MMU Green Impact Top of the National Tables

Laura and Rob, Green Impact Assistants at MMU

MMU is leading the way to creating a sustainable planet through our fantastic behaviour change project Green Impact.

An amazing 67 departments have now been recruited, with 413 staff actively involved in taking simple actions to green their work spaces. This is the largest number of Green Impact Teams active in any of the participating Colleges and Universities around the country. In total their work will reach and influence 2128 staff members, approximately half of MMU’s total employees. This is an incredible achievement to attain, particularly in an organisation as large as MMU that provides a place of study for the third largest body of students in the UK.

MMU has been involved in Green Impact for the past three years and has gone from strength to strength in encouraging greater numbers of staff to get involved in the project. Its success comes down to its simplicity and the enjoyment that participating members of staff attain from taking actions that save carbon and cash. Pamela Berry, a committed member of Green Impact Team who won the Environmental Hero Award last year said: ‘Being a child of the 1950′s, brought up with few resources; I’ve always been keen to make the most of what I have.  Not exactly a war baby but definitely one of the make do and mend brigade. The Green Impact Programme has given me a great opportunity to encourage and support my friends and colleagues at work in their green endeavours.    It’s great to share ideas and experiences with like minded people and we’ve not only evaluated and changed many of our working practices (saving money and cutting our carbon footprint), we share our ideas/tips, seedlings and crops grown at home in our gardens.   It’s a uniting and contagious force.  Thanks Green Impact’.

 

Last year the active members managed to complete an amazing 727 actions. Green Impact Coordinators, Robert Croll and Laura Williams have even higher hopes for this years teams; ‘We are dazed and amazed by the number of teams who’ve decided to get involved this year. Thanks to all of the teams who’ve been working so hard. At this rate we’ll smash the number of actions completed on last year’s total so keep up the hard work’.

A similar experience has been seen at the national level. This year a total of 46 Universities & Colleges have committed to Green Impact, a 32% increase on last years figures. Between them a total of 800 Green Impact Teams have now been recruited and are actively reducing their Universities carbon footprint across the country.

With this kind of success, it’s not surprising that Green Impact was nominated for the 2011 International Green Awards ‘Employee Engagement Award’. It is hoped that this year will bring about even more recognition for this effective vehicle for delivering true carbon savings.

Looking to the future, Green Impact at MMU is now looking to increase the number of students involved in Green Impact. Four different volunteering opportunities are available that will allow students to boost their experience, gain transferable skills and contribute towards creating a sustainable university. Staff and students working together in this way to create a sustainable university is certainly something that should be celebrated and will be in our Awards Ceremony at the end of April. An updates on the event will be available soon.

With behaviour change now acknowledged as crucial for creating a sustainable planet at the local and national level, MMU is somewhat ahead of the game. Continuing to develop programs such as Green Impact is integral to creating low carbon societies. Only this approach will enable sustainable thinking to become embedded in our usual practices and the accepted platform upon which all decisions are made, the direction we should all be heading in.

Rob Croll and Laura Williams, Green Impact Assistants at MMU

A guide to getting yourself noticed in the job market: CV tips

Our work at Change Agents puts us in touch with many graduates trying to find their way into a career in sustainability or the environment. More often than not the graduates are proactive, enthusiastic and dynamic individuals but haven’t had any guidance on how to make their background and experience work for them.

Fortunately we are here to help! Feedback that we give on telephone and face-to-face interviews have highlighted a big gap in support for graduates going out to find their first full time role in the big wide world. This guide is here to give you tips and advice right from the beginning of your job search through CV building, telephone interviews and face-to-face interviews.  One important thing to remember with job hunting is that there is never one set way of doing things.  We encourage you to share your experiences below for others to best prepare you for any experience and inspire you to get creative in your search and realise that you are not searching alone!

So now for part A…

Building a CV:

First impressions start well before an interview. Your CV summarises you and will be the first chance for an employer to be impressed by your experience, skills and interests. It will also showcases implied skills such as an eye for detail, presentation and professionalism. Make sure you make it count!

Golden rule: Prepare your CV well in advance of an application deadline!

This will reduce your stress and ensure your efforts won’t be in vain. An employer can spot a rushed CV a mile off and spelling mistakes, gaps and unrelated comments do not make a great first impression.

• Employers will be looking through a great many CVs in a day and will be very grateful to anyone who makes their job a bit easier and more interesting! Huge blocks of text and endless bullet points will make the skills you are trying to portray, harder to notice.
• Likewise tables are great for summarising small amounts of text but not an entire CV!
• A job description is there for a reason; it guides you when you are searching for a role but it also guides an employer when they are searching for a candidate. Make sure your CV is always tailored to the role, spelling out how you fit the criteria, including examples.
• Use the selection criteria like you would some marking criteria. The closer you come to matching it, the greater chance of getting the job.
• If you find yourself lacking in direct experience in some areas, show an enthusiasm to learn and think of creative ways to describe the skills that you have, even if your examples are not work related.
• Keep your CV to a maximum of two sides of A4. Whilst you may find it hard to get everything you want to say across, a long CV can have a negative effect on the employer where succinctness and clarity are important. Remember that there will be plenty of chance to expand on the CV in telephone interviews and face-to-face interviews.
• A CV is personal to you, so whilst these tips give you an idea of what not to do, the way you structure it depends on your own preference.
• Often having a breakdown of your key skills at the beginning of a CV helps to bring attention to you but only if those skills are relevant to the role and provide examples of when you have put them into practice.
• Likewise, a profile is only worthwhile if it is made relevant and includes information to back up personality traits. We want to see your personality, not what you think we might want to hear so keep away from clichés and buzzwords. Show your interest and key experience – what do you want to do?
• In the interest of brevity, listing every module and exam ever taken takes up room that can be used to showcase your relevant skills. Where specific technical skills need to be met, state your abilities or certification but there is no need to go into too much detail on the CV. Sometimes listing your GCSE grades is not relevant to the job you are applying for if you have listed further education.
• References are very rarely needed on a CV and take up much needed space. A simple ‘references available on request’ should suffice unless asked for specifically.

