Responding to climate change: a people-centred debate

I’ve been a delegate at a couple of industry event recently – which in itself is pretty unusual for me as I’m normally the one at the front, directing proceedings.  Once my nosiness at a new venue subsides and I can calm the inner panic that the name badges aren’t quite straight (no – really…), I can sit back and actually listen to – and get involved with – the debate: which although sounds weird, is something I’m usually too busy to actually do.

At the beginning of February I attended a Green Alliance workshop on how we can make tower blocks warm and green, part of their ongoing project to identify new policy and practical approaches to tackle what remains one of the toughest retrofit nuts to crack.  There were some friendly faces, including Michael King, Andrew Eagles, Andrew Burke, Julian Boss and Faye Scott        – as well as some new folk from organisations such as Poplar HARCA, ECD Architects and a number of local authorities.

Then a couple of weeks later I went along to the National Adaptation Conference, hosted by Sustainable Homes.  It was a timely event as at the time it felt like the rain would never stop (although now even that seems like a dim and distant memory after just two days of astonishing, glorious early March sunshine – which of course is part of the problem).  Professor Chris Rapley, the Chair of the London Climate Change Partnership, made a compelling case for a climate science ‘narrative’ and challenged the false balance that the media gives to climate change sceptics.   The Environment Agency’s Tim Reeder gave a useful update on their recent surface water flood mapping work (which I for one wasn’t aware of!)

The thing that struck me with both of these events was how central people are.  I think sometimes the human voice can be lost as we scurry along finding technical solutions, developing new policies or trying to patch together funding options (all of which of course are also very important). 

In our discussions around tower blocks, engaging with residents and the wider community was seen as absolutely critical to the success of any retrofit project, which supports our findings from the evaluation of DECC’s Local Authority Competition last year.  Investing in properties is a good news story and can put landlords in a good light: it goes above and beyond general maintenance and also saves residents money on their fuel bills.  Getting the right residents on side from the beginning can be vital: word of mouth is a powerful thing.

Educating residents is another theme that emerged.  We can invest all the money in the world, but if a householder doesn’t know how to work the kit, they will never save as much energy – and therefore money – as we’d hope.  Residents need to know how things should work in order to avoid unintentional mis-use: they need to be able to spot when things aren’t right, know how to solve easy problems and who to ask if they need help.  The tricky bit of course, is making sure the next residents know this too – which can be expensive.  But if we’re serious about reducing our carbon emissions, it’s not something we can just cross our fingers about and leave to luck.

The human story of the impacts of climate change shone through at the Sustainable Homes adaptation conference.  The case was made that the adaptation debate bristles more than the discussion on mitigation: it’s more visible and affects people more directly (ask anyone living in the Somerset Levels).  It’s more in your face: people are actually losing their homes and their livelihood.  And once the floods reached the Home Counties of course, then it affected the homes and livelihoods of those with more influence and so, a cynic might muse, something finally got done.

People is what SE² specialise in.   We believe people are the key to change; it’s why we focus on organisational change and stakeholder dialogue, communicating the impacts of climate change and influencing what’s done about it.  You can read all about our approach and our services in the SE² Prospectus: or for those of you who prefer pictures to words, check out our show reel on YouTube.

Technology creates the potential for a sustainable future: people make it happen.