How the Right to Grow could help your community reap the benefits of locally produced food. 

The UK imports around 40% of its food overall, but this figure jumps substantially when it comes to fruit and veg. The latest figures put vegetable imports at just under 50%, and fruit at a whopping 80%.  

The reasons behind this are complex, but whatever the cause, this reliance on foreign food puts us all at a far greater risk of shortages than a more self-sufficient nation. 

If not farmers, then who? 

The majority of people in the UK live in towns and cities. Whilst some have access to a garden or outdoor space, many live in flats and apartments and have no space to grow food. 

Enter Incredible Edible. The movement, founded in Todmorden, Yorkshire, has now spread all over the world, and focuses on encouraging people to grow their own fresh fruit and veg anywhere where there is free space. Over the last few years, Incredible Edible has led the campaign for places around the UK to implement a community Right to Grow. 

This policy, so far adopted by Hull, Cumberland, St Albans, Southwark and several other councils, creates a simple mechanism by which the public is able to use available council land for planting and growing produce. 

Often, a local food partnership is involved with setting up the policy – working directly with the local council and food-related organisations to put the application process and mechanisms in place.  

Read more about food partnerships on our action page here. 

The purpose of bringing in this policy is manyfold. Firstly, and perhaps most obviously, a community Right to Grow means more food available locally and less reliance on imports. Additionally, there is a benefit to the local authority, which will save maintenance costs for whatever land is assigned to growers. There is a wider societal and cultural benefit too: more people learning where their food comes from, learning new skills in horticulture and growing, and improved wellbeing through new connections with each other and with the natural world.

Growing ahead 

There are many projects that have taken advantage of disused space for food growing, without an “official” community Right to Grow. 

In London, Global Generation has been creating urban gardens on disused land since 2004. Working in particular with children and families, the charity is helping to improve access to fresh food, as well as teaching cooking and food preparation skills and supporting the confidence and mental health of participants. 

Manchester Urban Diggers are helping refugees and asylum seekers connect with new people and share their heritage through food, with the Stronger Roots project, hosted at an urban garden on a former bowling green. 

In Cornwall, Chyan is a community farm and permaculture project, which uses a formerly overgrown and unloved field to run growing projects including Roots and Seeds, a volunteer gardening group; and a Nature Playgroup, for families with young children. 

Whilst these are all fantastic examples, and clearly making a significant impact, the fact is they rely on a good deal of grit and determination from those leading the projects. With a community Right to Grow in place, the process of gaining permission to start utilising land for planting and growing is far simpler: usually an online form hosted by the local authority or food partnership, and a clear timeline from initial enquiry to implementation. 

Germinating the idea 

Carbon Copy is hosting a Community-to-Community Workshop where you can learn directly from those who have successfully implemented this kind of initiative. Hull Food Partnership was instrumental in establishing the community Right to Grow in Hull – the first place in the UK to implement this policy.

If you are involved with a food partnership, or a local group that would benefit from access to land for food growing, then this free online session on October 6, might be for you!  

Find out more and sign up.

How communities like yours could benefit from district heating systems.

Just imagine: houses all over England could soon be kept toasty warm in our cold, wet winters by renewable energy, locally sourced and then piped under the street to every household! You might think this idea, known as district heating, is, well… a pipe dream. Or you might think, if you’re familiar with the government’s new heat network zoning strategy, that it will only happen in large towns and cities. On both counts, think again! 

About 800,000 households in England– many of them rural – still rely on oil for heating [Calculated using English Housing Survey 2023-4 and 2021 Census]. It’s messy, expensive, and bad for the environment, pushing out more emissions per unit of heat than even gas. And while homes on gas are protected to some extent by the energy price cap, oil prices are high and volatile, making heating oil users especially vulnerable to fuel poverty. It’s also unreliable, with householders expected to make sure their own fuel supplies remain topped up. 

The government is aiming for heat networks to supply 20 per cent of England’s heat demand by 2050, a significant increase from the current 3 percent, focusing on major towns and cities. Rural communities are not included in this strategy. But thanks to the collaborative efforts of local community groups and councils, supported by energy co-operatives and charities, some rural communities up and down the country are already planning to create heat networks of their own. 

Help is at hand. The Community Heat Development Unit (CHDU) is an 18-month research and innovation project, completed in October 2025. It was specifically set up to help communities develop their own heat networks, using data to identify good locations and viable business models. It’s led by the Sharenergy cooperative, with partners Community Energy England, Marches Energy Advice (retrofit/insulation experts) and Carbon Alternatives (technical heat network design), with funding from the Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme. 

Leading the way has been a small village in East Cambridgeshire, where Swaffham Prior Community Land Trust and Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) have worked together to offer a green heating alternative to oil. Using ground source heat pumps with backup from electric boilers and a nearby solar farm, sustainable thermal energy is now being pumped under the streets into homes, with a commitment to connect nearly all the homes in the village to the scheme.

Rural heat networks are catching on 

Swaffham Prior, the UK’s first rural heat network, is the pathfinder for a handful of other rural English communities in Northumberland, Staffordshire and Hertfordshire, which are now actively trying to clear the same feasibility and funding hurdles. The goal is affordable, dependable clean energy, and an end to fuel poverty. 

No one is pretending it’s easy or straightforward. Bishop’s Castle in Shropshire has been pursuing a community wind turbine and heat pump heating network, run by Shropshire & Telford Community Energy, Sharenergy, and Lightfoot Enterprises. After winning planning permission for the 900kW community wind turbine in 2025, building that into a full heat network has proved much harder. The heat network side is currently stalled on funding and pipe costs. 

Haydon Bridge in Northumberland is another pioneer village keen to promote the deployment of rural district heating owned by communities. The project, led by heat network consultancy Reheat, working with the rural community-support charity Community Action Northumberland and the Rural Design Centre, is at feasibility stage. 

Bioregional, who led development of the BedZED eco-village and the One Planet Living sustainability framework, has worked with four local communities across England to explore the feasibility of developing community-led, net-zero-carbon compatible heating networks: Whittington and Fisherwick in Staffordshire; Shenstone in Staffordshire; Brightwell-cum-Sotwell in Oxfordshire, and Grand Union Community at Kings Langley in Hertfordshire. 

Their work has included modelling the energy demand of existing buildings, exploring the feasibility of different heat sources in each local area, and developing technical and economically feasible solutions for community-wide heat networks. Vital community buy-in was achieved through in-depth community engagement workshops, introducing residents to the many benefits of a decarbonised community heating system: long-term price stability; a low-carbon source of energy; opportunities for local ownership, and potential investment opportunities. 

