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Local Businesses Can Make Nottinghamshire Green Again
July 27 2009
We cannot achieve sustainable communities without sustainable business.
About ten years ago, Nottingham City Council and local development agencies saw the value of supporting and promoting the creative industries. This was of great benefit to the city raising our profile and at that time, boosting the economy.
Just as there is a wealth of creative talent in Nottingham, there is literally a green army of highly knowledgeable, skilled and energetic people committed to making our City green again. There are academics, practitioners, trainers, transition groups, business people, gardening groups and 500 households trained through Eco teams and many more. The wealth of deep green knowledge is extraordinary - the City Council would be crazy not to recognise it, embrace it and catalyse the enormous potential that exists in all sectors and cultures of our amazing City.
One of our green experts is Susie Bailey of SUSU Organic, who has created the first E-SEE Network, for businesses that embrace green technologies and put them into practice, with waterless printers, eco-friendly paints, eco-exercise, eco-toiletries, an awesome composter and an award winning veggie box deliverer to mention just a few! (E-SEE standing for economic, social, environmental, ethical). These people are highly trained professional business men and women that are also concerned about the environment and so have become experts in their field while also future-proofing their business.
The City Council has all the expertise needed, right on the doorstep to deliver green technologies, renewable energy systems and manufacturing, enterprises utilising organic waste to create renewable gas to export to the grid and to create a vast array of low carbon jobs. Food waste from all sectors could and should be used to generate renewable gas through anaerobic digestion and to produce compost to re-invigorate land, with waste in all its forms properly assessed for profitable reuse.
Our universities are famed for their green research and pioneering work - let us keep some of that expertise for our local economy, we need green brains!
We urge the City Council to commit to support green enterprise and the creation of low carbon, long term jobs. Let us have a new economic vision: Nottingham - as the hub of green enterprise. We cannot achieve sustainable communities without sustainable business.
The City Council's economic development strategy has until very recently been part driven by the expansion of the retail sector. With the crash of the economy, it is unlikely that this sector will recover its former ebullience for years, possibly decades. All our previously buoyant sectors continue to be under the most enormous pressure. Therefore it is time to look at new markets that make the most effective use of local resources, talent and potential and which are economically, socially and ethically sound.
Recent work at Nottingham Trent University brought forward a concept of how low carbon urban regeneration might work in socially deprived communities that are rich in green space. These have the potential for growing food and creating a wide range of sustainable, locally grown jobs. Recent research indicates that the UK needs 8 million people engaged in growing food to make us at least part self sufficient. We currently have around 250,000. Nottingham’s green space could have a far greater amenity value if, as in war time, we use the space for growing food and to up-skill our communities and create a healthy environment and life style for the next generation.
Members and officers of the City Council have indicated that they are open to such ideas; it is time to be more than open, it is time to commit. It is time for a paradigm shift in values. Let us create social enterprises that harness the energy and potential of all - including our most under valued and marginalised citizens.
The book on urban regeneration has to be rewritten. We need a grass roots revolution, for new relationships to evolve between citizenry, business, governance and services. Regeneration should be based on low carbon, resource efficient and ethical practices. It is not rocket science, just practical wisdom.
As we speak, the United Nations are considering how to implement A Declaration for Planetary Rights. Lawyers are testing legal frameworks to see how this might be applied to judicial rulings in favour of the planet, to defend it from our species. The very fact that this Declaration is even being considered, must tell the rest of us that is it time we took our relationship with the planet a lot more seriously and for our actions to speak louder than strategies.
History does not favour the faint hearted.
Penney Poyzer and Vanessa Harrison
LIVE GREEN WORK GREEN
Susie Bailey
SUSU ORGANIC
http://www.susu-organic.co.uk
info@susu-organic.co.uk
07801 576680
E-SEE will have its major launch on Thursday 10th September, 6.30 – 9pm at the largest eco-building in Europe - the Sir Colin Campbell Building – during the Soil Association ‘Organic Fortnight’ that runs from 5th – 20th September. We will be having a great organic fashion show, organic wine and nibbles and so much more! If you want your local community to be a sustainable thriving community, support your local sustainable businesses and find out about transition. This isn't just a force for change, this is the e-see way to change that is also fun and inspirational.
Nottingham achieved Transition status on Sunday 22nd July 2007. For more information see the Transition Nottingham website
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