.
However big or small your business, nothing has more commercial impact than fame. Join us in Bristol to hear Pete Bracegirdle share the incredible story of ‘Fearless Girl’ and what she can teach us about how to make your brand more famous. Book your ticket here.
Join Inkwell founder Chris Goodfellow for advice on how to create your own high-quality videos.
Wake Up Call is an online event exclusive to BCI members. Book your ticket here.
Join Rebecca Steer, Steer & Co’s award-winning lawyer, for this talk at Watershed in Bristol on data privacy laws in the UK and Europe and how they affect creative, digital and tech businesses. Book your ticket here.
Join Mette Davis for top tips on how to deliver a great workshop experience for your team and clients.
Wake Up Call is an online event exclusive to BCI members. Book your ticket here.
BCI members can book a free 30 minute call with Rebecca Steer, an award winning business lawyer. Book your call here.
The free BCI members’ lunch at The Square Club in Bristol is an opportunity for members to build connections while enjoy a delicious buffet lunch. Book your ticket here.
A networking event with a difference! A great opportunity for BCI members to make some new creative industry connections whilst exploring the countryside. Book your ticket here.
Come along to our freelancer networking drinks at The Square Club in Bristol to widen your networks, make new connections, discuss common problems, and discover potential opportunities for collaboration. Free for BCI members. Book your ticket here.
Ruth Clarke discusses six new big trends and ideas for how we look after our people.
Wake Up Call is an online event exclusive to BCI members. Book your ticket here.
The free BCI members’ lunch at The Square Club in Bristol is an opportunity for members to build connections while enjoy a delicious buffet lunch. Book your ticket here.
BCI members can book a free 30 minute call with Rebecca Steer, an award winning business lawyer. Book your call here.
Forward Space is offering BCI members with turnover below £150,000 the chance to win a free office for three months in Bristol’s Boxworks. Find out more.
Our friends at The Wow Company have launched BenchPress 2023, the largest survey of independent agency owners in the UK.
It’s the perfect opportunity for Bristol Creative Industries members to benchmark themselves against their peers and build a picture of the latest trends impacting agencies across the country. Find out more.
If creative businesses and organisations are not made central to the government’s economic plans, the UK’s creative industries risk falling behind international competitors.
That’s the conclusion of a report by the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee.
Following an inquiry into the future of the UK’s creative sector amid increasing global competition and technology-related disruption, the committee said the government’s approach can be categorised as complacent, missing opportunities and failing to recognise the sector’s commercial potential.
All this, the report said, is despite the following statistics:
The UK is world leading in many specialisms within the creative industries, the committee said, but rapid technological advances are changing the nature of the sector, and international competition is rising.
“We heard mounting concern that the UK’s success was being taken for granted, and increasingly at risk,” the report warned.
Among the committee’s key concerns were the government allowing other countries to create more competitive tax incentives, proposals to relax intellectual property law which threaten creative sector business models and a “perception in government that DCMS [Department for Culture, Media and Sport] is the ‘ministry of fun’ rather than a key driver of economic growth”.
Julia Lopez MP, media and data minister within DCMS, referenced the “ministry of fun” description during the inquiry. She said:
“I want it to be understood as the ministry of a major economic growth area, future technologies … it is incredibly important that we do not try to diminish the public perception of what are fundamentally important industries and ones where the UK has a real competitive advantage.”
📢Out now: our report on the UK’s creative industries, covering
👉How technology is disrupting the sector
👉How the UK’s world-leading position is at risk
👉How Government policy can harness the sector’s potential to turn it into an engine of growth📰:https://t.co/14Z8PfkQzO pic.twitter.com/S5GZu9CSdj
— Lords Communications and Digital Committee (@LordsCommsCom) January 17, 2023
The committee made several recommendations including:
The recommendations mirror a report released last September by Bristol Creative Industries which also called for action on R&D tax relief and skills.
Baroness Stowell of Beeston, chair of the Communications and Digital Committee, said:
“The UK’s creative industries are an economic powerhouse and have been a huge success story. But the fundamentals that underpin our success are changing, and rivals are catching up. The government’s failure to grasp both the opportunities and risks is baffling.
