VONNE CLIMATE ACTION ALLIANCE Appendix A

SUBMISSION TO THE CLIMATE ACTION FUND OF THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND

The North East and the climate crisis. From cause to effect.

1] Climate Change and the future of our world The UN Katowice Conference on Climate Change (COP24) in 2018 confirmed the targets for greenhouse gas reductions by 2030 established in Paris in 2015 and due to be reported against at COP26 in Glasgow, now expected in Spring 2021. Those targets – intended to achieve net zero emissions and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels by 2050 - were the minimum thought to be required to avoid catastrophic environmental damage by then and disaster by 2100. The UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report to COP24 indicated, however, that current trends had the world on track to increases of between 3 and 5 degrees. There were, then, two years to act decisively to reverse the trajectory of emissions growth if this future for all of those who follow us was to be avoided. It was of grave concern that, as it continued to be published through 2019, new research confirmed both that the Paris targets are now inadequate and that far too many (and too many of them major) national contributors to greenhouse gases are falling far behind their own targets. Faced by this global climate emergency, national governments are too often objectively in default and politically in denial. The Inter-Governmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services found that 1 million species are at risk of extinction with climate change a significant factor. The IPCC report on the Oceans and Cryosphere paints a similar if not darker picture in relation to the warming of the oceans, the thawing of permafrost and the loss of ice cover. The IPCC report on Land and Food security details how a vicious cycle is underway, where degradation of land through intense farming, coupled with deforestation to free up more land for agriculture, is fuelling the release of more greenhouse gas emissions which in turn is driving further land degradation. If demand for food, animal feed and water continues to increase, combined with more resource-intensive systems of consumption and production, the world will be at severe risk of declining crop yields, increased food commodity prices, reduced nutrition, and potentially major disruptions to food supply chains. The report argued the need to immediately ramp up protection for existing forests and other carbon sinks, reduce food waste, and rapidly shift diets towards more plant-based eating if this downward spiral is to be broken. This accumulating evidence led the UN Secretary General to convene a Climate Summit in September 2019. He called on all leaders to come to New York with specific, realistic plans to enhance their nationally determined contributions by 2020, in line with reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent over the next decade, and to net zero emissions by 2050. That did not happen.

89 In opening the COP25 in Madrid at the end of the year, UN Secretary General addressed the centrality of coal and coal-fired power stations to the climate crisis.

“Three major reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – on land, on the oceans and cryosphere, and on the 1.5 degree Celsius climate goal – each confirm that we are knowingly destroying the very support systems keeping us alive. And indeed, we are. In several regions of the world, coal power plants continue to be planned and built in large numbers.

Either we stop this addiction to coal or all our efforts to tackle climate change will be doomed. And, as the UN Environment Programme has just revealed, countries are planning to produce fossil fuels over the next decade at over double the level that is consistent with keeping temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius”

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres

2] How did we get here? It is sobering that circa 50% of the greenhouse gases now in the atmosphere have been produced in the 50 years since the science demonstrating their impact was available. A substantial part of the earlier and balancing 50% was released during the early years of the Industrial Revolution that began in the North East of England at the end of the 17th century. The spread of ‘carboniferous capitalism’ around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries appeared to offer the prospect of cheap energy, power and prosperity for all but – as is now known - at a potentially deadly price.

90 3] What part did the North East play? North East England is essentially the historic counties of Northumberland and Durham reaching from the Tweed to the Tees Valley. The Region is divided by the River Tyne but underpinned and profoundly connected for over 300 years – literally, economically, culturally, socially and politically – by the Great Northern Coalfield. Across those three centuries, that coalfield produced millions of tons of coal with many multiples of that extracted and burnt in the UKi and around the world using technologies developed here. The Region’s pits were essentially closed before the evidence of linkage to global warming was fully in place, but it was the engineers of North East England ‘who released the genie of coal into the world’ii.

4] Three centuries of North East engineering and innovation. The 18th century There is a strong case to be made for the North East to be the holder of the disputed title of the ‘birthplace’ of the Industrial Revolutioniii. What cannot be disputed is that the region was the birthplace of the technologies that sourced and distributed the coal that fuelled and powered it around the globe. At the start of the 18th century, steam power was installed at Tanfield Lee (1715)iv, Washington and elsewhere in the coalfield, in the form of the Newcomen engine for pumping water from the mines, which enabled production to increase to almost two million tons by 1750. At this stage most of the coal was transported down the east coast to East Anglia, London and the South East via first waggon- ways, then keel boats and finally sailing colliers, and mining was still an essentially rural activity integrated into the farming year of tenant farmers - as illustrated in 1787v.

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The 19th Century At the beginning of the 19th century production of coal stood at 4.5 million tons per annum with a regional workforce of 12,000. Mr. Craiggy’s Academy at Crawcrook (established by the farming families to train their sons in mathematics, geology, map making and geography for the by-now far more economically important mining industry) was producing a young ‘disruptor’ cohort of innovators, entrepreneurs and engineers.vi By December 1820, this group of young men had combined with George and Robert Stephenson to integrate the new technology of steam railways (5 years before the Stockton to Darlington line). They challenged the dominant orthodoxy and raised the funds to begin sinking the first deep pit in the world through the limestone to the deeper and richer seams below. Their chosen location at Hetton-le-Hole also opened up the River Wear as an alternative to export on the Tyne (and the taxes charged there). It was a massively expensive endeavour but it was also to be a massively profitable one and, on the completion of the sinking two years later in 1820, they made sure the region knew about it (celebratory poster of 1822 on next page). By the 1830s (image below) it is clear that the era of heavy industry has arrived.

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93 The mining engineers and entrepreneurs of the North East begin to make personal fortunes. In 1852 after a disaster at the pit in Seaham, they founded the North of England Institute of Mining Engineers to promote safety underground (the same year that Charles Palmer built the first steam collier). The Wood Memorial Hall within their new HQ dedicated to their founding President, (Nicholas Wood, one of the Craiggy’s Academy graduates) was opened in 1872. It was here that papers on all aspects of mining and related engineering subjects were presented and then published in the Transactions of the Institute and circulated globally.

At the beginning of the 20th century coal production peaked at 56.4 million tons per annum in 2013 with a workforce of 230,000, and the Mining Institute had 2,300 members with 45% of them working abroad. In 1879, Mosely Street in Newcastle – on the doorstep of the Mining Institute - was the first in the world to be lit by electric light. In 1880, Joseph Swan made the first domestic installation in the home of Sir William Armstrong at Cragside in Northumberland. In 1884, John Henry Holmes of Shieldfield in Newcastle invented the domestic light switch.

The 20th Century Three phase electrical power was delivered to heavy industry for the first time in the world in 1901 (at the Neptune Yard Wallsend). Then, thanks to steam turbines (Charles Parsons), switchgear (Alphonse Reyrolle), boilers and pumps (William Clarke & Abel Chapman) and the prototype of the National Grid (Charles Merz), coal-fired power stations and the infrastructure to fuel them and distribute their output were pioneered in the industrial ‘test-bed’ of the North East.

94 In 1912, the Newcastle upon Tyne Electric Supply Company could boast that:

‘The industrial importance of the North East coast is best shown by the fact that, whereas its population is less than 5% of that of the United Kingdom, it yields 20% of the total coal, 35% of the ships, 36% of the coke, 37% of the pig iron and 40% of the ironstone produced in the Kingdom‘.

Eleven years or so ago when we first seriously turned our attention to the industrial power needs of the district, the total amount of horsepower produced was only 3,000 horse power. Today we supply over 200,000 horsepower to all classes of industrial concerns, including railways, tramways, electro-chemical and metallurgical industries, collieries, engineering and iron works of every character’.

‘ as it launched its bid to attract inward investment.

At the same time, the technologies were, again, being exported around the world (although horsepower was still occasionally required as in Melbourne in 1919 to deliver a Parson’s generator):

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For the centrality of the Region and its coal to the Industrial Revolution to be fully apparent, the glass, gas, iron, chemical, lead, steel, armaments, fishing, bridge and ship building industries (and more) need to be added, and the different industrial history, though one with no less of an impact on our environment, of Teesside needs to be added. The industrialisation of the Tees Valley begins later than occurred in Northumberland and Durham. It began with the discovery of two other materials that could be extracted in large quantities, Iron Stone (1850) and Rock Salt (1859). The Tees conurbation became the fastest growing area in England during the second half of the 19th century. From a standing start in 1850 Teesside had 90 blast furnaces by 1876. The Salt fuelled the explosive development of a chemical industry (originally established in 1833 to produce sulphuric acid and fertiliser) and during the first world war production shifted to TNT. Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was formed in 1926 and the chemical expertise of the company facilitated their development of major new products such as artificial fibres and plastics at the new Wilton site. The Tees complex has become a major manufacturer of petro-carbons responsible for over 50% of national production. An original base in chemicals, fertilisers and insecticides has been followed by key roles in the development of new products, including Perspex and Dulux paints (1932), Polythene (1937), Nylon (1940), and Terylene (1941) and then pharmaceuticals during the 1950s. As with coal, so with the chemical industries. Products that ushered in a new era of cheap and affordable food, clothing and household products as well as new treatments for illness and disease had unforeseen consequences in the impact on complex ecologies of some of the insecticides and fertilisers and the impact on our seas of the non-biodegradable plastics. By the 1960s and early 70s, ICI employed directly 40,000 people on Teesside.

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5] The price paid by workers, families and the environment The drive, entrepreneurial and engineering genius of these men transformed the world, but the industries also exacted a high price from the workforce, their families and the communities of the Region. It was only in 1830 that Hepburn’s strike secured a reduction in the length of shifts for boys (as young as 8) underground from 17 hours to 12 hours, and there are records of over 24,000 deaths in disasters and accidents during the life of the Great Northern Coalfieldvii. Disabling injuries were common underground, resulting in destitution and homelessness for the families and industrial diseases and grindingly hard labour (in the home as well as in industry), also caused early incapacity and death. In the 1920s, Dr Henry Mess carried out a survey of the industrial areas for the Tyneside Social Services Committee and charted the worst levels of TB and life expectancy and the poorest housing conditions in the UK. As for the population, so for the environment. In the early 18th century Defoe commented upon the smoke from the fires at salt pans at South Shields that he had seen from South of Durham and from Berwick and by the 1840s the South Shields Chartists were protesting against the industrial pollution that was causing their garden crops, lawns and hedges to die. In 1860 there are the first records of trees dying because of acid rain. By the time of J.B. Priestley’s English Journeys in 1932 he describes Shotton, beneath its tip, as a ‘Pompeii’ ,with the whole village and everyone in it ‘buried in a thick sulphurous reek’.

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By 1981, it was estimated that 66 million tonnes of colliery waste had been tipped on the ‘black beaches’ of Durham affecting marine life over four miles out. Using the phrase coined this century by Naomi Kleinviii, the mining communities of the North East lived in the first ‘sacrificial land’.

6] A response in communitarian values and a radical politics These conditions provoked, in turn, exceptional community solidarity, a vibrant working-class culture and a radical politics: whether the earliest articulations of Human Rights (Thomas Spence); ‘Physical Force Chartism’ (Crowley’s Crew’s support of Harney); Republicanism (Joseph Cowen); Trade Unionism (Thomas Hepburn and William Crawford) or Internationalism (Nobel Laureate Arthur Henderson). Local women were at the forefront of the campaign to abolish slavery (the Quakers Elizabeth Pease and Anna Richardson) and the region’s formidable (radical and militant) suffragette movement played a major role in the battle for electoral equality (Emily Davison, Mona Taylor, Ethel Williams and women’s organisations throughout the coalfield). During the 20th century the North East became a Labour Party fortress. The political movements in turn took control of local government in the early 20th century and were able to pioneer policies and implement them in housing, education, health, welfare and economic development well in advance of (and later alongside) national government. Structural innovation in the Region continued before and after the world wars and then nationalisation in such areas as industrial estates (Team Valley), council housing (Gateshead), resettlement to smaller ‘County’ new towns and regional economic development (NEDC). Finally, between 1970 and the millennium, the Region lost (net) nearly 300,000 jobs in industrial production including power and mining at an average of 10,000 a yearix, as the North East of England became the world’s first post-industrial region. First in and amongst the first out, and now with hard won experience of the consequences for society, economy, communities and culture of such a sudden and traumatic loss of jobs and specialist knowledgex, in an unjust transition to an insecure and too often impoverished future.

98 7] The 21st century The last shift in the last deep pit in the UK came to the surface in 2015, 300 years after the arrival of the first Newcomen Engine, 200 years after the plans for the first deep mine and 100 years after ‘Peak Coal’ from the Great Northern Coalfield.

99 8] Making the connection The challenges the Region now faces require the same combination of engineering innovation and radical approaches to politics and to social and economic policy that informed its history. Can power be drawn from those histories to achieve both the radical targets needed for emissions and energy and, this time, a ‘just transitionxi’ to a sustainable, greener future that also addresses the inherited foundations of inequality? If these twin objectives can be achieved, then the North East’s unique role in the causes of climate change and its early experience of environmental restitutionxii could enable it to become a natural gathering place for future debates on policy and practice and an active participant in them.

9] An international and regional framework and ‘base’ timetable Given the global and international nature of the challenges and the centrality of the UN to their address, the UN and IPCC timetables and conclusions – as well as the UK Government’s Committee on Climate Change and the work of the Tyndall Centre - suggest themselves as a framework. That, in turn, produces a regional focus on COP26 in 2021 where national Climate Change targets for action by 2030 (if global warming is to be controlled sufficiently by 2050) established after the Paris Agreement in 2015 will be reviewed and reset. COP26 will be convened in Glasgow next year, hosted by the UK government who will then assume the COP Presidency for 2021. This provides added support and momentum for the idea that a related North East event could be convened around the time of the main Conference, agreeing targets for the region to be achieved in the critical decade to 2030 and, beyond, to 2050.

100 Images For the limited purposes of our proposal to the NLCF Climate Action Fund, The Common Room have kindly accepted that we will not be listing the detailed credits for all of their images, now within the Archive of the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineering (NEIMME). The Kellingley image is by : photographer Bruce Adams, Daily Mail, ©2015. The Shotton Tip image is ©Durham County Council. Reproduced by permission of Durham County Record Office Shot0029. Endnotes i It is estimated ( https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/historical-coal-data-coal-production- availability-and-consumption ) that over 15 billion tonnes of coal have been extracted from deep mines in the UK over the last century alone. ii Barbara Freece in ‘Coal. A Human History’. iii At the end of the 17th century the Region Crowley’s Iron works in the Derwent Valley (well before other contenders for the title) employed 1,000 men on weekly wages., creating the world’s first industrial proletariat. An essay by Regional Historian Bill Lancaster summarises the research base for this position on the front page of the Land of Oak and Iron website. http://www.landofoakandironlocalhistoryportal.org.uk/index.asp. iv Image is from ‘Spearman’s map’ of 1715 in the NEIMME archive v Image is Gibson’s cartouche of 1787 held in the NEIMME archive vi Margaret Jacob in ‘The First Knowledge Economy’ Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014 vii The Durham Mining Museum records – and is dedicated to the memory of – the more than 24,000 men, women and children who lost their lives in mining related accidents in the North of England since 1293. viii Naomi Klein in ‘This Changes Everything’ referring to the Alberta Tar Sands and the Appalachian coal fields ix Data provided by Cambridge Econometrics data, constructed as part of the ‘Structural Transformation, Adaptability and City Economic Evolutions’-project (ES/N006135/1).. x In addition to the loss of jobs, the 1980s and early 1990s also saw the closure of R&D capacity (e.g. the International Research and Development Company established and owned by Reyrolle Parsons and then Northern Engineering Industries – NEI) that had been internationally important in renewable technologies: solar, wind, wave, tidal, geothermal, combined heat and power and heat pumps since the 1970s xi https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/a-just-transition xii The ‘black beaches’ of County Durham have now – forty years after the closing scenes of Get Carter were filmed there – been in the running for UK ‘best beach’ awards.

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VONNE CLIMATE ACTION ALLIANCE Appendix B

SUBMISSION TO THE CLIMATE ACTION FUND OF THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND

The evolution of the VONNE Climate Project

1] The time-line of an 18 month development programme

2] Further details on the journey to a programme framework and structure for the North East Climate Coalition

102 The VONNE Climate Project. Timeline for an 18 month development programme at April 2020

Time frame Towards a Civil Society Climate programme Convening & consolidating the Climate Coalition 2019 January to June  Research, development and testing of a core proposition that – given its role in the causes of climate change - the Region might come together to deliver a programme of action to 2030 to address their effects.  Bid to host the Pre-COP to COP26 developed with the political leadership of Gateshead and Newcastle with NGIi  Forty conversations across the region and across sectors conducted by Peter Stark around an evolving background document prior to the identification of the need for a civil society lead and a presentation to VONNE Chair and CEO in May.

June and July  VONNE Board receives background analysis and proposition  Project Review Group established. Members from VCSE and requests consultation within its membership and more sector and civil society, NELEP and LA contacts, Wildlife widely Trusts, Nature Partnerships, Climate Action North, NGI,  Peter Stark appointed as Interim Climate Project Leadii environment specialists, universities, historians, Durham Miners Association, Social Action Leaders Network, The Common Room and chaired by VONNE Chair Sir Paul Ennals.

June to VONNE consults constituency  VONNE Chair takes soundings. testing the water privately September  Four open invitation workshops around the Region with identified potential sectoral partners in Local  Three focused cross sectoral workshops Government, LEPS, Health, Environment, HE and Schools.  Specific in-depth consultation with climate and  Links to the emerging COP26 and Presidency UK-wide and environmental specialists ‘whole society’ programme established.  Soundings taken with a sample of smaller community  Project Review Group meets twice. Membership increases organisations with Business support organisations, Trade Unions, Skills/Training, Tees Valley LAs & LEP and Groundwork.  Metrics Working Group established (hosted by National Innovation Centre for Data Newcastle University). September  VONNE Board adopts project and commits further development funding from its reserves  Alli Madine appointed to provide Project Supportiii

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Time frame Towards a Civil Society Climate programme Convening & consolidating the Climate Coalition September to  Research on emerging national and international context for  VONNE Chair and CEO take formal sounding and recruit November the Project. ‘strategic’ partners (see Progress Report at six months)  Formal approaches made to potential ‘delivery partners’ (see  First advance bridge funding (£20,000) sought and receivedv Progress Report at six months)  Approaches made for second stage bridge funding (circa  Consultation and agreement with delivery partners on a £150,000 for 2020) single co-ordinated approach to newly announced NLCF  Local government Chief Executives recommend approach to Climate Action Fund all 12 leaders, meeting as the Association of North East  Further testing with, and listening to, a range of smaller and Councils (ANEC) in January community-based organisations  Review Group meets three times  Social Action Leaders Network convene on Climate Change  In the light of positive feedback from formal soundings with and the VONNE Project key strategic partners, the decision is taken to take the  Focused workshops around approaches to a 5 year region- Project forward with clearer separation between its two wide and cross sector civil society programme. complementary parts – the region-wide coalition and its civil  Launch of next phase of programme consultation ‘in the field’ society programme component. at VONNE Conference (Climate Crisis focus).  Paul Brannenvi appointed to provide strategic support to  Bridging funding to secure specialist professional input over coalition consolidation. December and Januaryiv

November to  Intensive workshops develop ideas for programme of NLCF  Further formalisation of coalition and expansion to new areas January CAF bid to be tested in the New Year. under way  Submission of further details to NLCF Climate Action Fund in  Integrated Care System offers £60,000 in support if it can be early January matched  Progress Report placed on-line and Expressions of Interest  Potential ‘core group’ of strategic partners identified and requested from VONNE members approached for confirmation of willingness to serve on both a  Major review of CAF project objectives and aims undertaken, high-level Steering Group (Chairs/leaders etc) and an interim guided by the 10 tests of subsidiarity. Leads to a significant Management Group (Senior officers) increase in the number of local place-based communities  General election result and uncertainty around the new that will be worked with and a structure that ensures those government’s approach to climate change leads to some communities will determine the ‘what and how’ of the unwillingness in local government to confirm the climate actions project they will undertake. methodology of its engagement