Your CV can be a major part of reaching your dream job, therefore spend and effort in getting it right and bringing your experience to life for the employer highlighting skills and being dynamic in the way you present yourself.

Show it to family and friends and work on any advice they give. Often other people are better at identifying your strengths than you are! A good tool for this is the FLiP profiles which allow family and friends to score you on your skills and provides you with a personal profile to highlight your strengths.

Remember if you have any particular advice for jobseekers and fellow graduates please comment below and together we’ll support each other through what needn’t be a painful job-seeking experience!

Written by Anna Hughes, Change Partnerships Coordinator at Change Agents UK

Food for thought – What are Alternative Agro Food Networks? And just what is local food all about?

We’re borrowing some words I wrote for our Transition Rutland blog as we feel this an area so many people are getting their teeth into (pun fully intended).  We’ve worked with organisations on food issues,  for example, to deliver a Love Food Hate Waste campaign in Lincolnshire.

At Change Agents UK we are very much a set of foodies, with regular lunchtime comparisons of homegrown veg and homespun soup-making, baking and cooking! We recognise not only the importance of food in our lives, but so too our area, and our environment.

So, let’s go on with it.

“We are indeed much more than what we eat,
but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are.”
Adelle Davis (1904 – 1974)

Want a little something to watch to get your brain going on the subject? Try this, courtesy of the Kindle Project in Manchester:

To start with I want to present some information I’ve copied some research I wrote a few years ago. It explains what an alternative food network is, what forms they come in, and how best (in my personal view) they may thrive.  Please do comment, and I will respond. I will also improve the readability of this thread!

What are Alternative Agro Food Networks (AFNs)
These networks are the chains and linkages between farmers, producers, shops, suppliers and consumers. The main food-network is often called the ‘productionist’ model, and originated in the 1950s and 1960s in the so-called ‘Green Revolution’. This saw the world meet challenges of feeding a larger population by intensifying farming, using fossil-fuels to make fertiliser and to power vehicles to replace the hard work , concentrating on mono-culture and larger fields.

Some research by researcher Lucy Jarosz makes a useful set of criteria for distinguishing alternative Agro Food Networks:

• by shorter distances between producers and consumers;
• by small farm size and scale and organic or holistic farming methods, which are contrasted with large scale, industrial agribusiness;
• by the existence of food purchasing venues such as food cooperatives, farmers markets, and Community Supported Agriculture and local food­-to­-school linkages;
• by a commitment to the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable food production, distribution and consumption.

Source: Jarosz 2000, p.232 . Jarosz, L., 2008. The city in the country: Growing alternative food networks in Metropolitan areas . Journal of Rural Studies, 24, 231–244.

So what are some key alternative AFNs:

• Direct Access Markets (DAMs), ­ incorporating Farmers Markets (FMs)
• Organic/Ecological production
• Community/social sustainability – incorporating Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

Why the fuss about moving away from this so-called Productionist model?

Aside from ideological and socio-economic reasons, there is a genuine need to move towards more sustainable lifestyles, particularly in the area of food provision. Our current food system is blamed for, amongst other things, “[o]verfishing, intensive cattle farming, deforestation to support food production for cattle, intensive crop production and the damming of waterways to provide irrigation” (Independent, 2006). To this list one might add dwindling stocks and rising prices of – (the primary inputs in industrialised farming), climate change (both affects and effected by AFNs) and widespread environmental degradation and biodiversity loss (Sangar et al. 2008, p.2).

The key issue then for many alternative AFNs is sustainability across different measures.

A further important ‘reaction’ to Productionist models and all they entail, is the issue of food quality and nutritional worth. The products of the dominant agri-food networks are ascribed to being causally linked to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer (Lang & Heasman 2004, p.48; Independent 2006). This has lead to movements such as NotInMyBody (NIMB) (DePuis, 2000). The emergence of high-profile food scares such as BSE (otherwise dubbed ‘MadCow Disease’) in the 1990s, and growing concern over the potential impacts of Genetically Modified (GM) food has shifted public and individual focus on the quality and health aspects of the dominant food systems (Lang & Heasman 2004, p.135).

Organic Production
The EC define Organic farming as having the following principles:

• Wide crop rotation as a prerequisite for an efficient use of on site
• resources
• Very strict limits on chemical synthetic pesticide and synthetic fertiliser use, livestock antibiotics, food additives and processing aids and other inputs
• Absolute prohibition of the use of genetically modified organisms
• Taking advantage of on site resources, such as livestock manure for fertiliser or feed produced on the farm
• Choosing plant and animal species that are resistant to disease and adapted to local conditions
• Raising livestock in free-range, open-air systems and providing them with organic feed
• Using animal husbandry practices appropriate to different livestock species

Source: EC, n.d.

