Category Archives: event reports

Food and Green Index: Manchester Council To Look Into SSM Recommendations

Aside

‘It’s time to escape the shackles of the 20th century economic mindset’ – local climate scientist Professor Kevin Anderson tells Manchester council

Today, Steady State Manchester presented four recommendations to make Manchester a fairer, greener and more equitable society to Manchester City Council’s Economy Scrutiny Committee. The leader of the council Sir Richard Leese was also present. The recommendations include tackling youth unemployment through retrofitting housing, growing more food locally, a dashboard of measures which take the environment into consideration when looking at the economy and also tackling the long working hours culture. See the full recommendations here. Mark Burton’s presentation followed an important presentation by local climate scientist Kevin Anderson from Tyndall who highlighted the huge gap between what we know we need to do and our actual actions.

Anderson addressed the rather thorny topic of economic growth and pointed out that mitigation to avoid 4 degrees of warming is simply incompatible with a growing economy. He pointed out that growth is a proxy for social goods that we value such as literacy, jobs and welfare. However the two aren’t intractably linked and in fact growth is often a hinderance to how we think of achieving these social goods. Anderson suggested that greening Manchester’s infrastructure and investing in a low-carbon transport system would be key to creating social goods such as jobs for low-skilled workers, for reducing fuel poverty as well as reducing pollution and the city’s vulnerability to volatile energy prices.

Responding to a question from one of the councillors, Anderson said that the council does have a limited amount of money and the decisions they make must not lock in future generations into producing more emissions. Professor Anderson also pointed out the resources that the council has in the shape of an active civil society. He highlighted the work that Steady State Manchester has been doing and noted that engagement doesn’t necessarily mean agreement. The recommendations were all well received by the councillors present and although there were concerns about using term ‘steady state’ there was a real sense of agreement and consensus with the recommendations.

Chair of the scrutiny committee, Cllr Joanne Green (Harpurhey), recommended that officers review the recommendations as there was a lot of interest. There was also a suggestion to monitor progress of this agenda in a sub committee. There was particular interest in the recommendations to include an environmental index on the Manchester dashboard. Leese commented that although this would be difficult, it would be worth doing. Monthly recycling and waste data is already available and could the first step towards achieving this dashboard. It was interesting to note that Leese acknowledged the difference between good and bad growth. The committee members also showed a real interest in increasing the amount of food grown locally. Councillor Hackett (Charlestown) noted that we all want a sustainable, fairer, and more thought out society.

Related articles

In Place of Growth Workshop held

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IPOG Workshop, 20 January, 2013

IPOG Workshop, 20 January, 2013

On Saturday 20th January, 2013 we 12 people attended an afternoon workshop on In Place of Growth.  The event was mainly participative with a view to helping participants become confident ambassadors for steady state ideas in Manchester and area.   We focussed on how to communicate the messages in relation to the questions participants themselves posed about achieving and running a Steady State Society and its Economy here.
Thanks to all who came – you were a diverse  group with some great ideas.

Mark and Judith

Brief video of the SteadyState #Manchester launch – next social Weds 12th December 5.30pm

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Here’s a very brief video about the launch tonight (thanks to all who came!).

The next public “Steady State Manchester” event is a pre-Xmas social, on Weds 12th December. It’s from 5.30pm to 7pm at the Eighth Day on Oxford Road, followed (perhaps) by drinks and further conversation at the Sandbar.

Ambassadors for a Steady-State #Manchester – of t-shirts and training…

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At the meeting on Weds 12th September, individuals and groups were asked “What do you need to become an ‘ambassador’ for ‘Steady State’?“

Answers so far (and please, add to this list!);

knowledge of steady state economy (“package”)
knowledge of city-level politics
t-shirts
scripts
The right questions (“us” and “them”)
Cultural awareness
Well-informed about the real world implications of steady state practice! Training Session?
Definition of steady state, especially re: carbon!
Accessible versions of Tim Jackson’s “Prosperity without Growth”
e.g. “Cartoon Kate” or diagram
Practical examples
Role model
Know the steps to the transition to get there
No particular political party.

SO! We will be making T-shirts (MCFly cartoonist Marc Roberts, bless him, turned up in one that he’d made. More to follow)
We will be turning the report into various very accessible formats (short briefing papers, cartoons, videos etc)
We will be offering training – in pubic speaking, running workshops, the mechanics of Steady-State and other topics.

Watch this space!!

