Engaging the public on climate change through art
Since our establishment in 1927, ESB has been committed to driving society forward and delivering a Brighter Future for our customers and communities. Today, our ambition is to deliver net zero by 2040 and ensure Ireland can reach its own climate goal to be net zero by 2050.
Achieving that will require significant behavioural change from people and communities as we transform how we live, work, consume, travel, and heat our homes. Engaging with stakeholders, communities, and individuals to bring them on this journey will be essential to delivering our strategy.
ESB has a long heritage in supporting the Arts and recognises artists’ role in recording and interpreting social and economic progress, engaging communities and stimulating innovation and creativity. However, our stakeholders have often needed help finding relevance between our strategic goals and our programme of support for the arts. There was an opportunity to creatively use the arts to engage communities around the energy transition, sustainability, and climate change and to demonstrate how our support for the arts could better align with and support our strategic goals and corporate social responsibility.
Working with Business to Arts, we launched a €250,000 donor-advised fund, the “ESB Brighter Future Arts Fund”, with an open call to artists and arts organisations working in their local community who had inspiring ideas for creative projects that would start a conversation and promote awareness of climate change and inspire positive action around sustainability and the energy transition.