In the European Union as a whole, Organic farming standards are derived from EC Council Regulation 2092/911, whilst in the UK, the Soil Association sets generally more ‘robust’ standards in order for products and processes to gain Organic certification (SA, n.d. b). In the US there are guidelines for sustainable farming as a whole which is defined in 1990 US Farm Bill as “an integrated, site specific system of plant and animal production practices that will meet food needs, protect and enhance the environment and contribute to their communities’ quality of life” (US Congress, cited in Jarosz 2000, p.279). Organic schemes should be GM free, in most cases should uphold human and labour rights, but do not specify minimum prices (unlike Fair Trade schemes) (Raynolds 2000, p.300).

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
The Soil Association defines CSA as “a relationship of mutual support between a farmer and those who eat the food they produce. It is a partnership between farmers and consumers where the responsibilities and rewards of farming are shared” (SA, n.d. a). The format of CSAs differs widely. The concept originated in Japan in the 1960s, where it was known as ‘Teikei’, and has since grown considerably worldwide, with CSAs numbering in the 1000s in the US at the turn of the millennium (Wells & Gradwell 2001, p.107). It is regional or local in its very nature, and relies on both consumers and producers to create the optimum spaces and frameworks (politically, socially, culturally and environmentally) for sustainability and viability (Feenstra 2002, p.99). It can integrate or accommodate regional produce classification, organic modes of production and DAMs.

Discussion

Something that my undermine the economic viability of certain alternative AFNs is seasonality. This will be geographically context dependent, but it can be seen already that in the absence of large-scale imports and large energy inputs, growing seasons in many areas may not allow farms to generate sufficient income for the year. This may manifest itself differently depending on the economic system such AFNs are embedded in.

In addition to seasonality there is an additional problem affecting economic sustainability. In terms of assessing the survival of alternative AFNs in a food market or other transaction/economic system, the dominant force of modern Western Economies is specialisation. Specialisation in agriculture came be interpreted in two ways. Firstly, a farmer or region can specialise in certifiably unique products/variations, or they can resort to monoculture (or just a few crops) to ensure quantity of crops/goods to provide economic margins.

By selling direct in a market, farmers are still competing in a market economy, but can set the price to a fair-level for them and reduce overheads on marketing, distribution and reduce insecurity of supply. The practical benefits of this system are reducing the scale of the chain between farm and consumer. Supermarkets tend not to internalise costs, rather they pass them on to producers such as farmers, and as such reductions in prices in wholesale terms mean reduced margins for farmers, sometimes to the point where the unit selling price of consumables is below the cost of production (Independent 2005). Supermarkets have, amongst other bad practices, also been indicted in creating Just-in-Time systems which promote their own efficiency and flexibility, but pass on a great deal of insecurity to producers (Competition Commission, 2000). Importantly Organic labeling avoids contravening European and World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules on quantitative restrictions as they do not discriminate by area or country (Raynolds 2000, p.300).

Organic Agro Food Networks per se, are eminently viable, as the foodstuffs from this regime can be incorporated into the corporate retailers in the productionist model, or sold through Community Supported Agriculture and Direct Access Markets. If incorporated within dominant contemporary power structures Organic standards will face intense pressure to be reduced, particularly in light of the aforementioned economic crisis and the reduced disposable income it will entail. Currently though, despite huge increases in Organic sales, as of 2002, only 1.5 million (0.25% of total available) hectares of agricultural land in the developed world was being managed organically (Lang & Heasman 2004, p.175). This can be contrasted with 58.6 million hectares being managed for GM crops worldwide (Lang & Heasman 2004, p.179).

Organic vegetable producers in the UK face a number of potential routes to reaching consumers, with home delivery box schemes increasingly popular. Such schemes encounter tensions with the original ethics of the Organic movement when they seek to expand, and thus expand-without-expanding”, via routes such as cooperatives and national networks (Clarke et al. 2008, p.222). Indeed to become a national name in Organics would threaten the value of the ‘local’ concept many of these producers and schemes trade on.

Thus, by trading off of the values, and maybe not for these values, such schemes encounter natural limits to growth before they lose their perceived value in the eyes of the consumer. However, retaining smaller scale farms may not be a problem as Jarosz notes that “small farms can be equally …productive…[as] large scale agribusiness, are better stewards of natural resources, and contribute more to local community and economic development” (Jarosz 2000, p.280).

I hope this has been a useful introduction, feel free to get in contact,

Jonathan Ward

Senior Change Partnerships Coordinator

Ps.

It’s a bit quaint and academic of me, but here are some References and further reading:

BBC, 2005. “British organic food sales soar “. British Broadcasting Corporation. Accessed 24/10/08 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4551304.stm.

BBC, 2008. “UK downturn is mirrored globally”. Andrew Walker, British Broadcasting Corporation. Accessed 24/10/08 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7686819.stm.

Block, F., 1990. Postindustrial Possibilities: A Critique of Economic Discourse. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Competition Commission, 2000. Supermarkets: A report on the supply of groceries from multiple stores in the United Kingdom. Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry by Command of Her Majesty October 2000. Accessed 25/10/08 http://www.competitioncommission.org.uk/rep_pub/reports/2000/446super.htm .