In many cases, the local Climate Action Network can help provide the civic infrastructure that makes community energy projects like Swaffham Prior or Bishop’s Castle possible: the trusted local network that does the door-knocking, holds public meetings, and builds the “90% of the village signed up” kind of buy-in that Swaffham Prior needed to get over the line. 

Green is the warmest colour! 

Carbon Copy is hosting a Community-to-Community Workshop where you can learn directly how the team at Swaffham Prior have successfully implemented their own renewable energy heat network. If you’re keen to explore how your community could do the same, then you should sign up for this free online session on October 13!   

Find out more and sign up.  

How you can take a local economy full circle. 

What is a circular economy? 

In a circular economy, products and materials are kept in circulation through processes like repair, reuse, remanufacture, recycling and composting. 

This is very different from the dominant ‘take-make-waste’ economy of today, where raw materials and natural resources are extracted, used once and then discarded as waste. 

Most of us think that a circular economy is about eliminating waste and pollution, and we would be right. But there’s another, equally important element. By shifting from a take-make-waste linear economy to one that is circular, we also support natural processes and regenerate nature. 

For example, food production based on circular economy principles involves moving away from soil extraction and towards soil regeneration. Regenerative food production practices reduce the need for polluting fertilizers, fossil fuels and pesticides to boost crop yields, relying instead on healthy soils to grow more food. 

Circular economies tend to be more local than traditional linear economies because the sharing, repairing and recycling loops work best when they are close to where people live and use products. In contrast, take-make-waste economies often use cheap global shipping to extract raw materials in one country, manufacture products in another and dump waste in a third.  

What are the benefits of a local circular economy? 

Underpinned by the transition to renewable energy and its positive impact on nature, a local circular economy is a resilient system that is good for people, place and the surrounding environment. Benefits include: 

Stronger Local Jobs: Sorting, upcycling and remanufacturing create steady jobs that cannot be easily outsourced overseas or replaced by AI. 

Affordability: Extending product lifespans, easier access to repair, using goods instead of buying them, all act as money savers.  

Less Waste: Reducing waste is an issue people feel very strongly about. Public polling shows how much people in the UK hate waste and how ready they are for greater ambition on using resources more efficiently. 

Community Building: Tool libraries, clothing swaps, and local food composting systems rely entirely on nearby neighbourhoods and people working together. 

Community Wealth: The money spent and benefits circulate locally within the community and with local businesses, rather than leaking out to multinational corporations.    

Supply Security: Reduced reliance on global imports, long supply chains and exposed international shipping routes lowers the supply risks and price volatility. 

Reduced Emissions: Extending product usage cuts carbon emissions from raw manufacturing, and keeping reuse and recycling networks local cuts polluting transport emissions.  

Nature Replenishment: Reducing waste, pollution and emissions all help in restoring local water, soil and air quality as well as the environment more generally for both people and wildlife. 

What does a local circular economy look like? 

A local circular economy is a system made up of interconnected operations and businesses that intentionally keep products, materials and resources in use for as long as possible instead of throwing them away. They can be grouped based on what they do and together they grow into a comprehensive and thriving circular economy:

Maintenance, repair and refurbishment: These organisations focus on extending the useful life of products, keeping items functioning so people don’t have to purchase brand-new replacements. Repair Café Wales, for example, supports a network of 150 individual repair cafes across Wales. Electronics refurbishers such as Fixing Factories repair small household appliances and electronics, helping to tackle e-waste. Community tool libraries like Edinburgh Tool Library act as local hubs where people not only share tools but also have tools repaired. Craft-based businesses – cobblers, tailors and furniture upholsterers – extend the lifespans of favourite footwear, clothing and expensive furniture. 

Sharing and providing ‘products as a service’: Instead of buying a new bike or car or piece of equipment, people share or pay to use these products for the service they provide and for a limited time only. This maximises the use of these products while incentivising the owners to maintain them to increase their lifecycle. Library of Things have hubs across London, enabling locals to borrow a variety of things related to DIY, cleaning, gardening and more. Devizes Swap Shop and other sharing hubs are places to swap items within the local community, from toys to sports equipment. Local transit operations such as TrydaNi Car Clubs allow multiple users to share a single fleet of vehicles, providing people in rural areas with access to a car without the cost of owning one. Zero-waste and refill shops require customers to bring containers with them, sharing their containers with the retailer to eliminate single-use packaging in the outlet. 

Reuse, resale and redistribution: These operations help maintain and grow the second-hand market, transferring ownership of unwanted but perfectly functional goods to new users. Charity shops and vintage retailers on the high street are very popular examples, with Charity Super.Mkt growing into a multi-brand department store for all things charity fashion. Upcycling workshops run by artisans and small manufacturers transform unwanted products into higher-value items (e.g. New 2 You turns old furniture items into interesting new pieces). Renew Hub is an example of a local marketplace that supports resale of used goods, helping people to reuse donated and discarded items on a huge scale across Greater Manchester. More generally, local scrap yards, second-hand building centres and salvage shops recover raw materials and reclaim functional parts, for reselling and redistribution. 

Organic recycling and regeneration: These operations safely return biological materials back to nature, helping to restore local ecosystems. Facilities with commercial composting facilities or anaerobic digesters collect local restaurant and household food scraps, converting them into biogas for energy and nutrient-rich fertiliser for local agriculture. For example, the Humberston Eco Conservation Centre uses a novel micro anaerobic digester to create bio-energy from local garden and food waste. 
 

How do I get started? 

You’ve probably already started if there are a few of these different organisations, businesses or networks in place. You don’t need all of them and each place will have its own recipe that reflects local resources and demands. 

Although each local circular economy is different, there are some common approaches and success factors that can be copied.

On 29 September 2026, we are hosting an online workshop with Circular Malton & Norton. In Closing The Loop, we will explore how these elements come together in practice and effective ways of collaborating, so you can progress from separate circular economy projects to creating an entire system. 

For more information on this Community-to-Community Workshop about expanding your local circular economy, click here. 

Art has always helped us make sense of the world around us, and climate change is increasingly becoming part of that story. From theatres and festivals adapting to extreme weather to artists using their work to explore the climate crisis, the relationship between art and climate change is growing in both practical and creative ways.

We spoke to Arts Council England and looked at projects across the UK to explore how the arts are responding to climate change, supporting community resilience and helping more people engage with climate action.

How is climate change affecting the arts? 