Marc Hudson

Steadystate #Manchester meets at Madlab – successes…

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Another step on the path to a greener fairer Manchester last night, this time at Madlab, on Edge St. Around twenty people mingled, brainstormed, scribbled ideas and comments on flipcharts and briefly quizzed two members of the team co-ordinating the “Beyond Growth” report, which will be released in late October.

The main goals of the evening were to gather thoughts and answer questions, and to introduce people to the exciting space that is Madlab.

Lots of new links were made between participants, and pages and pages of flipchart were filled (these have all been typed up and will appear on t’website imminently.

There were also lots of useful detailed conversations, that are shaping the questions we ask.  One thing is the need to look at indebtedness as part of the complex set of issues.  We also need to engage with small enterprises since they tend to be more compatible with steady state…

What happens next
Over the next two weeks a gazillion emails get sent out to roughly a gazillion people asking them to fill in surveys, start being involved in a team of people, start writing, researching and in other ways doing things.  Each of these requests will be specific, and if people are too busy, we will ask them if they are up for doing a sub-section of that project. We know how snowed under everyone is, and we do not want anyone taking on more work than they want to do, than they can manage.

If you don’t get an email, it’s not a snub, it’s just we maybe don’t know who you are… get in touch! steadystatemanchester@gmail.com

We will start publishing weekly updates about what has been achieved, what gaps exist and how people can get involved.

Thanks
To everyone who came out on a wet Manchester summer night (the adjective is redundant?!) and shared their ideas and enthusiasm
To Natalie at Madlab for being so helpful and skilled
To the people who tweeted/sent their apologies

Tips from facebook and the twitter feed (#greenmcr)
“Surround yourself with people who want to change and be open to constructive criticism.”

Instant Postmortem

What went well
People came and mingled!

What could have gone better
More people
More activity on the twitter feed (but the quality was really high, so thanks to those who did!!)

What would we do differently
Specific invites to a lot more people
Start plugging the twitter feed idea earlier

What we will start doing now
Specific invites to individuals to get involved on specific projects in the next two weeks.

First gathering about “Steady State Manchester” with a specific group

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On Thursday 12th July I did a presentation/workshop about the Steady State Manchester project to the Manchester Green Party. (There’d been a little controversy about the original wording of their press release about the meeting)

Started with pairwise introductions, with people finding out something they didn’t know about the other person, and what they most wanted/needed from the meeting.

People identified
learning about steady-state economics,
equality issues
steady state as an idea in general, and how it can work in practice
to become enthused about the project
have a better understanding of what is proposed and how it will be different from “Call to Real Action”.

I ended up not going into too much detail on the nature of steady-state economies etc because
a) we didn’t have time and it wasn’t the prime reason I’d been invited
b) I am not so sure of it all myself and
c) I’ve put up an (old) essay about it on the website

“Call to Real Action”
Longer time period (four months instead of six weeks)
Better quality control
Will look really good
Well aware of the dangers of building to a report and having nothing planned beyond it.
And now we are very well aware of the dangers of risk of doing a report that says “the council should”/”the council must” – it’s disempowering and short-sighted. This report will much more be about what civil society is and can do.

A good warning came from someone involved in the Local Agenda 21 stuff about the risk, when working with councils, of being “killed off with kindness” – and the person was happy that the council would not be able to do that in this case.

I also asked people what they thought the response will be from those “in power”
Some cherry-picking of “useful” bits, “we are already doing this”. Castigate the “dreamers” who have “no responsibility” for health and well-being. Play one part off against the other.

Other questions asked included
How we planned to motivate and retain people who get involved – I said that managing expectations, building networks and learning were crucial. Managing expectations in the sense that Manchester will not be transformed in the next 12 months, and it’s silly to think it will. Building networks as in putting lots of people in touch with each other, and learning as in things like “Activist Skills and Knowledge”
The re-inventing the wheel problem – many reports advocating useful short-term steps. Lots of specific work has already been done. Yes! And we hope to borrow (with citations!) from that work. We have no pretence to doing totally original thought (except on the economy section perhaps).

Final Concerns included

  • does steady-state mean stasis. What about variations in individual lives, climates etc
  • Involvement (in the project) of ethnic minorities, working class people, those with disabilities. i.e beyond the ghetto
  • steady state and population – if population grows, then a smaller slice of a static cake. But then population control, immigration controls etc
  • solidarity with the Majority World
  • dealing with inequality
  • equality/happiness, well being
  • culturally we are in a growth culture, it’s a shift away – if people charge interest, how can you have a steady state

At the end, there was plea for people to think of other groups (church, sports, whatever) to which a similar presentation/workshop could be given. We really do want to get out and about and have these discussions with as many people as humanly possible.