“International competitors are championing their creative industries and seizing the opportunities of new technology. But in the UK we’re seeing muddled policies, barriers to success, and indifference to the sector’s potential. We acknowledge the government has introduced important programmes in recent years, but we are concerned past success has bred complacency.
“Our report sets out some immediate challenges that the government can address now.
“These include improving R&D tax policy to stop excluding innovation in the creative sector; abandoning plans to relax intellectual property rules which would undercut our creative businesses; making the Department for Education wake up to the reality that the future lies in blending creative and digital skills rather than perpetuating silos; and urging senior figures across government to take the creative sector’s economic potential more seriously.”
A creative force: Unleashing the power of Bristol’s creative industries
What the government should do to support the creative industries
A guide to funding for creative businesses
One of the big benefits of Bristol Creative Industries membership is the ability to self-publish content on our website. We’ve seen lots of great content published in 2022 including some brilliant business advice. Here are the 20 most popular advice posts of the year.
Want to publish business advice on our website and make the top 20 next year? Become a member of Bristol Creative Industries.
Written by JX Branding / Joanna Xenofontos
Click below or read the article here.
The role of brand architecture in Facebook’s rebrand to Meta
Written by Varn
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Written by Adapt
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Written by AMBITIOUS
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Written by Fiasco Design
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Written by saintnicks
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Written by Ginkgo Business Development
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Written by Synergist
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Written by Ryan Webb Consultancy Ltd
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The advantages of becoming a B Corp: 9 reasons you should do the “impact assessment” now
Written by Flourish
Click below or read the article here.
10 things the Flourish creative team learned at TwitchCon Amsterdam 2022
Written by AMBITIOUS
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Written by Tom Fallowfield (Ugli)
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Written by Armadillo
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Why Performance Marketing without a Performance Mindset isn’t Enough in 2022
Written by Turnhouse Marketing
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Written by Adapt
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Written by Carnsight Communications
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Written by AMBITIOUS
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Written by saintnicks
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Written by Future Shift
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How to Spot Greenwash in Sustainability Reporting: A Beginner’s Guide
Written by Episode Two
Click below and read the article here.
Want to publish business advice on our website and make the top 20 next year? Become a member of Bristol Creative Industries.
Grant Mansfield, CEO and Founder of Plimsoll Productions, an ITV Studios company, has been appointed a Visiting Professor for the College of Arts, Technology and Environment at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol).
In his new role Mansfield will be working with the University to help inspire the next generation of programme makers.
He said: “UWE Bristol is a wonderful University where it’s my privilege to serve as a Board Member and now a Visiting Professor. Under Professor West’s leadership, links with employers have been significantly strengthened, benefiting students as they seek employment: in my new role, I hope to highlight pathways, opportunities and the skills required for a career in the creative sector.”
Vice-Chancellor of UWE Bristol, Professor Steve West, added: “We’re honoured Grant is joining us as a Visiting Professor at UWE Bristol; as a Bristolian who has seen worldwide success within his industry his insight and exceptional talent will be invaluable to our students and staff.
Mansfield founded Plimsoll in 2013 and the company has grown rapidly since with a total workforce of more than 400 across its officers in Los Angeles, Bristol and Cardiff. Plimsoll’s BAFTA, Academy and Emmy Award-winning team specialise in wildlife, documentary, live and factual entertainment shows and is a global leader in natural-history programmes. In 2019, Mansfield led a process to sell a minority stake in Plimsoll to private equity Group LDC and in 2022 he spearheaded a majority stake sale to ITV Studios in a landmark deal, valuing the company at £131 million.
Plimsoll is behind more than 50 series, 14 live shows and seven films, including the James Cameron-executive produced and Benedict Cumberbatch-narrated Super/Natural for (National Geographic/Disney+), Emmy-nominated Hostile Planet with Bear Grylls (National Geographic), Night on Earth (Netflix), Tiny World (Apple TV+), Handmade: Good with Wood (Channel 4), Britain’s Parking Hell (Channel 5), Life at the Extreme (ITV), as well as the highly anticipated The Ascent with Alex Honnold (Disney+), among many more.
Before launching the company, Mansfield spent three years in Los Angeles as CEO of Zodiak USA. Previously, as Managing Director of RDF and, before that, Director of Programmes at Granada TV, Mansfield was the creative lead for two of the UK’s most successful production companies, producing shows as diverse as I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, Coronation Street, Cold Feet, Ladette to Lady and Secret Millionaire.