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Time frame Towards a Civil Society Climate programme Convening & consolidating the Climate Coalition Further details on the VONNE Climate Project’s journey to an overall Programme Framework and outline structure for the North East 2020 Climate Coalition and what is now the VONNE Climate Action Alliance are attached to this timeline in an extract from the Progress Report at 6 months submitted to NLCF in December 2019. January to March  Key role for Area Partner organisations identified as links to a  There is continued growth in the number of organisations larger number and wider range of local communities that could that wish to ‘sign up’ to the Coalition where formal identify and deliver their own climate impact projects. membership agreement now exists with the Environment  Key, but different, role identified for the ‘climate change’ and Agency, Public Health England, Integrated Care System, other specialist VCSE organisations in the region in ensuring Directors of Public Health, the North East LEP, Schools that community choices were also informed by science and North East, Federation of Small Businesses, CBI, Chamber of best practice elsewhere. Commerce, TUC.  We are one of 40 projects across the UK invited to go forward  The National Trust, Natural England, United Reformed to full proposals by NLCF Church, Northern Housing Consortium, Northumberland  A Collective Impact approach and an Alliance model, tested in National Park, CLA, Church of England, Catholic Church, one-to-one meetings with potential members and then Methodists, Institute of Civil Engineers, Woodland Trust, adopted in meetings with all agreeing to be partners in a Your Homes Newcastle, Constructing Excellence in the VONNE Climate Action Alliance. North East, Quakers, North East Churches Acting Together,  The Lankelly Chase Foundation express interest in our Northumbria Water, Greggs, Ringtons and many more are approach to community and climate crisis and offer £60,000 to ready to find a place within the structures of working our work in 2020 groups when they are agreed.  CAST also express interest and offer to fund a Discovery phase  The Indicators Working Group has, however, already report under their ‘Catalyst Clusters’ programme. established three workstreams looking at investments in:  Open meetings established across the region to share new o capital infrastructure as it addresses climate change approach have to be abandoned after the first as the public o natural capital to address ecological breakdown health crisis intensifies. o human capital to achieve a just transition  NLCF confirm the Climate Action Fund will continue with  The first meetings of the Project Management Group and decisions on those to be funded still taken before July. Steering Group (involving Leaders/chairs etc), in response  All Alliance members receive copies of drafts of the Full to the coronavirus Proposal to the CAF for comment and agree to a series of  Interest of Cabinet Office and the BEIS team preparing the meetings in the next three months and to install an internal COP Presidency programme secured on-line communications system. The Corona virus public health crisis creates a new context for the project

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Time frame Towards a Civil Society Climate programme Convening & consolidating the Climate Coalition March - April  Questions raised by NLCF addressed and further information  Preliminary call with Lord Deben, Chair of the Committee provided on Climate Change (CCC), to discuss the North East Climate  The new context of the likely development of the Corona Virus Coalition generally including the leading role of civil society crisis reviewed and we conclude that the programme we are led by VONNE and specifically our proposal to pilot the proposing is likely to be of even greater relevance and proposals set out in the CCC’s recent report ‘Land Use: importance in its aftermath Policies for a Net Zero UK in the North East. This leads to an  Full submission documents signed off by Alliance members and invitation to meet in London (now conference call on 21st submitted by VONNE on 6th April April) to involve Lord Deben, the Vice Chair Baroness Cambridge and the Chief Executive Chris Stark’. NE LEP will join the call  Continue recruitment to the Coalition  Write to NE Members of the House of Lords to introduce the Coalition to them and offer a telephone briefing (MP letter has been sent)  Executive Group agrees provisional workstreams for the Coalition and their modus operandi

April to July  Digital leads from each of the members will work with Consult  Undertake telephone briefings to Rt Hon Anne-Marie and Designvii to agree on and install an internal Trevelyan MP and Rt Hon Nick Brown MP communications system for the work of the Alliance (see  Formal approach to the region’s universities re their Appendix F). membership  All Alliance leaders will convene three times in what would  Discuss with faith groups including the churches what their have been three physical workshops in the three parts of the contribution could/will be region but which will now probably take place in smaller  Approach possible workstream chairs and members groupings on-line  June/July first workstream(s) goes live  The purpose of these e-meets will be to: o develop the shared understandings that form the basis of the ‘Collective Impact’ approach (see Appendix G). o be briefed on questions and requests for further information arising in the NLCF process  to develop and review thinking on the overall project as the implications of the public health crisis become clearer

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Time frame Towards a Civil Society Climate programme Convening & consolidating the Climate Coalition July - December  Detailed project implementation planning begins with  Management and Leadership groups meet for the first time ‘community climate conversations’  Plan for the eve of COP conference for whenever it takes  Interaction with NLCF place  Recruitment of Co-ordinating Director and Administrator for  Draw up a list of individual ‘endorsers’ eg retired ‘Backbone’ Alliance office and award of contracts in PR Archbishop of York &Comms Officer and Research  Creation of VONNE Climate Action Alliance Reference Group  Commissioning the development of o Community asset base research o Community Carbon budget tool o Alliance digital comms platform and tools incl. VCAA website  Evaluation and monitoring frameworks 2020 October or First NE Regional Climate Conference November (to be rescheduled) (Pre COP26) 2021 January to Year 1 Programme Year 1 programme December December Second Annual NE Regional Climate Conference Pre COP27 ‘Statement of Ambition’

107 Extracted from the Progress Report at 6 months submitted to NLCF in December 2019 The Journey to a programme framework and structure for the North East Climate Coalition

Programme Framework

6.1] The Climate Change challenges are - necessarily in the UK and other developed nations – framed in terms of what we will all need to do less of, do very differently or not do at all. Our consultations to date have accepted this but have also argued for the need to offer a more positive picture of what a low-carbon North East could be like to live in.

6.2] The evolution of a draft statement of this Vision 2030 will be a central focus for the winter workshops and the Review Group. The current intention is to build it outwards from a picture of day-to-day life in a low carbon world but one where the necessary investments in regional capital infrastructure, the natural environment and preparations for a just transition have been made. 6.3] Throughout our consultative process we wrestled with the harsh reality that action at an individual, domestic or community level was – effectively – powerless to address the challenges of global climate crisis once what was possible was placed in juxtaposition to those challenges. We found a way forward when we began to realise the extent to which the action we could take to address the climate crisis was ‘different in kind’ to the actions we could take in relation to ecology breakdown and the achievement of a ‘just transition.

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6.4] The emissions crisis is the single most important crisis facing us. If is not addressed effectively all of our efforts on the other 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and in our own regions fall. Climate is a single, global, commons that has to be addressed internationally and with frightening urgency by national governments. There are now 15 months for nations to take action to reverse trajectories that are currently accelerating away from us.

6.5] This suggested that our project needed to help local organisations feel a connection to national and global campaigns to celebrate success, to call out vested interests delaying necessary action and encourage geo-political boldness but that, at the same time, we must also still do everything we can personally, locally and organisationally to reduce overall levels of consumption and net carbon footprints.

6.6] This implies a very major cultural change for us all but perhaps a less dramatic shift for many people in the North East than in wealthier parts of the country. As with the UK so with the world. People and communities in the global north require far larger changes in their lives than those in the south who face the earliest and harshest consequences of insufficient action in the global north.

6.7] Given our unique history, the effective and ambitious action we now take on emissions and sequestration in the North East can contribute positively to national impetus on climate change. We can and should be pioneers again. Beyond this our focus can be on what we can achieve here to transform the way we live our lives well and the places we live them in. Could we find a simple statement of Mission that would unite and galvanise us?

109 6.8] In a meeting of the Review Group the chair of the North East England Nature Partnership, Paul Brannen, suggested that the Region might have the capacity and natural assets to become - ‘England’s Greenest Region’.

6.9] Testing this on the road in workshops with a range of types and scales of civil society organisations there was a warm recognition that this was an ambition that all could identify with and see that they had a contribution that their organisation or project could make. Beyond that, there was the realisation that – when all of these smaller local and sectoral actions were accumulated – the overall impact would be significant nationally and would reflect the ‘duty’ our history gave us to seek to address the climate crisis ambitiously.

6.10] VONNE agreed to further exploration of the idea and to take it forward for testing in the next phase of formal structural consultation on the proposition that by, or before, 2030 the North East could commit to:

Becoming England’s Greenest Region

6.11] That then mandated the need to ensure that that Mission connected strongly to all three dimensions of the climate, ecology and transitioning challenge. Could we construct a Programme Framework that would achieve this?

6.12] Input from Local Government led to the realisation that the common thread linking all three challenges was that of attracting an equitable and adequate level of capital and other investment from central government in programmes developed from deep knowledge of the specific circumstances of the Region. Adding that approach to our three challenge areas and ramping up our ambition to the achievement of ‘True Zero Carbon’viii by 2050 produced the following three schematics using three different dimensions of capital investment.

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6.13] Bringing all three together seemed to create an image that illustrated the levels interconnectedness that we aspired to with the Mission located at the point of intersection. It also showed how a regionwide programme delivered by civil society at grass roots level could add value in all three areas of focus and act as a powerful force for collaboration and integration of effort.

6.14] Other synergies, such as those that could form around the export of products, technologies, expertise and knowledge and the attraction of students were also hinted at.

111 A possible programme framework

6.15] This in turn suggested a three-part structure for the development of our overall coalition programme in three ‘Three Programme ‘working groups’

 Infrastructure, Energy, Emissions and the Climate Crisis  Natural Capital investment and Ecology Breakdown  Human Capital investment and a Just Transition

Plus

 A cross-cutting civil society grouping charged with developing and delivering a region-wide programme of ‘support for people and communities as they transform’ and encouraging collaboration, sharing and learning  An Evaluation Group charged with – inter alia - Development of Metrics and then ‘internal audit’

6.16] Were the potential of such programmes to be invested in and realised then, perhaps, a title for our overall programme might justifiably be:

The North East Transformed

112 7] Towards a governance and delivery structure Governance Structure Project Steering Group 7.1] We currently anticipate a high-level Steering Group composed of our ‘Structural Partners’ such as the Local Authorities, Nature Partnerships, Local Enterprise Partnerships, Business Sector, TUC, Health Sector, Schools Sector etc. represented by political leaders and organisational ‘chairs’. Clearly for many of these sectors, there would need to be a degree of consultation to arrive at a single representative, or alternates, (to make the Group manageable in size). 7.2] Such a high-level Steering Group would only be convened at the point that there was sufficient prospect of sufficient resources being available to develop and maintain a programme of sufficient scale (see the 10 tests at 4.8 above) to justify its creation Interim Project Management Group 7.3] Over the coming months we will approach our ‘structural partners’ to nominate a senior officer to represent them on this group which would be charged – with any emerging Executive (below) and once sufficiently constituted – with developing the Project to the next stage. Current Review Group 7.4] The current Review Group has provided an invaluable source of expertise and advice and its lack of a formal structure has enabled it to grow and flex as the Project has evolved. Current members have agreed to continue meeting monthly until early in the New Year. Executive 7.5] In due course, we hope to be able to raise funding to appoint a small Executive core (perhaps a Director, an administrator and some PR/Comms and research capacity). As ‘bridging’ funds are raised, the current interim team will be able to be strengthened pro tem.

Programme delivery structure 7.6] Almost all of the work of VONNE’s 1,200 members is delivered with and through ‘place- based’ groups operating at the level of local geographical community. Our project seeks to empower and support the leaderships of these local groups in addressing the challenging subject of climate change though a growing network of regional and sub-regional ‘delivery partners’. 7.7] During the winter we will be researching – and developing with the sector – the framework, content and structure for Civil Society’s own programme of action. The driver for this investigation is currently thought of as a co-ordinating group of region-wide or sub-region-wide and usually sector specific ‘core Delivery Partners’. 7.8] These organisations would act in turn as ‘bridges’ to the local action ‘within, between and beyond’ local communities and the ‘people who lead them’. We anticipate that funds raised nationally and regionally for the programme would be managed by these sectoral and/or geographically based ‘Delivery Partners’ who would be eligible for an appropriate management charge partly to support capacity building to enable the overall Project to grow.

113 8] Resources

8.1] As per the ten tests (at 4.8 above), the Project can only proceed if its existence enables it to draw on resources that only a region and sector-wide programme of this nature could attract at a scale large enough to make the programme significant. Moreover, those resources have to be able to be deployed through and to the benefit of projects already based and active locally within the region. 8.2] There are clearly already a small number of major national trusts and foundations with established environmental programmes which might be interested in this way but we have identified three very specific opportunities that meet our criteria. 8.3] During September this year the UK was confirmed as the host nation for the UN’s COP26 to be held in Glasgow in November next year and Claire Perry has been appointed as COP President, a role she will carry throughout 2021 (subject to the result of the General Election). The BEIS team and its advisers are now ‘developing the architecture’ for a ‘UK-wide COP programme’ that will promote the COP, its importance globally (and the role of HMG). We believe that this, national and ‘whole society’ programme could provide significant opportunities for the North East enhanced by our early start and regionwide structure. We are invited to meet the BEIS team before Christmas. 7.2] The NLCF have announced a £100m Climate Action Fund to operate over five years and they have indicated a maximum scale of award of £2.5m over five years. Clearly a major award – of this scale and longevity would be transformative to our project, enabling civil society delivery partners to plan with confidence for the long term. That confidence would also secure the collaborations with each other and with the public and private sector that will deliver both the maximum benefit to local organisations and their communities and secure the maximum possible impact on the climate crisis, ecology breakdown and help secure the just transition that we target. 7.3] With such an award, VONNE and Civil Society could arrive at the Regional coalition table that it had convened with a huge capacity to deliver ‘on the ground’ and with the certainty of core resource to act or collaborate strategically, regionally and nationally as well as being able to partner in supporting innovative models for effective action developed locally. 7.4] Beyond both of these is a larger offer that we believe the Region could – perhaps uniquely – make to government and other funders in the context of new national policies for the ‘green revolution/green new deal’. We believe that the North East (and our project within it) have attributes that might commend it as a place where projects and policies could be piloted and where their complex impacts on, and interactions with, each other could be studied and evaluated cost- effectively. 7.5] Those attributes – probably uniquely in combination – are summarised overleaf.

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The 10 Attributes of the North East as a test bed for national policies and programmes on climate, environment and transition to a low carbon economy

North East England:

o Is the smallest English Region (affordability), o is targeting becoming England’s Greenest (ambition), o has a mix of dense urban/industrial, coastal and rural communities (spatial diversity) o has a Civil Society, deeply rooted in work with marginalised groups (reach) o has an acknowledged track record of regional co-operation (believable delivery) o is a ‘left behind’ region, vulnerable to the impacts of AI and Brexit (in line with priorities) o is the only English region with a positive balance of trade (economic contribution) o already contains nationally important innovatory projects across technology, engineering, environmental restitution and the address to the social and economic consequences of an unjust transition (policy integration) o is ten months into developing a multi-sector regionwide programme (self-help) o has a history that connects directly to current climate challenges (a compelling narrative)

Endnotes to Timeline

i Warmly welcomed by advisors to HMG and BEIS but the diplomacy needed to secure the UK Presidency and COP26 required the offer of the Pre COP to Italy. ii Peter has worked on the project full-time since he began researching it. From July – September he has been paid for a day a week from VONNE reserves and since then, with additional funds raised, for two days a week. iii Alli is paid for four mornings a week from VONNE reserves and funds raised.. iv The time of paid staff of Development Partners is provided by them. These funds enable freelance/small companies to receive partial fees for their time with the balance provided pro bono. v North England Commissioning Support and Community Foundation Tyne and Wear and Northumberland each contribute £10,000 vi Paul Brannen was, until recently, a MEP for the North East with particular interests in the environment. He was funded for an initial 15 days strategic support to the chair in coalition building from advance bridge funding. Separately, Paul is also chair of the North East England Nature Partnership. vii Sunderland based ‘Consult and Design’ were already VONNE’s digital advisers and working with CAST on its national ‘Digital Hops’ programme when they were approached by the Catalyst Programme to undertake to produce the Discovery Phase Report (Appendix F) viii A commitment to achieve ‘True net Zero Carbon’ would encourage both substantial investment in the search for Negative Emission Technologies’ and programmes that currently ‘offset’ greenhouse gas emissions in the developed world by ‘green investment’ elsewhere BUT it does not allow either to be factored into targets for 2050 or earlier.

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VONNE CLIMATE ACTION ALLIANCE Appendix C SUBMISSION TO THE CLIMATE ACTION FUND OF THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND Alliance members’ organisational profiles

 Capability North East  Climate Action North  Community Action Northumberland

 Collective Impact Agency  Consult and Design  Durham Wildlife Trust  FareShare North East  Greening Wingrove & Arthur’s Hill  Groundwork NE & Cumbria

 Middlesbrough Environment City  National Energy Action  North East England Nature Partnership  Northumberland Wildlife Trust  OASES  Tees Valley Nature Partnership

 Tees Valley Wildlife Trust  True North Sustainability  Tyne Rivers Trust  Youth Focus North East  Zero Carbon Futures

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Capability North East Legal Status Company Limited by Guarantee (With charitable Memorandum and Articles of Association)

Purpose To work with organisations of all types and sizes to reduce environmental impact and grow the Capability Environment Fund to enable and support the delivery of environmental projects that benefit nature and people in North East England

Annual Turnover £79,000 (April 2018/May 2019)

Role Regional Sector Specialist

Lead Contact Claire Thompson, Executive Manager

Environmental policies Yes

Reducing carbon Has an Environmental Management system to reduce resource use, environmental impact and footprint carbon footprint. This is supported by energy, waste management, travel and meetings, finance and procurement policies and action plans with progress monitored quarterly. We record all travel and staff and clients and iiE members and will offset this in local woodland creation schemes at the end of 2020. We are due our iiE audit in June 2020. In addition to this we are developing plans to understand what net zero looks like for a small business and steps we need to take to get there.

Organisation Profile Capability North East is working to Green the Economy of North East England. Our environmental services and GENEE packages help business, NGO and public sector clients of all sizes recognise that sustainability is not just a ‘green issue’ but an important operational and strategic one that can give a competitive advantage.

Join us and become a GENEE today and we’ll make it easy for your organisation to start reducing costs, work towards achieving Investors in the Environment accreditation, off-set emissions through local Forest Carbon scheme and much more!

The Directors of Capability North East have significant experience in the environment sector and delivering environmental and sustainability projects, ranging from the Mayors Green 500 carbon reduction project and off grid energy to remote communities in Africa to woodland creation and research and development of biodegradable tree guards in the UK.

OUR GENEE PACAKAGES & SKILLS

Our packages and skills help commercial, industrial and public-sector clients balance ambitions with carbon reduction and resiliency. Working with Capability North East is a great way to engage all stakeholders to deliver sustainability ambitions, reduce resource use and emissions whilst integrating sustainability into strategies and operations. We invite organisations of all types and sizes to work with us to develop Environment Management Systems and become Investors in the Environment (iiE) accredited to save money, implement sustainable working practices and be recognised for their efforts.

CAPABILITY ENVIRONMNENT FUND

Funds are raised from the services we provide, and the savings business make from their sustainability work, iiE accreditations and from business donations. We will continually reinvest the funds we raise over a 15-year period but also draw down amounts over this time to support various projects across North East England. After the investment period we anticipate having a multimillion-pound fund to develop, enhance and connect landscapes for the benefit of people, communities, nature and biodiversity, helping to make North East England the best place to be!

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Climate Action North Legal Status Community Interest Company

Purpose To take action on climate change including delivery of activities and projects linked to particular initiatives: working with businesses, communities, educators and individuals.

Annual Turnover £17,000 (2018/19)

Role Regional Sector Specialists

Lead Contact Sharon Lashley, Managing Director

Environmental Yes policies Reducing carbon We have declared our own climate emergency and our action plan is our business plan footprint ensuring all of our project work is reducing our CO2 emissions and minimising our impact.

Organisation Profile Climate Action North’s particular strengths and experience lie in our ability to deliver meaningful, interesting and beneficial activities around the following all with a focus on mobilising and taking a key form of climate action.

Climate Action North is principally and currently funded by corporate and private sector organisations funding and support and has been since the community interest company start up in 2017. Our unique ability to attract regular support from the private sector is what makes us a successful, reliable and trustworthy delivery partner of activities to fulfil and enhance their corporate social responsibility policy delivery and aims and objectives.

The 3 Directors of Climate Action North are all businesswomen running and operating our own individual companies therefore we understand the procedures, working practices and challenges facing businesses. In doing this though we are also able to focus on corporate social responsibility requirements and best practice and thereby work with businesses to offer good value, transparent and meaningful opportunities to make a difference in their local communities.

Educating and raising awareness in the business world of climate change and the impact of their organisation’s activities is key to our role within this partnership. It is this approach, in addition to making community changes, we believe will ensure deeper and broader participation across the Climate Change Partnership and the complete programme of delivery.

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Community Action Northumberland Legal Status Registered Charity and Company Limited by Guarantee

Purpose  To promote all or any purposes for the benefit of the community in the County of Northumberland which now or hereafter may be deemed by law to be charitable.  To promote and organise co-operation in the achievement of the above purposes and to that end to bring together representatives of the statutory authorities and voluntary organisations engaged in the furtherance of the above purposes within the area of benefit.

Annual Turnover c£350,000 (2018/19)

Role Area Place Based specialist.

Lead Contact Andy Dean, Chief Executive

Environmental YES, currently being reviewed policies Reducing carbon CAN has recently updated its Mission to include a specific objective in relation to footprint addressing climate change.

Organisation Profile Community Action Northumberland (CAN) is here to support and help sustain rural communities in Northumberland by:

 promoting rural issues – providing and supporting a ‘rural voice’ to influence and tackle rural community issues  Empowering organisations – supporting and developing local community groups and organisations.  Supporting individuals – identifying, developing and managing projects to address the needs of rural communities.

CAN was initially set up as the Community Council of Northumberland in 1951. CAN is one of 38 Rural Community Councils across England which operate as a network under the umbrella of our national body ACRE (Action with Communities in Rural England). RCCs are charitable local development agencies, generally based at county level, which lead, support and enable community initiatives, reaching 50,000 grassroots organisations.

