Positive take-homes from the She Is Still Sustainable Series

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross recently attended two online seminars as part of the She is Still Sustainable series. 

This is what she had to say about it:

“She Is Still Sustainable (SISS) is a growing network of  mid-career women working in or around sustainability. SISS was to have held a workshop on the 27/28th April but instead held two online seminars.  The first session led by Liz Rivers focused on sustaining ourselves, not succumbing to lock down perfectionism and sharing our thoughts on wellbeing in this strange time. It was uplifting and supportive and set me up for the day. The second session on the next day focused on How do we shape a new future?  Hosted by Alina Congreve, Samantha Freelove and Kerry North, with special guest speakers Farhana Yamin, Solitaire Townsend, Susan Buckingham and Zoe Le Grand, this was an interactive session with breakout conversations as well as presentations.  It was inspiring to hear about what these women are thinking about and doing – from Farhana Yamin talking about focusing on the local with the Think and Do Pop Up in Camden - a community space to give people in Camden the chance to come together to develop ideas and projects tackling the climate and ecological crisis through to  Zoe Le Grand’s  list of how Covid might open up spaces for system change.   The input was great and it was a really stimulating session – very positive and proactive thinking about how to push forward the sustainability agenda.  The group was welcoming, supportive and encouraging and I left feeling positive and empowered.  Penny Walker one of She is Still Sustainable’s founders has written a recent blog talking about the sessions and how they made them work virtually, including a She is Still Sustainable selfie!  It made me think about the value of networks and of meeting people outside my own work/home network, it made me realise how much positive action for sustainability is happening and how important it is to keep on pressing for change in whatever ways we can.   I am still hoping to join them in October in person.”

For more information, please contact Clare Twigger-Ross (Technical Director).

Is there a link between mindfulness and sustainability?

Is there a link between mindfulness and sustainability? A new paper explores this…….

Thiermann U, Sheate W (2020), Motivating individuals for social transition: The 2-pathway model and experiential strategies for pro-environmental behaviour and well-being Ecological Economics (in press) (2020)

Is there a link between mindfulness and sustainability?  Well, there is certainly an ever-growing literature in this field trying to explore it. 

Ute Thiermann (a PhD student at Imperial College London) and Bill Sheate (Associate Director, CEP) have just published a theoretical framework for understanding what might be the complex web of relationships between mindfulness and pro-environmental behaviour. In other words, people’s awareness, desires, willingness and ability to act in the present to change the impact they have on the environment.

The literature points to lots of possible links; the challenge is to prove whether being mindful makes people more likely to take pro-environmental action, i.e. to prove causality.  And if so, why?  Is it because of a greater sense of connectedness with nature that comes with mindfulness?  Or does more connectedness with nature enable you to be more mindful? And how might environmental behaviour link with personal well-being and good mental health?

The paper lays the groundwork for testing new experiential strategies in order to understand whether mindfulness programmes might be helpful as potential policy interventions for motivating people to change their behaviour in ways that can reduce impact upon the world’s environment. 

A fruitful area for future research……

You can access the paper here.

For more information, please contact Bill Sheate (Associate Director).

CEP delivering EKN training - upcoming course dates

INCORPORATING NATURAL CAPITAL AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES INTO ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTS: EXPLORING BEST PRACTICE

UPCOMING DATE FOR THIS COURSE IN 2020:

• 10:00 am - 04:30 pm, Tuesday 10th March (The Castle at Taunton, Castle Green, Taunton, Somerset, TA1 1NF)

This course, which is now in its forth year, will equip you to inform clients or colleagues on the merits of including the ecosystem services and natural capital concepts in environmental assessment processes. There is now strong interest in what ecosystem services, natural capital and nature-based solutions mean for Environmental Impact Assessment, Strategic Environmental Assessment and Sustainability Appraisal. 

The course is delivered by Dr Bill Sheate and Spela Kolaric of Collingwood Environmental Planning and organised by the Ecosystems Knowledge Network.

Find out more and book at: https://ecosystemsknowledge.net/events/training-environmental-assessment

Flagship European State of Environment Report published by the European Environment Agency

CEP have contributed to the newly published SOER 2020 report

The European Environment Agency (EEA) has published the flagship report on the State of Environment in Europe (SOER 2020).  The report emphasises the sustainability challenges Europe faces and the need for urgent systemic solutions.  As well as providing an overview of key environment and climate trends, the report also reflects on the influence of global trends on Europe’s environment and the key emerging drivers of environmental change.

CEP has provided analytical support to the EEA in their preparation of SOER 2020 through a number of contracts lead and delivered by CEP experts or managed by CEP under the EEA framework on forward looking analysis, sustainability assessments and systemic transitions.  These include projects such as updating the knowledge base on global megatrends; identifying and assessing drivers of change; and analysing critical interactions between environmental SDGs from a European perspective.

For more information please contact CEP’s Owen White.

“Europe’s environment is at a tipping point. We have a narrow window of opportunity in the next decade to scale up measures to protect nature, lessen the impacts of climate change and radically reduce our consumption of natural resources.”

— Hans Bruyninckx, EEA Executive Director

“The State of the Environment Report is perfectly timed to give us the added impetus we need as we start a new five-year cycle in the European Commission and as we prepare to present the European Green Deal.”

— Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice President of the European Commission