A Sustainable Vision for the Sheffield City Region
George Coiley, Sheffield Climate Alliance
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7-min TED-style summary talk about a project encouraging collaborative leadership for sustainability.
Talk held in May 2017 at the 'Changing Systems: Not Just Changing Lightbulbs' workshop. |
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Talk summary:
In her “Making it Happen” presentation, Lisa Hopkinson from CAT talked about how we can be more open to new ideas at a change point in our lives, such as starting university or a new job. Could it be that just such a change point is approaching for the Sheffield City Region, creating an increased openness to looking at how we can transition to zero carbon?
The Sheffield City Region is soon to finalise a devolution deal which will transfer substantial powers, and substantial funds, from central government to the region. A consultation has taken place involving the 'anchor institutions' of the region, the universities and teaching hospitals, together with the local authorities, the Local Economic Partnership, community groups, and businesses. It is asking, essentially, what kind of future we want for the region – looking out over 25 years. In February 2017 the initial report was published – A Better Future Together: a Prospectus for Sheffield City Region.
In many respects, this Prospectus is progressive and positive, recognising the need to address issues of deprivation and social justice as well as economic potential. However, in the six programmes outlined in it, climate change is not mentioned once. Fundamental questions about sustainability appear simply not to have been addressed.
Members of Sheffield Climate Alliance (SCA) got together and produced a carefully-researched response (completed just the day before this 'Not Just Lightbulbs' event), called A Sustainable Vision for Sheffield City Region. This Vision document shows how addressing the zero carbon agenda can produce 'win-win' solutions, and achieve many of the outcomes sought in A Better Future Together. A home insulation programme is one example, creating 1200 jobs and a host of positive social, economic and health benefits. An introduction to this report, together with the full document, is available here on the SCA website.
The next stage is to 'take this Vision out' to the wider community, and, as George puts it, “build a more collaborative, sustainable vision” for the City Region.
George is a member of Sheffield Climate Alliance.
In her “Making it Happen” presentation, Lisa Hopkinson from CAT talked about how we can be more open to new ideas at a change point in our lives, such as starting university or a new job. Could it be that just such a change point is approaching for the Sheffield City Region, creating an increased openness to looking at how we can transition to zero carbon?
The Sheffield City Region is soon to finalise a devolution deal which will transfer substantial powers, and substantial funds, from central government to the region. A consultation has taken place involving the 'anchor institutions' of the region, the universities and teaching hospitals, together with the local authorities, the Local Economic Partnership, community groups, and businesses. It is asking, essentially, what kind of future we want for the region – looking out over 25 years. In February 2017 the initial report was published – A Better Future Together: a Prospectus for Sheffield City Region.
In many respects, this Prospectus is progressive and positive, recognising the need to address issues of deprivation and social justice as well as economic potential. However, in the six programmes outlined in it, climate change is not mentioned once. Fundamental questions about sustainability appear simply not to have been addressed.
Members of Sheffield Climate Alliance (SCA) got together and produced a carefully-researched response (completed just the day before this 'Not Just Lightbulbs' event), called A Sustainable Vision for Sheffield City Region. This Vision document shows how addressing the zero carbon agenda can produce 'win-win' solutions, and achieve many of the outcomes sought in A Better Future Together. A home insulation programme is one example, creating 1200 jobs and a host of positive social, economic and health benefits. An introduction to this report, together with the full document, is available here on the SCA website.
The next stage is to 'take this Vision out' to the wider community, and, as George puts it, “build a more collaborative, sustainable vision” for the City Region.
George is a member of Sheffield Climate Alliance.