ACRE’s vision is to be the voice of rural communities – supported by the wealth of evidence and intelligence on rural matters collected from the 38 members. This evidence is used to influence national policy on rural issues from housing, health and transport to broadband, services and fuel poverty. As a member of the ACRE network, CAN is able to ensure that Northumberland’s rural communities can benefit from the knowledge and best practice gathered from across the country and contribute to the national debate on rural issues.

Locally, CAN works with a wide range of partners to share resources and knowledge, and to achieve the best results for our communities.

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Collective Impact Agency Legal Status Community Interest Company

Purpose To help socially minded organisations and people work together more effectively.

Annual Turnover c.£100,000 (undated)

Role within Alliance backbone support Partnership & Community Lead Contact Andrew Crosbie, Director

Environmental In development policies Reducing carbon We’re an ‘online’ organisation, with no premises and with a paper-free way of working. footprint We use digital platforms for communication and storage. We use bicycles and public transport to attend meetings, wherever possible.

Organisation Profile Borne out of a belief that the current system is not working for the people who need it the most, the Collective Impact Agency exists to make “the system” work better for real people. We believe that the best way to achieve that is to help organisations and people work together better. There are three principal strands to our work:

Alliance Building: We believe that alliances between organisations are essential to improving lives by changing the system. By creating diverse coalitions of voluntary and community organisations, local authorities, social enterprises, unions, universities, funders, schools and other, we can build the peer support, shared power, and ‘collective bravery’ needed to change the system. As well as the VCAA, we are in conversation with Crisis to support the building of a partnership in Newcastle that aims to end homelessness within 10 years, and we are supporting work in Gateshead with the local authority about using alliance contracting for commissioning.

System Stewardship: We are supported by the Lankelly Chase Foundation to deliver work in Gateshead that aims to change the systems that perpetuate severe and multiple disadvantage. Our broad responsibilities include building bridges between the different silos and sectors, connecting people and organisations who were previously unconnected, facilitating meaningful exchanges between people and organisations to help them co-create common local agendas, and acting as a learning partner within the borough. We are actively working to engage professionals across Gateshead in a range of concrete next steps aimed at system transformation. We are also in conversation with Durham Community Action to replicate this work in County Durham.

Anti-Leadership Training: We believe that 'the thing we call leadership' is at heart about enabling a group to achieve a shared purpose. Much modern leadership practice continues to place too much focus on 'the leader' - the person in a position of authority. And this proves to be detrimental, both to the overall group and to its shared purpose. We offer a different kind of approach. We work with groups, rather than with individuals, focusing on helping entire groups (teams, organisations) become more effective at achieving their shared purpose.

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Consult and Design Legal Status Private Limited Company

Purpose Consult and Design is a values led, for profit company. We connect people with technology to change the way we live and work.

Annual Turnover £400,000 (2019)

Role Alliance backbone organisation

Lead Contact David Van der Velde, Founder and Director

Environmental Yes policies

Reduce carbon Consult and Design engages in carbon offsetting to reduce the carbon impact of our footprint activities.

Organisation Profile Consult and Design is a values-driven design and technology company with a proven track record of creating innovative websites and applications for over 200 ambitious companies and organisations across the UK and the world.

A people focused business, Consult and Design don’t just work on digital projects that deliver positive change, we bring our ethical approach to all our relationships, investing in staff development, working with like-minded partners and contributing to community projects.

We have many years’ experience building and supporting integrated websites, applications and CRM systems for non-profits including, VONNE, Durham Community Action, Equality Trust as well as for the EU, Sunderland Council, Erasmus Virtual Exchange and the Anna Lindh Foundation.

We are active in the Drupal open source software community and our team of specialist designers, developers and consultants have a track record in building and supporting highly bespoke and adaptable solutions used by organisations all over the world.

Our leadership team combines digital know-how with a deep understanding of the voluntary sector and the principles of good digital service design. We work in partnership with VONNE to develop the Social Tech North East community, helping organisations to learn from each other and make better decisions about investing in digital.

Consult and Design is an equal opportunities employer. We have been Living Wage accredited since 2012 and we have been active members of Tyne and Wear Citizens, supporting the recent Mental Health Commission, the Mayoral Assembly and the current listening campaign in local communities.

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Durham Wildlife Trust Legal Status Registered Charity and Company Limited by Guarantee

Purpose Area place-based specialist

Annual Turnover £1.2 million (undated)

Role within Provision of specialist advice on natural environment issues, community engagement Partnership & and education, delivery of practical projects. Community Lead Contact Jim Cokill, Trust Director

Environmental Yes policies Reducing carbon Undertaking review as part of work towards IiE footprint Organisation Profile Durham Wildlife Trust is an independent charity and limited company that was established in 1971, originally as the Durham County Conservation Trust, becoming Durham Wildlife Trust is 1988.

Durham Wildlife Trust is part of the federation of 46 organisations that together form the Wildlife Trusts. Each organisation is an independent charity but with shared aims and badger logo branding. The Trusts are membership organisations.

When DWT was established the county of Durham extended from the rivers Tees to Tyne across an area administered by Durham County Council. Subsequent local government reorganisation reduced the area of County Durham and created Tyne and Wear and Cleveland. As a result, DWT today covers County Durham, the southern boroughs of Tyne and Wear – Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland – and Darlington. In 2015, to clarify the geographical area of operations of the Trust, the phrase From Tees to Tyne was added to the DWT logo.

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FareShare North East Legal Status Community Interest Company

Purpose We redistribute surplus food to not-for-profit community groups

Annual Turnover £263,000 (estimated for 2020/21 as a newly independent regional entity)

Role within Regional Sector Specialist Partnership & Community Lead Contact Jake Hanmore, General Manager

Environmental Yes policies

Reducing carbon Undertaking a carbon footprint mapping exercise footprint Organisation Profile FareShare North East provides perfectly good surplus food to local community groups in the North East of England. This food, donated by both retailers and producers, would normally go to waste. Food is delivered to the FareShare North East warehouse, and then either delivered to or picked up by member charities.

Community and charitable organisations across Sunderland, Newcastle, Northumberland, Gateshead, South Tyneside, East Durham, Stockton on Tees and Middlesbrough benefit from FareShare. These organisations distribute good food to communities which, due to economic and social exclusion, would either have an absence of food or a poor diet. Such groups include centres for victims of domestic violence, homeless organisations, lunch clubs for older people and kids’ clubs.

Last year, FareShare North East provided food for over 650,000 meals in the region and saved more than 270 tonnes of food going to waste thanks to a team of dedicated volunteers.

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Greening Wingrove & Arthur’s Hill Legal Status Community Interest Company but is in the process of becoming a Charitable Incorporated Organisation

Purpose Environmental improvement of Newcastle upon Tyne’s Inner West End

Annual Turnover c£20,744 (2018-19)

Role within Area place-based specialist Partnership & Community Lead Contact Nigel Todd, Chair of CIC Board

Environmental Yes policies and procedures Reducing carbon We communicate largely by digital channels; hold meetings and activities within footprint walking or cycling distance of our members/participants; we recycle our materials.

Organisation Profile Greening Wingrove & Arthur’s Hill is an environmental residents’ association.

We’re also a response to climate change. Our activities usually focus on nature and water and energy conservation, gardening, tree planting, recycling, curbing litter and fly tipping, and bringing the community together.

We tell the wider world about what we’re doing both nationally and even internationally via conferences, social media and publications. And we offer a locally governed organisational framework, working in partnership with others, enabling people to get on with making a difference to where we live.

We live in the most ethnically diverse part of the North East, sharing many common interests and hopes for the future. Our activities seek to bring people together.

Working with Vertical Veg North East, we’ve encouraged new gardens in terraced streets and back yards, greening our neighbourhoods for growing food and supporting wildlife. Our volunteers hold regular litter picks to encourage a more tidy, cleaner and healthier place to live.

Membership is open to residents of the Arthur’s Hill and Wingrove Wards, and members shape what we do. Local residents make up our governing board.

Lastly, we advance the wacky, but thought-provoking, idea of turning our area into a sustainable inner-city garden suburb!

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Groundwork NE & Cumbria Legal Status Charity and Company limited by guarantee

Purpose Mobilising practical community action on poverty and the environment

Annual Turnover c£9,000,000 (2018-19)

Role Regional Sector Specialist

Lead Contact Steven Roberts, Director of Youth, Employment & Skills

Environmental Yes policies Reducing carbon Programme in place footprint

Organisation Profile Our strategy is about changing place, changing lives.

We are driven to mobilising practical community action on poverty and the environment, because:

 Building resilient communities will help us tackle national and global challenges  No-one should be held back by their background or circumstances  Environmental breakdown impacts first and worst on those who have least

We are committed to “The Groundwork approach”:

 Investing in the place and people that need us most  Working with local leaders and listening to local voices  Growing a culture of equity and inclusion  Collaboration  Acting as environmental exemplars

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Middlesbrough Environment City Legal Status Charity

Purpose  Advance the education of the public and promote public involvement in all matters concerning environmental sustainability in the borough of Middlesbrough and the wider Tees Valley area;  Preserve protect and enhance the environment within the borough of Middlesbrough and the wider Tees Valley Area;  Protect and enhance the health and well-being of people in the borough of Middlesbrough and the wider Tees Valley area in particular but not exclusively by providing information, advice and services regarding physical activity, dietary health and mental well-being. Annual Turnover c£1,160,000 (undated) Role within Partnership Middlesbrough Environment City is a grassroots community-based organisation that supports & Community local communities to take positive action on healthy and sustainable living using the ten One Planet Living principles. We provide a range of projects and activities that support communities to live more sustainably including around energy efficiency, sustainable food, sustainable transport and reducing waste. We are also enablers within our communities, working with partner organisations and community groups to design, develop and implement their own locally based initiatives. As an organisation, we also provide activities to support the most vulnerable, such as tackling fuel and food poverty. Within the Alliance we are well placed to work with our local communities, giving them a voice to identify priorities for climate action and engage with our local networks to codesign and implement these.

Lead Contact Dr Mark Fishpool, Director

Environmental policies Yes

Reducing carbon Comprehensive plans footprint Organisation Profile Middlesbrough Environment City is a local charity promoting sustainable environments and sustainable communities. Along with Middlesbrough Council, we use the One Planet Living approach developed by BioRegional to describe sustainable living in an easy to understand way that is relevant to our residents’ lives. One Planet Living is based on the fact that if everyone in the world lived as we do in the UK, we would need three planets to sustain us all. It uses ten principles to describe sustainable living. Some of these are closely linked to climate change, such as zero carbon and zero waste. Others however are more focussed on people, such as health and happiness and culture and community, reflecting that healthy and sustainable communities are at the heart of tackling climate change.

MEC works in partnership with local communities and organisations to deliver projects including healthy and sustainable food, affordable warmth, cycling and walking and physical activity. Each year we work with partners on around 40 projects. Amongst our current initiatives are delivering safe cycling and cycle maintenance courses; providing energy efficiency advice and help to access insulation measures; health cooking on a budget workshops; and running the Middlesbrough Cycle Centre.

We also support local partnerships including the South Tees Affordable Warmth Partnership, Middlesbrough Food Partnership and Middlesbrough Fairtrade Partnership. We use an asset-based approach, working alongside our communities and local partners to identify their aspirations, existing assets and the opportunities that there are to build on these and address gaps. Examples include a settings-based approach to healthy and sustainable cooking and working with experts by experience in developing a programme to address food poverty in Middlesbrough.

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National Energy Action Legal Status Registered Ch

Purpose NEA works across England, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure that everyone can afford to live in a warm, dry home. Annual Turnover NEA’s turnover for the most recent financial year, ending March 2019 was £7,008,144.

Role within Provision of specialist advice and support for vulnerable fuel poor households, delivery Partnership & of practical projects in energy efficiency and education and training. Community Lead Contact Peter Sumby- Jen Carruthers Jones

Environmental Yes policies a Reducing carbon NEA recognises that good environmental management is an essential part of good footprint practice for any organisation and is particularly relevant to the achievement of NEA's aims and objectives. Accordingly, NEA will endeavour to adopt the highest appropriate environmental standards in all areas of its operations, whilst having regard to financial implications and the need to set achievable targets for improvement.

Organisation Profile National Energy Action (NEA) is the leading national fuel poverty charity operating across England, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure that everyone can afford to live in a warm, dry home.

There are currently around four million UK households in fuel poverty, struggling to heat their homes to the level needed to stay warm and comfortable. We believe that everyone is entitled to live in a warm home regardless of their income and work in partnership with central and local Governments, energy industry, local authorities, health services and a huge number of other agencies to achieve this mission.

In partnership with central and local government, fuel utilities, housing providers, consumer groups and voluntary organisations, we undertake a range of activities to address the causes and treat the symptoms of fuel poverty. These include:

 Campaigning to ensure that the needs of fuel poor households are recognised and addressed  Researching and analysing the causes and extent of fuel poverty and developing policies which will address the problem  Developing and managing demonstration projects that show innovative ways of tackling fuel poverty  Providing advice and guidance to installers on good practice in delivering energy efficiency services to low income households  Developing national qualifications and managing their implementation to improve standards of practical work and quality of energy advice

Our work encompasses all aspects of fuel poverty, but in particular emphasises the importance of greater investment in domestic energy efficiency and the need to maintain social justice when meeting climate action goals.

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North East England Nature Partnership Legal Status Informal partnership that is hosted by Capability North East

Purpose To work collaboratively and achieve Environmental Growth by investing in our natural capital, to create landscapes that are resilient and adapted for a changing climate for the benefit of nature, communities and the economy across the North East of England

Annual Turnover N/A

Role Regional Sector Specialist

Lead Contact Claire Thompson

Environmental policies Yes

Reducing carbon In 2017 the NEENP had the foresight to start the process of creating Capability North East (CNE) footprint to deliver the Green in the Economy of North East England (GENEE) project and work with organisations across the region to implement changes and activities to have a measurable impact on climate change. The NEENP adopts the Environmental Management System of Capability North East and focuses on upstream reduction of resource use and ethical procurement. At the end of 2020 at percentage of NEENP travel will be offset by supporting local woodland creation.

Organisation Profile We exist to embed the value of the natural environment into local decision making and work to improve local ecological networks at a landscape scale. The Nature Partnership facilitates coordinated decision making on the natural environment and members of the NP will act jointly to deliver integrated outcomes that provide a wide range of benefits and ecosystem services. The Nature Partnership will plan and deliver strategic environmental action enabling the recognition of the value of biodiversity in social and economic as well as environmental terms. The partnership covers the lowland areas of Northumberland, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, Gateshead, South Tyneside, Sunderland, South Tyneside and Durham.

We do this though our focus on:

 Landscapes and nature; Restoring the natural environment at a landscape scale to create a resilient and coherent ecological network that increases our biodiversity resource.

 Economy with ecology; Achieving economic growth that is environmentally sustainable and intergenerationally fair by demonstrating the value of the natural environment as an employer, wealth creator and an attraction to investors.

 Learning Naturally; Every child in North East England to access outdoor learning throughout their school life to maximise every child’s creativity, academic performance and healthy development

 Naturally Healthy; For communities of all ages to have regular access and exposure to biodiverse landscapes that help to enhance health and wellbeing and reduce the costs of long-term conditions and social care

 Local Nature Partnerships originated in a vision set out in the UK government’s 2011 ‘Natural Environment White Paper’, which identified the need to take greater account of the value of the environment when strategic decisions are made that affect people and the local economy.

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Northumberland Wildlife Trust Legal Status Charitable Trust limited by guarantee

Purpose promote nature conservation and engage people in creating living landscapes and living seas for nature’s recovery

Annual Turnover c£3,100,000 (undated)

Role Area place-based specialist

Lead Contact Mike Pratt, CEO

Environmental Yes policies Reducing carbon Members of IiE footprint Organisation Profile We want everywhere and everything within our area of influence to be Wilder, including people’s lives with more and better-connected land, wetlands and seas for wildlife.

We will play our part in wilding and greening the North East and the North and contribute globally to restoring nature and stopping climate breakdown

We are calling for a Wilder future for our wider area, promoting landscapes richer in wildlife, valued by everyone

We will achieve this by pursuing our mission to: ‘Create Wilder Places, Wilder People and a Wilder Future, with more, bigger and better joined up areas for wildlife to thrive, more people taking action and connecting to nature and influencing more decisions to secure nature’s recovery locally and regionally’

We will deliver our mission by: Enabling nature’s recovery, ‘protecting the best and improving the rest’, inspiring people and communities to care and mobilising people and influencing organisations to act in nature’s interest. We will do this ourselves where we can directly on our reserves and areas we manage and through our special species and habitat partnership initiatives.

Our role will be to champion wildlife rich landscapes, defend wildlife and wild places and inspire and enable communities to act and grow our resources and partnerships to be more effective and agile as a Wildlife Trust

All our work is underpinned by our core principles and values, which are that we are: Passionate, Visionary, Inspiring, Effective and acting with Integrity.

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OASES (NEEN) Legal Status Registered Charity - North East Environment Network

Purpose  promote and encourage the protection, preservation and improvement of the environment of the North East of England for the benefit of the public, and  promote the advancement of education of the public concerning the environment, its conservation and protection and related subjects.

Annual Turnover c£340,000 (2018/19)

Role within Area place-based specialist Partnership & Community Lead Contact Joanne Appleby, CEO

Do you have your Yes own environmental policies and procedures Reducing carbon Comprehensive plans in place footprint Organisation Profile OASES (Outdoor And Sustainability Education Specialists) is the recognised name for the charity NEEN (North East Environment Network). Between 1994 and 2012 OASES was hosted by Groundwork North East in partnership with Durham County Council and One World Network North East. In 2012 One World Network North East was dissolved and the partnership split. OASES (and all associated staff) consequently found a new home within NEEN where OASES is the sole interest and concern, providing a greater degree of autonomy and stability.

OASES primarily works with schools to ensure that young people have access to outdoor learning experiences and global sustainability education. Through its work OASES hopes to engender an appreciation of nature and a love of the planet in young people, helping to create a more sustainable future.

Last year financial year OASES worked with over 500 schools across the north east of England. OASES currently delivers a range of consultancy services to north east schools under the three themes of: Engaging Pupils; Inspiring Teachers; Enhancing Schools. As experts, the OASES team can assist with all aspects of outdoor learning and global sustainability education including energy saving advice, Eco-Schools engagement, global learning, school grounds development, Forest Schools, Beach Schools, Active Learning, growing projects....

OASES has been connecting young people with the natural world and helping them to understand environmental issues, like climate change, for decades. In the last couple of years, the issues that we are passionate about have started to gain international recognition. As a result, the programmes that we have been working on for years have received more interest. As a charity this is a major coupe, as our primary role is to engage others with the issues in order to see more action being taken. We are, however, proud to have ‘led the charge’ over issues like climate change and of our status as one of the first charities to have focused upon climate change education.

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Tees Valley Nature Partnership Legal Status PLEASE NOTE: for logistical purposes the nature partnership is ‘hosted’ by Tees Valley Wildlife Trust (see next entry)

Purpose · be an effective unified voice to champion the Tees Valley’s environment, · provide a strategic framework for local environmental deliver, · influence local plans, strategies and policies to integrate the delivery of environmental benefits and services alongside economic and social benefits.

Annual Turnover see Tees Valley Wildlife Trust

Role within Originally set up as a strategic partnership from 2019 a new programme of reaching out Partnership & to communities has been introduced. TVNP works to coordinate and strengthen local Community action to secure a functioning, sustainable and resilient bio-diverse natural environment to improve the health, well-being and livelihoods of people in the Tees Valley.

Lead Contact Rachel Murtagh, Nature Partnership Manager

Environmental Yes, adopted Tees Valley Wildlife Trust’s policies Reducing carbon We are a small staff of 2 however our role as a ‘hub’ for the environment sector within footprint the Tees Valley puts as in a key position of influencers as such this will be part of our Marketing & Communications Strategy that we have just commissioned.

Organisation Profile TVNP links organisations in the Tees Valleys’ environmental, business, and health and well-being sectors to form an influential partnership working strategically to conserve and enhance a healthy and robust natural environment, proven to aid our well-being and provide the natural assets vital for a healthy economy.

Our 2019-2022 vision is

‘A Tees Valley where more people are connected to bigger and better wildlife rich spaces@

The National Context The Tees Valley Nature Partnership (TVNP) is one of 47 local nature partnerships across England designated by the Secretary of State. The government’s ambition for LNPs is that each area finds its own way to make the LNP role real and meaningful locally. Within the framework of the overall LNP role, it is for each LNP to decide what their priorities are and how they work in the way that best suits the needs and challenges of their local area.

The Local Context The partnership was officially recognised in 2012 and relaunched in April 2016. Now representing over 40 organisations we were keen from the re-launch to include and give a strategic home to all the smaller interest groups in our area along with the larger organisations who share our vision for the Tees Valleys Natural Environment.