Grant Mansfield was also one of one of eleven recipients of Honorary Degrees awarded by UWE Bristol in July 2022.
We asked Bristol Creative Industries members to tell us what they think culture secretary Michelle Donelan should do to support creative businesses.
Joanna Randall, managing director, Purplefish (see the Purplefish BCI profile here):
“The creative industries in the UK have the potential to be at the forefront of the new government’s push and focus for economic growth. Populated by ambitious entrepreneurs who thrive on commercial success, the industry is the powerhouse which fuels so many other sectors to flourish.
“However, while there is sustained and significant support for some parts of the creative sector – notably gaming technology, AI and the film industry – the wider creative sector businesses do not get access to this and have been left to weather the rollercoaster of the last three years coping with the pandemic, Brexit and inconsistent government leadership. The wider creative sector has not had the benefit of the same support offered to hospitality and retail.
“Indeed, creative agencies including marketing, design, advertising, digital and communications continue to increase in number in the UK but support in the form of tax credits, grants and targeted investment does not match what our colleagues in the technology and film sectors experience.
“The other area where our industry is facing an enormous challenge is in skills and staff. There are estimated to be 40% more marketing jobs in the UK compared to 2021 (source: Association of Professional Staffing Companies and Vacancysoft). We are facing a skills shortage like never before and without investment in talent programmes and awareness raising of opportunities and career paths into creative careers our future industry growth will be significantly thwarted.
“Tangible and accessible support is now vital for our sector and by extension, the wider UK economy; without the pervasive services our industry provides to every UK business sector new government economic growth targets will not be achieved.”
Matthew Pink, brand director, BASE (see BASE’s BCI profile here):
“Bristol and the South West are often rightly considered a hub for tech entrepreneurialism and innovation. However, an overlooked aspect of the region is that it is also a hub for brands and businesses who blend competencies across the culture secretary’s exact remit (digital, culture, media and sport) to promote healthy and active lifestyles.
“The UK has a mental health crisis and obesity crisis putting huge pressure on an already buckling NHS. Contemporary and forward-thinking media brands in the adventure and outdoors activity space like us at BASE, Global Cycling Network and brands like Bike Radar at Immediate Media, use smart creativity, digital media and sport culture insight to drive participation and deeper awareness of the benefits of an active lifestyle in the outdoors.
“The problems the government faces are intertwined and interrelated across its different departments. I would urge the new culture secretary to support businesses which harness the elements of her department’s remit to support positive societal change, not just profit.”
Catherine Frankpitt, director, Strike Communications (see Strike Communications’ BCI profile here):
“As the recent Bristol Creative Industries Creative Force report shows, the creative industries include many freelancers, sole traders and micro businesses, who collectively make an enormous contribution to the UK’s creative output and achievements. Yet we are often overlooked when it comes to government support and recognition of the value we bring.
“As we saw during the pandemic, many of us were excluded from schemes such as furlough, and so far, there is very little mention of specific help during this cost of living crisis. We would like to work with the government to find solutions that are tailored to work for us.”
Tom Vaughton, founder and manging director, Varn (see Varn’s BCI profile here):
“We would love to see Michelle Donelan focus on building awareness and championing the South West as a hub of creativity and excellence across digital marketing, as well as promoting our area as a destination of outstanding creative employment opportunities.
“We want future leaders in our industry to look outside of London and be excited by the prospect of working in outstanding creative businesses in our area, as well as the joy of living in beautiful places to enhance their wellbeing and quality of life.”
If you’re a Bristol Creative Industries member and you’d like to add a comment, email Dan.
How can creative businesses deal with rising costs?
A creative force to be reckoned with: Unleashing the power of Bristol’s creative industries
What does the government’s ‘Build Back Better’ plan mean for the creative industries?
Creative industries can be ‘a catalyst for post-pandemic recovery’
With climate change on the agenda at COP27 in Egypt, a major new report has examined the steps different sectors within the UK’s creative industries are taking to reduce carbon emissions and what more needs to be done.
Published by Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, Julie’s Bicycle and BOP Consulting, the Creative Industries and the Climate Emergency study describes the the creative industries as an “economic powerhouse” which delivers £115.9bn GVA to the UK economy, accounts for 2.2m jobs, and exports more than £50bn per year.