Clarke, N., Cloke, P., Barnett, C., and Malpass, A., 2008. The spaces and ethics of organic food. Journal of Rural Studies, 24, 219–230.

Drewnowski, A., 2003. Fat and sugar: an economic analysis. Journal of Nutrition, 133(3), 838S840S.

DuPuis, E., M., 2000. Not in my body: rBGH and the rise of organic milk. Agriculture and Human Values, 17, 285–295.

EC, n.d. “What is organic farming?”. European Commission. Accessed 25/10/08
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/organicfarming/whatorganic_en .

Ekopia. n.d. Eko Community Currency. Accessed 25/10/98 http://www.ekopia.findhorn.com/eko.html.

Fagan, B., 2004. The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization. Basic Books, New York.

Feenstra, G., 2002. Creating space for sustainable food systems: Lessons from the field. Agriculture and Human Values, 19, 99–106.

Fine, B., and Leopold, E., 1993. The World of Consumption. Routledge, London.

Guardian 2008. “Drought resistant GM crops ready ‘in four years’”. James Randerson, Guardian Newsand Media Limited, Wednesday October 08 2008. Accessed 27/10/08 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/07/gmcrops.food .

Hinrichs, C. C., 2000. Embeddedness and local food systems: notes on two types of direct agricultural market . Journal of Rural Studies, 16 , 295-303

Hole, D.G., Perkins, A.J., Wilson, J.D., Alexander, I.H., Grice, P.V., and Evans, A.D., 2005. Doesorganic farming benefit biodiversity? Biological Conservation, 122, 113–130.

Independent, 2005. “Dairy farmers strike over low prices paid by supermarkets”. Martin Hickman, Independent News & Media, Wednesday, 2 November 2005. Accessed 25/10/08 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/thisbritain/dairyfarmersstrikeoverlowpricespaidbysupermarkets513577.html .

Independent, 2006. “Organic food: Unnatural growth”. Wendy Fogarty, Independent News & Media,Sunday, 12 November 2006. Accessed 24/10/08 http://www.independent.co.uk/lifestyle/foodanddrink/features/organicfoodunnaturalgrowth423647.html .

Jarosz, L., 2000. Understanding agrifood networks as social relations. Agriculture and Human Values, 17, 279–283.

Jarosz, L., 2008. The city in the country: Growing alternative food networks in Metropolitan areas . Journal of Rural Studies, 24, 231–244.

Kiple, K., 2007. A Moveable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 368 pp.
Lang, T., and Heasman, M., 2004. Food Wars. The Global Battle for Mouths, Minds and Markets. Earthscan, London, 350pp.

National Statistics, 2008. “Retail Sales Index : 1986”. National Statistics, HM Government (UK). Customised data set. Accessed 24/10/08 http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/tsdataset.asp? vlnk=706&More=Y .

Raynolds, L. T., 2000. Re- embedding global agriculture: The international organic and fair trade movements . Agriculture and Human Values, 17, 297–309.

Rösl, G., 2006. Regional currencies in Germany – local competition for the Euro? Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies No 43/2006 . Deutsche Bundesbank.

Sage, C., 2001. Embeddedness and the Geography of Regard: Good (Agro)
Food Networks in South West Ireland. International Perspectives on Alternative AgroFood Networks: Quality, Embeddedness, BioPolitics. University Of California, Santa Cruz, October 1213, 2001

SA, n.d. a. “Soil Association standards”. Soil Association Certification Limited, UK. Accessed 25/10/08 http://www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/psweb.nsf/A2/index.html .

SA n.d. b. “Standards online”. Soil Association Certification Limited, UK. Accessed 25/10/08 http://www.soilassociation.org/web/sacert/sacertweb.nsf/e8c12cf77637ec6c80256a6900374463/4d7054

SA 2000. The Biodiversity Benefits of Organic Farming. Soil Association Certification Limited, UK.

Sangar, S., Vasudev, S. and Abrol , I. P., 2008. Combating land degradation for sustainable agriculture – Is conservation agriculture the way forward for India? . Meeting Report, Current Science (Professional Alliance for Conservation Agriculture , India), 95 (6), 25 September 2008 p711-712.

Selfa, T., Jussaume Jr, R. A., and Winter, M., 2008. Envisioning agricultural sustainability from field to plate: Comparing producer and consumer attitudes and practices toward ‘environmentally friendly’ food and farming in Washington State, USA . Journal of Rural Studies, 24, 262–276.

Steptoe, A., Pollard, T. M., and Wardle J., 1995. Development of a Measure of the Motives Underlying the Selection of Food: the Food Choice Questionnaire. Appetite, 25, 267-284.
Thorne, L., 1996. Local exchange trading systems in the United Kingdom: a case of reembedding? Environment and Planning, A, 1361-1376.

Treaty establishing the European Community, 2001. Treaty establishing the European Community as amended by the Treaty of Nice of 26 February 2001. Consolidated version of the Treaty establishing the European Community, in Official Journal of the European Communities (OJEC), 24th December 2002, No C 325, now consolidated text for the EU at Official Journal of the European Communities (OJEC),29 December 2006. No C 321E.

US Congress, 1990. Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990. Public Law 101–624. H11129. Congressional Record.