In April 2019 in recognition of our ambition to reach out to our communities and ‘harness public love and concern for the nature’ we were awarded three years funding from the National Lottery Community Fund. This is unprecedented nationally.

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Tees Valley Wildlife Trust Legal Status Registered Charity and Company Limited by Guarantee

Purpose To conserve the wildlife and geological interest of the Tees Valley  To increase awareness and understanding of nature conservation  To establish and manage nature reserves  To promote the principles and practice of sustainable development.

Annual Turnover c£568,000 (2019)

Role Area place-based specialist and Regional Sector specialist

Lead Contact Jeremy Garside, Chief Executive

Environmental Yes policies Reducing carbon We have committed to working to become carbon neutral and to eliminating footprint production of polluting waste by 2030.

Organisation Profile The Tees Valley Wildlife Trust works with local communities to improve the natural environment.

It achieves this through:

 Work with local authorities, businesses and others to protect, manage and enhance the natural environment of the Tees Valley

 Promoting lifelong learning in environmental matters through a programme of education and training

 Managing nature reserves to safeguard areas for wildlife and to provide places for educations and the enjoyment of nature

 Work with local partners to ensure that wildlife and natural places contribute to the environmental, social and economic regeneration of the area.

The Wildlife Trust manages over 800 acres of land as nature reserves and has carried out works to many other areas of former industrial and under-used land to enhance its value for nature conservation and for the benefit of local people. The involvement of local communities and schools is a vital aspect of this work that ensures opportunities for education and training are maximised and that lasting social benefits are achieved.

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True North Sustainability Legal Status Sole trader

Purpose To support organisations to take meaningful action, to reduce their impact on environmental and societal issues, whilst supporting economic and business growth.

Annual Turnover n/a

Role Alliance backbone support

Lead Contact Anna-Lisa Mills, Director

Environmental Yes policies

Reducing carbon Comprehensive plans in place footprint Organisation Profile At TNS we have experience of developing and leading global sustainability strategies, including calculating carbon footprints for organisations with operations around the world. Our focus is action on climate change and helping organisations to minimise their contribution to this issue. We also provide advice, support and training in all areas of sustainability strategy and environmental management.

Training courses - Climate, carbon, environmental management and sustainability

Our courses are designed to be relevant to individuals working at different levels and across a range of sectors. They include basic introduction courses, bespoke courses to meet specific client requirements and advanced courses for individuals with environmental or sustainability responsibilities. Courses can be delivered at a range of venues across the UK or as in-house courses on a client’s site. The content can be adjusted to suit specific needs (e.g. reduced duration/sector specific). Many of these courses are endorsed by Northumbria University and the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA).

Helping businesses to calculate, report and reduce carbon.

The SmartCarbonTM 3-step programme helps organisations of any size or sector to calculate, report and reduce carbon emissions. Organisations can choose to follow all 3 steps, do any step in isolation, or request bespoke support based on any stage of the process. We have worked with hundreds of companies from large multinationals, to one-person operations and worked with private, public and third sector organisations.

North East Carbon Partnership.

The NECP is a collaborative project to calculate, report and offset carbon via local woodland creation in the North East of England.

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Tyne Rivers Trust Legal Status Charity

Purpose We work to protect and enhance the River Tyne and its tributaries, so they are healthy, biodiverse, and an asset for present and future generations; through:  on-the-ground delivery of environmental improvements such as tree planting, peatland restoration and habitat improvements  education and engagement of children, community groups and the general public to ensure residents of the area are passionate about the environmental value of where they live and enthused to protect it.

Annual Turnover c£733,000 (2018/19) Role Area place-based specialist Lead Contact Jack Bloomer, Deputy Director

Environmental Yes policies Reducing carbon Wide range of plans and we constantly review our processes to ensure our carbon footprint footprint continues to fall.

Organisation Profile Our vision is one of an environment where people and wildlife thrive together. Communities in the Tyne catchment will understand, contribute to and benefit from a healthy, sustainable ecosystem that is a source of pride for everyone who lives in the region. We continuously work towards our mission and vision by: 1. Using our expertise to work with partner organisations, volunteers and contractors to capture carbon, reduce flood risk, tackle pollution, remove barriers to migratory fish, and improve the biodiversity of our iconic river; 2. Educating children, communities and the general public about their environment and what they can do to protect it. This ensures they are equipped with the knowledge to help us achieve our aims. Relevant projects include: Education: Our education work has run since our formation in 2004 with a variety of programmes in place. We have recently received funding for climate change-focused projects including the planting of rain gardens in schools and public spaces, education on a climate-friendly river catchment and theatre productions demonstrating the causes, effects and solutions to the climate crisis.

Adopt a Stream: Volunteers, schoolchildren and community groups are educated about the key features of a healthy river. They are trained and provided with specialist equipment to monitor water quality. The information they gather is used to guide work that we do to improve the environment.

Volunteer Tyne: Our team of volunteers head outside on at least a weekly basis to conduct work that directly improves our environment. This includes tree planting, hedge laying, environmental monitoring and habitat improvement works.

Community-led flood monitoring: Working with the community in Haltwhistle to monitor rainfall and river levels and using data they collect to plan suitable interventions to reduce flood risk

Farming Facilitation Fund: Working with the farming community to help reduce pollution and manage watercourses on farmland in a more environmentally sustainable way. 134

Youth Focus North East Legal Status Registered Charity and Company Limited by Guarantee

Purpose Youth Focus North East is an independent charity with the overall vision to improve the lives of young people through high quality youth work. We exist for the benefit of young people and the organisations which support them. Working together we, invest in the lives of young people, to create lasting change in their own lives and the communities in which they live. Our organisation is rooted in the values of good youth work: honesty, respect, equality and inclusion.

Annual Turnover £669,000 (2018/19)

Role Regional Sector Specialist

Lead Contact Kevin Franks, Chief Executive

Environmental policies Yes

Reducing carbon Full range of plans footprint Organisation Profile Youth Focus North East are committed to supporting the voices of young people and the communities we serve. Young people tell us that Climate Change is a key concern for them on a global, national, regional and local level. Every day we see the negative impact of Climate Change on the communities in which young people live. As a youth work organisation, we want to inform and educate young people on issues regarding Climate Change and work with them to design and deliver youth-led solutions. As an infrastructure support body, we want to connect grassroots youth organisations with the wider Climate Change agenda and ensure young people from the most disadvantaged communities are gaining an equal opportunity to learn and engage with this critical issue.

Youth Focus: North East, as well as delivering programmes across the North East, provides a regional hub for the youth sector. We have a long history of partnership working across the region and nationally.

Nationally, we are part of the Network of Regional Youth Work Units, which liaises directly with central government’s youth policy team and other national youth agencies. Our networks enable us to share best practice and contribute to the development of youth work at a local, national and international level.

Youth Focus: North East have been appointed as the partner with the Centre for Youth Impact to lead a Regional Impact Network, to support youth sector organisations in the North East of England to better work together to understand and increase the impact of their work. On a national level The Centre for Youth Impact has been established to help organisations that work with and for young people to measure and increase the impact of their services. It provides overarching support for all impact measurement initiatives that are relevant to the youth sector and is sector-led and owned.

Youth Focus: North East has an extensive and established record in the knowledge, skills and delivery of high-quality Youth Participation practice. This has been acknowledged through the receipt of several national awards recognising organisations that involve young people in a meaningful and effective way in the design, delivery and evaluation of support, services and programmes of work.

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Zero Carbon Futures Legal Status Private company limited by guarantee, subsidiary of Gateshead College

Purpose Zero Carbon Futures (ZCF) is a not-for-profit electric vehicle specialist. The organisation has a vision to support the UK to move towards zero emission transport and has been advising towns cities and organisations since 2010 on ways to increase adoption of electric vehicles in order to reduce transport emissions.

Annual Turnover c£566,000 (2019)

Role within the National Sector Specialist based in the region Partnership and the Community Lead Contact Anya Bramich, Account Manager

Environmental Yes policies Reducing carbon We have a working from home and flexible working policy to allow staff to commute footprint outside of peak hours: We have an electric car as our shared company vehicle: All long- distance work travel is undertaken by train where possible.

Organisation Profile Zero Carbon Futures is a not-for-profit electric vehicle consultancy. Based in Sunderland, the company was set up in 2011 to oversee the development of the UK’s first regional electric vehicle charging networks here in North East England. The network of over 1,300 charge points supported the growth of the electric vehicle market at a time when the very first Nissan LEAF were coming off the production line in Sunderland. Through our role in vehicle trials, raising public awareness through marketing campaigns and business engagement, we led the way in encouraging electric vehicle adoption in the region.

The company now works throughout the UK and Europe, undertaking projects for clients as diverse as the Mayor of London, Transport for Greater Manchester, Cardiff Council, EDF Energy, West Yorkshire and Community Transport Glasgow. The company plays an active role in the EV community internationally. Our base in the North East however means that we continue to contribute to transport strategies of the region, providing policy and strategy advice to the North East Combined Authority, individual local authorities and the North East LEP. ZCF has extensive experience of working within communities to encourage electric vehicle adoption and we would relish the opportunity to share our skills and expertise with communities local to us.

We have a vision to transition communities to low-carbon emission modes of transport. Our aim is to educate communities to the benefits of electric driving, providing the charging infrastructure required to make that switch as well as promoting a transition from the reliance on individual car use to a more sustainable and where appropriate shared model.

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VONNE CLIMATE ACTION ALLIANCE Appendix D SUBMISSION TO THE CLIMATE ACTION FUND OF THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND ALLIANCE LEADERSHIP PROFILES

Andy Crosbie, Collective Impact Agency CIC Currently funded by Lankelly Chase to be their associate for Gateshead. This involves working as a system steward, and advising on how to best deploy funds within the borough. He previously ran an Ethics consultancy in Australia, and was part of the Sydney Alliance. Andy holds a PhD in Ethics, on the topic of role models and responsibility.

Andy Dean, Chief Executive, Community Action Northumberland (CAN) Became CEO in June 2015 and has also been an Assistant Director at the Rural Services Network (RSN) for the last 7 years. Prior to this, Andy spent over 20 years working in rural development at Tynedale District Council where he was Director of Regeneration & Communities, Northumberland County Council as Head of Regeneration and as director of his own consultancy business. Andy is a founding director of Communities CAN (North East) Ltd and acts as secretary to both the Rural Housing Alliance and the North East Community-led Development Network. Qualifications: BA in Geography (Wales), MA in Town & Regional Planning (Sheffield)

Anna-Lisa Mills, Director True North Sustainability and SmartCarbon, as well as Principal Consultant & Advisory Group Member at Climate Action North East. A Chartered Environmentalist and a fellow Member of IEMA. She has completed Al Gore’s training programme to become a Climate Reality Leader and is an active member of IEMA’s Climate Change and Energy Steering Group as well as IEMA’s North East Regional Steering Group. Anna-Lisa is an Associate Lecturer at Northumbria, Sunderland and Sheffield Universities, teaching on a range of environmental management degrees and masters courses. Anna- Lisa is also an approved trainer for CITB, BSI, NQA, IEMA, NEBOSH and IRCA courses. Anna-Lisa is a highly committed, experienced, knowledgeable and passionate professional with over 20 years’ experience in environmental management, sustainability, Corporate Social Responsibility and Carbon Reporting. She has experience working in both in-house and consultancy roles. Anna-Lisa has a proven track record in developing, implementing and leading environmental, sustainability and carbon strategies for a wide range of organisations from SMEs to large multi- national organisations.

Anya Bramich, Account Manager, Zero Carbon Futures MSC Urban Planning and Regeneration, CIM Marketing Diploma, ADBL Digital Leadership. Anya has extensive knowledge of electric vehicles and charging infrastructure markets, having worked in the industry for over nine years. Anya is a degree qualified marketing professional who has worked on a range of economic development programmes, whilst becoming a qualified PRINCE2 practitioner. She heads up a number of the company’s community projects including current work with Community Transport Glasgow and Huntly Development Trust advising on their transition to electric vehicles.

Carol Botten, CEO, VONNE Appointed as CEO of VONNE in September 2018 following four years as Deputy CEO. Carol has worked in the VCS sector for the best part of her professional life of nearly 25 years, with a specific background in development within the cultural and voluntary sectors, with previous roles focusing on management, business development, fundraising and communications. At VONNE, Carol leads on external policy work with the NE Local Enterprise Partnership and the North of Tyne Combined Authority on skills, employability and inclusive growth and more recently developing work on addressing the Climate Emergency. She is passionate about supporting the sector’s leadership and governance capabilities and developing new programmes and projects to increase organisations’ sustainability and resilience. In addition, Carol is a member of Northern PowerGrid’s Social Issues Expert Group and Stakeholder Panel, the NE EU Exit Implementation Group and the Cabinet Office’s National Leadership Programme.

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Chris Ford For more than 30 years Chris has worked freelance undertaking research and development for the Voluntary and Community Sectors in North East England. His core focus is working with diverse marginalised communities. In recent years this has included direct work with people who are homeless, have mental problems, are involved with the criminal justice system, refugees and asylum seekers, people with learning disabilities and marginalised young people; as well as the agencies and systems that work with these individuals and communities. He has particular interests in participatory approaches to evaluation, the VCS role in service delivery aligned with voice/campaigning, and social value in public service delivery. Chris is a member of the editorial board of Community Development Journal published by Oxford University Press and is part of the flexible workforce at Newcastle University.

Claire Thompson, Executive Manager, Capability North East Following a recent career change in 2015, Claire has been dedicated to the environmental sector, working for the North East England Nature Partnership (NEENP) to achieve Environmental Growth and establishing Capability North East to green the economy of North East England. She has several years’ experience of creating and implementing carbon reduction plans and Environmental Management Systems. A degree in Managements Science, member of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and decade of working in the pharmaceutical industry provided an excellent foundation for interpreting research and identifying co-benefits. Successes with the NEENP includes several successful funding activities and bids that have allowed the development and delivery of landscape partnership, workshops, events, publications and the creation and running of profit for good business, Capability North East generating substantial new funding to environmental projects for the region and creating jobs.

Dr Colin Herron, CBE. Managing Director, Zero Carbon Futures Appointed a Commander of the Order of The British Empire (June 2018) for services to business and renewable energy. Professor of Practice Newcastle University. PhD in Engineering awarded 2006 University of Newcastle, MSc in Manufacturing, Management and Technology. Colin has spent 45 years in the automotive industry, 17 years of which were spent working for Nissan. In 2011, he created Zero Carbon Futures as a not for profit project management company to deliver projects and advice to support the uptake of ULEV. An experienced project director, Colin has advised many towns and cities on the transition to electric vehicles and has most recently worked with the Mayor of London on the creation of their electric vehicle infrastructure plan. Colin is member North East LEP Innovation Board, a founding member of the North East Automotive Alliance and a member of the Faraday Institution skills and diversity panel.

David Van der Velde, Consult & Design Degree in Public Policy, recently undertook a Diploma in community organising and has 20 years’ experience in supporting organisations to make the best use of new technology. David has been working with CAST and with the Digital Catapult NETV to embed good digital service design practices into the region’s voluntary sector and has been working with the Catalyst to embed digital ways of working into the emerging Alliance.

Dr. David Webb, Secretary of Greening Wingrove & Arthur’s Hill CIC Senior Lecturer in Planning; Director of Engagement, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Newcastle University.

Duncan Hutt Director of Conservation and Land Management, Northumberland Wildlife Trust A land manager with considerable site base experience especially in peatland restoration and upland site management pertinent to carbon management. Duncan manages a multi skilled team of ecologists, conservation work teams, volunteers and specialist staff and oversees management of our 60 plus nature reserves and the Birder Mires peatlands.

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Eric Edmeades, Operations Manager FareShare North East Eric has worked as a Warehouse Manager at several different Morrisons stores, over a career lasting 14 years before his move to FareShare.

Dr. Jack Bloomer, Deputy Director Tyne Rivers Trust Jack joined Tyne Rivers Trust in December 2016, after completing his PhD at the University of Southampton in the Department of Geography and the Environment. In his current role he manages a diverse array of projects that improve the water quality, enhance habitat for aquatic species and reduce flood risk throughout the catchment. The developmental activity is focused on projects that have clear benefits in tackling climate change. During the last six months, this has led to nearly £100,000 of funding being secured to deliver education and engagement work.

Jake Hanmore, General Manager FareShare North East Prior to joining FareShare Jake worked at a few Asda distribution centres, before moving to Newcastle to study an MSc in Operations, Logistics, & Supply Chain Management.

Jennifer Clair Robson – Climate Action North Strategic Content Director Jennifer is PR and writing consultant specialising in sustainability and the climate crisis. She has 20 years of corporate, non-profit and start-up entrepreneurial experience, crafting compelling narrative that underpins CSR and business objectives to make a difference to our environment, the community and the world around us. Jennifer has demonstrated significant achievements as a PR and communications professional and has notable experience working strategically and practically to address issues around climate change.

Jenny Elliott, Volunteer Coordinator, Tyne Rivers Trust Jenny Elliott is Tyne Rivers Trust’s volunteer coordinator and it is through her hard work that the majority of our direct environmental improvements are delivered. Jenny leads tasks on at least a weekly basis and, along with her team of enthusiastic volunteers, delivers work that is vital in improving our environment, capturing carbon and lessening the impacts of climate change. These tasks include tree planting, hedge laying, peatland restoration and habitat improvement works amongst other things. Jenny and her team of volunteers will work closely with community groups involved in the climate action project to help them achieve their aims and ensure maximum environmental benefit.

Jeremy Garside, Chief Executive, Tees Valley Wildlife Trust BSc (Hons) Environmental Science. 34 years of work experience in environmental sector including land management, community-led initiatives and ecological consultancy. 10 years at Tees Valley Wildlife Trust as Conservation Manager, line-managing up to five staff and delivering projects funded through a variety of sources. 21 years as Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trust, responsible for the organisation’s management and development and the employment of up to twenty four members of staff. Responsible for developing and overseeing projects funded through European Structural Funds, Landfill Communities Fund, National Lottery Heritage and Community Funds.

Jim Cokill, Director, Durham Wildlife Trust Jim has worked in the nature conservation sector for 20 years, beginning as a volunteer with the National Trust before joining Durham Wildlife Trust and fulfilling a variety of roles before coming Trust Director in 2008. Jim studied Marine Biology at Newcastle before working in the water treatment industry and then returning to the North East to pursue a career in nature conservation. Jim is currently a member of the Northumbria Region Flood and Coastal Committee (leading on conservation issues) and a member of the National Lottery Heritage Fund North Committee, serving on both for a number of years. Jim has also recently taken on the Chair role for the Durham County Council Environment Partnership, which is leading on the coordination of County Durham’s response to the climate and ecological emergency, bringing together local authority and community action.

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Joanne Appleby, CEO, OASES BSc (Hons) Geography, Loughborough University of Technology. MSc Environmental and Resource Assessment, University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Joanne has worked within the field of environmental and sustainability education since graduating from university (about 25 year ago), including work with Knowsley Borough Council, Groundwork Wakefield, Groundwork East Durham and Durham County Council, before becoming manager and then CEO of OASES as it moved from the public to the voluntary sector under the long established North East Environment Network.

Julie Harrison, STEM and Community Engagement Director, Climate Action North. Julie has over ten years of experience delivering workshops in schools to promote careers in STEM. Julie has also developed projects to engage the general public in understanding climate change issues and what we can do to mitigate them. Julie previously worked for over 7 years in the voluntary sector as a Partnership Coordinator, ensuring that the local community has a voice at local and national level. Current projects include an outdoor learning project for young people, businesses and community groups.

Kevin Franks, Chief Executive, Youth Focus: North East Kevin is Chief Executive with Youth Focus: North East (formerly Regional Youth Work Unit – North East). Kevin has over 30 years’ management and senior practitioner experience within both the statutory and voluntary youth sector. Prior to Youth Focus North East, he worked on the New Deal for Communities Programme and helped establish the National Young Advisors Charity. He is an Honours Graduate in Informal & Community Education, through YMCA George Williams College and currently a council member with the Institute for Youth Work and Trustee for the Centre for Youth Impact. Since starting a career in Youth & Community Work Kevin has always strived to provide a high-quality service which builds from the needs of young people and involves them as equal participants in the design, delivery and evaluation of the services they receive.

Louise Richards, Nature Partnership Officer, Tees Valley Nature Partnership MMbiol (Masters in Marine Biology). Louise’s role is to deliver the engagement programme of the nature partnership. She has experience in environmental education and engagement working for The National Trust, Cumbria Wildlife Trust and a Community Farm. She has also engaged in a range of academic research programmes including research into the ‘physiological responses of crabs to climate change’.

Mark Dinning, Head of Conservation, Durham Wildlife Trust Mark has served as Head of Conservation at Durham Wildlife Trust since 2018, building on fifteen years of experience in the Nature Conservation and Ecological sector. Mark leads a dedicated team of nature conservation professionals delivering site management works, education and public engagement, and specialized ecology projects. Mark has experience of project development and management both within this sector and for external clients in business and industry. Working with partners across a range of sectors to deliver projects and initiatives that benefit both people and wildlife. Mark graduated in Landscape Ecology in 2002, specializes in botany and has experience of operating his own consultancy.