The government’s strategy for the UK economy to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 says “everyone will need to play their part”. With the creative industries representing 6% of the GVA of the overall UK economy, the study stresses that it’s vital the sector works with the government to achieve its goals.
The sector has responded dramatically to that call to action with the report highlighting how businesses and organisations of all sizes and in all sub-sectors of the creative industries innovating in production, design and supply to reduce their impact on the environment.
Several carbon calculators have been developed for businesses to measure their carbon footprint, and industry associations are forming alliances to produce reports, campaign groups and other activities to tackle climate change.
There are extensive challenges for all sectors though, the report said, and much more action is needed including government support to encourage and more investment for applied research.
Hasan Bakhshi, director of the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, said:
“We are calling for a change to the definitions of research and development (R&D) used by the HMRC for tax relief, which currently excludes arts, humanities and social sciences. Without this we risk under-incentivising creative industries companies who want to experiment with new production and supply methods to reduce carbon emissions.”
The call for R&D tax relief to be extended to the creative industries is also something higlighted by Bristol Creative Industries board member Gail Caig, and the issue was highlighted in Bristol Creative Industries’ recent report on creative businesses in Bristol and the wider south west region.
We found that almost half (46%) of respondents to our survey stated they have not applied for R&D tax credits because they are not eligible.
Another significant barrier is the lack of knowledge of R&D tax credits, the report found. Although these barriers are higher among freelancers, 38% of commercial business respondents believe they are ineligible for R&D tax relief, and 17% admit they lack knowledge.
The BCI report said:
“While progress is being made to strengthen the links between the tech community and the creative industries, we need to raise our game in terms of research and development across the sector. There is a major UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) cluster programme in Bristol as well as the Catapult Network in the South West, but the research shows that these initiatives are not cutting through to BCI members. The challenge is on to build even stronger connections between creative and tech, educate more businesses about R&D and ensure programmes delivered at a national level deliver more for our members.”
Alison Tickell, founder and CEO of Julie’s Bicycle, said:
“For so long we’ve asked what is needed to motivate the political, economic and social change urgently needed. This report provides an answer; culture. Not only do the arts motivate change through storytelling and the unique ability to inspire connection and empathy but on a very practical level; it is these industries that across all sub-sectors are adapting their processes and monitoring impact. We find clear evidence of a willingness to learn and change from CEOs, boards, employees and artists themselves; it is clear culture is ready to prioritise change.”
Professor Christopher Smith, executive chair, Arts and Humanities Research Council, said:
“Climate change and environmental issues are now at the top of the agenda for creative businesses, from international corporations to start-ups. There are dozens of innovative projects and tools to help reduce carbon emissions, and some are supported through UKRI. But there is so much more to do. This report is a starting point and a call to action.”
The full report is jam-packed with useful information on how the creative industries are tackling climate change, the challenges that remain and what needs to be done to solve them. We urge you to read it.
In the meantime, here are some sector-by-sector highlights from the report of net zero schemes and initiatives with links to useful resources:
The advertising sector is largely computer-based work in offices but approximately 20% of its carbon footprint is generated through production. According to the Advertising Association, the largest footprint of a single production shoot was over 100 tonnes of CO2.
The sector also has a significant environmental impact through media distribution including tens of thousands of advertising billboards across the country and a million tonnes of leaflets, brochures and flyers.
Efforts taken by the advertising sector to reach net zero include the Advertising Association’s Ad Net Zero initiative, with several well-known brands, advertising agencies, media titles and industry bodies signing up to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030. It also launched a report with guidance for measuring and reducing emissions through advertising, including how to enable consumer behaviour change.
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising has launched its Ad Net Zero course.
Like other creative sectors, architecture has relatively low direct environmental impacts due to mostly being computer-based work undertaken in offices.
However, its role within the wider built environment is crucial to the climate agenda. Estimates suggest that the construction sector as a whole contributes as much as 40% of all global carbon emissions, with the production and use of concrete alone responsible for 8% of all emissions.
The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) launched the 2030 Climate Challenge to support architects to “design within a climate conscious trajectory”. It provides performance outcomes targets for architects in how they design for energy use, water use, embodied carbon etc.
