COMMUNITY ASSEMBLY ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Back in Autumn ‘21, we participated in Manchester’s first-ever Community Assembly on climate change, where over 100 residents from around the region came together to learn about, share ideas and develop strategies for taking appropriate actions to address the climate crisis. Participants were divided into groups based on their locality and we joined the Wythenshawe and South group. The other areas were grouped as follows: Levenshulme and East, City Centre and North, Moss Side and Hulme, Whalley Range and Chorlton; providing access to the programme for people from all around the city region.
The assembly was jointly developed and led by Envirolution and Hubbub, through its In Our Nature programme of work. Envirolution’s remit is to enrich people’s lives and empower individuals and communities to take action on environmental issues. They’ve been going for a good 10 years now, helping people from all walks of life to be more sustainable. During the summer, Envirolution hosts a free festival in Platt Fields Park, a culmination of the year’s activity and a celebration of some of the great things that are happening in our area. It’s very family-friendly and totally inclusive, we definitely recommend a visit! In a similar vein, Hubbub aims to inspire actions that are good for individuals and the environment. They believe that people hold the key to the environmental challenges we face and they aim to involve as many as possible through a range of campaigns, such as community fridges and workshops like the ‘Community Assembly’.
The Community Assembly looked at a number of themes that affect our lives to explore how residents of Greater Manchester (and beyond) can make changes to reduce their individual impact on the climate crisis. The themes were:
Transport, where we heard from Walk Ride Greater Manchester about the need to empower people to adopt self-propelled modes of transport
Fashion and retail, delivered by Manchester Fashion Movement about the problems of ‘fast fashion’ and how to address them
Food and agriculture, presented by Manchester Food Board about how to embed more sustainable food practices in people’s lifestyles, such as sourcing seasonal produce and plastic-free shopping
Buildings and energy, led by Carbon Co-op and Red Co-op who delivered an interesting presentation on the need to improve homes through modern techniques such as better insulation and renewable energy.
WYTHENSHAWE AND SOUTH ACTION PLAN
Below you can find a poster of what our group came up with across the four different themes. As there were some keen cyclists in our group, we were interested in what it was that put people off from using bikes as their main form of urban transport in the ‘transport’ theme. We discussed what we felt were some of the main barriers to cycling, such as inadequate secure cycle parking facilities and lack of convenient bike hire schemes, and made suggestions about how these could be addressed. We even gently persuaded a non-cyclist in our group to go out and purchase a bike to use on his daily commute! In the ‘food’ theme, we were really interested in seeing the development of some kind of climate impact assessment for different foodstuffs, a bit like how you commonly see nutritional information presented, but with a focus on the carbon footprint associated with getting the product on the shelf (i.e. taking into account the whole supply chain, from growing the raw ingredients, processing, transportation and packaging). Our full action plan can be seen below and you can find out more about what the other groups suggested by visiting the Community Assembly page.
LEADER INVOLVEMENT AND OUTPUTS
Ultimately, we need those within Manchester City Council and beyond to take note of what we suggested and it was really great to see a number of our local councillors participating in the programme in the final two weeks as the groups whittled down their individual suggestions into a finalised list of citizen demands. These included:
Support for homeowners to be able to retrofit their homes to be able to be able to attain a net zero rating. Ultimately, this will require a whole host of activities, such as investment in support programmes, upskilling the workforce and committing to reducing the dependence on fossil fuels across the county.
Better visibility on supply chains, particularly when it comes to fast fashion. More support for organisations that are taking appropriate actions on their impact on the environment as well as treating their workers well, restrictions for the companies that do not conform e.g. something similar to what we see with tobacco advertisement.
In the ‘transport’ theme, we really wanted to see more being done to dis-incentivise car drivers within the city centre. We felt like this was one of the easiest to achieve through improved public transport options, bike hire schemes and daily charges for car drives.
The final category, food, we demanded better support for Greater Manchester companies that are leading the way when it comes to improving the local food system and helping to drive people towards more plant-based diets. Organisations such as the Kindling Trust, who support The Veg Box People that we act as a collection point for, are key to realising these goals.
It was at this point that the Envirolution team pulled together all of the group feedback and enabled us to produce a ‘Green Bee’ theme that was presented to world leaders at COP26 in Glasgow. The idea was that a Green Bee could be awarded to businesses who are committed to making changes within their line of work and the Bee could be presented to their customers so that people could make an informed and educated decision on where to spend their money. We feel that a scheme like this could be quite easy to implement and is simple enough interpreted by the general public and is certainly something that we would proudly display in the window of Lentils and Lather.
Anyway, enough rambling, here’s a video of the event that probably puts everything across much more succinctly. Enjoy!