The TEDxGlasgow Climate Action Initiative
Our Climate Action Initiative was launched in June 2021. We built a proactive community of organisations that met at virtual ‘Climate Action Initiative Monthly Meet Ups’ and also held an in-person workshop in Glasgow before October’s TEDx conference.
Our mission was for our partners to share their climate action work and knowledge; learning from one another and sharing challenges and successes. Crucially, we wanted to enable collaboration between partners, harnessing opportunities for working together across sectors to accelerate climate action.
To foster collaboration, we ran a variety of activities, including ‘Headline Creation’ - inventing headlines to spark debate about how successful climate action would look, for example, ‘Glasgow leads the way to Net Zero ahead of national target’.
We held ‘Speed Dating’ discussions between partners, on climate themes, such as Biodiversity Matters.
Importantly, we encouraged Climate Action Joint Ventures, where partners were invited to collaborate, exploring what they could do together. Similarly, our Partner Spotlights were a space to share opportunities for work that other partners could be involved with.
We facilitated Knowledge Transfer - encouraging cross-sector learning and creating space for partners to take ideas or solutions (with permission and attribution) from other organisations and apply them themselves.
But as debate is also vital, we covered many discussion topics, such as ‘What does Make or Break mean to you?’ Our sessions also covered Climate actions that worked well for partners as well as actions they needed support with. ‘Get Net Zero Right’ examined which questions are most urgent for organisations - Is Net Zero about now? Is there a plan? Is it fast enough? Is it just offsetting?
We also reviewed ideas, inspirations and actions generated by the TEDxGlasgow Conference. In tandem, we examined Global change and current affairs: How are the current energy crisis and recent geopolitical events affecting your climate action plans and commitments?
We hosted inspiring and thought-provoking speakers working in climate action, such as Geoff Kendall, co-founder of Future Fit Business: a charity that translates systems science into practical tools, and James Airbnb, co-founder of RethinkX: an independent thinktank.
As well as group sessions, TEDxGlasgow representatives also regularly liaised with partners between meetups, holding 1 to 1 meetings to facilitate connections and understand the progress of collaborations.
We’ve had many collaborations explored during our monthly sessions. Dr Liz Wilks, European Director of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), the largest forestry company in the world, and Dr Karin Helwig, Lecturer Environmental Assessment at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), came together to share their ‘make or break’ collaboration experiences.
Enabled by the Climate Action Initiative and TEDxGlasgow, APP has begun to collaborate with Glasgow Caledonian University’s (GCU) on its first Climate Justice Programme Advisory Group that feeds into the Masters in Climate Justice, therefore supporting the development of employment and career opportunities in climate justice.
As programme leader for the Masters in Climate Justice for two years, Dr Karin Helwig has recently set up a programme advisory group that will see collaborations with TEDxGlasgow partners, Nestle and APP. Dr Karin Helwig said:
“I hope that the advisory group will keep us right and make sure that we are fully cognizant of all recent developments. I also hope that it will enhance students’ employability by having a better understanding of the business side of climate action, which is where a lot of the employment opportunities are going to be. It’s been great to link up with some other organisations that are now members of our pro advisory group.”
Looking to the future, Asia Pulp and Paper has signed up to the 2022 Climate Action Initiative with TEDxGlasgow. Dr Liz Wilks of APP said:
“I think it’s important to note that we started in the first year, but this collaboration is more than one year’s commitment. I think it’s important that you kick things off and start with that but it’s also important that you continue that further, which means that more time is required to do that. If we are going to have systemic change both in thinking and on the ground then a vehicle like TEDxGlasgow is really critical for that in terms of telling the world about that.”
We’re excited about what the future of our Climate Action Initiative could bring. As part of the 2030 strategy we’ve got more planned for the initiative next year, and will keep embracing opportunities to connect our partners on ideas and routes to accelerated action.
