CHANGE – Decarbonising Culture: the new program to facilitate the transition of culture towards sustainability

CHANGE is a training program for the transfer of specific skills that stems from the need to address issues related to the environmental sustainability of cultural and creative industries (CCI) and cultural heritage. Emerging in response to the growing awareness of negative impacts of the sector’s activities on the environment, CHANGE aims to facilitate the necessary transition towards decarbonization for cultural operators through a path of sharing specific knowledge, best practices, tools, and on-the-job training.

Fondazione Santagata for the Economics of Culture deems it necessary to train individuals who are sensitive to change, providing knowledge and tools to address the sector’s specific economic, social, and environmental challenges, with a particular focus on decarbonization practices.

CHANGE offers an opportunity for the development of knowledge, skills, and network expansion. The program, in collaboration with Legambiente Piemonte and Valle d’Aosta and other partners to be announced in the coming weeks, is funded by Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo.

The programme will be structured in two distinct phases:

PHASE 1

• 10 online lessons dedicated to environmental, social, and economic sustainability of CCIs as inspirational talks aimed at providing skills and tools.

PHASE 2

• 1 workshop dedicated to Project Cycle Management (PCM) as a key tool for more sustainable planning;
• 2 weeks of job shadowing to put into practice what has been learned, developing a specific project in an Italian or international host organization already active in the participant’s field or organization;
• 1 closing and exchange day, involving the presentation of projects developed by the participants.

Some scholarships will be made available for the participation in the entire program and the two weeks of job shadowing.

Fondazione Santagata has long identified sustainability and international cooperation as key focal points to its strategy: from this commitment came the first “Decarbonising Culture” Forum in Turin, co-organised with Fondazione Teobaldo Fenoglio in February 2023, and the Fondazione Santagata Award was established, aimed at sustainable development projects carried out in UNESCO territories and now in its fourth edition.

Since 2015, the Foundation has also been running the Academy on UNESCO Designations and Sustainable Development: a training program for heritage management professionals to contribute to the achievement of the United Nations 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals.

However, there is still a need for specific skills training for cultural operators, which is why CHANGE aims at generating expertise in the field of environmental, social, and economic sustainability, both in theoretical and practical terms.

The program will be built with the participation of a network of international experts and aims to bring positive impacts locally, taking into consideration the needs of cultural operators with whom the Foundation has collaborated for a long time.