For many of us, summer is synonymous with festivals. Music, poetry, comedy, theatre – there’s an event on the calendar for almost every taste. But how do these events, and the artists and production companies behind them, cope when faced with extreme weather? We spoke to Robin Lyons, Senior Officer for Environmental Responsibility at Arts Council England, to learn more. 

“Operationally, climate change is having very real impacts. We only need look at the recent heatwaves May through July to see examples of this. We’ve seen closures and changes to opening hours, challenges around performer welfare (including a need for performer hydration breaks), the disruption of transport infrastructure which is critical for our sector and of course affects our audiences, visitors, and creatives and particularly our touring productions, and we see financial impacts ranging from ticket cancellations and reduced visitor numbers through to increased building management and cooling costs… 

“But at the same time as there may be negative impacts the sector is facing, we should also recognise that cultural organisations are increasingly showing themselves to be forms of public infrastructure, and a part of community resilience. A really positive example is the Cool Off in Culture campaign, where cultural venues across the country are opening their doors as free-to-use cool spaces for the public, during periods of extreme heat.” 

Climate storytelling and the arts

Climate change is affecting the arts in two important ways: it is changing the conditions in which artists and cultural organisations operate, while also increasingly becoming a subject for creative work itself. The arts have long been intertwined with social change, politics and protest, and the climate movement is no different. Robin also had some thoughts on this: 

“There are far too many brilliant examples of climate storytelling for me to mention any individually, so instead I’d like to highlight the Climate Playwriting Prize, which is a partnership between Shakespeare’s Globe, Climate Spring and Fern Culture. Its aim is to uncover exciting new plays about the climate crisis, and to support them to find their audiences. Submissions are open this year until the 1st of September. 

“I mention the climate playwriting prize because it demonstrates in a high-profile way, how the sector itself is actively now investing in climate storytelling in a way that perhaps wasn’t commonplace ten or fifteen years ago. And this isn’t by accident; this is because the sector recognises its own strengths, and recognises the importance of climate storytelling. And what’s perhaps even more compelling, is that research suggests that audiences themselves want more climate change content in culture.” 

This desire for more climate-related work is already being acknowledged by companies like Script6, the Norfolk-based production team behind the podcast soap opera, Parklife, which Carbon Copy is supporting; Manchester-based theatre company Ergon Theatre, composers like Sarah Nicolls and Erik Ian Walker and many other performing arts and cultural institutions. It also speaks to the bigger picture: that climate change is now affecting every part of our lives, and therefore whatever story is being told, there is a climate narrative embedded within it. 

How local arts organisations can adapt to climate change

The arts are not all about headline acts and sell-out shows. Like climate action, much of the work that has the most profound and meaningful impact is happening at a more local level. In smaller galleries, community theatres and through passionate volunteers and creatives. That the venues are less high-profile does not mean they are less affected by climate change. In many cases, community arts organisations are wrangling tighter budgets and older buildings, making their need for adaptation even greater. 

For local arts organisations, adapting to climate change can mean understanding how risks such as extreme heat and flooding could affect venues, audiences, performers and the wider community. Robin had these thoughts and advice for local creative projects: 

“Certainly, the principles of assessing risk apply to most – that is first to consider your community’s vulnerabilities from social and infrastructural standpoints. To then understand what climate impacts or hazards (e.g. heat, flood) might have an effect on those vulnerabilities. And then finally, to consider how exposed to those impacts you might be on both a national and hyper-local scale. That will help you to better understand what your version of adaptation and risk might want to be centred around. 

“It’s also vital to focus on collaboration amongst your local arts ecology: finding opportunities to share knowledge and experience of climate change impacts and sharing both successes and failures in attempts to improve environmental responsibility. 

“It’s important to be constantly asking the question ‘who is missing from the conversation?’ to ensure that stakeholders at all levels and from all backgrounds can have an input. 

“This is something that our sector has actually been doing for a long time already through networks such as GMAST, or SAIL. These are creative networks that support local culture-based climate action, and recognise the strength in collaborative resilience. There are networks like these found in multiple parts of the UK, and you can find these on SAIL’s website – under the title Project Constellation: UK Sustainability Network of Networks.” 

How art can inspire local climate action

In Carbon Copy’s new report about the characteristics shared by some of the most successful local climate action projects, we uncovered that creativity was one of the twelve attributes we found enabled initiatives to thrive. This doesn’t always mean creativity in the sense of being an arts-focused project, but in many cases the arts have been used as a way to engage more people and to communicate complex issues. 

Power Station is a project led by artists Dan Edelstyn and Hilary Powell. The pair raised money through creative projects to help install rooftop solar for themselves and their neighbours on their street in East London. Listen to Hilary speak about this inspiring initiative on the Carbon Copy Podcast. 

Scrap Antics is a Dundee-based CIC rescuing materials from landfill and running playful, creative sessions with people of all ages to create awareness and engagement with issues around waste. 

Hwb y Gors in South Wales is a community arts, environment and enterprise centre run by Awal Aman Tawe and funded by profits from renewable energy projects. The centre provides a venue for a wide array of classes and workshops, helping to support local wellbeing, to bring cultural enrichment and to provide education about climate change. 

The cultural sector is not immune to the effects of climate change, but it’s clear there are many ways in which museums, venues, artists and musicians can help to address its causes and build resilience locally. Whether it’s practical adaptation to protect artistic institutions, or the creative outputs themselves prompting discussion and action to tackle the crisis, art definitely has a climate story. 

Discover more climate stories like these to inspire you at carboncopy.eco/initiatives. 

Football and climate change are becoming increasingly difficult to separate. Major tournaments can generate millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, while rising temperatures and extreme weather are changing the conditions in which the game is played.

But football can also be part of the response. From grassroots clubs cutting emissions to fans calling for greater climate leadership from the sport, football has the reach to bring climate action into communities around the world.

What an unforgettable World Cup feast of football over the summer and fantastic final four teams!

The sporting extravaganza brought people together in enjoyment and celebration but has also cast a long shadow. There were moments of indefensible interference and ill-treatment, from Trump intervening to overturn a red card to barring a Somali World Cup referee to ugly scenes by losing teams. There were moments of brilliance from Bellingham to Lamine Yamal, big impacts from the likes of Cape Verde and Norway, and the highest-scoring third-place playoff. But for all the breathless excitement this tournament generated the lasting harm is one of breathtaking pollution.

Beyond what happened on the pitch, the tournament also raised a much bigger question about football and climate change: what is the environmental cost of staging an event on this scale?