Dr Mark Fishpool, Director Middlesbrough Environment City Mark is the Director of Middlesbrough Environment City, a local charity promoting sustainable environments and sustainable communities. Mark has a degree in Biology and a PhD from the University of Wales in Environmental Archaeology. He has worked in the voluntary and community sector for over 25 years, starting as a community project officer engaging young people in environmental projects. Mark worked for both Groundwork Hertfordshire and Tees Valley Wildlife Trust before becoming the Director of Middlesbrough Environment City in 2003.

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Mike Pratt CEO, Northumberland Wildlife Trust Environmental campaigner and communicator, strategic planner and conservation manager background with 35 years’ experience of leading environmental organisational delivery.

Nigel Todd, Chair of Greening Wingrove & Arthur’s Hill CIC M.Litt, BA(Hons), Chair of Greening Wingrove & Arthur’s Hill CIC: former Regional Director of the Workers’ Educational Association’s North East Region; former Chief Executive Officer, North East Open College Network; Newcastle City Councillor and former Deputy Cabinet Member (Neighbourhoods); published historian and lecturer currently engaged in research into environmental social movements in the C19-C20; Chair, Newcastle Fairtrade Partnership; Chair, West End Housing Co-operative; Chair of the UK Co-operative College CIO.

Paul Brannen, Chair of the North East of England Nature Partnership. From 2014-2019 Paul represented the North East of England in the European Parliament serving on the Environment and Public Health Committee and the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee. Paul has specific knowledge on forestry, agroforestry, engineered timber production, building in wood at height and scale and modular factory housing. He has worked for Christian Aid, Common Purpose, HSBC, the Labour Party and the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

Sir Paul Ennals CBE Chair of VONNE. Previously Chief Executive of National Children’s Bureau (a Research and Development Charity); Chair of the Government’s Children’s Workforce Development Council; adviser on many Government boards and committees. Founding Chair and Accountable Officer for Centre for Excellence in Children’s Services – the first national “What Works” Centre. Founding Chair of the End Child Poverty Campaign. Chair of Fareshare North East, distributing surplus food to voluntary organisations across the northeast. Chair of the strategic group for the NLCF- funded programme Fulfilling Lives in Newcastle/Gateshead.

Peter Stark OBE, Interim Lead, Climate Action Alliance, VONNE Peter is a cultural policy expert with substantial experience of translating policy into practice in the UK and South Africa. From 1984, as Director of Northern Arts, he initiated the policies that led to the culturally led transformation of Gateshead Quays. In the 90s he was founding Director of Voluntary Arts UK, held a Professorship at Northumbria University and worked for Gateshead Council on its Quays Lottery strategy and delivery. From 2000 - 2012, in South Africa, he worked in Inner City Johannesburg and then in the Eastern Cape consulting on the role of culture in regeneration for National and Provincial government. Between 2013 - 2016, Peter co-authored a suite of Research Reports with GPS Culture beginning with 'Rebalancing our Cultural Capital' on the imbalances of arts funding between London and the rest of England. From March 2015, he was Development Director for the Mining Institute delivering the core funding for a sustainable future for the Institute as The Common Room of the North. At the beginning of 2019, Peter committed to addressing the linked challenges of the climate crisis, ecology breakdown and the need for a just transition to a low carbon economy. He is now interim Project Lead for the VONNE Climate Project.

Rachel Murtagh, Manager, Tees Valley Nature Partnership BSc (Hons Environmental Science) PGDip (Countryside Management) brings over 25 years’ experience working in a variety of roles within the environment sector across both public, private and third sector organisations. She has a background in environmental science, countryside management, and sustainable development. Also an accomplished facilitator and communicator she is passionate about the cultivation of ecological awareness engaging hearts and minds in the personal and social change needed to ensure a vibrant future for our planet.

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Ruth Hayward, Greening Wingrove & Arthur’s Hill CIC MSc (Human Geography Research), BSc (Hons) (Plant Biology); Project Officer, Wild West End Project (a National Lottery Heritage Fund supported 2 x years wild life conservation project managed by Greening Wingrove & Arthur’s Hill CIC); ecologist and former project manager with experience in green curriculum innovation, permaculture theory and practice, food hub development.

Sandra King, Chief Philanthropy Officer, Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland.

Sandra is a deputy to the Chief Executive, responsible for leading the Foundation’s practice as a regional centre for philanthropy. She manages the section of our team which works to build more and better giving to benefit our area by cultivating and stewarding effective relationships with current and prospective donors. Sandra began her career working in the NHS in health promotion, before joining North Tyneside Community Health Council, first in a training role and then as its Chief Officer. From 2002 to 2007 Sandra held roles at the Community Foundation, becoming Development Director in 2003. She established her consultancy, Sandra King Associates, in 2008 through which she led more than 40 projects for local and national clients in the public and voluntary sectors. This included a two-year assignment as director of Ways to Wellness, an innovative social-prescribing project and the first social impact bond in the health field. Sandra has also undertaken a wide range of non-executive and volunteer roles, and until recently was Chair of Northumberland Wildlife Trust.

Sharon Lashley, Managing Director, Climate Action North. Sharon is an environmental practitioner with a strong and established background in environmental education, training, consultancy and specialising in waste management, renewable energy and helping organisations to green their businesses. Sharon also has experience in working within communities especially around building resilience to climate change, being more environmentally aware and taking action through direct projects.

Sheila Sharp, Head of Marketing and Communications, Northumberland Wildlife Trust An experienced high-level communicator and marketer with a team focussed on campaigns to engage people with nature and the key issues of climate and nature.

Steve Ashton, People and Wildlife Manager, Tees Valley Wildlife Trust. BSc (Hons) Applied Biology, Post Graduate Certificate in Education, Advanced Diploma in Primary Science Education. 13 years teaching science at Key Stage 3 & 4, A-level General Studies and Science Co-ordinator. Extra-Curricular Co- ordinator including promoting and organising the Duke of Edinburgh's award scheme. 5 years as Education Officer for Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, responsible for the delivery of school and community education programmes. 18 years as People & Wildlife Manager for Tees Valley Wildlife Trust managing a range of externally funded education projects including staff management and project reporting to trustees and funders

Steven Roberts, Director for Youth, Employment & Skills, Groundwork Advance Diploma in Environmental Management Practice – Durham University, 1997. B.Sc. (Hons) Geography – University of Manchester, 1996. A twenty year track record in delivering financial and social outcome performance, with extensive experience of business development, implementation and project management and a solid reputation across public, private and voluntary sector stakeholders for innovation, passion and integrity. Recent achievements include the successful tendering and contract negotiation for the National Citizens Service specifically relating to financials and expanded service delivery model and separately the development, implementation and market leading performance of the European Social Fund - Building Better Opportunities and Youth Employment Initiative programmes across the north east and Cumbria. Services recognised for best practice programme management and performance against KPI’s.

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Timothy David Crawshaw, Chair, Tees Valley Nature Partnership MA MRTPI FRSA . A highly experienced planning and development consultant based in the UK. He is also Chair of the North East Royal Town Planning Institute and the Historic Towns and Villages Forum. Originally trained in Architecture he holds a Masters in Urban Design and is a Chartered Planner. Alongside a wealth of technical skills developed over the last twenty five years he is an accomplished facilitator, educator and trainer. With specific interests and experience in green urban development, planning for health and wellbeing and community engagement he works nationally and internationally in a wide variety of contexts and on projects ranging from individual buildings to city scale plans.

Zoe Hull, Head of Operations and Development, Durham Wildlife Trust Zoe joined the Trust in 2018 and leads the Trust’s administration and fund-raising teams. Zoe is an experienced fundraiser with a successful track record of working in non-profit organisations and the charity sector. Skilled in fundraising, social media, major donors, volunteer management and volunteer recruiting. Zoe has a1st Class BA Hons degree in Media, Culture and Society from Northumbria University.

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VONNE CLIMATE ACTION ALLIANCE Appendix E

SUBMISSION TO THE CLIMATE ACTION FUND OF THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND

Voluntary Organisations Network North East (VONNE)

VONNE CLIMATE ACTION ALLIANCE (VCAA)

Partnership Agreement

Between

VONNE

And

[VCAA Area Partner]

By signing this Partnership Agreement, each Party acknowledges that it has read the attached pages, and all agree to be bound.

The Partner(s) must be aware of the terms and conditions that are associated with The National Community Lottery Fund Grant that the Grant Holder has signed and must ensure that they do not act in a way that will affect Grant Holder’s ability to adhere to the terms and conditions of the Grant Agreement (see Schedule 2).

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Partnership Agreement Particulars

The Parties

Party Party details

Lead Organisation/Grant Voluntary Organisations Network North East Holder (“Lead”): 4th Floor, MEA House, Ellison Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8XS Registered Charity 1084083 Company registration 4061592 Partner Organisation One [insert name and address details (and company number or other relevant (a “Partner”): registration number (e.g. charity), if appropriate)]

Project Details

Project Name (“the VONNE Climate Action Alliance Project”):

Project Purpose (“the To support the communities of the North East of England to Purpose”): confront the climate crisis using the hard lessons drawn from our past, the strengths of our community life in the present and the hard science that must inform our future, to guide and empower our actions.

Project ID: [insert the project’s Project ID as shown on the Grant Agreement]

The National Lottery [insert the approved Grant funding and the duration of the Grant Community Fund Grant Agreement as shown on the Grant Agreement] (“the Grant”)

Project Plan Summary: [insert a summary of the Project Plan and Deliverables of each Party]

Lead/Partner Deliverables Due date [insert name] [insert details] [insert date]

Payment of Grant funding [insert the Payments to be made to the Partners, when Payments will be to Partners (“the made to the Partners and what Deliverables will be completed for each Payments”) Payment as shown in the Project Plan]

Partnership Agreement Duration

Commencement Date: [insert date which the last Party signed this Partnership Agreement]

Date of Expiry: The later of [insert date] or the date on which all obligations imposed on the Lead under the Grant Agreement have been fulfilled.

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Communications

Communication Lead: [name], [role], [organisation], [telephone], [email address]

Key Contacts

Lead Organisation/Grant Carol Botten Holder: Chief Executive VONNE

0191 233 2000

[email protected]

www.vonne.org.uk

Partner Organisation One: [name], [role], [organisation], [telephone], [email address]

Background

(A) The Lead has obtained funding from The National Lottery Community Fund for the Project.

(B) The Lead will be solely responsible to The National Lottery Community Fund to deliver the Project in accordance with the terms and conditions of the agreement that the Lead has entered into with The National Lottery Community Fund (“Grant Agreement”). The amount of funding and the duration of the Grant Agreement is stated in the Project Details. The Partner(s) must also comply with the terms and conditions of the Grant Agreement.

(C) The Parties have agreed to enter into this Partnership Agreement to set out how they will work together to complete the Project.

Partnership Agreement structure

The following schedules form part of this Partnership Agreement:

Schedule 1 General Terms and Conditions

Schedule 2 Grant Agreement

Schedule 3 Project Plan

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Upon signing, the Parties agree to be legally bound by this Partnership Agreement from the Commencement Date set out above.

Signed by the authorised representative of [Insert Lead Organisation name]

Name: ...... Signature: ......

Position: ......

Signed by the authorised representative of [Insert Partner Organisation One name]

Name: ...... Signature …………………………………….

Position: ………………………………….

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Schedule 1

General Terms and Conditions

1 Commencement and Duration

1.1 This Partnership Agreement shall commence on the Commencement Date and shall expire on the Date of Expiry as marked on the Partnership Agreement Particulars unless terminated earlier in accordance with these General Terms and Conditions. 2 Parties Obligations

2.1 The Parties agree to act lawfully in carrying out its obligations under this Partnership Agreement and ensure that it complies with: 2.1.1 the General Terms and Conditions of this Partnership Agreement; 2.1.2 the terms and conditions of the Grant Agreement; 2.1.3 all applicable legislation; and 2.1.4 any policies and guidelines issued by The National Lottery Community Fund including but not limited to equal opportunities and safeguarding and protecting children and adults at risk. 2.2 The Parties acknowledge that the Lead is acting as the lead organisation on the Project and is responsible to The National Lottery Community Fund for the completion of the Grant Agreement. Each Partner agrees not to act in any way which would or could cause the Lead to be in breach of the Grant Agreement. 2.3 To the extent that there is any inconsistency between this Partnership Agreement and the Grant Agreement, the terms and conditions of the Grant Agreement shall prevail. 2.4 Each Party shall have an adequate number of staff (including any new staff as required) with the necessary skills and experience to complete its Deliverable(s) stated in the Project Plan. The costs of employing such staff shall be met by the Party concerned (including any redundancy or other payments on termination of employment). 2.5 Each Party shall: 2.5.1 be responsible for its own staff who are allocated to work on the Project and shall comply with its own policies and procedures in respect of any such staff; and 2.5.2 have in place and comply with all policies and procedures required by law or relevant to the Project. 2.6 Each Party shall be responsible for managing its own finances in relation to the Project. 3 Lead Obligations 3.1 The Lead shall be responsible for the overall leadership and management of the Project and shall ensure full compliance by the Partner(s), with the terms and conditions of the Grant Agreement. 3.2 The Lead shall not be obliged to make any Payment(s) to a Partner unless it has received the Grant funding from The National Lottery Community Fund. 3.3 The Partner(s) acknowledge that the Lead shall be under no obligation to indemnify any Partner for any expenditure incurred which is in excess of the relevant Partner’s agreed Payment(s) stated in the Project Plan. 3.4 If the Lead, acting reasonably, is of the view that any Party to this Partnership Agreement is not sufficiently delivering its Deliverable(s), the Lead will use all reasonable endeavours to maintain compliance with the terms and conditions of the Grant Agreement. 4 Payments and Contributions 4.1 The Lead shall distribute the Payment(s) to the Partner(s) on the dates set out in the Project Plan. Payment(s) made by the Lead to a Partner under this Clause 4 shall be paid to such Partner on the same terms and conditions as the Grant Agreement. 4.2 Each Party shall keep, in relation to the Project and the receipt and expenditure of all Payment(s) received under Clause 4:

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4.2.1 accurate records and accounts showing income and expenditure; 4.2.2 receipts and invoices in relation to expenditure; and 4.2.3 details of how the Deliverable(s), as state out Project Plan, were completed. 4.3 Each Party shall keep the information listed in Clause 4.2 for a period of seven (7) years after the Expiry Date (“Retention Period”) so as to enable compliance with the reporting requirements of the Lead and/or The National Lottery Community Fund. If requested, the Partners shall permit The National Lottery Community Fund, the Lead and the Comptroller and Auditor General to inspect such information during normal working hours upon reasonable notice throughout the term of this Partnership Agreement and during the Retention Period. 4.4 A Party shall not incur any financial liabilities in respect to the Project that are not agreed to as part of the Project Plan. In the event any Party does so, it shall not be entitled to any indemnity or reimbursement of such financial liability from any other Party unless agreed in accordance with Clause 12.1. 4.5 Each Partner acknowledges that any Payment(s) to them by the Lead under this Partnership Agreement are paid from the Grant Agreement and do not represent consideration for any taxable supply for VAT purposes. Any such Payment(s) are distributed are inclusive of VAT (if any). 5 Partner Obligations 5.1 Each Partner represents to the Lead that: 5.1.1 it has the right, power and authority to enter into and fully perform its obligations under this Partnership Agreement; 5.1.2 it will perform its obligations under this Partnership Agreement with reasonable skill and care; 5.1.3 it shall comply with the Terms and Conditions of the Grant Agreement to the full extent that it is relevant to the Partner; 5.1.4 there are no material agreements existing to which the Partner is a party which prevent the Partner from entering into or complying with this Partnership Agreement; and 5.1.5 it has satisfied itself as to the nature and extent of the risks assumed by it under this Partnership Agreement and has gathered all information necessary to perform its obligations under the Partnership Agreement. 5.2 Without prejudice to any other remedies of the Lead under this Partnership Agreement, if a Partner fails to fulfil all or any of its Deliverable(s) as stated in the Project Plan, the Lead shall be entitled to withhold from such Partner all or any part of such Payment(s) which are associated with the relevant Deliverable(s). The Lead shall have sole discretion as to whether it subsequently releases all or part of the withheld Payment(s) if the affected Partner takes steps to comply with its unfulfilled Deliverable(s) under this Partnership Agreement. 6 Intellectual Property 6.1 For the purpose of this Clause 6, “Intellectual Property Rights” shall mean patents, rights to inventions, copyright and related rights, trade marks and service marks, business names and domain names, goodwill, rights in designs, rights in computer software, database rights, confidential information (including know-how) and all other intellectual property rights, in each case whether registered or unregistered and including all applications and rights to apply for and be granted, renewals or extensions of, such rights and all similar or equivalent rights or forms of protection which subsist or will subsist now or in the future in any part of the world. 6.2 The Parties intend that any Intellectual Property Rights created in the course of the Project shall vest in the Party whose employee created them (or in the case of any Intellectual Property Rights created jointly by employees of two or more Parties, in the Party who is noted in the Project Plan as having responsibility for the activity pursuant to which the Intellectual Property Rights were created). 6.3 Where any Intellectual Property Right is created and vests in the relevant Party in accordance with Clause 6.2, such Party shall: 6.3.1 not commercially exploit the Intellectual Property Right without The National Lottery Community Fund’s prior written consent; and 6.3.2 grant an irrevocable, non-exclusive licence to the other Parties and The National Lottery Community Fund, as necessary, to use such Intellectual Property for the purposes of publicising the success of the Project or on the terms as otherwise agreed by the Parties in writing.

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7 Publicity and Branding 7.1 The Parties shall comply with The National Lottery Community Fund’s publicity guidelines as set out in the Grant Agreement and as published on its website: https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/welcome 7.2 The Parties shall acknowledge The National Lottery Community Fund, using the common lottery branding in accordance with the brand guidelines referred to in Clause 7.1. 7.3 The Communication Lead shall be responsible for promoting the Project and all responses to media enquiries must be approved by the Communication Lead prior to issue. 8 Termination 8.1 The Lead may terminate this Partnership Agreement with immediate effect by written notice to the Partners if The National Lottery Community Fund suspends or terminates the Grant Agreement for any reason. 8.2 The Lead may, in its sole discretion, terminate this Partnership Agreement with immediate effect by written notice to a Partner in breach (“Breaching Party”) on or at any time after the Breaching Party: 8.2.1 is in material or persistent breach of any of its obligations under this Partnership Agreement (including the terms and conditions of the Grant Agreement) which (if the breach is capable of remedy) the Breaching Party has failed to remedy within twenty (20) working days after receipt of notice in writing from the Lead requiring the Breaching Party to remedy such breach; 8.2.2 suffers an insolvency event; 8.2.3 grossly neglects the Purpose and general objectives of this Partnership Agreement; 8.2.4 acts in any respect contrary to the provisions of this Partnership Agreement or to the requirement of good faith between the Parties. 8.3 If any Partner is unable for whatever reason to continue its participation in the Project, it shall notify the other Parties immediately on becoming aware of such circumstances and enter into good faith discussions with the other Parties as to how the departure of the affected Partners from the Project can be managed so as to cause the least possible disruption to the Project and whether it is possible for this Partnership Agreement to continue in force in respect of the remaining Parties. 8.4 On termination of this Partnership Agreement for any reason: 8.4.1 termination shall not affect the rights of any Party accruing or accrued prior to the termination of this Partnership Agreement; and 8.4.2 this Partnership Agreement shall continue in force to the extent necessary to give effect to those of its provisions which expressly or impliedly have effect after termination; and 8.4.3 the Partners shall promptly repay to the Lead any unused Payment(s) to them under Clause 4. 8.5 On termination of this Partnership Agreement for whatever reason the Parties shall use all reasonable endeavours to work together in good faith to enable an orderly transition and to satisfy the terms and conditions of the Grant Agreement taking into account the termination of this Partnership Agreement. 8.6 The Parties shall in the case of a minor or non-material breach utilise the dispute resolution procedure set out in Clause 11 prior to termination. Termination in respect of a Partner shall not terminate the Partnership Agreement in respect of the other Parties. 9 Confidentiality 9.1 Each Party shall take all necessary precautions, and apply the same confidentiality measures and degree of care to any confidential information disclosed to it by another Party as the receiving Party applies to its own confidential information to ensure that the information is treated as confidential and undertakes that it shall not at any time, save as permitted by Clause 9.2, disclose any other Party’s confidential information. 9.2 Each Party may disclose another Party’s confidential information to its employees, officers, representatives or advisers who need to know such information for the purposes of exercising the Party’s rights or carrying out its Deliverable(s) stated in the Project Plan. If a Party discloses confidential information under this Clause 9.2, it shall ensure that its employees, officers, representatives or advisers to whom it discloses such confidential information are made aware of and comply with the provisions of this Clause 9. 9.3 The provisions of Clause 9.1 shall not apply to any confidential information which: 9.3.1 is or becomes public knowledge (otherwise than by breach of Clause 9.1); 9.3.2 was in the possession of the receiving Party, without restriction as to its disclosure, before receiving it from another Party; or