With Architects Declare, RIBA also produced the Built for the Environment report which makes the case that the built environment must drastically reduce its carbon emissions to work towards net zero.
The Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) was established in 2020 as a “network of individuals within architecture and related built environment professions taking action to address the twin crises of climate and ecological breakdown”.
Small scale crafts businesses, such as designer making and jewellery, have a relatively small carbon footprint. It is the creative sub-sector with the smallest economic size according to government figures.
The Crafts Council produced a report in 2010 promoting environmental sustainability in crafts, which remains an active part of the organisation’s programme. The Crafts Council is also part of ‘Ecological Citizens’, a project with the Royal College of Arts and commercial partners such as IKEA, which explores the digital preparedness of the sub-sector for net zero including manufacturing of surplus materials and helping people digitally exchange knowledge and resources.
Research by the Crafts Council in 2020 found that almost 50% of consumers said that buying from sustainable businesses using sustainable materials and local supply chains is important.
Design is not a single creative sub-sector with a distinct value chain, but a set of creative practices and skills applied across industries and contexts. Environmental impacts depend on the type of work being undertaken. For example, graphic design and visual communications is linked to advertising, while product design is associated with engineering and manufacturing.
In 2021, the Design Council launched Design for Planet which “aims to turn policy into practice and allow us to design our way to net zero”.
The Design Council also runs the Design Value Framework, which helps designers and commissioners to identify and assess the wider social, environmental and democratic impacts of their work.
The report said that designer fashion “has almost certainly the largest environmental footprint of all the creative industries”. It added:
“Due to the complexity of international supply chains, estimates can vary widely – one study by McKinsey estimated the entire fashion product life cycle is responsible for up to 4% of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Such is the extent of the problem that London Fashion Week, the UK industry’s flagship event, has been specifically targeted by activists, with high-profile campaigns by Extinction Rebellion for it to be cancelled.
“At the same time, controversies about ‘greenwashing’ and potentially misleading claims from fashion businesses have led to an investigation by the UK Competition and Markets Authority.”
In 2020, the British Fashion Council helped to establish the Institute of Positive Fashion, with an ambition for the fashion industry to be “more resilient and circular through global collaboration and local action”.
There are various organisations and commitments encouraging voluntary sign-ups such as Textiles 2030. Signatories collaborate on carbon, water and circular textile targets, and contribute to discussions around policy development for textiles in the UK.
Other initiatives include the UN’s Fashion Charter for Climate Action and The Fashion Pact.
The BFI collaborated with BAFTA albert and Arup in 2020 to measure carbon emissions from film and television. There are significant impacts, particularly for big budget productions which are estimated at 2,840 tonnes of CO2 for an average film production with a budget of over US$70m. Around half of emissions are linked to transport, 30% of which is air travel. There is also considerable onset energy consumption, with electricity and gas use accounting for 34% of emissions, while diesel generators contribute 15%.
In 2011, BAFTA launched albert, an online tool that calculates the amount of greenhouse gases as a direct result of a production. The tool has been used by more than 1,300 television production companies, with 7,500 production footprints calculated.
Other tools include the Green Book of Sustainable Buildings which has resources for cinemas, the Independent Cinema Office Green Cinema Toolkit and Green Screen, an online tool that supports environmentally friendly filming in London.
“The environmental impacts of the music industry are probably better understood than the impact of any of the UK’s other creative industries,” the study said.
A study by Julie’s Bicycle into the UK music industry found that the annual greenhouse gas emissions from artists touring in the UK and British acts touring overseas was approximately 85,000 tonnes of CO2e in 2010. Research by campaign group Powerful Thinking in 2018 found that the UK festival industry generated 25,000 tonnes of CO2e (excluding audience travel), created 26,000 tonnes of waste and used million litres of diesel.
Spotify estimated in 2021 that it had a carbon footprint of 353,054 tonnes CO2, and that 42% of its GHG emissions come from listeners streaming.
In 2019, Music Declares Emergency was launched as a call to action backed by more than 3,000 UK music artists. It is now also a campaigning entity that issues guidance, co-produced with Julie’s Bicycle, on how artists and businesses can create change, such as pressing lighter weight 140 gramme vinyl instead of 180 gramme.
LIVE (Live music Industry Venues & Entertainment) was established in October 2020 to bring the UK trade associations under one umbrella group as a single, united voice. It launched the LIVE Green programme.
