Sustainably in - 3 June 2025
Sustainability? That’s artist territory
From museum to mural: the creative side of change
A few months ago, I visited the exhibition “McCurry – Sguardi sul mondo” in Trieste. One photograph struck me more than all the others: disoriented camels wandering through flames and clouds of black smoke in a desert that looked like Mars, but it was Earth. It was Kuwait, 1991. A vast stretch of oil wells set on fire during the Gulf War. Below it, a small plaque: “Al Ahmadi, Kuwait". I can’t forget that scorched sky or the feeling it gave me. In that moment, I understood something: art doesn’t comfort us. It wakes us up. And that awakening, sometimes, burns.
Art changes us. Even when we don’t notice.
According to UNESCO, culture today accounts for 3.1% of global GDP and employs over 30 million people worldwide. For comparison, the commercial fishing sector employs around 39 million people globally, according to FAO data (2022). So, while culture may not be the largest sector, it’s one of the most far-reaching—capable of blending symbolic, economic, and social value. This figure includes jobs in music, film, visual arts, and live performance. But its true value is invisible: it lies in its ability to generate meaning, vision, and connection.
“Culture is the most powerful force for change.”
Irina Bokova, former Director-General of UNESCO
A project that struck me in this regard is “TOward 2030. What Are You Doing”: 18 large-scale street art pieces dedicated to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, plus one additional, original goal: Goal Zero, the right to know, to understand, to choose. These works have become part of the urban fabric in Turin, but more importantly, part of the mental landscape of those who encounter them. An open-air gallery—free, everyday, and transformative.
Another example that reveals just how subtle yet powerful the imprint of art can be on both urban space and human consciousness is the work of Spanish artist Isaac Cordal. In his series Waiting for Climate Change, he places tiny businessmen in urban settings, often submerged in water or hidden in cracks and corners of the sidewalk.
His most iconic piece was created in Berlin in 2011. Part of the series Follow the Leaders, it has become etched in collective memory as Politicians Discussing Global Warming. In a grey puddle, small figurines stand frozen in debate, water rising up to their necks. A scene as simple as it is devastating, encapsulating the inadequacy of political power in the face of the climate emergency.
Cordal compels us to lower our gaze, literally. And in that modest, almost humble gesture, he flips the scale: tiny figures, enormous truths.
Isaac Cordal, Follow the leaders, Berlino
Date and art: an (im)possible encounter?
And yet, let’s not forget: art, too, leaves a footprint. According to a study by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, one hour of HD video streaming can emit between 55 and 114 grams of CO₂, depending on the platform and device used. That’s equivalent to leaving an LED lightbulb on for 24 hours, a significant figure when multiplied by the ever-growing number of digital engagements in the cultural sector.
Looking closer at our cultural heritage, the Italian public administration oversees more than 3,000 museums and cultural sites, with an annual electricity consumption exceeding 1 TWh, comparable to that of a medium-sized city.
And if we look just as closely, but through an English lens? According to the Culture, Climate and Environmental Responsibility report by Julie’s Bicycle and Arts Council England, the UK cultural sector emitted around 84,561 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. The main source was energy consumption (54%), followed by waste management (28%) and travel by artists and staff (10%). A detailed snapshot of ongoing challenges and of the room for improvement.
Live events, although among the most engaging, unfortunately remain some of the most energy-intensive. A single festival can generate between 500 and 1,000 tonnes of CO₂, largely due to audience transportation and logistics. Some major events, however, have begun to implement sustainable measures: off-grid energy systems, reusable stage materials, and rewards for attendees who arrive by bike or train (remember we touched on sustainable events a few newsletters ago?).
These are not numbers to ignore but they are numbers in transition. Culture is not neutral. But it can be.
Three art forms, three responses to Climate Change
Music can be low-impact and emotionally powerful. Karma Clima, a project by the Italian band Marlene Kuntz, brings music into artist residencies hosted in small mountain villages, turning these places into creative labs with minimal environmental impact. Unplugged concerts, sustainable travel, community engagement, and a cultural approach inspired by circular economy principles make this project a rare and compelling Italian experiment.
The album born from these experiences offers a poetic and raw reflection on the climate crisis, on how we inhabit the present, and on our urgent need for new futures.
Fuorigrotta, Naples - Silio Italico Lower Secondary School Through the #UnlockTheChange initiative, the school promotes change toward sustainable socio-economic models using art as a powerful catalyst.
Painting becomes activism: photocatalytic paints, like those used by Airlite in murals across Naples, can reduce nitrogen oxides (NOx) by up to 88% and airborne bacteria by up to 99%.
According to the manufacturer, a treated surface the size of a mature tree’s canopy can purify the air as effectively as the tree itself. In this way, mural art becomes a form of tangible environmental action, as demonstrated by projects carried out in Milan and Rome between 2019 and 2023.
Sculpture can find a way to converse with nature: the underwater works of Jason deCaires Taylor become artificial coral reefs. Made with pH-neutral materials, they are specifically designed to encourage colonization by fish, corals, and algae, actively contributing to marine regeneration.
According to the artist’s website, some installations have led to a local biodiversity increase of up to 300% within just two years.
Cattedrale Vegetale (Val.Sella) - Giuliano Mauri
Land Art often explores the fragile relationship between humans and landscape. In the Italian project Arte Sella, for instance, artworks are not merely objects to be admired, they are living organisms integrated into the natural environment. They change with the seasons, degrade, and eventually disappear. This is a form of art that leaves no scars, only traces: temporary, shifting, and deeply attuned to the landscape and its vulnerabilities. Here, art doesn’t just represent climate change it inhabits it.
SciArt: the beauty of complexity
A new field is emerging at the intersection of art and science: SciArt. It’s not just about aesthetics, it’s about epistemology. A way of understanding through feeling. One striking example is Plastic Air by artist and designer Giorgia Lupi. In this project, invisible airborne microplastics are transformed into an interactive visual and sound experience. Drawing on scientific data, Lupi created ethereal digital landscapes that make the unseen visible: what we breathe every day but cannot see. A work that, without shouting, takes your breath away.
And in the workplace? Art as strategy
Art doesn’t decorate sustainability: it challenges it. That’s why some forward-thinking companies are beginning to integrate art into their ESG journeys:
- Artist residencies within companies, to stimulate lateral thinking;
- Participatory installations that engage employees and stakeholders alike;
- Theatre-based training sessions to explore themes such as change, resilience, and complexity.
In this context, art in the workplace isn’t ornamental: it’s strategic. Companies that host in-house art collections often outperform those that don’t.
A study by the University of Exeter found that employees who are allowed to personalize their workspace, including with artworks, tend to be happier, healthier, and up to 32% more productive.
So, what am I really trying to say? I’m saying that maybe we need more art, not to make sustainability more beautiful, but to make it more real. Because art moves us. It makes us feel. It doesn’t let us look away. I think of McCurry and his photograph. An image that doesn’t comfort, but unsettles. As if art’s purpose, at times, were not to restore balance, but to shift it.
Even in the workplace, in schools, between the lines of a sustainability report, we need something that keeps us awake. A jarring color, a gesture that doesn’t quite fit. An unexpected point of view.
As Niccolò Fabi sings: “To build is to know how to give up on perfection".
Maybe this is one of art’s greatest lessons: not to seek perfect answers, but new questions.
Chiara Pontoni
Sustainability Manager Gesteco