At Sam Forster Associates, we are deeply concerned by the state of crisis our world is in. From rising sea levels to the increasing prevalence of heatwaves, there is an ever-growing list of reasons for us to take urgent action against global heating. We are committed to sustainability beyond compliance – we understand our business is contributing to the current climate emergency and we endeavour to lessen our negative impact within everything we do.

As a construction company within the arts sector, we are hyper-aware of our responsibility to make a change for our industry. The inherent temporal nature of exhibitions means that we must direct our attention to ensuring the structures we build are as sustainable as possible. To make certain this is happening throughout all our projects, we are reviewing and updating our environmental standards and practices. Examples of this include:

• Sourcing responsible wood products such as FSC/PEFC certified timber, plywood, OSB, MDF and paper.

• Aiming to repurpose as many materials as we can in-house – we de-pin and reuse timber, plywood and OSB across multiple projects wherever possible.

• Donating leftover paint and fabric to the Forest Recycling Project. The charity uses our donations in community workshops / projects and distributes paint to housing associations and low-income households.

• As a last resort, we dispose of materials using a facility that recycles 98% of our waste and processes the remaining 2% as RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel), meaning absolutely nothing is sent to landfill.

• Collaborating with clients to design in reuse, eliminating the production of waste in the first instance.

• Undertaking consistent research into new sustainable materials and evaluating their suitability for our builds. We want to advise our clients on the best alternatives for their designs by developing and maintaining a library of state-of-the-art sustainable options.

One of our heaviest contributors to our carbon consumption is the use of our vans to deliver setworks. Although we are Inner-London based, and therefore keep delivery distances to a minimum, reducing transport emissions is still a priority for us. As Active Members of the Gallery Climate Coalition, we are pledging to reduce our carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 from our 2021 footprint. As such, we are setting new targets to help us achieve this goal:

• We are aiming to upgrade our fleet of vans to fully electric by 2030, with 50% achieved by 2027.

• We are working to ensure all packing materials are reusable and / or kerbside recyclable.

• We are encouraging our staff to use sustainable modes of transport over driving or using taxis.

• We want to invest more time with clients during concept stage, using our expertise to produce setworks with materials that can be repurposed again and again.

Our goal is for circularity to be at the core of exhibition design.We know this cannot be achieved overnight and will require consistent monitoring, problem-solving, and collaboration within our team and with our clients. We are committed to undertaking active learning with the awareness our targets need constant revision and improvement. Despite there being a long road ahead, we are intent on taking action with urgency.