The 2026 World Cup was said to be the most polluting ever. Conservative estimates of about 9 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions is the same as 21 gas-fired power plants running for a year or driving 1.9 million cars for a year. For comparison, the 2024 Paris Olympics emitted one-fifth of the atmospheric pollution, around 1.8 million tonnes.

How is climate change affecting football?

Some, perhaps many, will say it was worth it. Many would also say that the ‘hydration breaks’ midway through each game broke up the entertainment of watching the match, turning football from game to groan.

But even if FIFA exploited the climate rationale for even more ad money, the main point about the negative impact of climate change on playing and enjoying sport still exists.

As we’ve experienced firsthand from the unbearable heatwaves this year, the world is getting hotter and is threatening the safety of us all, football players and fans included.

In looking back at the World Cup, where should our focus be for the football season ahead? Being part of the solution or taking an ever-increasing emissions approach that increases the risk of harm to players and the sport itself?

Football’s climate impact doesn’t reset each season

At the start of every new football season the points tally resets to zero: last season’s highs cannot be banked and thankfully the lows count for nothing.

Climate heating does not allow for a clean slate. We start every new season in nature from the cumulative total of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere. The points tally, measured in temperature degrees of warming, builds on the emissions of previous seasons over decades.

If we are to tackle this accumulated heat together, the football community thinks the world’s favourite sport should play a leading role. A 3,600-person fan survey by Football For Future across the USA, Canada, and Mexico found 96% of Mexican, 90% of Canadian, and 87% of USA fans believed the World Cup should be a global role model for climate leadership.

Unfortunately for all of us, Gianni Infantino and FIFA do not share this perspective and that’s not how it played out this summer. We don’t simply get to reset the score in August and forget the results of the World Cup that we don’t like.

How grassroots football clubs can take climate action

The solutions lie closer to home than you may think. Local sports clubs have always been natural community hubs and can be central to communities making change. As always, fans play a pivot role; not only during a game but also in their club’s efforts to address the causes of climate change and impacts of climate-related damage and disruptions.

Grassroots football clubs can reduce their environmental impact in practical ways, from installing solar panels and insulating clubhouses against heat and cold to reducing transport emissions when teams travel to away games. These changes can cut running costs as well as emissions, allowing clubs to invest savings back into their facilities and communities.

In an exciting new project led by Climate Outreach and Pledgeball, Gamechanging Futures will showcase how grassroot sport can bring people together to strengthen communities and take action on climate change. The initiative works with six local sports clubs across England that include Bexhill United Football Club, FC United of Manchester and Hastings United Football Club, helping each club become a thriving community climate hub.

There are green shoots everywhere. Carbon Copy shares hundreds of local climate action projects from across the UK, from football to fashion to food, where the stories told are by people who don’t come from typical environmental organisations and the positive impacts go way beyond emissions reductions.

Discover different kinds of local climate stories to inspire you at carboncopy.eco/initiatives

How football can inspire wider climate action

Central to the conversation about how football contributes to climate action is how the sport can energise others to contribute to a more regenerative world.

By translating climate science into football’s language and working alongside football, we can without doubt achieve bigger climate goals and avoid more own goals.

Advancing climate action through sport, entertainment and other avenues makes perfect sense. In finding common ground, connecting with much loved activities like football, and focusing on the relatable impacts of climate change, it’s possible to engage a much wider audience in action that safeguards the things we love to do.

How is climate change affecting food security in the UK, and could stronger local food systems help reduce the risk of future food shortages and empty supermarket shelves?

The image is seared into recent memory: early 2023, and British supermarkets were rationing tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and courgettes — two or three items per customer. Social media filled with photos of bare shelves where salad vegetables should have been. The official explanation was “adverse weather conditions in southern Europe and north Africa.” Which was true, as far as it went, but that wasn’t nearly far enough. 

The supply chains behind British food are climate-exposed. The UK imports 45 to 50 per cent of its food, and the proportion rises sharply in winter when domestic growing capacity falls. British supermarkets are dependent on growing regions like southern Spain, Morocco, Portugal and Italy which are now experiencing some of the most rapid climate deterioration in the world. The Mediterranean basin is warming about 20 per cent faster than the global average. Once-in-a-generation droughts now arrive every few years. 

The 2023 shortage wasn’t a unique event. It was a preview of what’s coming. And it’s not just an import problem: UK domestic production is also increasingly exposed. Our 2023 wheat harvest was one of the worst on record — a wet, cold spring delayed planting, a difficult summer compounded the damage, and yields fell sharply. That fed directly into higher flour and bread prices. In 2024, the UK experienced its wettest 18-month period since records began. Farmers couldn’t get machinery onto their water-logged land at the right time and some crops simply rotted in the ground. 

Due to unseasonal frosts and unpredictable rainfall, the growing window that farmers and supermarket buyers plan around is becoming less reliable. That also creates gaps: not always empty shelves, but reduced availability, higher prices, and more imported substitutions precisely when domestic supply should be at its peak. 

Why climate change puts UK food security at risk

Modern supermarket supply chains are engineered for efficiency, not resilience. Just-in-time logistics, minimal stockholding, tight supplier contracts — these worked well when conditions were stable and predictable. Now they are neither. What we saw in 2023: empty bays and rationing notices within days of harvest failures we’d never even heard about, is not just a logistics failure or a supermarket problem but a climate impact, arriving in the most visible way possible — in our weekly shop. 

How serious is it? A national security assessment by the UK’s Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) in January 2026 warns that global ecosystem collapse is likely to trigger severe food shortages in the UK within five years. Professor Paul Behrens, British Academy Global Professor at the Oxford Martin School, has delivered this stark food security warning in The People’s Emergency Briefing, now being screened in local communities all over the UK: 

“One estimate suggests that about a third of the food price inflation that we saw in 2023 was driven by extreme weather events that are now becoming the norm. And when families can’t afford to feed their children, societies break down.

“The good news is that the research is crystal clear on what we need to do, and fortunately, it’s healthier for us. We need a great food transformation, built on four main pillars: shifting to plant rich diets; reducing food waste; improving production and increasing climate resilience”. 

How local food systems can improve food security

The risks facing the UK’s food supply are real and growing, but communities across the country are already finding ways to build greater local food resilience. Growing more food locally, shortening supply chains, improving soil health and sharing food-growing knowledge can all help communities become less dependent on vulnerable global supply chains.

These aren’t distant pilot programmes or government initiatives. They’re local people deciding to tackle the risk of food shortages head-on, right now.