All 14 association members of LIVE have ratified its declaration to deliver measurable and targeted action on climate change, with the ultimate aim of reaching net zero emissions by 2030.
Vision: 2025 is a network of over 500 outdoor events and businesses taking climate action.
Smaller independent companies in the recorded music industry can measure their carbon footprint using a custom carbon calculator developed by IMPALA and Julie’s Bicycle.
The Music Climate Pact is a global platform, initiated by the UK’s Association of Independent Music (AIM) and record labels association the BPI, that was launched as a response to COP26 and the urgent call for collective action to combat the climate crisis.
A study by the GLA and the Theatres Trust found that London’s theatre industry generates 50,000 tonnes of CO2e emissions a year, with audience travel estimated at an additional 35,000.
The Act Green report examines audience attitudes towards the role of cultural organisations in tackling the climate emergency.
The Creative Green Tools, developed by Julie’s Bicycle, underpin the Arts Council England’s environmental reporting programme for more than 800 annually funded organisations.
The Theatre Green Book outlines a new standard for environmental action in the performing arts.
Choreographer Matthew Bourne piloted the Julie’s Bicycle Creative Green Touring Certification with its 2018-19 Swan Lake tour of the UK.
The sector’s environmental impact is linked to printing and paper production. The UK produces more than 180,000 new book titles each year (more per capita than any other country), and is home to more than 10 national newspapers, hundreds of local papers and several thousand consumer and trade magazines.
The report said:
“Producing virgin paper from timber for all of these is highly energy intensive, and the print industries are thought to represent up to 4% of global energy consumption. Added to this is the large amount of water required in producing virgin paper – estimated to be 10 litres of water per A4 sheet. Pulp and paper mills, with their extensive use of bleaching agents and other chemicals, are also significant polluters.”
The Publishers Association (PA) has a Sustainability Taskforce, the Publishing Declares campaign and a carbon calculator.
The Sustainability Industry Forum was launched by six publishing organisations.
The video games design sector is almost entirely digital so the environmental concerns are mainly related to the large amounts of energy required for playing games. London software designer Space Ape calculated that 50% (or approximately 375 tonnes) of their carbon emissions are produced by the cloud servers used to operate their games.
The Playing for The Planet Alliance is a campaign group launched by the United Nations that seeks to create change within the global video games industry.
UK Interactive Entertainment (Ukie) partnered with Playing for The Planet to create the Green Games Guide.
In 2010, a report by the Greater London Authority and Julie’s Bicycle estimated that audience travel accounted for a majority share (56%) of the London visual arts sector’s CO2e emissions. A 2019 report by the Tate Gallery found that audience travel accounted for 240 million tonnes of CO2e, or 92% of the gallery’s total carbon footprint.
The Gallery Climate Coalition has grown from the London arts community to over 900 country-wide members, and an international membership of 20 countries. Its aim is to facilitate a reduction of the sector’s carbon emissions by a minimum of 50% by 2030, as well as promoting zero waste.
If you’re a Bristol Creative Industries member, let us know what you’re doing to tackle climate change by emailing Dan.
What can we learn from Patagonia giving away their firm to fight climate change?
Powerful climate change documentary produced in Bath premiered at COP27
How sustainability is going to change your (working) life
Our predictions (and hopes) for COP27
Richard Roberts explains how to create an effective hybrid working culture for your organisation.
This article follows my recent presentation to Bristol Creative Industries, looking at the impact of the new ways of working and how to create an engaging hybrid working culture. It’s a very hot topic because organisations are finding hybrid working challenging as it’s still early days. There’s no ready-made guidebook, no magic formula to get hybrid right – or make your people love working for you. But there are many approaches you can take to make things work better.
And why does this matter so much? As I covered in my presentation, research has shown that 54% of employees say they are more productive working from home, and 66% are not comfortable going back to the office or the old 9 to 5 routine. Perhaps the most striking stat comes from Glassdoor who found that employees without flexibility are twice as likely to move jobs. As hybrid is here to stay, you have to get this right.
