Edinburgh Climate Change Institute (ECCI)

With its dramatic gothic spire, the Edinburgh International Festival Hub is difficult to miss in the city’s skyline.

Although refurbished in 1999 by the Scottish Arts Council (now Creative Scotland), the Grade A listed 18th century building at the head of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile has some of the lowest energy efficiency ratings in the country – a problem facing 29% of Scotland’s office stock.

To save energy and cut costs while preserving the original building fabric, and constrained by single glazed windows, a 25-year-old boiler and limited funding, the Festival’s sustainability and building management team have had to get creative. It has started to pay off: Since 2018 they have reduced electricity emissions by 56% and gas emissions by 26% at The Hub on Castlehill.

For other SMEs operating in traditional, energy-inefficient buildings, here are some tips from Edinburgh International Festival on reducing your carbon footprint:

1 - Turn things off

It sounds simple, but lighting and equipment being needlessly left on was a big source of wasted energy in The Hub.

The security team were turning on the lights in every room as part of their procedure for opening the building. So, Festival staff went around the premises with their contractors, Dima Group, to take note of which lights were essential, and which could remain switched off. Thanks to a simple conversation with the right people, they quickly cut wasteful electricity consumption without needing to change the behaviour of dozens of individual staff members.

2 - Upgrade what you can

Even in a 180-year-old building, the Festival team has switched most of the lights to energy-efficient LED bulbs and installed internal triple glazing over the original windows in the main hall. This has helped to reduce noise from the main performance space and limit heat loss.

Some areas of The Hub are less constrained by the Grade A listing, such as the top floor office. There, the team has invested in upgrading spaces with the most efficient equipment available, such as double glazing, wall insulation and thermal radiator valves (TRVs).

3 - Review your operations

It’s easier to make decisions when you know which parts of your business produce the most emissions. So, calculate your carbon footprint and start with your top three highest-emitting areas. From there you should consider, what can I do differently or more efficiently?

For example, after Covid-19 restrictions lifted, Edinburgh International Festival decided to close their commercial kitchen and café. In addition to cutting costs, it has significantly aided in their emissions reduction to date.

4 - Expand your boundary

The festival has committed to an ambitious target of net zero by 2045 – and have signed up to British Standards Institution’s Net Zero Pathway to add structure to the process.

Scope 3 emissions, which includes artist travel and freight, make up the largest share of the organisation’s carbon footprint. The Edinburgh International Festival team is exploring innovative ways to shrink the footprint in these areas:

A residency model that allows international artists to participate in multiple events over an extended period during their visit to the UK.
Avoiding international travel for certain program components. The team has calculated that they could save over 600 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e) for an Australian performance by sourcing only the primary performance artists from Australia, while hiring local firms in Glasgow for other production elements.

Learn more

Edinburgh International Festival’s sustainability action plan
History of The Hub on Castle Hill
Saving Energy in Traditional Buildings - Historic Environment Scotland
Retrofitting heritage buildings in Scotland - A University of Edinburgh workshop
A sustainable future for Rosslyn Castle – The world’s oldest building with heat pumps