Middle Ground Growers at Weston Spring Farm in Bath are using regenerative farming to grow fresh food for local people all year round.  Started in 2020 on just 2 acres in Bathampton, the project now farms 16 acres and supplies food to over 200 families and 12 local outlets.  Their model — short supply chains, soil health, no fossil-fuel fertilisers — is precisely the antidote to the vulnerabilities that caused 2023’s empty shelves. They’re also part of We Are Avon, a growing network of producers and communities collaborating to build better local food systems across the region.  

Fordhall Farm in Shropshire is England’s first community-owned farm, run through a charitable community benefit society with over 8,000 community shareholders, 30 staff, and more than 100 volunteers.  Their model — community as landlord, farmer as tenant, nature as partner — shows what food resilience looks like when it’s rooted in place rather than global logistics. Charlotte Hollins, who alongside her brother Ben helped save the farm, now offers consultancy to other community groups wanting to follow the same path. 

Lincoln Greeners is a community urban gardening group run by Leeds-based CIC Mafwa Theatre. Participants decide together what to grow, follow the whole process from seedling to harvest, and share skills and knowledge along the way.  The group has been welcoming to all, including support for people on lower incomes to attend, and has helped to create lasting friendships among participants who might otherwise be socially isolated.  It’s a reminder that food resilience isn’t only about supply chains — it’s about the knowledge and connections that support communities. 

Can local food systems help prevent food shortages?

Short supply chains. Soil that works with nature, not against it. Community ownership and knowledge. Food that doesn’t depend on a harvest in Morocco or a gas price in Rotterdam. These vital projects are all prototypes for a UK food system that can actually withstand what’s coming. The question isn’t whether this is possible; it’s already happening. The question is scale. Can you join in to help build that scale where you live? 

Refilling empty shelves is just one example of how a climate story can be about lots of things and can create wider positive impacts, beyond a reduction in emissions. 

Discover more climate stories like these to inspire you at carboncopy.eco/initiatives. 

Healthcare and climate change are closely connected. The sector exists to protect our health, but healthcare is also a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for up to 4.4% of global net emissions. That’s what makes healthcare a fascinating climate story, playing out at two ends of the system: nature helping us to be well enough that we potentially need less treatment, and making treatment itself far more efficient. 

Green social prescribing and sustainable healthcare 

Green Social Prescribing connects people to nature-based activities — gardening, wheeling and walking groups, conservation work or simply meditating in green or blue spaces — as a non-clinical alternative or complement to medical treatment. This is not a fringe idea. The National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP), reporting on the cross-Government Green Social Prescribing Programme (2020–2024), calculated that for every £1 invested by central government, the programme has generated a social return on investment of up to £2.42. The programme was targeted to support people who were most in need, with more than 50% of participants from the most socio-economically deprived areas. 

The climate benefit of this approach is twofold. Pharmaceuticals are the single largest component of the NHS’s carbon impact, and one survey found that 60% of GPs would prescribe antidepressants less often if alternatives existed. So keeping people well through nature reduces demand on a carbon-heavy supply chain. And many of these projects also benefit the environment directly: community gardens mean more locally grown food and fewer air miles; tree planting adds biodiversity and carbon capture. 

Cynon Valley Organic Adventures in Abercynon is a great illustration — a five-acre social enterprise site of river, wet woodland, orchard and polytunnels that started as neglected land in 2018 and now runs green social prescribing alongside education and volunteering. 

Our Health Meadow at University Hospital Llandough takes it further by building green infrastructure into the hospital itself — an edible landscape and outdoor rehabilitation facility designed to test how nature affects mental health and social cohesion in a clinical setting, not just a community one. 

Dundee’s innovative Green Health Partnership has delivered measured improvements in people’s mental and physical health from taking part in an array of enjoyable and sociable activities in green spaces, alongside more traditional methods. Their innovative pathway was co-designed in partnership with community groups, NHS Tayside and third sector nature-based interventions. 

How hospitals can reduce healthcare emissions and waste

The other half of this story is what happens when care is delivered. Kidney care is a good example, one of the most resource-intensive specialities in healthcare, making it a key area for improvement while continuing to deliver the best outcomes for patients. 

Recognising this, the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare is leading a pioneering two-phase initiative to reduce the carbon footprint of kidney care across the NHS while delivering cost savings, conserving water and continuing to deliver high-quality care. 

Reducing waste is another vital opportunity. NHS operating theatres alone generate up to 70% of hospital waste, costing roughly £2.8 billion a year — and that waste has been rising 15% annually, driven by growing reliance on disposables. It is one of the principal areas of focus in the NHS’s long-term planning. 

The Reducing Clinical Waste story published on Carbon Copy is one innovative example of what circular thinking looks like in practice. At Wrexham Maelor Hospital, consultant surgeons Preetham Kodumuri and Edwin Jesudason redesigned carpal tunnel surgery — the UK’s most common orthopaedic procedure — around a ‘lean’ instrument set, smaller surgical drapes, a small procedure room instead of a full theatre, and a ‘green patient pathway’ that cut a patient’s time on-site from roughly five hours to about 30 minutes! 

The results from their pilot (17 patients, two hospitals, no complications) were impressive: 

• 65% reduction in clinical waste 

• 80% reduction in carbon emissions 

• 65% cost saving — £12,641 annually per hospital 

• Freed-up theatre time for bigger procedures, and no ward admission needed 

These innovative surgeons didn’t present their idea to the hospital as an environmental project – they sold it on cost savings, freed-up theatre time, and better patient experience. Carbon reduction was a welcome addition to solving problems the NHS and patients already care deeply about: cost, waiting times and patient experience. 

These are just a few examples of how a climate story can be about lots of things and can create wider positive impacts, beyond a reduction in emissions.  

Discover more climate stories like these to inspire you at carboncopy.eco/initiatives. 

Unfortunately for many people the holiday rush is more like a slow chug. As motorists hit the roads over the summer holiday period, brace yourself for long hot traffic queues on major motorways, coastal routes and at the ports.

But congestion isn’t the only problem created by busy roads in hot weather. Traffic is a major source of air pollution, while high temperatures can make some forms of air pollution worse. That means summer traffic can have consequences that extend far beyond a frustrating journey.

Why can air pollution be worse in hot weather?

Hot weather can make air pollution worse, particularly during prolonged periods of high temperatures. Heatwaves can lead to more airborne particles from wind-blown dust and wildfire smoke. According to Dr James Allan, NCAS’s lead scientist for air pollution research, the hot weather also promotes the creation of harmful ‘secondary air pollution’ through faster atmospheric chemical reactions. Pollutants such as oxides of nitrogen (known as NOx) and non-methane volatile organic compounds (VOCs) react with sunlight to form harmful ozone and secondary particulate matter that we also breathe in.