In this article I’ve chosen some of the main challenges around managing hybrid working, followed by some approaches you could try that may work in your organisation to create better employee engagement and help retain talent. Of course, no two organisations will be the same so solutions covered here are broad and will need to be bespoke for each company
In a recent survey, 72% of employee said they would prefer a new manager to a pay rise. This clearly demonstrates how important the day-to-day relationship is with your manager. It has such an influence on your motivation levels and desire to contribute. Managing a hybrid team is very different from managing a team that you would see face to face every day in the office.
Here’s a few ideas to support better people management:
Many of us still spend a lot of time communicating via screens, especially hybrid workers. But not everyone is comfortable doing so. Over time, this creates a group of people whose ideas and contributions aren’t as represented as those who are more confident. This creates shifts in power and status purely down to the communication channel being used, which risks disengaging those who could contribute in a more conventional ‘in the room’ setting. While screens allow conversation, it’s easy to miss the subtle nuances of communication you’d pick up talking face to face in person.
Having a voice is an important engagement driver. We need to feel we are contributing and to be able to do this in a safe space without fear of ridicule. Listening is how organisations build trust. It’s important to think through how you can replicate this from an office setting to virtual.
Here’s a few ideas to help people be heard:
Some people are working in the office, others are not. We tend to talk to those who we see in a building, not those in the wider circles we don’t. Over time working relationships ‘thin’ and silos emerge, not helped by missing the conversations that are happening in the building, and outside. People get frustrated by being left out of those informal exchanges and decisions made that they weren’t involved in as they weren’t there. Over time this can grow into being excluded from bigger and more important decisions.
Here’s a few ideas to bring your teams together:
It’s really important that leaders remain visible in the office and virtually. During lockdown leaders were present and often highly visible via virtual comms. Now, as offices have opened up, many have returned and the emphasis on virtual comms has declined – which leaves those people working remotely not seeing as much of their leaders as those in the building. Key messages aren’t being received equally, which also adds to the silo problem.
Here’s a few ideas to help leaders be more visible:
At the heart of organisations are the networks and relationships that form over time. These provide social contact but also enable the professional networks that help people get promoted etc. Research, from organisational thinkers like Simon Sinek, shows that people need social contact. The difference from being present in the building and working remotely creates the ‘them and us’ of those central to the organisation and those who feel disconnected and isolated from the opportunities and social life that come with office life.
Here’s a few to help keep people connected:
Any organisation serious about attracting and retaining the best talent must have a hybrid strategy that works. Recruitment will be more challenging for those organisations that don’t communicate how hybrid working works for their people. Over time people leave and potential candidates won’t know the organisation and will it hard to feel like they belong somewhere that they’ve never been. If you’ve previously recruited based on your office and location this culture will mean a lot less when hybrid workers will rarely visit or spend time together.
Here’s a few ideas to recruit hybrid workers:
Hybrid working is a huge engagement opportunity that can re-shape how we lead, manage and inspire our organisations. But no two organisations – or set of challenges will be the same. The one constant thread running through the issues are your people. The more they are consulted and involved in designing what is after all, their organisation, the more likely you are to create a culture that better communicates, engages and retains. So, the key for successful hybrid working is to work with your people to get it right for both sides.
Richard Roberts is a freelance HR consultant and culture and employee engagement specialist. He runs en:Rich HR.
The importance of nurturing the region’s exceptional creative talent, alongside innovation, diversity, and sustainability were highlighted as priorities by industry experts and the audience at the first day of the inaugural Bristol and Bath Screen Summit, yesterday (2 November).
More than 100 people attended the event at Arnolfini, which was hosted by broadcaster Carol Vorderman and The Outlaws’ Gamba Cole.
Showcasing the city region as a leading global production community, the Summit was opened by the Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees. Guests heard from programme makers from some of the world’s biggest brands, including Bristol’s Grant Mansfield, founder and CEO of Plimsoll Productions, and Julian Bellamy, managing director, ITV Studios.
Lynn Barlow, Assistance Vice-Chancellor Creative and Cultural Industries Engagement, said: “A clear message from the first day of the event is that people are key to the industry’s success, and the incredible talent base and amazing track record of TV and film in this area is continuing to drive growth. We should celebrate what we have already achieved, but there is still much to do, particularly pushing innovation through creativity and technology, but also ensuring the industry is representative of all audiences by creating a more diverse and inclusive workforce.
“Thank you to the panellists who kindly gave their time to speak at the Summit – their insight really demonstrates how much the region has to offer as we look to the future.”