What went well
Pairwise introductions
Having a break before “final questions” and then drawing a line under it all so the rest of the meeting could happen

What I would do differently next time
Get the post up the following day (no time like the present!)
Hand out feedback forms to, um, get feedback.

First step on the journey to a green, fair and “beyond growth” #Manchester

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June 25th: A room fizzing of “cautious optimism”, new friendships forming. and flipcharts filling with good ideas; tonight in a room in Central Manchester the first steps were taken on a journey that can lead to a greener, fairer and climate-safe Manchester.

Just under twenty people – part of a broader number interested in preparing for the world beyond endless economic growth – came together at the Friends Meeting House, in response to a recent Council meeting at which “steady-state economics” was discussed briefly and dismissed out of hand. The people in the room, with those who could not be there, will form into teams to produce a report, to be published in late October. This report, [title to be decided, but it won't be a gazillion miles from "Beyond Growth: prosperity, justice and climate safety for Manchester"] will lay out what is already being done in Manchester, and suggest how that activity can be massively amplified to meet the social and ecological problems we face. Fuel poverty, the loss of biodiversity, unemployment, depression, carbon emissions that remain persistently high; all these will be looked. By outlining the nature of a steady-state economy, the report will also look at the benefits of preparing now for the post-growth world, and the steps that civil society, businesses, the City Council (and other public bodies) can take in the next one to four years to be ready for it.

During the meeting, rather than sit in rows and be death-by-powerpointed, participants formed into pairs, introduced each other and identified what they wanted from the session. For several people this meant a discussion of the nature of a steady-state economy, and how the concept interacted with notions of “de-growth”, “de-coupling” and “closed loop” economy. These ideas will be explored more fully on the steadystatemanchester.net website.

Others focussed on what we would need to do to make the report – and all the other means of communication, such as youtube videos, cartoons, workshops, briefing papers etc – into a reality.

Next steps
Teams will form around topics like food, transport, education, council engagement, business, economics, etc. If you want to get involved, please email steadystatemanchester@gmail.com

One of those teams will be the “Meme Team,” tasked with dreaming up, creating and testing out metaphors, analogies, stories, slogans, jokes etc that are relevant to Manchester and talk about the need for a massive reduction in our energy usage and preparing for the challenges ahead. We already have several people keen to be involved, but need more. Please contact steadystatemanchester@gmail.com if you are interested.

If you want to get involved more peripherally, please get in touch. We want to assure you that we do NOT expect an open-ended commitment from anyone. If you have a day and a half in July, but only three hours in August, then another day or two in September, that’s great. If you can do a regular hour a week, that’s great. We WILL involve you in this process at the level you want.

What went well

  • People met new friends, got to mingle
  • Lots of ideas were generated, and concerns raised about the dangers ahead in the process
  • Training needs were identified
  • Lots of people sent their apologies (as in, genuinely wanted to be there) and also filled in the short survey online.

What didn’t go well
Gender and race representation were, predictably, skewed

“Next” time
More advance notice
Very specific questions being asked, alongside the opportunities to mingle and talk.

Of the flipcharts we put up, so far we’ve only typed up
“What would practical solidarity with people in the Majority World look like”

  • Making their voices heard here (speaker tours, pen pals, video link-ups, interviews etc)
  • Empowering them to deal with their own problems (i.e. Not trying to save the world on their behalf)
  • Find another city in the south to run the process together – learn together and come up with joint demands – will create more momentum/visibility
  • Talking to them, finding out what they need
  • Skype series
  • Like the twinning option, practical solidarity acknowledges we are the 10% and they are the 90%, only then can progress develop.

but these below will be typed up in the coming days, and links created to pages where YOU can leave your comments.

Immediate tasks
What makes an effective group?
How can Manchester’s “eco” campaigning raise its game?
How do we radically raise the amount of food being grown ?
What does “success” look like for this project? Measured how?
Inspiring projects
How do we radically increase the numbers of people cycling?
How can we make the elephants tapdance (how do we make bureaucracies transparent and quick)
How do we make “binge-flying” as socially unacceptable as drink-driving?