Parish and town councils, school leaders and children, residents, businesses and agencies came together at the recent Climate Assembly event, where Leader of the District Council, Cllr Susan Juned, outlined the work done to date to tackle climate change in the District since declaring a climate emergency in 2019. According to SDC, “progress has been made in all the key areas of the council’s operation including waste, buildings, planning and transport. Contracts for waste collection and recycling services, as well as the street cleaning contract, all now incorporate carbon reduction requirements.”
Read the press article and find out about work so far from SDC’s website
Cllr Juned was joined on stage by Stephen Norrie, Stratford Climate Action and Net Zero Stratford, who run the successful Repair Café and newly opened Climate hub. Also joining the speakers were the RSC’s Production Manager David Tanqueray and Associate Director Elizabeth Freestone . Elizabeth’s directing credits include The Tempest at the RSC in 2023, but she is also an environmental consultant, with a particular focus on sustainability. The RSC is responding to the climate emergency by applying the Theatre Green Book to make everything they do more sustainable and reducing their carbon footprint. That includes the work on stage – building sets from materials that are more sustainable and re-using wherever possible – but also how they run their buildings, their catering, focusing on greener freight and cargo and their digital carbon footprint. Watch the video
Workshops gathered delegates ideas to shape future strategy on food security, energy use, adaptation, transport, biodiversity, litter and waste. A focussed workshop on Harnessing Community Action was delivered by WALC’s Climate Officer and included the duty on biodiversity and how councils can play a proactive role in restoring nature. Gina Rowe, Warwickshire Local Nature Partnership, provided the statistics for habitat and species expansion needed to halt and reverse the startling decline in biodiversity in the UK. View the presentation