USDA 1997. “The Influence Of Income On Global Food Spending”. United States Department of Agriculture/Economic Research Service, Agricultural Outlook/July 1997. Accessed 23/10/08 http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/agoutlook/jul1997/ao242e.pdf .

Vos, T., 2000. Visions of the middle landscape: Organic farming and the politics of nature. Agriculture and Human Values, 17, 245–256.

Wells, B. L., and Gradwell, S., 2001. Gender and resource management: Community supported agriculture as caring practice.Agriculture and Human Values, 18, 107–119.

Wikipedia, n.d. Engel’s Law. Accessed 23/10/08 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engel%27s_law .

Wikipedia, 2008. Local Exchange Trading Systems. Accessed 25/10/08
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Exchange_Trading_Systems .

Wolf, E. R., 1997. Europe and the People without History. Univ of California Press, New Jersey, USa.

Threats & Opportunities for Low-Carbon Development in the Localism Act

No doubt none of you have escaped the terms ‘Localism’ and ‘Big Society’. They’ve probably merged in your head by now due to a year of rhetoric and little action; that and some confusion across the country about what it all means.  Localism is an idea quite separate from the Big Society, which is about building a culture of individual and community responsibility and engagement. Of course, they may overlap, but Localism is an ethos and ideology supported by legislative powers. These come in the form of the long awaited Localism Act.

The Act is essentially about transferring more powers, and providing greater transparency and accountability to local authorities and the communities they serve.

It’s been placed in the context of austerity, reducing barriers and the Big Society (as shown by the helpful diagram).

How does this effect Low-Carbon development and our efforts on tackling climate change?

There’s no simple answer. The Act presents threats and opportunities. A great number of which are contingent on how we support and interpret the bill, and what efforts we make at the outset to make it work for the greatest benefit.

The Localism Act was passed in November, and the government aim for many major measures to come into effect in April 2012. Before I go into too much detail about it, we’ll take a quick look at what is driving Low-Carbon Development and Climate Change work to make sense of it all.

Drivers in low-carbon development

This table shows a rudimentary summary of some of the key drivers affecting low-carbon development. Yet this doesn’t even begin to touch on the mind-numbing array of acronyms and schemes that are part and parcel of the sector. I’m talking about ROCs, FiTs, ESCOs, CERT, RHI, CRC with mandates from DCLG, DECC, DEFRA, BERR and help from EST, CSE, NEA….phew! You see it’s quite confusing for laymen, novices, community groups and even those of who work with organisations in the sector just to keep track of, and understand everything that’s going on.  But we have a few key drivers to communicate and centre work upon – costs (especially with Peak Oil and ever-rising fossil fuel prices); fuel-poverty (heat and electricity); energy security (resilience and control); carbon emissions (climate change).

Back to the Localism Act then…

What threats and opportunities are inherent in the Localism Act?

 I should start by what I mean by a threat. Threats to increased low-carbon development, and to cost-effective, long-term efficient development. No man is an island, and neither is any community.

Similarly, what is an opportunity? Opportunity for greater democracy in our planning, or the opportunity for low-carbon development, regardless of local demand? Ideally it’d be both, but that is not an assumption one can make at this time. I’ll be focussing on low-carbon development per se.

I’ve selected a few things to save you wading through. The Localism Act can open up a new way of planning, and allow greater local engagement and determination in policies and development. Ideally, it’ll not only foster great collective and individual engagement and citizenship, but together with the local authorities, bring about a governance system that is more efficient, responsive, effective and tailored to the needs of the area it serves.

Firstly, we might find, especially in the coming year, confusion in integrating with existing planning policy (e.g. the Town and Country Planning Act, TCPA), and how planners go about the weighting of decisions on planning applications against other criteria. Then there is the fit of neighbourhood plans with infrastructural developments at local, regional and national levels e.g. National Grid, large utilities and businesses.

Neighbourhood Plans need to be understood, as they could play a serious role in the future of low-carbon development. The Act introduces a new right for communities to draw up a neighbourhood plan to allow not just communities, but also residents, employees and businesses to have their say on where new development can go, and what form the development can take. It’s been a little unclear about just who is a stakeholder – for instance a company with business interests in the area could have a significant stake, despite not being from or in that locality.

Neighbourhood plans will be community versions of Local Development Plans/Frameworks, with the opportunity to influence graining full or outline planning permission in areas where the forum most want to see new development. In theory, it could mean quicker development. In practice, will forums be that cohesive and coherent, and will they indeed favour true sustainable development? A mitigating factor is that these neighbourhood plans must be coherent with the law (!), national policies, and existing local strategic plans.  If so, local people can vote on the plan and get it adopted; but, this could undermine some well-crafted Local Development Plans/Frameworks and potentially lock-in development that is not fundamentally low-carbon and create path-dependency towards uneven regional development, and local lags in sustainability.

There is a stipulation for Local Authorities called ‘Duty to co-operate’. This could replace the hole vacated by the demise of regional planning and development boards, and finally stop communities on the boarder of counties and districts suffering from some not-so-joined up thinking. It could also increase efficiency in projects by making sure the development is appropriate in size and location, such as for anaerobic digestion, or for wind farms. However, like many things in this Act, there’s a risk that these powers are not introduced as a positive new working culture, and end up lacking enough bite or become punitive actions imposed by people challenge authorities. Here’s to hoping that bus lanes go all the way across borders and renewable developments link up!