Road transport is the single biggest NOx emitter in the UK responsible for 30% of total emissions, with millions of petrol and diesel cars on the roads on summer trips driving up these secondary pollution levels.

It’s no small thing. While air quality continues to improve at a national level, air pollution is still responsible for tens of thousands of premature deaths in the UK each year. Poor air quality is particularly hazardous to children and yet, as reported by Friends of the Earth, there are over 1,200 schools in neighbourhoods across England are located in areas where nitrogen dioxide or particulate matter (PM2.5) levels, or both, are double the World Health Organisation’s guidelines.

How can we improve air quality locally?

Thankfully, there are a lot of things we can do to remedy poor air quality locally.

Reducing car journeys where possible is one way to help improve local air quality, whether that’s by using public transport, walking or cycling for shorter journeys, or simply travelling less. ‘Staycations’ are seeing a massive resurgence and seasoned staycationers are well aware of the benefits of less stress and more convenience over distance travelled.

Transport isn’t the only way communities can tackle air pollution. Green infrastructure, including parks, woodlands, waterways, green roofs and street trees, can also help improve local air quality while making urban areas cooler during hot weather.

In Hackney, East London, the council identified a need for more green spaces to ensure local people – many of whom are from lower-income families and do not have access to their own garden – can spend time outdoors without suffering the effects of air pollution. Improvements have been made in existing parks, as well as the creation of new greener routes for active travel.

These so-called ‘green infrastructure’ projects can be led by councils, as in Hackney, or community groups. They come in all shapes and sizes, from living green walls (Urban GreenUp in Liverpool) to greener spaces around London Overground stations (Energy Garden) to planting woodlands (West Cheshire Trees For Climate). And if you’d like to hear more about woodland creation specifically, please listen to this Carbon Copy Podcast episode about a couple of ambitious community projects that are making a world of difference.

One of our 25 Big Local Actions is Plant More Trees, which is something people can do together and at almost any scale. In addition to helping keep local areas cooler in the summer, absorbing carbon emissions, supporting more animal life, reducing flood risk and damage, trees also filter the air for pollutants!

Local climate action can help create cleaner air

Whether we’re stuck in traffic on the roads this summer or not, we’re still caught up in the resulting air pollution. Of course, we should try and deal with the traffic issue head on, but it doesn’t stop there. So many kinds of climate and nature projects have a positive impact on air quality. There are over 260 climate action stories shared on Carbon Copy that identify clean air as one of their positive benefits.

Each one is an example of how a local climate action project can be about lots of things and can create wider positive impacts, beyond a reduction in emissions.

Discover more climate stories like these to inspire you at carboncopy.eco/initiatives

Spending time outdoors and in nature is important for children’s health and wellbeing, but climate change is making it harder for schools to provide those opportunities throughout the year. As heatwaves and other extreme weather become more common, school playgrounds and outdoor spaces need to adapt so children can continue to play, learn and spend time outside safely.

Research shows that spending just 20 minutes in nature each day can dramatically improve mental health and wellbeing. This applies to people of all ages, but at a time when unprecedented numbers of children and young people are experiencing mental health issues, there is a pressing need to ensure the youngest members of society have regular access to green spaces. 

How do heatwaves affect outdoor play at schools?

For many children, school provides an important opportunity to spend time outdoors. In urban areas, pupils may not have their own garden or yard, so break times in the school playground or field might be the only chance they have for playing in the fresh air; however, this can be jeopardised by weather events like heatwaves and heavy rainfall. 

In 2025, WWF led a call for the UK government to update its guidance around the provision of outdoor spaces in schools, highlighting that it is not fit for purpose in our current, more extreme climate. The charity points to research conducted in Australia, which shows that some materials commonly used for play surfaces and equipment can pose significant dangers in high temperatures; and additionally noted the increased risk of flooding through the use of impermeable man-made surfaces like astroturf and tarmac. 

In June 2026, record-breaking heatwaves have led to many schools resorting to indoor play during break times. In some cases the schools have shut altogether, meaning a loss of learning time, as well as recreation. With evidence to suggest these temperatures are likely to become the norm during the summer, schools must look at ways to adapt and provide cool, shaded, nature-rich outdoor spaces to ensure children are able to feel the benefits of time outside the classroom. 

How can schools adapt playgrounds for hotter weather?

Creating greener school grounds can help children continue to spend time outside as temperatures rise. Trees and other planting can provide shade and create more nature-rich spaces for play and learning, while replacing or reducing impermeable surfaces can also help school grounds cope better with heavy rainfall.

In 2024 as part of our coverage of the Running Out of Time climate relay, we spoke to Richard Pollard of The Tree Council about the work they are doing to bring more greenery to playgrounds. Since 2020 they have worked with nearly 800 schools as part of their Young Tree Champions programme, helping children and teachers alike to reap the benefits of learning about and spending time in nature. 

One of our 25 Big Local Actions is Create Space for Nature. This action is about bringing more green into urban spaces to improve biodiversity and conditions for wildlife, but it’s also, perhaps more importantly, about creating spaces where nature can be enjoyed by people. We spoke to Tayshan Hayden-Smith, former footballer, activist and founder of Grow to Know about the healing power of growing and gardening, and we heard more about WWF-UK’s A Prescription for Nature campaign. 

Creating more opportunities for outdoor learning

There are dozens of examples in our national collection of climate and nature stories of projects helping schools and school-aged children to engage with the outdoors and benefit from nature. Part of the Stroud Valleys Project is a Wild Classrooms initiative that has seen over 1000 new learning places created for children. Local primary school children, as well as vulnerable and disadvantaged teenagers benefit from visiting the Celtic Rainforest managed by the Cambrian Wildwood project. Even where schools are unable to add green spaces to their own premises, partnering with organisations that can provide these is a great strategy. 

If you work in a school and you’re keen to learn more, sustainability consultant, and chair of Sustainable Devizes (the group behind Devizes Swap-Shop), Sam Drury-Shore, has written this top-tips document for schools and teachers to help prepare for heatwaves in educational settings.

Greener school grounds have benefits all year round

Adapting school grounds isn’t only useful during a heatwave. Greener outdoor spaces can provide benefits throughout the year, from supporting biodiversity and improving air quality to giving children more opportunities to be active and spend time in nature. In London, Trees for Cities’ Planting Healthy Air in Schools project has created substantial air quality improvements for children, which in turn has seen improvements in activity levels and wellbeing.  

