Core Work Areas

Since 1990 we have run projects and assessed work that covers most aspects of sustainability. In the last few years our work has focused on:

• Climate Change, Community Energy and Low Carbon Living

  Work on climate and communities has become a core aspect of our work. As chair of the Low Carbon Communities Network Chris also sits on the Communities and Climate Action Alliance. He was on the project board for DECC’s Local Energy Assessment Fund and has the same role for their Renewable Heat Partnership. He writes the Climate, Community and Society blog.

  Our work on climate change involves both mitigation and adaptation, and we are very aware of the many different strands of work within this field and the need for clear focus. We can offer services from one-off training workshops through development and outreach work to policy review work. See our Climate and Communities page.

• Neighbourhoods and ‘local liveability’

  A focus on Localism is nothing new to us: it’s what we’ve been doing for two decades. We can offer advice and hands-on help on local development, on community-led and neighbourhood planning in both urban and rural communities. We’ve trained planners and academics on how to work with communities and have trained communities in how to make their voices heard by the ‘experts’.

  Our experience has shown us very clearly that demonstrating that local action can genuinely improve local conditions (especially where those are poor) is an essential first step to long-term work on sustainability, climate and all those ‘bigger issues’.

• Local Food

  We have been actively involved in work with local food projects, notably as advisors, assessors and trainers for the Big Lottery ‘Local Food’ programme for the last three years. In spring 2012 Chris led a set of workshops in each region of England on sharing and improving local practice, and will run a second series later in the year. We can offer ways to develop projects, to maximise their impact, and to use local food growing as a way to build engagement in any community.

• Resources and Waste

  We’ve worked on waste, resources and recycling for almost 30 years. Jan wrote ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ for Gaia Books, worked as Co-ordinator for the first ‘Buy Recycled’ programme and as Development Consultant to the National Recycling Forum. Chris is a board member of the London Community Resource Network.

  Our recent work has unsurprisingly focused on building engagement, from recycling with faith communities and tower blocks to local strategies for tackling litter and fly-tipping. All this is in the context of our work on sustainable consumption and production (both for Defra and within the EU) and in the knowledge that current resource use patterns need to be transformed. That transformation will need changes in every locality – we can help make that happen.