Then we have Assets of community value which comes under the Community right to bid. The Act requires local authorities to keep a list of assets which have been nominated by the local community as being of core value. When these assets come up for sale or there is a change of ownership, the community groups will be given time to bid and fundraise to buy the asset when it comes on the open market. It’s likely most assets will be buildings like community centres, but assets could be land and – land or buildings could be excluded for development by being an asset, or we could see restricted development and obstruction in the pre-application stage by groups attempting to use this right or nomination.

General powers of competence is another phrase to soon enter our vocab. Despite the boring title, it’s a fairly radical change to the way things work for local authorities. It essentially means that councils have the capacity to do anything that you or I can do that isn’t specifically prohibited or against the law, like imposing taxes on people! So, it frees authorities to create new ways of working, new bodies to deliver services and so on.  It’s a case of watch this space to see what impact this has.

 The Pre-application consultation for larger projects is another big change. Whilst many welcome this new accountability of developers to the community, and it should make it meet the needs of local people and organisations, experience tells me that certain voices can dominate in any area. If those voices are not aligned with low-carbon and sustainable development, then the consultation period is likely to become protracted, and if there is a split in local opinion, the process could become divisive and more convoluted. Again, I’m looking through the prism of development rather than judging these changes against other criteria.

Changes to ‘pre-determination’ – basically speaking councillors may now speak and vote on matters on which they have previously spoken or campaigned for, or indeed against. There will have to be a public register of interests to mitigate against vested interests, but it depends on how well this is maintained and made available to people in debates. Whilst we all want open debate, with real views, it could leave decisions open to concerted campaigns from sceptical councillor groups. Energy developers may begin to favour generation projects at the scale of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP), but it is not clear at what scale this will be. An NSIP would allow local voices to be superseded by national priorities and the decision taken centrally. If developers become concerned that there will be lengthy delays through local consultation and planning or indeed the likelihood of strong local opposition, they decide it not worth their time in investing at that scale.

Finally, the Localism Act will place limits on planning inspectors’ notorious discretion to insert their own wording into local plans. That in itself is neither a threat nor opportunity; it’s the alignment of the majority of local people and councillors that really affect this. It could be a threat when there is no way to ensure higher levels of low-carbon development which are suggested by national guidelines, but are not enshrined in law, as there is no higher recourse to review.

 

How can we make the Localism Act work for us?

To keep things brief, I’ve put my community and low-carbon hats on together, and recommend some things we can do as individuals, organisations, companies and communities to make sure the threats are replaced with opportunities.

• Interpret the Localism Bill through events, promotion and resources.
• Provide Mapping tools to aid planning, development and sharing best practice.
• Facilitate Knowledge Transfer and Carbon Cascades
• Assist Local Strategic Partnerships and Local Authorities with community engagement, identifying options and capacity building
• Training in planning tools and community engagement, project management and funding/tendering. Sign post to technical advice, ownership models, energy SMEs

Conclusion

The Localism Act can bring about five fundamental things to help low-carbon development, especially community-led development. Voice; Design; Stake; Ownership; Freedom.

As I have tried to assert, a lot rests on how we interpret and embed these changes and make them work for us. That means asking questions, overseeing and consulting with local partners and authorities from this day forward. Building a consensus will be key to this. It’s crucial that we normalise low-carbon as sustainable development and support those who wish to undertake this.

Time will tell how it works in each area, each community, each region, and across the country. And how it affects certain types of development, and their scale. It’s a massive opportunity to make things work in a new way, but it won’t happen in that way by itself. I’m looking forward to the journey.

Jonathan Ward

Senior Change Partnerships Coordinator

You can check for the latest information at www.communities.gov.uk

Crises should provoke reflection, new ideas and energy.

Amidst the flurry of depressing headlines about the economy and the environment, I noticed three important and interesting news items.

1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15208873 – The so called ‘Park In the Sky’ in New York, a converted former elevated railway. It’s hard not to be inspired.

2. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/world/europe/in-greece-barter-networks-surge.html – In Greece we’re seeing organic growth of LETS style local alternative unit trading systems in place in part or whole of the Euro. I’ve been a long-term fan of LETS, but perhaps in places like the UK, this is where some of the government effort could go, setting up local schemes to ensure people can afford services, to keep employment and retain businesses in threatened areas.

3. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/world/as-scorn-for-vote-grows-protests-surge-around-globe.html?_r=1&ref=spain and http://www.occupytogether.org/ .
Around the US, and around the globe, people, especially young people who have borne the brunt of cuts and unemployment, are self-organising to protest against what they see are political and economic systems that have facilitated inequality and concentration of wealth. On the back of the Arab Spring, people realise that change can happen more quickly, more suddenly than we thought. What can we learn from this?

By Jonathan Ward

Change Agents UK embrace zero waste!

Zero Waste Week

CHANGE AGENTS UK embarked on a Zero Waste Week, starting on November 21^St, and ended up with a handful of rubbish that weighed less than most chocolate bars.

