Collaborating for a Greener Future: Community Climate Action Project
Globally and locally, refugees and migrants often bear the brunt of climate-related challenges. Extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and famines are creating widespread insecurity, disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities. This is part of the untold story behind many of the struggles our clients face. Locally, despite living in some of the city’s most polluted areas and having some of the lowest car ownership rates, our clients are often excluded from climate conversations and action plans.
Three years ago, we joined an innovative city-wide initiative—the Community Climate Action Project (CCA) which is funded by the National Lottery’s Climate Action Fund and coordinated by Bristol Climate & Nature Partnership. This community-led approach not only helps build resilient neighbourhoods across the city but also ensures that the local needs and priorities of communities are at the forefront of climate action. As we transition towards a greener economy, it’s crucial that no community is left behind. Our core project partners include organisations like Ambition Lawrence Weston in Lawrence Weston, Eastside Community Trust in Easton, Heart of BS13 in Hartcliffe and Lockleaze Neighbourhood Trust in Lockleaze —each bringing unique strategies to support their communities in becoming part of the climate solution. By the end of this three-year project, we would have 18 communities engaged with their own climate action plans, which you can read here.
Through our involvement in this project, we recognised that our clients require more opportunities to engage with the climate sector and need tailored support to do so. To address this gap, we’ve focused on two key projects: the Green Growth Accelerator Project, which helps businesses become more sustainable, and the Introduction to Green Employment course.
In the coming weeks and months, we’ll be sharing insights from our courses, research on engaging refugees and migrants in the climate sector, and profiles of some of our business climate heroes—local champions who are leading the way in green skills. Our 5-week Introduction to Green Employment course has been co-produced with individuals who have lived experience, incorporating their feedback every step of the way. The course explores the causes of climate change, both globally and locally, and the responses being implemented. It also covers the Sustainable Development Goals and Bristol’s efforts to support a net-zero future. Most importantly, the course aims to introduce individuals to the variety of jobs and opportunities within the green sector that they may not have considered or even been aware of. With an increasing number of jobs opening up within the climate sector, we want to ensure that our community feels empowered and prepared to engage with these opportunities. This course has evolved over seven cohorts, and we look forward to sharing our findings, best practices, and success stories with you soon.