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9.3.3 is required to be disclosed by any applicable law or regulation, or any court, or governmental or administrative or regulatory authority competent to require such disclosure. 10 Data Protection 10.1 The Parties shall comply with: 10.1.1 their obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018 in relation to any personal data processed in relation to this Partnership Agreement; and 10.1.2 the provisions, if any, set out in the Project Plan. 11 Dispute Resolution 11.1 Any dispute or difference between the Parties arising out of or in connection with this Partnership Agreement (a “Dispute”) shall be treated in accordance with the provisions of this Clause 11. 11.2 If a Dispute arises, the Parties in dispute shall first seek to resolve the Dispute by escalation to the Key Contacts in the Partnership Agreement Particulars. The Key Contacts shall have ten (10) working days during which they will use their reasonable endeavours to resolve the Dispute. 11.3 In the event that the matter is still in dispute after completion of the process set out in Clause 11.2, the Parties shall refer the Dispute to mediation or some other form of alternative dispute resolution, until agreement can be made on how to address the Dispute. 11.4 Each Party will pay its own costs of mediation or alternative dispute resolution under this Clause 11. 11.5 If there is a Dispute, each Party will continue to perform its obligations under this Partnership Agreement as far as practical given the nature of the Dispute. 11.6 Each Party agrees not to start any court action in relation to a Dispute until it has complied with the process described in Clause 11, unless court action is necessary to preserve a Party’s rights. 12 Variation of the Partnership Agreement 12.1 Any change to this Partnership Agreement is called a Variation. A Variation must be agreed by all Parties and recorded: 12.1.1 in writing and signed by all Parties, or

12.1.2 through an exchange of emails where the authors have delegated authority to approve the Variation 13 General 13.1 Nothing in this Partnership Agreement, and no action taken by the Parties pursuant to this Partnership Agreement, shall constitute, or be deemed to constitute, the Parties as a partnership within the meaning of the Partnership Act 1890 or the Limited Liability Partnership Acts nor shall it constitute a joint venture or denote the relationship of agent/principal between the Parties and no Party shall be entitled to bind or hold itself out as being capable of binding any other Party. 13.2 Any notices to be given under this Partnership Agreement shall be in writing and shall be: 13.2.1 delivered by hand or by pre-paid first class post or other next working day delivery service at its registered office (if a company) or its principal place of business (in any other case); or 13.2.2 sent by email, addressed to the Key Contact indicated for each Party in the Partnership Agreement Particulars. Such notices shall be deemed to be served if delivered personally, at the time of delivery, if sent by post 48 hours after posting and if sent by email at 9.00 am on the next working day after transmission. 13.3 No Party shall assign its rights or transfer its obligations under this Partnership Agreement without the prior written consent of The National Lottery Community Fund. 13.4 A waiver of any right under this Partnership Agreement is only effective if it is in writing and it applies only to the Party to whom the waiver is addressed and the circumstances for which it is given. 13.5 This Partnership Agreement contains all the terms and conditions agreed between the Parties regarding its subject matter and supersedes any prior agreement, understanding or arrangement between the Parties, whether oral or in writing. However, nothing in this Clause 13.5 shall operate to limit or exclude any Party’s liability for fraudulent misrepresentation. 13.6 If any provision (or any part of a provision) of this Partnership Agreement is found by any court or administrative body of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, unenforceable or Illegal, the other provisions 8

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shall remain in force. If any invalid, unenforceable or illegal provision would be valid, enforceable or legal if some part of it were deleted, the provision shall apply with whatever modification is necessary to give effect to the intention of the Parties. 14 Governing Law and Jurisdiction

14.1 Subject to Clause 11, this Partnership Agreement and any dispute or claim (including any non-contractual dispute or claim) arising out of or in connection with it or its subject matter (a “Claim”), shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of England and Wales and the Parties agree irrevocably that the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any claim.

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Schedule 2

Grant Agreement

[insert an exact copy of the Grant Agreement between Lead and The National Lottery Community Fund including the Terms and Conditions of Grant.]

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Schedule 3

Project Plan

[insert Project Plan from the Application or as further amended by the Parties working with The National Lottery Community Fund]

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VONNE CLIMATE ACTION ALLIANCE Appendix F

SUBMISSION TO CLIMATE ACTION FUND OF THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND

Physical Distance, Social Connection, Digital Tools, Community Climate Action Catalyst Digital Cluster: Interim Report to VCAA

Introduction 0 Theoretical Framework 2 Methodology 2 Activity to date 4 Learning and Emerging Hypotheses 5 Buy in 6 Current tools 6 Digital Skills 7 Data 7 Opportunities and Challenges 7 Comms Tools 8 Planned Digital Activity 9

Annex 1: VCAA Digital Connectors 10 Digital Reference Person 10 DRP Tasks and Time Commitment 10 Digital Lead 10 Digital Lead Tasks and Time Commitment 11 Who should be a Digital Lead/DRP? 11 Next Step 11

Annex 2: VCAA Comms Tools 12 Proposal to deliver low cost comms and collaboration tools for the CEOs and Digital Leads from the VCAA members 12 Anticipated User Roles 13 General principles and user needs 14

Annex 3: The Catalyst Approach 16

Prepared by; David Van der Velde, Director, Civinet

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Introduction VONNE Climate Action Alliance (VCAA) The VONNE climate action programme has to be rooted in autonomous decision making by local communities about the climate action they will take, and VONNE does not work directly at a local level.

Equally, effective action on climate change also requires specialist knowledge that may not be present in that community and VONNE does not carry climate-relevant sectoral expertise in its own structures.

VONNE does, however, have the power to convene expertise, experience and resources in both fields and it has done so to create an alliance of Area place-based and climate/sector specialist VCSE organisations that can respond to community ideas and initiatives and address the climate crisis collectively and in collaboration.

The VCAA recognises the important role that digital technologies will play in enabling the work of the Alliance.

By following established good practice in digital service design, the Alliance will develop an interconnected ecosystem to catalyse climate action across organisations and communities. Furthermore, through adoption of digitally enabled ways of working together, the Alliance will exemplify approaches to minimise the carbon footprint of effective planning and coordination.

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This appendix sets out how this design approach is being implemented with the help of local Social Tech specialists and the Catalyst’s Digital Clusters programme. It includes the actions and learning to date, and future plans for embedding digital across the Alliance.

The Catalyst is a coalition of major foundations, digital design agencies, civil society bodies and the UK government, seeking to massively accelerate the use of digital in the UK's voluntary and charity sector. www.thecatalyst.org.uk

David Van der Velde is a Social Tech specialist with more than 20 years experience across the digital and voluntary sectors. David is funded through the Catalyst’s Digital Cluster Programme to explore how shared digital tools, skills and infrastructure can meet the needs and priorities of the Alliance.

Set out below is our approach for embedding digital in ways that will multiply the impact of the emerging Alliance in communities as well as support and enable the adoption of digital to the benefit of its individual member organisations.

Theoretical Framework Our approach to embedding digital across the emerging cluster is informed by best practice in the field of Digital Service Design, as well as by Stanford University’s Collective Impact Model and the Human Learning Systems approach as described in Dawn Plimmer and Toby Lowe’s Lottery funded research.

Collective Impact Model This study from Stanford identifies 5 conditions for collective success:

● Common Agenda ● Shared Measurement Systems ● Mutually Reinforcing Activities ● Continuous Communication ● Backbone Support Organisation

Human Learning Systems Collaborate CIC and Newcastle Business School’s research into funding, commissioning and delivering in complex environments highlights the need to take account of the diversity of human experience and the need to build empathy and trust in order to learn together how to make change in complex systems.

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Methodology The Alliance members are working together through a structured Digital Service Design process informed by the theoretical framework outlined above and based on the Design Council’s Double Diamond model and the design principles of the Government Digital Service, focusing on user need, good use of data and continuous iteration.

The continuous feedback loop: Learn - Build - Measure

Gaining buy-in The first step was to gain buy-in from the member organisations, research their contexts and needs and explain to Alliance leads the benefits of this Digital Service Design approach both to the Alliance and to its individual members.

As part of this process each Alliance member organisation was asked to nominate a Digital Reference Person (DRP) with a remit to identify challenges and opportunities within their host organisation and to work with other DRPs to identify shared opportunities and shape potential solutions. It is also the role of the DRP to cascade learning about digital to their colleagues, to champion the uptake of new digital tools and to feedback learning to the Alliance.

A description of the DRP role and planned activities (see below) was sent to each of the Alliance leads so that they can make informed decisions about buying into the process.

Gathering data We undertook semi-structured interviews with the leads of the Alliance organisations to gather data about current levels of digital adoption, plans and priorities.

DRPs will be supported to undertake an assessment of their organisation's digital journey to date using shared tools and frameworks, such as NCVOs Digital Maturity Framework and will be provided with resources and background learning relevant to the Alliance and to their host organisations.

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Identifying opportunities DRPs will work together to explore shared challenges, addressing knowledge gaps and testing assumptions in order to arrive at evidence-based statements about user needs.

The Catalyst has offered Digital Service Design support to work with DRPs as they identify shared challenges and user needs and begin to explore opportunities for shared solutions. DRPs will share ideas with colleagues and ensure that teams across the Alliance have ‘bought in to’ and can feed back on the proposed solutions.

DRPs will then work together with specialist support to refine opportunities, to develop ‘oven ready’ proposals to enable the Alliance to leverage available funding for the implementation of new digital tools (funding for early digital projects including the communications tools described below has now been secured from Lankelly Chase Foundation).

Implementing solutions A general principle is to start small and then to iterate either using existing low cost, no cost tools or developing simple software solutions to address a specific need and learn more about what delivers real value to users.

In the first instance we will be looking for easy wins that can quickly deliver value to Alliance members and will help to gain buy-in for ongoing work. Once solutions are embedded in the Alliance, the continuous feedback loop means making regular reviews of the way tools are used and gathering data to inform future opportunities.

Activity to date During March, a plan for Discovery was agreed and funding secured from the Catalyst. Initial presentations about the Catalyst’s Cluster program and the Digital Service Design approach were made to the Alliance leads. We undertook background research into all the Alliance members and held semi-structured phone interviews with the relevant lead officers and VONNE team members covering the following key areas: ● Where are you on your digital journey? ● Strengths, assets and challenges ● How digital might help in the future ● Recording and reporting impact ● Communication within the Alliance leaders’ group ● Communications between organization and with communities ● Nominating a Digital Reference Person

Regular reviews of progress and plans were made with the VONNE Climate Lead. Learning and plans were shared with the Catalyst.

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In response to the emerging Covid-19 situation, the proposal to explore digital tools to support communication and collaboration amongst Alliance leads was prioritised and brought forward. A potential solution was documented and funding secured for its delivery. (Details of the VCAA comms tools are set out below).

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Learning and Emerging Hypotheses It is clear from initial research that there is huge diversity across the Alliance organisations. Organisations are operating in very different contexts and demonstrate different levels of digital adoption. Most are small, specialist organisations. Very few have a digital strategy or a specific individual or team tasked with reviewing and implementing digital in the organisation.

Buy in Given that the planned interviews coincided with the unfolding of the Covid-19 situation it was significant that all the Alliance leads found time to hold meetings about the use of digital in the Alliance. This was reflected in the content of the interviews which demonstrated a strong interest in the digital plan for the Alliance. Indeed, digital was core to much of the emergency and contingency planning that was underway.

All of the Alliance leads agreed in principle to nominate either themselves or a colleague to act as the Digital Reference Person for their organisation and to participate in the digital service design process. There was a strong sense that doing things digitally could save both time and carbon.

Current tools Most, but not all, use cloud services internally (mainly Office 365, some G Suite) and most are familiar with online document collaboration tools. Staff teams generally have access to laptops and smartphones and there are wide differences in the adoption of Social Media to engage supporters and other stakeholders.

Facebook was particularly important to organisations engaging with local citizens and community groups with some reporting that user behaviour had led to web projects being mothballed in favour of Facebook groups. This had created issues for some in managing separation of professional and private lives online.

Some staff teams used messaging tools such as Whatsapp, some were on MS Teams and a small number were familiar with Slack although not as part of their own infrastructure. All were in the process of adjusting to doing much of their day to day contact via Zoom, Google hangouts, Teams or Skype.

Some third party ‘single use case’ apps were employed to do things like make energy assessments or monitor outcomes for specific funders. Other tools discussed included Salesforce CRM, Sage finance, GIS mapping, Evernote, Hubspot, Trello and Subscriber (membership software). A couple of organisations had developed their own bespoke applications to engage supporters or manage internal systems.

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The Royal Society for Wildlife Trusts has rolled out shared digital services to its members, including a Drupal based web platform, a configurable CRM system and accounting software. These tools give each of the 47 Wildlife Trust across the country the ability to have their own customised websites and software tools based on a shared infrastructure and built on shared insights about user needs and opportunities.

Digital Skills Most organisations reported a reasonably good level of digital skills amongst staff teams. Trustees were more likely to be older, slower adopters and some organisations reported difficulty getting older supporters to use digital tools.

Data Around half the organisation leads highlighted that recording data, monitoring and evaluation was a challenge. For many organisations the need to report back to different funders in different ways meant that multiple systems had evolved and data was often siloed. Sharing data externally other than with funders was rare, although some good examples of collaboration exist, such as the Wildlife Trusts’ shared tools and the geographical cluster in the Tees Valley.

Many organisations use standalone spreadsheets to record data, whilst others access funders’ bespoke monitoring tools. Some had tried unsuccessfully to access grant funding to develop better data capture and monitoring tools.

Opportunities and Challenges Some of the leads interviewed felt that there were significant opportunities to use digital to make better use of data to target activities more effectively, shape services and measure and report impact.

Several identified the need to address the use of common standards for measurement although not necessarily prescribing tools where that might stifle innovation. Other suggestions were for project tools such as standardised budget templates and finance systems to make it easier to manage projects with a range of participants and for a quick easy to use reporting platform.

Most of the leads recognise that they can benefit from doing more with digital, and expressed interest in the opportunity to bring in new ways of working and to learn about digital service design. There was a sense that resistance and barriers to new ways of working have been removed and there is an opportunity for the Alliance to plan and deliver its programme of climate action with the minimum carbon footprint.

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Some specific ideas already form part of the VCAA proposed regional programme strand including: ● a digital hub for information and resources ● online learning tools to give communities access to courses on climate change ● the redevelopment of the ‘Smart Carbon Calculator’ tool to enable measurement at individual, community, locality and regional level.

There was concern from some about capacity and the challenge that voluntary organisations face in investing in infrastructure. Others were concerned about whose job it would be to keep information systems up to date as this could represent an unwanted burden on members.

In short, although there are concerns over digital skills, capacity and adoption, all Alliance members want to do more with digital and feel that the current crisis has created an ideal time to move forward with this. The planned work with the Alliance represents a safe space to work together on digital projects and to develop tools and learning that can be gradually introduced into their own organisations. For example, as the digital leads and CEOs adopt the VCAA comms tools (below) and learn more about how they can be used, we expect that they will then identify where they could bring value to their own work and adopt similar practices internally.

Comms Tools

“Corona is a catalyst - use this time now to shape solutions and systems and nudge staff, trustees and service users towards new sustainable ways of working.” [Alliance Member CEO]

All organisations we spoke to had undergone a step change in the way they used digital as a direct response to the Covid 19 situation, and several articulated that they saw this as an opportunity to bring in new learning and new ways of working amongst trustees, staff and service users that could have a lasting impact beyond the current emergency measures.

Their responses provided a strong justification for pivoting towards early implementation of the proposed comms tools in response to the virus situation. At the same time it had become clear to the VONNE lead that the workshops to plan project delivery, which have been scheduled for April to June would not be able to take place face to face and that there was a pressing need for online tools to collaborate with the members.

A plan was formulated in consultation with VONNE and partners to roll out Slack and G Suite for the Alliance leads and Digital Reference Persons to improve collaboration and communications.

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Planned Digital Activity

Indicative Timeline: Discovery: April-July, Development: September onwards Date Action

April 20 Digital reference group formed Role of DRPs agreed Alliance leads nominate a digital reference person (DRP)

April 20 Benchmarking of digital journeys Digital resources and assessment tools collated and shared with DRPs DRPs supported to benchmark host organisation

April 20 Setup of comms tools Core team works with supplier to setup comms tools (as described below) DRPs consult on comms tools. Protocols for use agreed and disseminated to Alliance leads.

May 20 Opportunity development DRPs use comms tools to share learning from benchmarking and work together to identify shared challenges and opportunities. Digital workshop facilitated by VCAA partner and Catalyst to explore opportunities for digital development

May/Jun 20 Opportunity refinement and proposal development DRP’s consult with colleagues in host organisations to refine opportunities and feedback to digital reference group Digital workshop facilitated by VCAA partner and Catalyst to refine opportunities.

Jun/July 20 Prototype development and testing Development, testing and iteration of prototypes in consultation with end users and facilitated by DRP’s

Sep/Dec 20 Initial development of web platform and tools In response to evidence about user needs and opportunities documented above

2021-24 Support and iteration of platform and tools Circular process: ‘Build - Measure - Learn’ to develop and adapt tools as we learn more about user needs and respond to changing circumstances and emerging opportunities.

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Annex 1: VCAA Digital Connectors

Digital Reference Person

All VCAA members are requested to nominate a digital reference person (DRP) from within their own organisation. The DRPs from across the Alliance will:

● act as a point of reference within their organisation, sharing challenges, solutions and learning. ● receive support from the Catalyst to benchmark their organisation’s progress towards digital adoption and to identify challenges and opportunities

DRP Tasks and Time Commitment The time commitment for this role is approximately ½ day as follows: Date Item Commitment (hours) w/c 6/4 Share resources provided within their host organisation, 2 work independently using toolkits provided to benchmark their organisation’s digital journey and to identify challenges and opportunities.

Test new comms tools w/c 13/4 Online workshop to share insights and identify shared 2 challenges/opportunities

Catalyst will support Digital Champions to implement a digital self-assessment within their host organisation to give a baseline for where they are on their digital journey, set aspirations for where they want to get to and identify tools and resources that can help.

A number of toolkits and frameworks have been developed specifically aimed at helping charities progress on their digital journey. Eg NCVO’s Digital Maturity Matrix. See: http://www.thinksocialtech.org/digitalmaturityresearch/poster

Digital Lead

Where there is capacity a number of DRPs will act as the Alliance’s Digital Leads, working together with support from Catalyst to:

● develop ideas and test hypotheses around approaches to digital that might be of benefit to the Alliance and its member organisations the Alliance. ● shape digital tools and solutions ● support one another to champion digital tools and digital service design methods within their host organisation and to share learning around digital adoption.

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Digital Lead Tasks and Time Commitment The time commitment for this role is approximately 1 day as follows: Date Item Time (hours) w/c 27/4 Online opportunity development workshop 2

Purpose: to explore findings from digital journey mapping, identifying shared challenges and opportunities. Output: Formulate testable hypotheses for where shared solutions might help achieve VCAA aims and provide benefit to individual Alliance organisations.

w/c 4/5 Test ideas and gain feedback in host organisation 2 w/c 11/5 Online opportunity refinement workshop 4

Purpose: to create fully developed, “proposal ready” opportunities for building shared digital capabilities and infrastructure. Output: Roadmap/plans for development of digital solutions June- December.

Review and comment on plans for building shared digital capabilities and infrastructure

Who should be a Digital Lead/DRP?

Some VCAA organisations have indicated that their CEOs will act as the DRP/Digital Lead whilst some have identified other staff members.

Note that we are not looking for you to nominate digital experts. We are looking for people who have a good overview of the challenges within their own organisation. People with the perspective to understand the challenges and opportunities that new initiatives might represent and ensure that any new initiatives take account of the needs of their organisation’s users.

Next Step

Please complete the form here to nominate the Digital Reference Person/Digital Lead from your organization.

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Annex 2: VCAA Comms Tools

Proposal to deliver low cost comms and collaboration tools for the CEOs and Digital Leads from the VCAA members

The following to be rolled out over the next few weeks:

● Slack will be the main focal point for ongoing comms with the ability to setup separate channels for different projects, share files and deliver group/one to one text chat and video conferencing. ● G Suite will provide document collaboration functionality so several people can work on documents at the same time and changes/comments can be tracked by the user. ● Zoom can provide further tools such as breakout rooms for the workshops that Andy/others will run. ● Domain name(s) the G Suite tools will run on the chosen domain name of the VCAA. and each user will be issued with a VCAA email address to login to the services. We have secured vcaa.org.uk for use by the Alliance on the initial setup. We also propose to register greenestregion.org.uk for possible future use on the public facing website/project tools.

Together these tools will keep key people in contact, reduce email burden and enable the Alliance to operate efficiently with the minimum of disruption over the current period. In the long term the aim is for the Alliance to exemplar digitally enabled ways of working that will minimise the carbon footprint as we plan and deliver climate action.

In addition to the above tools we propose to develop a website holding page (optional) - a simple web page with some basic information about VCAA and an option for users to sign up to a mailing list eg Mailchimp.

