Milano, March 21st 2025

As humanity faces one of its greatest challenges, artists play a crucial role in shaping and sharing visions of alternative futures. In a society grappling with the first devastating consequences of the Capitalocene, the artistic community is uniquely positioned to inspire change. At Jardino, we believe our duty is not only to support artists addressing the ecological crisis but also to adopt a sustainable approach in every aspect of our work.

We are an agency with ambitious goals, firmly grounded in the reality of our mission: to shape a more sustainable world through the transformative power of art. We see art as a powerful and symbolic language capable of leaving a strong and lasting impact on a large audience. As architects of innovative solutions, we channel art's universal language to drive positive change within communities and territories that surround us. 

In response to the escalating ecological crisis, we have committed to sustainability by embedding eco-sustainable principles across all aspects of our work. This includes forming partnerships with cultural organizations and companies to address environmental and social impact, as well as offering consulting services to assist other businesses in transitioning to sustainable practices, using art as a catalyst for change.

The agency prioritises coherence and impact, implementing eco-responsible practices at every level and focusing on projects that generate measurable benefits for the environment and society. To insure that the agency is sticking to its eco-sustainable philosophy, an internal Green Team composed of dedicated members who help ensure that our eco-sustainable philosophy is reflected throughout our processes .

Eco-sustainability is at the heart of our approach and is seamlessly integrated throughout all stages of the curation process, such as travel, shipping, exhibition staging, and material selection.

One of our first decisions has been to collaborate more widely with local artists. This enables us to considerably reduce emissions from travels and shipping. We realised that Milan attracted not only Italian artists, but also creatives from all over the world. 

Additionally, we put an emphasis on eco-sustainable travels. We have a flight-free policy, and avoid all traveling by flight. We extend this policy to all our partners while working with us.

Throughout all our process, we include a circular approach as often as possible. In this context, we have set up a recycling corner in the exhibition space, where artists can find materials and where we can reuse certain objects to stage exhibitions. We are also partnering with organisations, such as Spazio Meta, that provide the materials for our exhibitions from recycled sources. 

Since 2024, Jardino is a proud member of the Gallery Climate Coalition, actively committing to sustainability within the art world. As part of our membership, we have implemented a series of concrete actions, including introducing eco-sustainable principles in our agreements with partners, conducting energy and waste audits, and prioritizing collaborations with eco-conscious artists. We have also adopted a eco-counscious travels policy, promoted vegetarian-only catering at events, and fostered sustainable exhibition practices. Moving forward, we remain dedicated to measuring our progress and aligning our operations with the Coalition’s goals, while continuously striving to minimize our environmental impact and support the broader movement towards a more sustainable art ecosystem.

The measures we are taking to achieve these objectives are as follows:

• Continue to curate exhibitions following an eco-design approach and train two new curators in the practice of eco-curation ;
• Prioritize projects with important eco and social impact and partner only with institutions and companies that have a real will of transitioning ;
• Create partnerships with specialized sustainability agencies to strengthen our consultancy services with a more global vision. In this way, we can support our clients with this social and sustainable assessment process, making our approach deeper and more long-term ;
• Develop a network of like-minded curators in different countries ;
• Discussing alternatives to air freight with shippers; if it really isn't possible otherwise, offsetting emissions ; 
• Continue following a flight-free policy and make it easier for employees to cycle to work by providing bike storage space and joining cycle-to-work initiatives ;
• Provide a 50€ bonus for our staff to buy a bicycle.
• Talk to suppliers and service providers about their carbon footprint and look for opportunities to encourage them to take action or switch to other suppliers who will ;
• Systematize vegetarian food for the events we curate, as well as the meals we have at the agency ;
• Increasingly include scope 3 emissions in our Carbon calculation, such as the visitors’s travels ;
• Promote conscious digital communication (Use of Drive rather than sending heavy files, no voice messages, awareness of the weight of what we send to each other) ;

To take full responsibility for our emissions, we are also setting aside 50 euros per tonne of CO2e we emit in a Strategic Climate Fund, rather than buying carbon offsets. In line with the Gallery Climate Coalition's guidance, this money will be spent on measures to accelerate our emissions reductions and support frontline climate solutions around the world that are making a difference now. We will report on how we have spent this money at the end of each financial year.

We want to act in accordance with the principles of climate justice, recognising the links between the climate crisis and other global injustices, as revealed by Gaia, a traveling exhibition curated by Julia Rajacic, Jardino's Founder, curated in 2016 as part of the United Conference on Climate Cop21. We want our environmental actions to support - rather than undermine or ignore - the needs of people on the frontline of marginalisation and injustice.

We have set these goals and we are taking action, knowing that we are not yet doing everything that needs to be done. We still have a lot to do and a lot to learn. We invite artists, the public and stakeholders to send us their comments on this environmental declaration, on the objectives and on the action plans.

Julia Rajacic

Curator & Art advisor

Founder of Jardino