Keen to set a good example and show that it’s not just the fantastic graduates we place that are making an impact on sustainable futures. There are some truly unbelievable statistics flying round the web about the amount of rubbish the UK gets through: each year, the average British family throws away six trees worth of paper and on average, each person throws away seven times their body weight in rubbish every year. Zero Waste Week aims to see how much people can reduce the amount of waste they send to landfill both at work and at home and to get people thinking about their waste habits. Everyone in the office got involved in a big way and submitted a pledge for the week ranging from sewing up old clothes to not having baths; luckily for everyone else showers were still on the agenda!

At the end of the week the total landfill waste was weighed and compared to previous weeks. To everybody’s astonishment and delight we weighed in with a bin-busting 58 grams (equivalent to the weight of an egg), a huge improvement on the previous 3 weeks of 450g, 550g and 1000g.  We hope that our resounding success (and now reformed habits) will spur others on in taking the zero waste challenge to see whether you can beat our total and make these statistics a thing of the past!

Helping communities in the Azores with sustainable development

The beautiful Terceira Island, Azores

I was so excited to have the opportunity to do a Leonardo Mobility placement. Here in the heart of the beautiful island of Terceira, Azores, I’m learning how to analyse a network of organisations working towards sustainable development whilst overcoming some of the barriers that the network is facing. It’s great to be working with people who share my passion for sustainable development and I really feel like I’m working towards something I believe in.

The work is challenging, stimulating and very interesting, with the chance to speak to a huge diversity of people. It is really making me see the bigger picture of how organisations with similar goals can work together to promote education for sustainable development and is a truly eye-opening experience. There is a perfect balance between having the freedom to design my own projects and manage my own work and having the guidance and support to know I am going in the right direction. One of the most useful things has been learning more about myself and the way that I work. A highlight so far has been attending the conference: ‘Exploring the wealth of coastal fisheries: Listening to community voices, involving fishing communities and academics. It was inspiring to learn how so many different view-points can interact and see how situations can be looked at from so many angles.

All this with the excitement of being in a different country! –seeing a live Samba Band, eating giant-sized barnacles and seeing a sexta S.Martinho fado-a night of traditional Portuguese music to name a few. I would recommend doing this type of placement to anyone. It’s a great way to develop your skills and experience the culture of a different country.

Leonardo makes waves in the Azores

Leonardo placements

24^th September 2011. Heathrow Airport. 1 pm. I tap the Portugal check-in desk. “Madame, we apologise but your flight to Lisbon was delayed and you won’t be able to catch the latest connection to Terceira Island from Lisbon. You can either fly to Lisbon and spend the night in there or we can book you in a Hotel in Heathrow and you will leave tomorrow”. No need to tell you where I chose to stay.

This is how my journey to the Azores started: with a brief but intense stop in Lisbon where I got a taste of the ‘Capital buzz’ before getting immersed into the Azorean life. Landing on Tereceira Island, the humidity in the air landed on my skin too but by now, I’ve become used to it. First thing I really saw was the blue: the ocean and the sky. The two combined together become infinite; A woman one night told me: “Some Azoreans are scared of the infinite, others, instead, are lost without it”. Personally, when I stare at the ocean I feel like everything and nothing, like forever and never and, during those moments, it is always a bit difficult to decide when it’ll be the right time to go home.

Two weeks ago we went to do a trail by the coast. There was myself (Italian), Eleanor (British), Rita (Portuguese), Ana (Spanish) and Anais (French): all of us involved in different environmental projects. The ocean was very rough that day. The trail was about two hours long but since we were stopping every ten minutes to stare at the power and elegance of these magnificent white waves violently crashing or gradually losing power on dark volcanic rocks, it took us about five hours to finish it. We then got to the local bar where fishermen normally hang around. The bar was called ‘Praça da Alegria’ (‘the cheerful square’). Ten minutes later, an old man sitting at the other corner of the bar offered us a round of drinks. Not too long after we raised our glasses, the bar owner came to our table with a big smile and a bottle of local red wine. By the end of the night we were dancing on the notes of two accordions singing lyrics we did not know and if we’d have stayed there a bit longer we would have possibly assisted to some marriage proposal!

Not long ago we went to see the Azorean forest and, for the first time in my life, I felt like I was surrounded by something special, something that I’d never perceived before: richness. Natural landscapes and environments can magically engage with your inner self. Fulfilment, sadness, peace: they all are feelings we possibly come through when we try to connect with nature. Nevertheless, this was the first time I experienced richness. It was amazing to see how many plants, colours, shapes and patterns there could be in a single metre square of rich nature. I tasted honey-like nectar and touched the softest moss. Exploring this natural landscape and talking to local people really helped me to understand why it is fundamental for this small society to engage with environmental education and consequently promote sustainable development.

I started thinking about how much energy is used in describing and promoting sustainable development and how much energy it is spent for actually changing things.

Why this huge gap? Why do our unsustainable development trends remain the same?

During my Masters studies the answer I gave to this question was centred around human behaviour: 1) people are irrational beings and 2) when they are rational they look at their own utilities. Sustainable development is a paradigm shift and as such it includes changes that are difficult to be measured and sometimes not even inducible. You must wait until a new behavioural pattern emerges, until self-awareness empowers the individual to see the change. I am fine with the waiting, but in the meanwhile what am I going to do? Certainly not write about the waiting, certainly not convincing people to change and certainly not forgetting that we are facing extinction.

