From the International Etnographic Film Festival and from the Museum as its promoter, we understand sustainability not only from an environmental point of view, but also from a social point of view, towards inclusion and accessibility.
That is why in this 19th edition we are also committed to managing our activities responsibly, developing initiatives that make the most of our experience and knowledge to improve and contribute to a sustainable society in the territory where we work. It is a corporate responsibility strategy that complies with what the UN General Assembly established in the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the process of transformation this agenda proposes, cultural action can not only contribute to the dissemination and appropriation of the Agenda 2030, but it is also closely related to people and territories development.
In October 2021, the MICE, alongside several Galician events in the fields of music and film, signed a Pact for Sustainable Culture. This committed us even more to a responsible management model and to the diagnosis and identification of those aspects we must improve in order to achieve good results in terms of sustainability. Along this line, we subscribed to a common sustainability policy, which reinforces two concepts: the need to think globally and act locally, and the importance of cooperating to achieve our objectives. This management model therefore considers measures of social responsibility and economic and environmental sustainability to which MICE is committed.
In 2023 we went a step further with the implementation of a sustainability consultancy by five Pact experts: Giada Calvano, Pablo Galindo, Jone Pérez, Arancha Estévez, and María Baqueiro. Our work strategy, as we were recommended by the PACT, must make progress slowly but surely, with confidence and conviction, avoiding actions for the gallery and acting with transparency and great perseverance.
Every festival is an important agent of change in our environment. The advice and support we received from the experts reaffirmed that culture is a tool for designing the spaces we want to inhabit, and that sustainable development brings with it social innovation, new ideas, new processes and working approaches.
SOCIAL FIELD
We have a clear commitment to SDG 4, quality education. Aware of the value of cinema and creative media in socio-cultural people development, especially the youngest, we incorporate the MICE Petís and the MICEscola into our programming. We also address SDG 5 (gender equality and diversity), SDGs 8 and 3, which guarantee decent working conditions and safety, health, hygiene and well-being measures, and SDG 10, with measures that guarantee accessibility (physical, motor, cognitive, sensory and organic). Along these lines, these are some of the actions we are carrying out:
- Maintain gender equality in the programming, as we have done in recent years. We were the first festival with 50% of proposals made by women and, in addition, the direction of the MICE is held by a woman.
- Propose programming for a diverse audience.
- Ensuring the health and safety of the team by implementing measures and complying with labour regulations on safety. Also by signing contracts under agreements that set out the services, rights, and obligations of every person of the team.
- Respect the competition and the promotion of culture as a whole, in the belief that competition in culture should be analysed from a cooperative point of view.
- Promotion of diverse food options (veganism, allergies…) in catering and guest services.
- In communication, respect the transmission of content and information. Use of inclusive, non-discriminatory and non-sexist language. Use of the tools that make the information and communication accessible on the festival’s website and social media.
- In the theatres, we are currently concerned about physical and auditory accessibility. Concerning physical accessibility, we are quite aware of what needs to be done to make accessible the places where screening or different events and activities take place for people with reduced mobility. We consider measures ranging from the presence of ramps and lifts to the elimination of architectural barriers that make access difficult, and areas for wheelchair users are provided. We try to ensure there are enough spaces available to accommodate those with specific mobility needs by creating preferential spaces.
- In terms of auditory accessibility, we try to increase specific subtitling (MICE has non-specific subtitling in all films for many years now to facilitate accessibility). We also collaborate with accessibility-related associations to improve aspects regarding physical and sensory accessibility. For this purpose, we contacted ONCE (Spanish National Organisation of the Blind) to introduce the changes our webpage allows and to consider a new website design for future editions.
ECONOMIC FIELD
We are committed to SDGs 8, 11 and 17: measuring indicators, supporting the local arts environment and working with local businesses, and identification and participation of stakeholders.
What we find the most difficult is to have a right indicators measurement, since we are a small team and a festival with modest resources, and it is complicated to have a person with time to measure the indicators. However, we have a table and we try to fill it out and review the different indicators that are shown.
In addition, we continue to strengthen the following measures:
- Working with local providers (Sacauntos, A Tafona, Numax, Bicoca…).
- Supporting local projects and creators, creation of synergies and collaboration with other entities (associations, educational centres, universities and other festivals) in the immediate surroundings, such as Consello da Cultura Galega, FICBUEU, Museo do Pobo Galego partners, CSC Aurelio Aguirre de Conxo, or Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, among others.
- Identification of stakeholders. Budget coherence.
ENVIRONMENTAL FIELD
Commitment with SDGs 6, 7, 12, and 13: minimising water consumption and ensuring free access to safe drinking water; minimising energy consumption and, wherever possible, supply renewable or less polluting sources; implementing circular economy criteria: reducing, reusing and recycling, and having a proper waste management and collection system; promotion of shared public transport and encouraging the idea of multimodality.
In previous editions we managed to:
- Reduce single-use plastics, among other measures, using tap water and glass pitchers.
- Place fountains connected to tap water in the spaces depending on us, i.e. the Museo do Pobo Galego.
- Reduce paper in dissemination materials, promoting digital information and publishing.
- Prioritise urban mobility for the team and guests by foot.
- Implement circular economy criteria, such as the reuse of other editions elements (photocall and xbanner holders or leftover merchandising); use compostable cups and plates in catering; improve selective waste collection; and prioritise bulk purchase in local commerce.
These actions reduced emissions related to festival activities, such as travelling by external transport, outsourcing waste management or products purchasing. For this edition, we intend to consolidate and improve the selective waste collection and the total elimination of single-use plastics.
Sometimes the implementation of these improvements do not depend directly on the festival organisation and management, but on the owners of the spaces we organise the activities. They are often under the jurisdiction of public administrations, which also complicates actions such as measurements or even right waste segregation. On this point, we believe that holding meetings with stakeholders may be one of the most necessary actions in this edition.
Although sustainability plans and strategy are internal use documents, and thus they do not need to be disclosed to the public, we believe that communicating and bringing our actions and progress to light is important in order to do our part to bring changes into society.