On Friday 20 September 2019, WGGB called on its members to put their pens down and unplug their laptops to join the Global Climate Strike demonstration.

That same year we passed a motion at our AGM declaring a climate and ecological emergency (read our full statement here) and pledging to put the climate crisis at the “heart of all we do”.

As part of the climate emergency we declared, we pledged as an organisation to reduce WGGB’s emissions to zero by 2025 by continuously reviewing and developing our environmental policies and practices.

Since that date we have:

• Moved meetings online – and envisage hybrid meetings going forward which will cut down on emissions due to travel
• Where travel is required we encourage attendees to use the train or walk/cycle, compared with car/plane where possible
• Significantly reduced printing and paper usage and all our publications are now online
• Reduced the amount of plastic used in our membership cards
• Switched to vegetarian/vegan menus for events/catering, and where possible source UK products only, to reduce air mileage
• Recycle at work. Our Head Office in London is part of an area that has been given awards locally for recycling
• We bank with an ethical bank
• We use recycled paper – we will continue to review this, and where possible use stationery that is made from recycled materials or is biodegradable
• We also plan to review our office suppliers to see if we can source greener alternatives
• We continue to look at other ways to reduce our carbon footprint and that of our members.

We have also supported organisations such as albert and BAFTA in events on how screenwriters can tackle climate change and called for more environmental plotlines on our screens.

Photo: Shutterstock/Oliver Cole