This is just one example of how a climate story can be about lots of things and can create wider positive impacts, beyond a reduction in emissions. 

Discover more climate stories like these to inspire you at carboncopy.eco/initiatives. 

Of all the claims about why we shouldn’t reduce UK carbon emissions, the most insidious is this: we’re just 1% of global emissions so it won’t make any difference.

We hear it from populists. Farage argues that cutting domestic emissions is pointless because the UK produces only a tiny 1% fraction of global greenhouse gases.

We hear it from political grandees. In his intervention last month, Tony Blair maintained that the UK’s 1%  share of global emissions makes unilateral sacrifices illogical.

We hear it from pundits. In a recent podcast episode of The Rest Is Politics, Rory Stewart mused that “if you were somebody who was really focused on the big issues around climate, you would remind people that Britain is only 1% of direct emissions” and look elsewhere for answers.

It’s a dangerous claim because on the surface it seems reasonable to say that the UK is too small to make a significant impact and as a bit player shouldn’t be the one taking the lead on cutting emissions.

However, the drip-drip of “we’re not that bad in the grand scheme of things” has a lasting impact on how we perceive our contribution to making things better. To use the 1% excuse for doing less is an OUTRAGE. Here’s why:

Wake up and smell the heat

It’s no surprise to be told that last month was the hottest June on record for England and second warmest for the UK overall. Amid all the excited talk by meteorologists of breaking records there was the stark reality of a deadly heatwave with people succumbing to the hot temperatures.

To talk about extreme heat in the UK is to talk about the unbearable heat inside your home, no school or indoor play only, cancelled events, reduced transport services, lost income.

As our daily lives heat up for the worse, how many triggers do we need to take more action? As Prof Piers Forster, a climate scientist at the University of Leeds, puts it: “Future warming is driven by future emissions, so every tonne of carbon dioxide that a country or citizen can avoid emitting will improve temperature and heatwave outcomes for generations.”

Lies, damn lies and statistics

This popular phrase neatly sums up how statistics can be misused and mislead people. The issue with this 1% figure is not that it’s mathematically incorrect. It’s that we’re choosing a single and incomplete measure to bolster a weak argument.

Let’s put the filter of 1% into perspective. As a country we emitted total greenhouse gas pollution of roughly 360 million tonnes in 2025 and the UK ranks around 17 in the world for total annual emissions. We’re still polluting more tonnes of atmospheric carbon than 180 other countries.

On top of that, the UK was the global leader in emitting greenhouse gases on an industrial scale at the start, when the Industrial Revolution began. Since that time to present day, the UK has released almost 80,000 million (yes, 80 billion!) tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere.

The Global Carbon Budget has analysed historical cumulative carbon emissions since 1850. Over this period of atmospheric pollution, the UK ranks 4 in the world for total annual emissions. And since today’s global heating has been driven by historical emissions, the argument that our contribution today is insignificant does not stack up.

We can’t change the past but we’re still emitting roughly 9.5 tonnes of carbon per person annually – which is about double the global average today. This disproportionately high figure also excludes the emissions that we generate outside UK territory. The carbon emissions from manufacturing and transporting all of our imported goods (think products made in China and clothing from countries across Asia, for example) are overlooked, as are international shipping and international aviation. It’s much harder to measure these emissions so we simply don’t measure them.

The highest possible ambition

In the Paris agreement that almost every country in the world including the UK signed in 2015, governments are required to pursue “the highest possible ambition” in reducing their carbon emissions. This is appropriate given the situation is widely recognised as a crisis. There is no qualifier about benchmarking your ambition against countries or lowering your aims if others are doing less.

Europe is heating up faster

Climate change is unfair. Populations who contribute the least to global greenhouse gas emissions suffer the most severe consequences. Communities that are more vulnerable are at greater risk. There are profound imbalances geographically.

We focus on local action at Carbon Copy because the impact of global climate change is intensely local. Our definition of local is sub-national, but you can also look at the bigger picture for Europe as a whole. No matter what some politicians may like to say, we’re still part of Europe geographically.

Europe is the fastest warming continent in the world, warming more than twice as fast as the global average. In the recent June heatwave, some countries were experiencing extreme heat of over 40C. Europe has already warmed by around 2.5C compared to pre-industrial levels. Staying below a global temperature rise of 1.5C avoids irreversible damage to ecosystems and human livelihoods; we’re way beyond this safety threshold.

What you do in a country that’s part of the fastest warming continent matters because localised pollution makes a difference locally. We may contribute 1% globally but the UK is the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in Europe.

Bury oil and gas

The USA war in Iran that has led to closing the Strait of Hormuz has fuelled the hot debate about our nation’s energy supplies. To break this dependency on international supplies, we need a cheaper supply of domestic energy. The 1% argument is used opportunistically to support the idea of more drilling in the North Sea: let’s increase domestic production of oil and gas and worry about our relatively small emissions later.

Extracting more oil and gas from under the North Sea does not equate to cheaper fuel prices in the UK. Just look at the United States. The USA is the largest domestic oil producer in the world and yet the price of gas has gone up for Americans because oil and gas prices are fundamentally set by international markets.

Not only is electrical energy from renewables cheaper than from gas, but by limiting our dependency on gas, a UK power system dominated by renewables would reduce costs overall compared to the average electricity wholesale market price.

Wind, solar, wave, geothermal and nuclear combined would give the UK a reliable clean energy supply that’s more affordable and provides greater energy security from volatile international oil and gas markets. It would also help reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

A race to the top

At the heart of the 1% claim is an implicit assumption that we will become poorer and less comfortable as a result of a low-carbon lifestyle and so we should postpone the sacrifice. Populists go further and make this argument directly.

It’s a false assumption. Tackling the climate and nature crisis head-on can lead to a vibrant, fair and regenerative future. Countless research studies support this outcome. Speeding up on emissions reductions is a race to the top, not a race to the bottom.

There are two essential challenges in reducing our emissions from 1% of global emissions to zero. The first is to take away this notion of loss and focus on all the positive benefits beyond emissions reductions. We are moving towards something good rather than simply moving away from something bad.

The second is to ensure that the transition itself is fair. How we decarbonise, how we help our communities adapt to our changed climate, how we transition our economy – all of these things matter.

It’s in our own self-interest to take the lead and pursue the highest possible ambition. In the words of Dr Ella Gilbert, a climate scientist and Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) board member,

“The UK may account for just 1% of current global emissions, but we’re responsible for 100% of our own emissions and we have the opportunity to show global leadership by bringing them down.”

