Focussing on sustainability

Last night an inspiring group of people met at PECT's office to talk about one of the plans for the Sustainable Citizenship strand of Citizen Power. The idea was to help create a network of individuals and existing community groups in Peterborough that feel passionate about environmental issues like climate change - and want to stand up and do something about it.

The discussion was pretty wide-ranging (don't let the blank flip-chart in the above photograph fool you!), covering everything from the real definition of 'sustainability', to division of responsibility between the council and individuals, to the wealth of un-tapped experience in Peterborough, to the problem of how to make risks like climate change feel real to people...

Without yet having listened to the recording we made, I left with the impression that the people there thought that helping to create such a network would be a good idea, but with a few caveats. For example we should remember that "network" doesn't equal "website", and it would be important to organise face to face meet-ups as part of a network. Also the excellent question of incentives was raised; what would make existing community groups become interested in environmental action and activism?

I'll do a full write-up soon, and post it as a discussion in the Sustainable Citizenship group early next week so other people can comment. In the mean time - many thanks to all who gave up an hour and a half of their time last night. It was brilliant to put faces to the names and brilliant to hear about the existing projects you are all already involved in.