© Lisa Edi
Thinking and acting sustainably concerns us all!
This is the only way we can make a lasting contribution to the preservation of our planet and live together in a more barrier-free and socially just environment.
As art, cultural, and scientific institutions, it is our task, in particular, to create social awareness with ambitious contents and with high-quality presentations and communication to the public.
More than ever before, our objective is to make a decisive contribution to acting in a sustainable manner, protecting the environment, and living together with respect and without exclusion and discrimination. We intend to accomplish this by implementing concrete measures in the organisation of our art, cultural, and scientific subsidiaries and in the realisation of exhibitions and events. Furthermore, we want to actively promote sustainability in the communication with our audiences. And finally, we also aim to strengthen the discourse in the arts and science with topics related to sustainability.
To this end, the NÖKU Group, to which Grafenegg belongs, developed the “NÖKU Sustainability Standard” in autumn 2020, a guideline for all of its staff, for its almost 40 art and scientific institutions and their premises, for the realisation of events and exhibitions, and for the NÖKU Holding itself, which will be resolutely implemented step-by-step by all subsidiaries.
The objective is a holistic examination and evaluation of all key fields of activity in the planning and realisation of events and exhibitions: event and exhibition venues, event and exhibition technology, general procurement processes and waste management, social aspects (e.g. accessibility), mobility/transportation, catering/gastronomy, communication, and accommodation.
With its sustainability strategy, the NÖKU Group recognises its responsibility to implement the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Art, culture, and science as well as the support of creativity all contribute to the economic, social, and ecological dimensions of the 2030 Agenda in equal measure.
The newly created NÖKU Platform for Sustainability is a space for ongoing networking between the sustainability representatives of the respective subsidiaries, which facilitates knowledge transfer and the exchange of experiences. The implemented measures will initially be evaluated at the beginning of 2022 and communicated internally and externally on a regular basis.
