mapping for sustainable consumption initiatives

New ways of working…

Mapping local action: supporting sustainable consumption initiatives

Chris Church ANPED Trustee

Director, Mapping for change

SCP - What is civil society doing?

Activities around the SCP agenda:  Consumer focussed campaigning & lobbying  Work in multi-stakeholder processes & alliances  Engaging with communities Issues emerging from the ‘Action Town’ programme

A range of problems to tackle

Consumer campaigns

Plenty of activity – needs to be more effective. We need:   Better dissemination of examples of good practice   To show what is effective and ‘mainstream’ this work   To go beyond preaching to the converted   To link to social and winder media   To inform and impact on political campaigns.

But ‘just what is SCP’?

 It is the nature of ‘SCP’ that it is difficult to define what ‘it’ is.

 We lack common principles which could be used as a basis for joint working.

 Those who see this as their ‘single issue’ are a very small group.

 The linking of consumption and production makes it more complex.

Too big an issue?

 Most NGOs only approach this through projects.

 Little focus on policy and global issues.  There is a lack of capacity and of the skills

needed to address, engage with and influence work on these issues.

 Many other priorities for NGO activity

A lack of leadership and support

 Any NGO looking to work on biodiversity or waste will find networks to provide information and support.

 This is not the case with SCP.  ANPED has focused on this issue but is small.

EEB may promote these ideas, but mostly to larger organisations

 So much of what smaller civil society groups want to know about is being done by…

 …Smaller civil society groups

So…

If this work is to develop we need to:  Make it easy to find what is happening  Avoid duplication but replicate where

appropriate  Share information  Provide advice and support

We need innovation in our information systems

Lessons from on-line mapping: Keeping it all together

 It’s almost impossible to know what’s going on in any large city (or diffuse rural area)

 Traditional networks work for those already engaged

 Many new ideas emerging

Mapping for Change  A social enterprise set up as a partnership between

the London 21 sustainability network and University College London

 Provide participatory mapping services to communities, voluntary sector organisations, local authorities and developers using a suite of innovative tools for communication.

Five years ago: the London 21Green Map The first on-line Green Map

The value of mapping  Any thing that is ‘based in a place’ can be placed

on a map  This can turn a ‘directory’ into a living resource  Organisations can design their own maps to

record the information that they want to use and that they want others to see

 Maps can be local, wider-ranging and / or thematic

Local Mapping

We can map  Quantitative data - measurements of the local

environment or the economy.  Qualitative data - surveys of people’s perceptions,

the things people like, dislike or want to change.   Ideas - or at least the places where ideas can turn into

reality: possible sites for growing food or creating new play spaces, or sites that need to change.

 Stories and histories - records of what has happened in an area can be linked to specific places

Localising this: the Hackney Wick Community Map (and others like it)

So what could we map for SCP?

One part of London has mapped:  Community Views and Facilities  Made Here and Independent Shops  Home improvement and repairs  Organisations   Reuse/Recycle facilities  Conservation Areas    Events    Green Areas    Youth Activities

Those categories in use

Mapping for SCP: one approach A London-wide map of resources for climate and consumption 1. Climate-focused bodies (including campaign groups, transition

towns, etc.) 2. Community / resource centres 3. Renewable energy projects and energy advice centres 4. City Farms and larger community gardens / food-growing / green

spaces 5. Community health / well-being projects 6. Key ethnic minority / faith / cultural / refugee / organisations and

networks 7. Time Banks and other local economic development projects 8. Community media organisations 9.  Upcoming relevant events

Mapping good practice across Europe

Some issues:  Easy as local at one level  Who chooses?  Who maintains?

How does this impact on policy?

 Any interested agency can find out more about what is really happening

 Any individual can get active more easily – this may lead to their greater engagement in lobbying etc.

 Policy needs infrastructure for implementation – maps can show existing work and also the gaps

Maps tells us where we should be going…

“It is not down in any map; true places never are”. - Herman Melville (Moby Dick)

Or maybe we don’t have the right kind of maps… Yet…

Mapping for change.org.uk

Thankyou! Chris Church chrischurch@phonecoop.coop