Environmental Policy

The Cambridge Film Trust is committed to a low carbon future, minimising our impact on the environment and using the platform of the Cambridge Film Festival and annual film events throughout the year to share inspiring social and environmental stories as well as the challenges.

We have consistently shared great environmental films and were one of the early pioneers to introduce speakers by video link when Bruce Weber joined us in 2005 to coincide with a retrospective of his work.

In the Festival, we regularly present strands of environmental films, combined with Q&A sessions with scientists, artists, philanthropists, filmmakers, and producers.

We have brought sustainability expertise onto our Board with Trustees who are active Fellows of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability, have led large-scale sustainability transformation programmes and mentor sustainability execs across a range of industries who can, in turn, inform our own efforts.


We have ten main commitments:

  1. Deliver events at accessible locations that are easy to reach by public transport, walking, and cycling
  2. Clearly communicate to visitors how to reach our events by public transport
  3. Deliver in-community film events and education opportunities to more diverse audiences and save journeys to other sites/locations.
  4. Support local, regional & national activity towards meeting the sustainable development goals with a particular emphasis on sustainable cities and communities and reducing inequality which then radiates outwards to meeting other goals.
  5. Run a digital back-office with electronic paperwork, a website hosted on an environmentally sound platform, online meetings and networked teams as the norm and make the best use of public transport, walking, and cycling for external meetings and events.
  6. Monitor utilities (energy, water, etc), consumables (paper, plastic, etc) and travel and reduce these to a reasonable minimum.
  7. Use sustainable and recycled materials and dispose of all waste in an environmentally responsible way.
  8. Encourage digital submissions, digital transfers, and DCP uploads, and deliver film events with appropriately sized equipment proportional to audience numbers.
  9. Sustain and nurture long-term partnerships that help us meet our goals, providing efficiencies such as shared workspaces, resource-sharing and shared outcomes that would not be possible or efficient independently.
  10. Continue to share great environmental films with great speakers and engaging conversations, continuing to invite key people to enrich discussions and events but also enabling remote/online attendance by talent and guests where possible, mindful of the environmental impact of inviting guests who would otherwise require a flight to participate.