Getting more people involved in collective action for climate and nature is less about sounding the alarm than it is about highlighting the power we already have to make meaningful changes now. It’s showing how people can move together from the world as it is to the world as it should be.

An effective call-to-action that motivates people depends on four factors: Addressing Needs, Copying Success, Inviting Participation and Showing Benefits.

Get more people involved by: Addressing Needs

Start by understanding what people care most about and what needs doing locally. For some, protecting nature might be the thing they care most about; for others, it could be better health or financial security. Parents may care most about their children’s future whereas those who are lonely may care most about connecting with others.

People relate to issues around them that they can directly see. Perhaps there’s an issue with poor air quality locally or a lack of green space. There may be a need for cleaner streets or better protection from local flooding. The issues differ place by place and there are lots of potential options for work that needs doing.

One way to motivate more people is to find the overlap between what they care most about, what needs doing locally and what they are good at. Invariably, we enjoy doing something we’re good at and we can make a positive contribution by doing so. This overlap is powerful because it’s where people can apply their talents and passion to addressing concrete needs.

If you, specifically you, are interested in what this might look like personally, head over to Carbon Copy’s take action page.

Get more people involved by: Copying Success

One of the most effective ways of spreading change is to copy what’s working. As social creatures, copying is human nature. Copying saves time and effort, and can accelerate our collective impact at a time when action at speed and at scale is desperately needed.

Most of the solutions already exist and sharing climate action stories about how they are implemented provides inspiring, real world examples of people navigating out of our predicament and of where we are heading.

Copying success is much lower risk than figuring everything out through trial and error, and helps build stronger connections between different communities and organisations. These added connections are important too; addressing the climate and nature crisis is a collective challenge.

For inspiration and connection, see hundreds of climate action stories from across the UK, told by people from organisations of all sizes and sectors.

Get more people involved by: Inviting Participation

The idea of joining in something bigger is more inviting when the people asking are trusted local change makers; the activity builds social bonds not just awareness; and the initiative is set up for success.

Trusted local change makers could be the project owners themselves, looking to recruit more people or find more volunteers. Equally, they could be organisers who run sports clubs, tenants’ associations or parents groups, for example. They may be teachers, religious leaders or local artists; anyone who helps gather people together and is motivated to do more for climate and nature.

Collective action becomes sustainable (has staying power, not just an environmental benefit) when participation fosters friendships or is seen as a neighbourhood activity. Put simply, participating in a local climate project is more inviting when it generates a sense of belonging and the social activity builds community.

Setting up a collaborative project for success is also more inviting for potential participants. Carbon Copy’s useful action guide, From Footprint to Changeprint, was created to help change makers deliver collective action more effectively, identifying three core characteristics and the key factors that underpin successful initiatives.

If you would like to understand the role of collaboration in making a bigger impact, download our free research report.

Get more people involved by: Showing Benefits

Instilling hope is less important than producing evidence that action produces results. Hope comes from action. Focusing on visible impact helps create momentum as people can physically see the positive change: newly planted trees; a cleaned up riverbank or local park; the compost system installed at school;  a zero waste scheme launched at work.

Involving more people involves looking beyond reducing carbon emissions as the most important benefit. Collaborative local climate action creates broader benefits – such as healthier environments, stronger community ties, more jobs – which can have stronger appeal.

Changeprint is a way to talk about climate action in terms beyond emissions reductions that can address a wide range of pressing issues and highlight the benefits to more people. A Changeprint isn’t the project itself; it’s the sum of all the good it generates. Where a carbon footprint measures what we take away, a Changeprint shows what we build together.

Learn about Changeprint and how showing more benefits gets more people.

In sum, here’s the formula for getting more people involved in local climate action: address needs + copy success + social activity + visible impact

Introducing Script6

Hello! We are Lilie Ferrari and Nick Wright, co-directors of Script6, a small Norfolk-based company creating TV and audio drama. Recently, we’ve been in conversation with the team at Carbon Copy about Changeprint, a new way to talk about collective action in response to climate change, and how well it fits with our latest project.

The Challenge of Climate Conversations

As scriptwriters, we understand that engaging people in discussions about climate change can sometimes be difficult. While you, the reader, are interested enough to read this blog, there are others who back off at the mention of terms like “climate crisis” or “climate emergency”.

The scale and complexity of the issue can feel so overwhelming that people switch off. This is probably the reason that climate change is not exactly at the forefront of mainstream narrative entertainment, as shown by the lack of films and television dramas on the subject. Aside from the film Don’t Look Up (already five years old!) it’s hard to find recent fictional narratives that tackle climate change directly.

At Script6, we’ve spent many hours discussing the challenge of addressing the climate crisis through drama in a way that can engage with people who wouldn’t normally be part of the climate conversation.

Our Solution: Parklife

We’ve created a podcast soap opera called Parklife, set entirely in a city park. The characters are ordinary people dealing with current climate concerns and our stories emphasise that everyone is capable of joining in somehow and making a positive difference.

Parks have always been central to city life. They are crucial to urban existence, providing space for everyone and supporting both physical and mental wellbeing. Our parks are now at the forefront of climate change impacts but are also under threat from council budget cuts – all meaty material for a scriptwriter! By setting Parklife entirely outdoors, we believe this will make stories about climate and nature accessible without being preachy.

Focus on People and Places

In the spirit of a Changeprint, Parklife centres on people and places rather than emissions reductions. The narrative focuses on the small, meaningful steps individuals can take that foster community and purpose.

Our diverse cast of characters includes those who work in the park and those just passing through. A young park employee and a researcher concerned about their future (our love story!). A park-keeper who struggles with change (middle-aged fears). A family running the café, seeking to balance financial pressures with eco-friendly choices (the real cost of being climate aware). The ‘Dog Squad’ – three older dog-walkers who frequent the park and comment on events online (three completely different points of view!). A local developer with his eye on the park’s potential (climate is low down on his list of priorities).

Through these characters, we aim to explore real-life challenges and tell a hopeful story about collective action and positive change.

A Never-Ending Story!

We begin with a massive storm that damages part of the Strangers’ Oak, an ancient tree planted centuries ago by Dutch immigrants and now a symbol of the city. Debates over the tree’s future create divisions among the characters, while the involvement of The Green Machine, a group of radical environmental activists, intensifies the urgent questions we all face in a changing climate.

What will happen? We don’t know yet. But we want to be part of the unfolding story about how we respond to the climate and nature crisis together!

We hope to record and release the first series of Parklife within the next few months. You can find out more and support what we’re doing here.