Assumptions: The proposal is based on the following assumptions:

● Max of 50 users ● Initial period of 9 months service (April 20 - Jan 21) ● A VONNE admin will be trained up to use the tools (with backup support) so that after the initial setup basic features, such as add a new user, create a channel, schedule a meeting can all be managed in-house. ● A named Digital Reference Person will be trained to provide support to users in their organisation. ● The VONNE/VCAA admin will be the first point of contact for support calls from users and can escalate calls to C&D where issues can not be easily resolved.

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Anticipated User Roles

Superuser: C&D Dev Team Tech admin of the tools will be provided by Consult and Design

Administrator: Initially C&D then VONNE Setup new users, set up new Slack channels for projects, invite users, manage access permissions.

C&D will take care of initial setup to get everyone up and running on the system. Once setup an internal admin within VONNE will be trained to pick this up on an ongoing basis

Logged in User: CEO’s/Digital leads/VONNE staff, others who join working groups, sub-groups or projects.

Each will be issued with a VCAA email address for the purposes of logging in to the new system. From there they will be able to follow links to collaborate on documents, slides, spreadsheets etc. and the system will record any changes made against each editor.

Guest User: Guests can be invited to access Slack channels and view/comment on documents. It is not recommended to give guests access to edit documents as the system will not record who has made which edit.

Workshop Host: Dr. Andy Crosbie/Peter Stark/Others Slack provides functionality for day to day chat, audio and one to one/group video calls. Where more extensive tools are needed, such as running breakout groups it may be necessary to make use of the additional features available through a Zoom account.

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General principles and user needs

Start simple and handhold users through an onboarding process. As users become more familiar with the tools, new features can be rolled out and tested to create extra value where there is a clear business case for doing so. As the VCAA leads learn about these lowcost tools they will be able to bring the benefits of that learning into their own organisations. The focus will be on the needs of users we are trying to address not on the technology and this will be reflected in the way the tools are configured, rolled out and explained to users.

User needs (what do the tools need to do?)

The VONNE lead needs to be able to:  share documents/plans with other VCAA leads so they can review/comment/edit as they prepare for intended launch in January 2021  convene remote meetings/video conferencing from April to December and potentially beyond either one on one or in group setting to discuss/develop plans  to publish dates and events on a shared calendar so VCAA leads can be invited and easily see what is scheduled  instantly message and share files both during video calls and at other times to get quick responses on issues raised  have access to an audit trail of all documents and amends.

VCAA leads need to be able to:  review and comment on documents so they can work together to plan the activities of the Alliance  actively participate in remote meetings so they can work together to plan the activities of the Alliance  hold one to one video/audio or text conversation with each other.

VCAA members have each agreed to nominate a digital champion/digital reference person (DRP) Some DRPs will be the CEOs/Alliance leads, some are likely to be other staff members.

Sub-group members need to be able to form groups and communicate as per the VCAA leads. There is already an identified need for a sub-group for the Digital Reference People to work together and for a Tees Valley Sub-group to enable better local coordination.

In the future, as learning emerges about coordinating each community-based project in three local communities, the leaderships of the project groups could use these tools to plan, deliver and share learning.

All users need to be able to quickly search message streams and files to find relevant information and latest documents.

All systems need to be intuitive and easy to use.

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All systems need to minimise the cognitive load on users and be as streamlined as possible with their other work activities.

All users need some basic training and support on how to manage common tasks so they can use the tools.

A regular review of usage needs to be undertaken to evaluate effectiveness and look for opportunities to improve.

VONNE will be facilitating workshops/webinars for CEOs led by Dr Andy Crosbie over the coming months. There is a need for tools training and support to run large groups sessions, to enable group breakout, to share presentations and to set up processes and protocols for working together effectively online.

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Annex 3: The Catalyst Approach

CAST has specific reporting requirements to the Catalyst funders it is expected that all Catalyst grantees will provide the necessary information to fulfil those requirements in collaboration with CAST.

For Discovery projects, grantees are expected to share validated user needs, set within a context of how those user needs relate to addressing the social challenge. The validation is likely to have come from user research and background research - this evidence will be shared with CAST and available to the wider Catalyst network.

For Definition projects, grantees are expected to share validated ways of addressing user needs in an ethical way that addresses the social challenge. This validation is likely to have come from testing prototypical interventions - this evidence will be shared with CAST and made available to the wider Catalyst network.

For Development projects, grantees are expected to share their key assumptions and insights relating to the progress, testing and use of the intervention. This insight is likely to have come from testing, use and development of the interventions - this evidence will be shared with CAST and made available to the wider Catalyst network.

To support this sharing, CAST are building templates to reduce the barriers to sharing, and to increase the ease at which team members can access the insight. We will work with you to ensure that reporting is efficient and useful.

At the end of the grant period you will need to submit a final report. When we receive this report, we will arrange a conversation with you so that we can both feedback on what worked well, and how the Catalyst overall can better achieve the shared vision.

What we'd like your report to do: ● Share your progress honestly - the good and the bad, and how you've learned from each ● Help us learn from your experiences ● Enable us to pass on good practice or learning to others ● Help us make better, more informed funding decisions in future

What we hope the reporting process will be for you ● Reasonably quick - a summary of information you already collect for your own use ● Helpful - a useful prompt to get feedback on, and analyse and understand the impact of your work ● Useful - an opportunity to reflect on progress and what you've learned

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VONNE CLIMATE ACTION ALLIANCE Appendix G

SUBMISSION TO THE CLIMATE ACTION FUND OF THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND

The role of the Collective Impact Agency in the VONNE Climate Action Alliance, 2020-2021

Borne out of a belief that the current system is not working for the people who need it the most, the Collective Impact Agency exists to make “the system” work better for people and communities. We believe that the best way to achieve that is to help organisations and people work together better.

We are funded by the Lankelly Chase Foundation to deliver work in Gateshead that aims ‘to change the systems that perpetuate severe and multiple disadvantage.’ This broad aim incorporates public services, health and social care, the local economy, and the environment. Our work includes building bridges between the different silos and sectors, connecting people and organisations who were previously unconnected, and facilitating meaningful exchanges between people and organisations to help them co-create shared local agendas.

For the remaining nine months of 2020, we envisage our role to be to support the ‘coming together’ of the alliance members. This will involve us getting to know all of the partners and their organisations, through spending time ‘in their worlds.’ Alongside doing this, we will run a facilitated process to build a foundation of how the members will operate as an alliance. Among other things, this process will cover:  Trust-building: members get to know one another properly and begin to work through the differences in their approaches. This period of ‘trust building’ should be structured and facilitated in order to help all members to contribute, reflect, respond, and to surface any elephants in the room. (It’s important to run two simultaneous parallel tracks of activity – the fast ‘doing stuff together’ and the slow relationship building.)  How we will work together: creating (among other things) a set of shared principles for how members will work together, how decisions will be taken, and how disagreements will be handled.  Mutual reinforcement: sharing information about who has expertise in which areas and how these strengths can be applied strategically across all Alliance activities - how each member can help make the other members stronger  Data and measurement: we need to begin by answering the questions ‘What does good/success look like?’ and ‘What would we need to see in order to know this is working?’, as well as agreeing on shared definitions. These two activities – getting to know the members and facilitating the development of the collective – will likely take a day a week until Dec 2020. Given the Coordinating Director is not anticipated to be in post until September 2020, we would also expect to play a role in designing and building the initial systems and processes (working closely with the digital partners), building an infrastructure that can subsequently be handed over to the Coordinating Director to run.

172 For year two (first year of community-level delivery), we anticipate our role would evolve into more of a ‘learning partner’ to help with reflection and ongoing development of the initiative. This would involve reviewing data (both observational and formally gathered), analysing it, and reflecting it back. We would anticipate working across the individual members and the communities with whom they are working, the VCAA leaders’ group, the coordinating executive, and the VCAA reference group. We would intend to listen to projects, sampling activity on the ground to see what it’s teaching us. We would also expect to check in periodically with the various parties – asking ‘How do you think this alliance is going?’ – thus enabling us to provide a perspective both on how well the structure is functioning and on how well the overall initiative is achieving its aims. The project requires the existence of short, effective feedback loops which allow for iterative learning and improvement. Part of our ongoing role will be to facilitate and support these, ensuring that lessons from the project and from the collaborative working are being learned and shared widely.

We would expect to feed our insights and observations into the ongoing planning work and into the seasonal gatherings. We expect that what exactly this will look like will evolve and become clear over time.

Collective Impact for the VONNE Climate Action Alliance

The collective impact framework comprises five elements: common agenda, shared measurement systems, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and a backbone support organisation. This document sketches how these five elements might be applied in the VCAA.

1. Common agenda Definition: all participants must have a shared vision for change, including a common understanding of the problem and a joint approach to solving it through agreed actions.

VCAA application: For the remaining nine months of 2020, the members will need to come together regularly to develop and interrogate their shared vision and joint approach. It would be easy to assume that because they all work ‘in the sector’, their views will be similar and easy to reconcile. The processes within the Alliance are significantly different to what the members are used to in their day-to-day. It may emerge that members currently have very different and even opposing approaches, so time needs to be invested to build a foundation of how the members will operate as an alliance. We should aim to create a set of shared principles for (among other things) how members will work together, how decisions will be taken, and how disagreements will be handled. Given the impact of COVID-19, we are planning for all this work to take place on-line through a combination of video conferences, online workshops, and chat rooms, and we are currently liaising closely with our digital partners (CAST/Catalyst/Consult and Design) on the creation of the relevant platforms.

2. Shared measurement systems Definition: all participants must collect data and measure results consistently to ensure all efforts remain aligned, the participants are able to hold each other accountable, are able to learn from each other’s successes and failures, and are able to report and communicate effectively with our funders.

VCAA application: It is very easy for initiatives to fall into the trap of counting what is easily countable. To avoid this, we need to begin by answering the questions ‘What does good/success look like?’ and ‘What would we need to see in order to know this is working?’ We know that the development of a ‘community carbon calculator’ is one component of this initiative, and that the current carbon footprint of communities and the estimated carbon budget available to them by 2030/40/50 are one set of indicators we intend to use. Through discussion, we will need to determine what other data is valuable and useful for tracking the success of the Alliance. We know that the most useful data for the initiative will be in tracking the changing behaviours and attitudes of the local communities. We need to ensure we have the right mechanisms in place to be able to observe these changes, analyse them, and make use of them across the later projects.

173 3. Mutually reinforcing activities Definition: all participants are not required to do the same thing but are encouraged to bring their most innovative and impactful approaches to the table and to find ways to use these to support and augment the actions of others.

VCAA application: Through the first 6-9 months of Alliance working, the members need to share information among themselves about who has expertise in which areas and how these strengths can be applied strategically across all Alliance activities. While all members are going to come together to make collective decisions on the overall shape and balances of each year’s programme, there are wider and ongoing conversations to have about how each member can help make the other members stronger – so activities become ‘mutually reinforcing’ rather than simply ‘different’. We intend to draw together smaller, more localised groupings of members (probably initially aligned with the three Combined Authority boundaries) who will work together more closely on particular projects. This aligns with of working principle of ‘subsidiarity’ (social and political issues should be dealt with at the most immediate (or local) level that is consistent with their resolution) while also promoting greater sharing at a local level without increasing the initiative’s overall carbon footprint.

4. Continuous communication Definition: all participants need to develop deep levels of trust and a common vocabulary (an essential precondition to developing shared measurement systems), and the only way to do this is to talk regularly and often.

VCAA application: Again, the remaining nine months of 2020 are crucial to this as this will be the period where members get to know one another properly and begin to work through the differences in their approaches. This period of ‘trust building’ should be structured and facilitated in order to help all members to contribute, reflect, respond, and to surface any elephants in the room. Both during and after this period, ongoing continuous communication will be supported by the relevant digital platforms that enable the members to share what they’re seeing and learning, to put questions and problems to the group, and to collate and store solutions and insights. It is important for the members to periodically ‘check-in’ with one another to make sure the Alliance is operating well throughout its duration. We are planning to conduct a comprehensive mid- point review approximately 40% of the way through the five years. Having this marker in place from the start gives us a clear point at which we can reconfigure as needed. It will also be important at this point to review the membership of the Alliance – to look at potentially bringing new members in: to check in with existing members as to whether any desire to exit, and to ensure this happens in such a way that no learning is lost.

As mentioned in #1 above, COVID-19 has provided a catalyst for accelerating the use of digital communication. We are already liaising with our digital partners to create the right platforms to enable the continuous communication to take place online. This will also enable us to keep the carbon footprint of this initiative to an absolute minimum.

5. Backbone support organisations Definition: a separate organisation and staff with a very specific set of skills need to be created to manage collective impact efforts as coordination takes time and none of the participating organisations has any to spare.

VCAA application: A small coordinating team will comprise a Coordinating Director, a full-time administrator and a 50% share in contracted Comms/PR and R&D resource. In addition, this ‘backbone’ team will receive additional support from True North Sustainability on developing the carbon counting tool and accredited training, from CAST/Catalyst/Consult and Design on developing the digital infrastructure, and from the Collective Impact Agency on the overall Alliance process and through acting as a critical friend and learning partner.

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Appendix: H

VONNE CLIMATE ACTION ALLIANCE Submission to NLCF Climate Action Fund

Towards Community Carbon Budgets

Prepared for: Peter Stark, OBE Interim Lead, Climate Action Alliance, VONNE

Prepared by: Anna-Lisa Mills, FIEMA, CEnv, MSc, BSc (Hons), PGCE (PCET) Director, True North Sustainability

E-mail: [email protected] Mobile: 07971 070 434 LinkedIn: http://lnkd.in/5bNw4s Twitter: @Anna_LisaMills Web: www.truenorthsustainability.co.uk

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Contents

Foreword by Peter Stark OBE. Interim Project Lead VONNE Climate Alliance Glossary and Acronyms

1.0 Introduction 2.0 The Global Context 3.0 The National Context 4.0 The Regional Context 5.0 The Local Authority Context 6.0 Towards a Community Context 7.0 Proposed support for communities

References and Bibliography

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Foreword

The brief to True North Sustainability for this report – clearly given before the coronavirus was a part of our future - was to provide the core VONNE Climate team and then – during April, May and June – the leadership of the Climate Alliance with a report that ‘set’ our planned work with local place-based communities on climate change in the global, national, regional and local authority area context.

We therefore expected a document that would be challenging in terms of the complexities of climate science and the specialist intergovernmental and national government structures that have responsibility for policy and delivery in the field of Climate Change.

We knew, however, that in Anna-Lisa Mills we had someone highly qualified, experienced and regionally rooted to help us who would help us to gain that background knowledge before we – collectively – began to discuss how we might introduce it into community contexts during the autumn.

With the funding support now available from the Lankelly Chase Foundation, we will be able to engage further support from the Tyndall Centre on the science and from Mike Berners Lee on the more straightforward ways in which the impacts that are possible at community level can be quantified and contextualised.

In summary, therefore, it is important to recognise that this report is ‘inward’ not ‘outward’ facing and represents a first step on our journey to connect the hard science behind our global crisis to everyday life and language in the diversity of communities across the North East that we will be working with.

Peter Stark Interim Project Lead VONNE Climate Alliance

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GLOSSARY:

Climate impacts: Effects of climate change on human and natural systems. Impacts can have beneficial or adverse outcomes for livelihoods, health and well-being, ecosystems and species, services, infrastructure, and economic, social and cultural assets.

Climate risk: The potential for adverse consequences from a climate-related hazard for human and natural systems, resulting from the interactions between the hazard and the vulnerability and exposure of the affected system. Risk integrates the likelihood of exposure to a hazard and the magnitude of its impact. Risk also can describe the potential for adverse consequences of adaptation or mitigation responses to climate change. Committee on Climate Change (CCC): An independent, statutory body established under the Climate Change Act 2008. Our purpose is to advise the UK Government and Devolved Administrations on emissions targets and report to Parliament on progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for climate change.

Grandfathering: Emissions grandfathering maintains that prior emissions increase future emission entitlements. It holds that agents are entitled to emit the same percentage of total emissions as they previously emitted.

LULUCF: Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry sector covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human induced land use, land-use change and forestry activities. Carbon is sequestered by forestry and grassland, while carbon losses occur on existing cropland and natural land (e.g. grassland) that is converted to cropland or settlement.

Remaining carbon budget: Estimated cumulative net global anthropogenic CO2 emissions from a given start date to the time that anthropogenic CO2 emissions reach net zero that would result, at some probability, in limiting global warming to a given level, accounting for the impact of other anthropogenic emissions.

The Climate Action Tracker (CAT): An independent scientific analysis produced by two research organisations tracking climate action since 2009. We track progress towards the globally agreed aim of holding warming well below 2°C, and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): The United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.

The Paris Agreement: Formally acknowledges the urgent need to scale up our global response to climate change, which supports even greater ambition from governments.

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The Tyndall Centre: Represents a substantial body of the UK’s climate change expertise from across the scientific, engineering, social science and economic communities.

Tyndall Carbon Budget Reports: Present recommended climate change commitments for UK local authority areas that are aligned with the commitments in the United Nations Paris Agreement, informed by the latest science on climate change and defined by science-based carbon budget setting.

Total carbon budget: Estimated cumulative net global anthropogenic CO2 emissions from the pre-industrial period to the time that anthropogenic CO2 emissions reach net zero that would result, at some probability, in limiting global warming to a given level, accounting for the impact of other anthropogenic emissions.

UNFCCC: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has near universal membership (197 Parties) and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

ACRONYMS

CAT: The Climate Action Tracker CO2: Carbon Dioxide COP: United Nations Conference of Parties GHG: Greenhouse gas IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC AR5: IPCC Fifth Assessment Report LULUCF: Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry MtCO2: Million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide NDCs: Nationally determined contributions. The Paris Agreement requires all Parties to put forward their best efforts through nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. This includes requirements that all Parties report regularly on their emissions and on their implementation efforts. UNFCCC: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

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1.0 Introduction

The “Think Global, Act Local” concept urges people to consider the health of the entire planet and to take action in their own communities.

Using published material, and the best available science-based information from The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Climate Action Tracker (CAT) and The Tyndall Centre, we have painted a picture of carbon budgets that runs from the global level, to the National budget for the UK, to the North East (N.E) Region and to Local Authority level. We have then taken our first steps in exploring how this might be extrapolated further to a typical ward, community, household and individual in the N.E. Region.

The UK is both a climate leader and a climate laggard. Whilst on one hand we have led the way in setting climate legislation, and we can demonstrate a decreasing carbon footprint at a national level, it is also true to say that this is not enough to keep us in line with the aims of the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The scientific community has warned that 1.5 degrees of warming is the ‘safety threshold’ beyond which there is a greater chance of passing tipping points and triggering a number of positive feedback loops that would drive yet further warming.

Using the concept of a total carbon budget, aligned to the science based goal of capping warming at 1.5 degrees, we have used the Tyndall Centre carbon budget tools4 to explore what the remaining carbon budget is for the N.E. Region and how communities and individuals can engage on action to address the climate emergency.

It is acknowledged that, in the interests of consistency, the rules for national carbon accounting do not require nations to include international shipping and aviation, or imports and exports. It is also acknowledged that the UK manufacturing base is declining.

The UK has enjoyed the benefits of fossil fuels for over a century and, in fact, this legacy started in the N.E. Region. It is therefore argued that the N.E. Region should take the lead on reducing our footprint in line with a regional budget that is aligned to the science and takes into account equity and climate justice.

This report shows that N.E. Region has the lowest carbon budget of any region in England, largely but not only because it has the smallest population (Northern Ireland is lower if looking at the picture for the full UK). We explore what this means at a regional, community and individual level for residents of the N.E of England and what steps communities might take to be a part of the solution and contribute to a reduction in carbon in line with our regional budget.

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2.0 The Global Context

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Regime has made us safer (as we are no longer on track for the higher risk scenario of more than 4 degrees centigrade of warming (see Figure 1). However, we are far from safe, as we are on track for between 2.5 and 3.2 degrees centigrade of warming by the end of the century. The scientists have warned of the risks of passing tipping points and triggering positive feedback loops, that would drive yet further warming. The impacts we are experiencing now, at 1.1 degree of warming, are worse than expected. The target for climate safety is now well below 2 degrees centigrade and ideally below 1.5 degrees centigrade, above our pre-industrial baseline.

In the absence of policies, global warming is expected to reach 4.1°C – 4.8°C above pre-industrial by the end of the century. The emissions that drive this warming are often called Baseline scenarios (‘Baselines’ in figure 1) and are taken from the IPCC AR5 Working Group III. Current policies presently in place around the world are projected to reduce baseline emissions and result in about 3.0°C warming above pre-industrial levels.

Figure 1: The global picture. 2100 warming projections. Source: Climate Action Tracker (CAT)

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At the United Nations climate change conference in Paris, COP 21, governments agreed that mobilizing stronger and more ambitious climate action is urgently required to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement requires all Parties to put forward their best efforts through nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and to strengthen these efforts in the years ahead. The unconditional pledges and targets that governments have made, including NDCs, as of December 2019, would limit warming to about 2.8°C3 above pre-industrial levels, or in probabilistic terms, likely (66% or greater chance) limit warming below 3.0°C (close to twice the limit they agreed in Paris) – see figure 2. Governments are even further from the Paris temperature limit in terms of their real-world action, which would see the temperature rise by 3°C. An ‘optimistic’ take on real-world action including additional action that governments are planning still only limits warming to 2.8°C.