The creation of the Screen Summit is a key recommendation from research by UWE Bristol’s Digital Cultures Research Centre (DCRC); it found that while the screen industry in the city-region is booming, more could be done to overcome the political and economic challenges its facing.
As day two of the Summit gets underway today (Thursday 3 November), academics from UWE Bristol’s Digital Cultures Research Centre and the University of Bristol, will join regional and national policy makers and industry leaders to explore potential interventions needed to sustain clean inclusive growth in the city region’s production community.
In particular, they will discuss ways of supporting and extending the emerging indigenous film and television drama in the area, considering the benefits of creating a ‘regional production fund’ and access to investment packages, either to companies already based here or to those looking to bring productions to the area.
Speakers from other regional screen agencies, including Liverpool City Regional Production Fund, will share best practice and provide an insight into its key learnings and successes.
With attendees including representatives from the West of England Combined Authority, Bristol City Council, the BFI, and Screen Skills, the aim will be for a working party to oversee both how funding might be leveraged and how it could be used most beneficially once the resources were in place.
Listening to podcasts is a great way to inspire and inform your creativity. We asked members of the Bristol Creative Industries LinkedIn group, which has over 7,400 members, to share their recommendations. Happy listening!
Created by the magazine dedicated to the creative industry, the Creative Boom Podcast features candid conversations with artists and designers about their creative journeys. Listen here.
Recommended by Ellen Carroll.
This is a podcast that “questions assumptions in the tech world and celebrates those working with technology in unconventional ways.” Listen here.
Recommended by Jessica Morgan (see Jessica’s BCI profile for Carnsight Communications here).
Hosted by Adam Tuckwell and Jon Wilcox, the PR Hub Podcast is a conversational PR and marcoms podcast with special guests discussing the world of communications. Listen here.
Recommended by Gina Jones.
This podcast includes interviews and discussions between Robert Craven and digital agency experts providing insights to help you grow your digital agency. Listen here.
Recommended by Robert Craven.
This podcast focuses on documentary film making and the people who do it. Listen here.
Recommended by Stuart Fox.
This podcast features marketers telling the stories behind the strategies that led to amazing work. Listen here.
Recommended by Kevin Mason (see Kevin’s BCI profile for Proctor + Stevenson here).
Hosted by Jon Evans, this podcast “uncovers the bulls**t and carefully managed PR messages to explore the good, the bad and quite frankly downright ugly truth about marketing”. Listen here.
Recommended by Matt Ramsay (see Matt’s BCI profile for Activation here).
This podcast features B2B marketers and creatives from the tech world discussing the role that creativity plays in helping them market their business. Listen here.
Recommended by Dave Corlett.
Hosted by entrepreneur and Dragons’ Den investor Steven Bartlett, this podcast is described as “an unfiltered journey into the remarkable stories of the people that have defined culture, achieved greatness and created stories worth studying”. Listen here.
Recommended by Alli Nicholas, membership manager at Bristol Creative Industries.
This podcast features conversations on the art of creative entrepreneurship. It is hosted by leading creative business experts David C. Baker and Blair Enns. Listen here.
Recommended by Alli Nicholas.
David C. Baker joined BCI for an event in February 2021 to share brilliant tips on how creative businesses can write the perfect positioning statement. Read a summary of his advice here.
“Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans help teams all over the world discover a more adaptive and human way of working. Now it’s your turn. Each week, they’ll bring you a counterintuitive take on a common challenge at work—and you’ll hear from guests who have been there and found their way to something better.” Listen here.
Recommended by Kim Slater.
This podcast focuses on the smallest changes that can have the biggest impact. It shares simple evidence-backed tips to help you kick bad habits, get a raise, and grow a business. Listen here.
Recommended by Dr Thomas Bowden-Green.
“Organisational psychologist Adam Grant takes you inside some truly unusual places, where they’ve figured out how to make work not suck.” Listen here.
Recommended by Chris Thurling, chair of Bristol Creative Industries following a recommendation by Ann Hiatt.
This podcast from Creative Review looks at what is wrong with the creative industries and how to fix it. Listen here.
This podcast, from the community for creatives to make our industry a better place, interviews creatives, mental health experts and consultants to share advice, stories and conversations. Listen here.
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