Sustainability & the Acosta Dance Foundation
The Acosta Dance Foundation (ADF) is committed to sustainable development as a guiding principle within the organisation’s work and practice. Our concern for the environment plays a fundamental role in this commitment to reduce the impact on the environment from the Foundation’s operations. We will benefit and continue working alongside Acosta Danza, the Acosta Danza Academy, the Acosta Dance Centre (ADC) & now with Woolwich Works, to strengthen further its knowledge, awareness, and proactive engagement with environmental sustainability.
The ADF is committed to providing quality service that ensures a safe and healthy workplace for our employees and minimises our potential impact on the environment. A central pillar of our programming involves embedding environmental and ecological concerns across the Foundation’s artistic core programmes, infrastructure, and networks. We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and proud of our commitment to environmental sustainability. We will comply with all relevant environmental legislation striving to use pollution prevention and environmental best practices in everything we do.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was officially launched at a UN Summit in New York in September 2015 and aimed at ending poverty in all its forms. The UN 2030 Agenda envisages “a world of universal respect for human rights and human dignity, the rule of law, justice, equality and non-discrimination”.
We can proudly say that the Acosta Dance Foundation and the Acosta Dance Centre align with 12 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 8 directly linked to its programs.
SDG 3 aims to “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”. The ADF cause, creating a Dancer in Every Home, has put health and well-being through dance at the heart of its artistic core. Our Education & Commuity Engagement Programmes include (among others) a proposition with the aspirations of engaging in arts/dance-related activities as a tool to improve children, young adults and the elderly well-being and mental health.
ADF & SDG4 “Quality Education,” A unique artistic curriculum, thought around social impact and community engagement.
SDG4 aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. The Centre’s Ambition 1 seeks to nurture civic leadership and a comprehensive/coordinated plan for providing educational, recreational, social, and cultural services for all people in the Greenwich Borough (and beyond). A variety of education and community programs in partnership with Woolwich Works will offer an unstructured and effective way to respond to the local cultural challenges by improving dance awareness through quality education.
In addition, the work we do in Cuba aims to expand the ADC’s role as a reference for dance by diversifying the art form and creating a mutually interdependent relationship between the community, schools, students, and the services we offer.
SDG5 aims to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. It aims to end all forms of discrimination. The targets defined concern, particularly women’s access to management and decision-making positions”. The ADF is committed to supporting female artists in its agenda and having an open bias-free application process in all its programmes. We are committed to improving the percentage of women working with the Foundation and eliminating gender bias in dance. This includes empowering women as well as supporting male dancers in their journey to becoming professional dancers free of gender bias. (The ADF currently have one woman as part of its Board of Trustees & over 70% of our managers (workforce are also all women. E.g., Acosta Danza Associate Artistic Director/Acosta Danza Academy Director/Acosta Danza Academy and Foundation’s Cuba coordinator among others).
ADF & SDG9 “Industry, innovation and infrastructure” the ADC uses a regenerated building with zero-emission architecture.
SDG9 aims to “build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation”. The SDG9 calls for industry financial, technical and technological support by encouraging innovation research. As part of the Woolwich creative district, the brand new Acosta Dance Centre home (Building 40) is one of the regenerated buildings that used its existing thermal mass and original space for its creation. Environmentally, the design for the creative district worked with the existing buildings utilising the existing space, allowing the design to work with the historic buildings and ensure their heritage. Our sustainable building interventions include natural ventilation and more efficient plant machinery that will enable the structure to dictate its capacity rather than adapting it to a pre-set performance capacity figure.
ADF & SDG11 “Sustainable cities and communities” An International reference for dance at the service of an artistically curated community.
SDG11 aims to “make cities human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable so that they can provide access to basic services, energy, housing, transport, green public spaces and other amenities for all while improving the use of resources and reducing their environmental impacts”. The Acosta Dance Centre building has been conceived as a cultural building. A living/community space that will celebrate dance research and creation – a place where dance will serve as the connector in offering a unique social/cultural environment.
SDG16 aims to “promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels”. It addresses three closely related themes: the rule of law, quality of institutions, and peace.
The Acosta Dance Foundation provides equal access for all. We are committed to allowing the unrepresented to have an inclusive, participatory, and representative position in our work. One of our main objectives is to seek support to recognise unrepresented artists.
ADF & SDG17 “Partnerships for the goals” An ambitious project with sustainable partnerships at its core.
SDG17 aims to “strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development. It encourages and promotes effective partnerships, building on partners’ experience and resourcing strategies to enhance the global partnership for sustainable development”. The Carlos Acosta Foundation aims to unite diverse individuals and groups to develop our projects. We are committed to working with supporters/partners that also foster a culture of social cohesion, want to improve individuals’ quality of life and create joyful dance experiences – extending the benefits of dance in a way that meets community-specific needs.
SDG8 aims to “Sustained and inclusive economic growth can drive progress, create decent jobs for all and improve living standards.” At the ADF, we are committed to fostering a culture of fair payment to all our employees. We are committed to ensuring business accountability, transparency and ‘due diligence in all charity activities we do and to including the local community in delivering our progress.
Other Goals
SDG10 Reduce inequalities
SDG13 Climate Action
They are also connected to the Acosta Dance Centre for its architecture, its solid urban cultural proposition and local economic impact integrated as part of the cultural hub that is Woolwich Works.