Last week I participated in a very stimulating conference on how European policies affect local fishing communities. Someone was explaining how some Azorean fishermen were forced to sell their boats since their catch could not profit anymore in the fish market. All of a sudden I thought: “Wait! Alright, so, I am here paid by the European Commission for working on Environmental Education in the Azores and Azorean fishermen are here discussing how to protect their jobs because of the policies that the European Commission makes.”

We all know that how we got to this point is a long, long story but can we really do anything about it? This is where my boss’s work brought some light to this darkness: “Let’s get people together in a participatory way”. I met researchers, professors, fishermen, volunteers, fishermen’s wives around a table, a real table, in a real room discussing European policies. Has this conference changed anything? Well, probably not in the reality we perceive with our senses. But in their realities, in their own jobs and lives it did. How can I say this? I just felt it and saw it on people faces and smiles. And smiles, from my perspective, are like p values of 0.05 in chi-square tests.

Communal sharing, learning, listening, understanding and thinking are activities that bring about change but we don’t know yet how it will manifest.

I believe this is part of the paradigm shift. Change is around but not as we expect it to be and thanks to Change Agents and the work that my boss is carrying out over here, I have been able to find it in the environment where I work and I truly hope this is just the beginning of a long journey that won’t end when I come back to the UK.

 

Sorry I got carried away and forgot to write about what I am actually doing in here. Well, at the moment I am learning some computer programming. But this is another story and I will leave it to the next update.

 

 

Engaging staff and students in sustainability at UEL

Toby jones, Waste Projects Officer

As a change agent I work as Waste Projects Officer at the University of East London. After enjoying work placements in recycling and sustainable development, I was delighted this year to gain a Change Agents Opportunity to develop my skills further, help me focus on career aspirations within sustainability, whilst also having the chance to make a real impact in a workplace. I am currently half way through the six month post, which mainly focuses on recycling and waste management. It also involves supporting the Green Impact project, wider environmental communications, and developing the university’s EMS (environmental management system) for which we are seeking to gain the ISO 14001 accreditation.

In addition to a friendly and supportive workplace, the role itself has been really inspiring and varied so far, encompassing a range of responsibilities with the opportunity to develop new skills at every stage. Important tasks have included drawing up a formal waste strategy; organising a Bin the Bin campaign to increase office recycling; working with various departments to prepare for our upcoming EMS audits, and developing plans to improve recycling infrastructure.

It’s a challenging role; environmental behaviour change can be difficult, and encouraging staff to get on board and make changes in the face of tightening resources and busy schedules is not always easy! The position has required me to develop myself to successfully manage projects and work with staff to address issues in ways that work for them. I’ve needed a confident, honest and tactful approach, something with which I was helped by attending the Change Agents Assertive Communication workshop in October. Similarly, the Introduction to Project Management training session in September greatly helped me to get to grips with planning and organisation.

Consequently I feel I’ve made progress in staff engagement and helping shape the university’s sustainable waste agenda. It’s been a great personal development experience, and rewarding to see the contribution my project work can make to the UEL’s wider direction in sustainability.

Innovative ideas from Green Impact

What is Green Impact?

Since its launch Green Impact has provided the opportunity for staff in Colleges and Universities to become engaged in Environmental issues in the workplace.  As most people have an opinion about the environment this has created the opportunity for staff to provide innovative ideas to the problems set out by the Green Impact workbook.

The Green Impact Program is designed to let staff take control of environmental actions by completing a set workbook criteria and being awarded for there efforts in an end of year ceremony, which has produced many positive actions, using new ideas to meet the departments requirements and brings environmental issues to everyone’s attention.

At De Montfort University, it has inspired staff to go beyond the workbook.  A member of staff was telling me that they take public transport now, we don’t make people give up their cars but for whatever reason she had decided this was the best course of action to take, I like to think that because Green Impact seeks to engage staff in the environment, more of them are thinking about their impact beyond the workplace.

The Universities Library staff is an example of those who were onboard with environmental issues, with Green Impact being an opportunity to provide direction.  So committed to the Green Impact ethos that when informed that the old bags they sold were no longer to be stocked, they were asked to provide a new logo and they felt the Green Impact logo was appropriate.  “…it linked the new bags in with the green ethos of the original bags, and also linked them to the University” said Jane Mansfield from Library Services.  This has helped inspire the introduction for all departments to do something to show visitors and other departments that they are taking part in Green Impact.

When covering items in the workbook that require promotion of Environmental Initiatives among the department, The Green Impact Team usually recommend e-mailing data round, however The Department of Academic Quality (DAQ) felt that taking this approach was not the most appropriate method for their department, choosing to post information on the DAQ Wiki.  “We tend to put up bullet point notes from meetings we have attended, rather than emailing them round. It just seemed the next logical step for us to use a Blackboard Wiki for our green issues, and it seemed to support the Green Impact project by helping us meet the criteria in a manner in which we were used to working”.

In recognition of some of the good ideas teams were coming up with to meet the demands of the project we felt it was appropriate to offer a criteria to help inspire new ideas which resulted in the introduction of the ‘New Year Green Resolution’ an opportunity to make people think beyond the tired old resolutions of giving up smoking or losing weight to try and get staff to think about impacts in their life they can change.  Staff have already begun engaging with the new criteria telling of plans of a Christmas tree which displays staff pledges and a competition of the most original idea to help the environment.

James Lane, Green Impact Assistant, De Montfort University