Agent: any trustee, employee, freelancer, volunteer or other third-party that is in the position to act on behalf of British Arts Festivals Association.
BAFA: British Arts Festivals Association, a charitable incorporated organisation (registered charity number 1193943) based in the United Kingdom.
We, us and our means BAFA, and where the context permits includes any of its trustees, employees, freelancers and volunteers acting on BAFA’s behalf.
Protection of the environment in which we live and operate, together with the global environment, is a core part of the values and principles of BAFA and we consider it to be sound business practice. This policy sets out how we operate and carry out the objectives of BAFA in a way that also demonstrates our care for the environment.
This policy applies to all agents of BAFA. Its requirements should be reflected in other policies and procedures, agreements and contracts, as necessary.
As a small charity without property holding, rented property or vehicles to its name BAFA already operates with a minimal carbon footprint. Agents work from their homes and in the main meet remotely via online meetings. Once per year a physical gathering of BAFA agents and members is held via an annual conference, using third party hired facilities.
However, BAFA acknowledges that small changes to individual practices, and care taken in the commissioning and contracting for goods and services by agents of BAFA, can have an increased positive impact on the carbon footprint of BAFA.
In this policy statement we commit BAFA to:
a. Complying with all relevant environmental legislation, regulations and approved codes of practice.
b. Protecting the environment by striving to prevent and minimise our contribution to pollution of land, air, and water.
c. Ensuring all agents of BAFA are made aware of this environmental policy in induction and training.
d. Seeking to keep wastage to a minimum, by maximising the efficient use and re-use of materials and resources whether this be through avoiding purchases and / or borrowing resources where possible (reducing); choosing reusable options instead of disposable options (reusing); or where items cannot be reused, by ensuring they are disposed of in recycle schemes rather than landfill waste (recycling).
e. Communicating our environmental performance to our trustees, staff, freelancers, volunteers and other significant stakeholders, and sharing this policy on the charity’s website.
f. Developing our management processes to ensure that environmental factors are considered during planning and implementation.
g. Monitoring and continuously improving our environmental performance.
BAFA and its agents will take the following steps to further reduce our environmental impact:
a. Where we engage with third party venues and catering providers as part of our operations we will take reasonable efforts to ensure these venues and providers recycle as much of their waste as possible, and if possible that disposable (landfill destined) products will be avoided in catering in favour of long-life items that can be washed and reused.
b. All catering providers will be required to produce non-meat based catering for our events.
c. We request that our freelancers, trustees and any employees use 100% recycled paper in their printers. Double sided printing and back to back photocopying should be undertaken by BAFA where practicable.
d. We ask that our agents are mindful to only print out what is necessary operationally, or that which has to form part of statutory or financial records. All correspondence and meeting documentation is sent and held electronically and very few physical paper files are generated.
e. We commit to reducing our print media and sharing our work and our opportunities using digital, online, social media and other non-print resources as much as possible.
f. We encourage our agents and those contracted on a short-term basis to use public transport when travelling on BAFA business wherever practicable.
Being a member of BAFA offers access to the UK’s leading arts festivals, and an invaluable opportunity to build a strong network of professional contacts across the breadth of the festivals sector.
Our members range from volunteer-run organisations to large, well-established festivals, and we also have special memberships available for universities and associate members.
BAFA is supported by funding from...
Upper Ground Floor, Overross House, Ross Park, Ross-on-Wye HR9 7US
BAFA is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (1193943)
© BAFA 2026
Website Designed & Built by we are CODA