CAT also ran an “optimistic policies” scenario that factors in additional as well as planned, but not yet implemented, policies and a continuation of recent developments. Under the optimistic assumption that governments will continue to meet these expectations, the median warming estimate is 2.8°C, or in probabilistic terms, likely below 3.0°C, which is equal to the globally aggregated effect of NDCs.

There remains a substantial gap between what governments have promised to do and the total level of actions they have undertaken to date. Furthermore, both the current policy and pledge trajectories lie well above emissions pathways consistent with the Paris Agreement long-term temperature goal.

Limiting warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by 2100 means that the emissions of greenhouse gases need to be reduced rapidly in the coming years and decades and brought to zero around mid-century. Action must come from governments, cities, regions, businesses and investors. Everyone has a role to play in effectively implementing the Paris Agreement.

Figure 2: Warming projections. Source: Climate Action Tracker

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3.0 The National Context

In Paris, governments agreed their actions were not enough to meet the agreement’s goals and that they would enhance their climate action plans by 2020. As of December 2019, very few governments have announced updated and strengthened Paris Agreement pledges: only the Marshall Islands has submitted an updated NDC, and Chile has published a draft, which is at least a clear step forward from its current target.

It is worrying that governments are not stepping up, and it is irresponsible for countries to announce that they will not update their NDC by 2020. The UK’s pledges are currently insufficient and are consistent with a path to greater than 3 degrees of warming (figure 3). The accounting principles applied to each country are designed to ensure consistency of reporting (i.e. ensuring absolute clarity and to avoid duplicate reporting) therefore, imports and exports are not included within domestic reporting. Most of the progress the UK has made is due to the decreasing manufacturing base and the ‘greening of the grid’ with old coal fired power stations closing. However, this is not nearly ambitious enough as the level of climate risk demands greater action.

Figure 3. CAT Country ratings of pledges and targets

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4.0 The Regional Context – North East Region.

This section of the report presents climate change targets for the North East Region using the Tyndall Carbon Budget Tool to quantify the implications of the United Nations Paris Agreement for the North East Region (including the following local authorities: County Durham, Darlington, Gateshead, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, Northumberland, Redcar and Cleveland, South Tyneside, Stockton-on-Tees, Sunderland).

The carbon budgets in this report are informed by the latest science on climate change and defined by science-based carbon budget setting. The carbon budgets are based on translating the “well below 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C” global temperature target and equity principles in the United Nations Paris Agreement to a national UK carbon budget. The UK budget is then split between sub-national areas using different allocation regimes. Aviation and shipping emissions remain within the national UK carbon budget and are not scaled down to sub-national budgets. Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) and non-CO2 emissions are considered separately to the energy CO2 budget in this report.

Tyndall have chosen a Grandfathering approach to assigning carbon budgets as, based on their analysis, it is the most appropriate and widely applicable regime within the UK. The Tyndall budgets are referred to as Energy Only Budgets.

To make a ‘fair’ contribution towards the Paris Climate Change Agreement, each region across the UK should initiate an immediate programme of CO2 mitigation to deliver cuts in emissions. Figure 4 shows the North East Region has a small section of the UK Carbon budget, when compared with other regions. Figure 5 shows how this budget is broken into recommended periodic carbon budgets to the end of the century. The averaging minimum annual reduction is expressed as a % and shown in the bottom row of table 1. This shows a total carbon budget for the region from 2018 to 2100 is 159 MtCO2.

Figure 6 shows an updated recommended energy only CO2 carbon budget for the North East Region for the period of 2020 to 2100 is 127.2 MtCO2. To translate this into near to long term commitments a CO2 reduction pathway within the 127.2 MtCO2 is proposed here. A consistent emissions reduction rate of -11.0% out to the end of the century is applied. In 2046 95% of the recommended carbon budget is emitted and low-level CO2 emissions continue at a diminishing level to 2100.

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Figure 4. UK Carbon budgets. Source: Tyndall Carbon Budget Reports https://carbonbudget.manchester.ac.uk/

Carbon Budget across the UK (Mt CO2)

Wales Northern Ireland

Scotland Yorkshire and the Humber

West Midlands South West

South East North West

North East Region London

East of England East Midlands

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400

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Figure 5. Recommended periodic carbon budget across the UK. Source: Tyndall Carbon Budget Reports https://carbonbudget.manchester.ac.uk/

Recommended periodic Carbon Budget across the UK (Mt CO2) 200

180

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0 East East of London North North South East South West Yorkshire Scotland Northern Wales Midlands England East West West Midlands and the Ireland Region Humber

2018 - 2022 2023 - 2027 2028 - 2032 2033 - 2037 2038 - 2042 2043 - 2047 2048 - 2100

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Table 1: Recommended periodic Carbon Budget across the UK in million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide (Mt CO2). Source: Tyndall Carbon Budget Reports https://carbonbudget.manchester.ac.uk/

Yorkshire Carbon Budget East East of West Northern London North East North West South East South West and the Scotland Wales Period Midlands England Midlands Ireland Humber

TOTAL Mt CO2 (carbon budget available to 2100) 227 263.8 260.9 159 321.9 372.9 225.9 246.4 289.6 266.4 95.2 195.7 Annual reduction required to achieve target

2018 - 2022 117 134 123.3 69.3 160.6 187.2 114 124 146.2 134.3 47.3 99.7

2023 - 2027 57.6 66.9 65.9 39.6 81.7 94.6 57.3 62.5 73.5 67.6 24.2 49.6

2028 - 2032 27.4 32.4 34.3 22.1 40.3 46.4 28 30.6 35.8 33 12 24

2033 - 2037 13.1 15.7 17.9 12.3 19.9 22.7 13.6 15 17.5 16.1 5.9 11.6

2038 - 2042 6.2 7.6 9.3 6.9 9.8 11.2 6.7 7.3 8.5 7.9 2.9 5.6

2043 - 2047 3 3.7 4.9 3.9 4.9 5.5 3.2 3.6 4.2 3.8 1.5 2.7

2048 - 2100 2.7 3.5 5.3 4.9 4.7 5.3 3.1 3.4 3.9 3.7 1.4 2.5 Average min. annual -13.5% -12.2% -11.0% -13.2% -13.3% -13.4% -13.3% -13.4% -13.4% -13.1% -13.6% reduction -13.8%

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Figure 6: Chart of Energy related CO2 only emissions pathways (2010-2100) for the North East Region premised on the recommended carbon budget. Source: Tyndall Carbon Budget Reports https://carbonbudget.manchester.ac.uk/

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In summary

The results show that for the North East Region to make its fair contribution to delivering the Paris Agreement's commitment to staying “well below 2°C and pursuing 1.5°C” global temperature rise, then an immediate and rapid programme of decarbonisation is needed. At 2017 CO2 emission levels, will exceed the recommended budget available within 8 years from 2020. To stay within the recommended carbon budget the North East Region will, from 2020 onwards, need to achieve average mitigation rates of CO2 from energy of around -11.0% per year. It is recommended the region should reach zero or near zero carbon no later than 2046. This will require further and rapid transitions away from unabated fossil fuel use. These annual reductions in emissions require national and local action, and could be part of a wider collaboration with other local authorities. For context the relative CO2 emissions from energy (compared to a 2015 Paris Agreement) per year are shown in table 2.

Table 2: Percentage reduction of annual emissions for the recommended CO2-only pathway for the North East Region out to 2050 (in relation to 2015).

Year Reduction in Annual Emissions (based on recommended pathway)

2020 37.7% 2025 65.2% 2030 80.6% 2035 89.2% 2040 93.9%

2045 96.6%

2050 98.1%

The carbon budgets recommended should be reviewed on a five yearly basis to reflect the most up-to-date science, any changes in global agreements on climate mitigation and progress on the successful deployment at scale of negative emissions technologies.

These budgets do not downscale aviation and shipping emissions from the UK national level. However, if these emissions continue to increase as currently envisaged by Government, aviation and shipping will take an increasing share of the UK carbon budget, reducing the available budgets for combined and local authorities. The Tyndall Centre recommends therefore that each region seriously considers strategies for significantly limiting emissions growth from aviation and shipping. This could include interactions with the UK Government or other local authority and local enterprise partnership discussions on aviation that reflect the need of the carbon budget to limit aviation and shipping emissions growth.

CO2 emissions in the carbon budget related to electricity use from the National Grid in are largely dependent upon national government policy and changes to power generation across the country. It is recommended however that the North East promotes the deployment of low carbon electricity generation within the region and where possible influence national policy on this issue. 15 | Page

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The Tyndall Centre also recommend that the LULUCF sector should be managed to ensure CO2 sequestration where possible. The management of LULUCF could also include action to increase wider social and environmental benefits. The LULUCF sector covers emissions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human induced land use, land-use change and forestry activities. Carbon is sequestered by forestry and grassland, while carbon losses occur on existing cropland and natural land (e.g. grassland) that is converted to cropland or settlement. Since 1998, this sector has been a net carbon sink. In 2013 net removals of emissions reached 5 MtCO2 (table 3). The sector is projected to remain a net carbon sink beyond 2050.

Table 3. LULUCF emissions/removals (1990-2013) (Source: Committee on Climate Change Fact sheet: Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/LULUCF.pdf)

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5.0 The Local Authority Context

Table 4: Recommended periodic Carbon Budget across the 12 Local Authorities across the North East region (Mt CO2). Source: Derived from Tyndall Carbon Budget Reports https://carbonbudget.manchester.ac.uk/ Redcar North Co Middles- North Northum- South Stockton- Sunder- Carbon Budget Period Darlington Gateshead Hartlepool Newcastle and East Durham brough Tyneside berland Tyneside on-Tees land Cleveland Region Carbon Budget (MtCO ) 2 159 2018-2100. 21.5 4.6 8.7 4.9 5.3 11.1 7.2 17.5 39.8 4.5 22.9 11 Annual reduction required to achieve target 2018 - 2022 10.4 2.3 4.4 2.5 2.6 5.4 3.6 7.8 9.1 2.2 12.4 5.8 69.3 2023 - 2027 5.4 1.1 2.2 1.2 1.3 2.8 1.8 4.4 7.1 1.1 5.8 2.8 39.6 2028 - 2032 2.8 0.6 1.1 0.6 0.7 1.4 0.9 2.4 5.5 0.6 2.6 1.3 22.1 2033 - 2037 1.4 0.3 0.5 0.3 0.3 0.7 0.5 1.3 4.2 0.3 1.2 0.6 12.3 2038 - 2042 0.7 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.7 3.3 0.1 0.5 0.3 6.9 2043 - 2047 0.4 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.4 2.5 0.1 0.2 0.1 3.9 2048 - 2100 0.4 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.5 8.1 0.1 0.2 0.1 4.9 Average -11.0% annual reduction -12.7% -13.3% -13.20% -13.70% -12.90% -12.8% -13.00% -11.20% -5.00% -12.90% -14.60% -14.4%

Table 4 shows carbon budgets across the region. Tyndall have used the grandfathering allocation approach used to provide the recommended budget for local areas. Using an average or recent share of emissions to set the allocation for the remaining carbon budget adjusts the carbon budgets to account for existing underlying energy usage in local areas - specifically to account for areas that have energy intensive industries in them.

Therefore, an area like Stockton on Tees has a larger carbon budget relative to its population than Northumberland primarily due to the industrial energy use in the area. It also means that areas have different reduction projections over time depending on the energy use circumstances they are starting from - the projection pathways inform the 5 yearly budgets specific to each area.

Redcar and Cleveland's budget is high primarily due to the history of steel production facility in the area. There is a degree of uncertainty as to whether the plant will go back into full operation or not. If it does continue as a steel producer, the budget will be appropriate. If not the budget (which was derived from the share of the recent emissions trend) will be oversized for the actual economic activity in the area.

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6.0 Towards a Community Context

At present there are no community carbon budgets available and the Tyndall centre don't recommend downscaling the carbon budgets below local authority level, as it requires a further allocation down from that geographic level with typically less data available to do so. The Local Authority carbon budgets include all the energy use in the area, so a per capita based downscaling of the budget includes the industrial and commercial activities as well as just residential energy emissions (which would be a lot more uniform across the different areas).

However, we propose to engage with experts (e.g. Prof Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre and Mike Berners-Lee, from Small World Consulting) to develop more accurate budgets for typical communities in the North East and to discuss how best to introduce them and the differential impacts of the ways in which individuals, households and communities can reduce emissions . In the meantime, we have generated example budgets as shown in table 5. These are produced by taking the Tyndall centre carbon budgets for three local authority areas and dividing them by the number of wards to give a budget for an ‘average’ (i.e. fictional but illustrative) ward in that authority. We have selected local authorities that represent predominantly rural (Northumberland), city (Gateshead) and industrial (Stockton-on-Tees) profiles and shown populations based on the census results and latest official estimates (2018-06-30) source: https://www.citypopulation.de/en/uk/northeastengland/wards/).

Note: When viewing the per capita indicators in table 5, remember that these budgets cover emissions that individuals can control as well as influence (as it includes households, communities, business and industry etc).

Table 5. Estimated community carbon budgets for a range of sample wards in the North East Region (Sources: Derived from https://www.citypopulation.de/en/uk/northeastengland/wards/ and https://carbonbudget.manchester.ac.uk/)

Example ward Population Position in ward (based Average ward carbon budget tCO2 Average individual carbon on population) budget tCO2 per person Gateshead 202,508 Total 8,700,000 tCO2 42.97 tCO2 per person Ward average 9,205 Ward average 395,538.85 Northumberland 320,274 Total 17,500,000 54.64 tCO2 per person Ward average 4,853 Ward average 265,167.92 Stockton-on-Tees 197,213 Total 22,900,000 116.12 tCO2 per person Ward average 7,585 Ward average 880,770.2

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Household and individual carbon budgets

Latest government figures (released March 2020) state that UK households are estimated to have directly accounted for between 15-19% of the country’s total greenhouse gas footprint between 1997-2017. This figure has remained broadly constant showing that behaviour change of individuals (as well as improvement to housing stock) is a key part of the equation when reducing the nation’s carbon footprint. CO2 emissions embedded in imported goods and services exceed the CO2 emissions generated directly by UK households but is an indication of consumption (figure 7).

The Tyndall budgets are for energy only, therefore this is the part of a personal carbon footprint that individuals have limited control over, however, they can still reduce this (e.g. by using less energy, installing home renewables or choosing a green tariff electricity contract for instance). The bigger picture (that includes travel, diet and consumption etc) is outside of the scope of the UK footprint and the Paris Agreement NDCs (which excludes shipping and aviation, imports and exports). However, the Tyndall derived budgets highlight the scale and urgency of the changes needed at an individual and community level, from the principal sources of GHGs. The wider ‘excluded’ areas are, however, also critical to addressing the global climate emergency and can be influenced at an individual and community level.

Greenhouse Gas emissions associated with UK consumption The UK’s total carbon footprint includes carbon dioxide emissions with methane and nitrous oxide and this has decreased by about 3 per cent between 2016 and 2017. These estimates are less robust than estimates for CO2 only, largely because of inherent uncertainties in their estimation. Therefore, these statistics are currently classified as experimental statistics.

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Figure 7. Greenhouse gas emissions associated with UK consumption 1997 to 2017 Million tonnes CO2 equivalents. (Source: Official Statistics. UK's carbon footprint. Annual greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide emissions relating to UK consumption. Published 13 December 2012. Last updated 19 March 2020.)

A recent report by Oxfam (Jan 2020) states that the average British person will have emitted more carbon dioxide in the first two weeks of this year than a citizen of any one of seven African nations does in an entire year. This Oxfam study revealed that annual emissions of carbon dioxide, per head of population is 8.3. tonnes.

Danny Sriskandarajah, Oxfam GB Chief Executive, said: “It’s a shock to realise that in just a few days our high-carbon lifestyles here in the UK produce the same emissions as the annual footprint of people in some poor countries. However, the encouraging thing is the willingness of the British public to take action.”

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This view is supported by the results of a YouGov poll, carried out for Oxfam (Jan 2020). It shows that 61% of people in Britain want the government to do more to address the climate emergency. Most respondents also say they would be willing to act to reduce their own carbon footprints.

The poll found that 55% of Britons say they worry about the impact of global heating and as many as 79% said they were likely to take one of a number of actions to reduce their carbon footprint.

What action can individuals take?

Leading carbon expert, Mike Berners-Lee (author of There is No Planet B, professor at Lancaster University and director of Small World Consulting), says:

“There are two aspects to the way people can make a difference. The first is to personally embark on more traditional low-carbon and sustainable living. It is still as important as ever because it brings integrity to everything else we do, it demonstrates commitment and, if done well, it makes it easier for everyone else to do likewise.

The second is to push for the cultural and political change that we need, in every situation: how we influence our politicians (not just through our votes), and the things we say and do at work, at leisure and perhaps most challenging of all, at home. Grassroots pressure can change politics.”

Professor Kevin Anderson, of the Tyndall Centre, also lists the following actions as critical at a personal level:  Demonstrate best practice (i.e. practical changes that individuals can make to their lifestyle)  Debate with colleagues, family and friends (e.g. talk about the changes you have made in your life to reduce your footprint)  Collaborate with peers and communities  Engage with institutions (e.g. Universities, schools, hospitals, local counsellors etc)  Influence at a national level (e.g. contact MPS via email/twitter)

Table 6 has been generated from a government-funded study completed by the Carbon Trust in 2006. Although dated, this research to calculate a carbon footprint for the average British citizen has detailed the precise environmental damage of each key cause. It puts the annual carbon footprint of the average Briton at 10.92 tons of CO2, composed as shown in table 6 below. This would be a helpful starting point.

Table 6 A typical personal carbon footprint of a UK resident (based on 2006 data). (source: https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/your-carbon-footprint-revealed-climate-change-report-finds-we-each-produce-11-tons-of-carbon- a-year-427664.html)

1. Recreation 1.95 tons 3. Food 1.39 tons 5. Hygiene 1.34 tons 7. Commuting 0.81 tons 9. Education 0.49 tons 2. Heating 1.49 tons 4. Household 1.37 tons 6. Clothing 1.00 tons 8. Aviation 0.68 tons 10. Phones 0.1 tons 21 | Page

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7.0 Proposed support for communities

There is a need to develop a range of tools to make the scale of the climate emergency relevant to individuals. It is proposed that we develop a personal carbon calculator to make this challenge tangible for individuals. The results would help individuals to relate their lifestyle choices, and the relative scale of the associated impacts, with the climate crisis. This would help them to see the impact of different decisions. The tools will also provide practical and pragmatic ideas for changing behaviours and taking action.

At present there are no robust household or individual carbon budgets available, we propose to engage with experts (e.g. Kevin Anderson and Mike Berner-Lee) to develop more accurate budgets for typical households and individuals across the North East Region. This will give individuals a benchmark against which to compare their own carbon footprint and help to stimulate the motivation to reduce their impact.

There are a number of personal footprint tools available, such as the examples below:

- WWF Carbon Questionnaire: https://footprint.wwf.org.uk/#/ o This tool questions the individual about their energy consumption habits and also includes a wide range of activities including heating, travel, holidays, diet and consumption etc. The results are based on a benchmark average of 10.5 tonnes per person per year (UK average). However, it is not clear how this links to the global goal of 1.5 degrees or how this budget will diminish over time in line with the remaining carbon budget. - Forest Carbon Household carbon club: https://www.forestcarbon.co.uk/clubs/carbon-club-2. offset solution based on the following categories (but they do not have a foot printing tool): o For a single person household = 10 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year o For a couple = 15 10 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year o For a family household = 20 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. - SW Quick Personal Carbon Calculator is based upon analysis of the UK’s GHG emissions by sector and the average UK resident’s consumption patterns. It will provide an estimate of a personal carbon footprint in 2018/19. This tool states the average for UK resident is 13 tonnes per year.

These tools tend to be quite light on detail, with generic questions that aren’t suitable for all people and they produce a vague indication of personal impact. The results are all compared against different figures for the UK average benchmarks.

We propose to develop a range of new tools to inform, engage and inspire individual across the region to reduce their personal carbon footprints.

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References:  https://footprint.wwf.org.uk/#/  https://www.forestcarbon.co.uk/clubs/carbon-club-2.  The Climate Action Tracker: https://climateactiontracker.org/ (accessed 25/03/20)  Tyndall Carbon Budget Reports. https://carbonbudget.manchester.ac.uk/ (accessed 25/03/20)  Local Authority Districts and Wards. The population of the local authority districts and wards of North East England by census results and latest official estimates (2018-06-30) https://www.citypopulation.de/en/uk/northeastengland/wards/ (accessed 26/03/20)  Committee on Climate Change Fact sheet: Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/LULUCF.pdf (accessed 27/03/20)  Official Statistics. UK's carbon footprint. Annual greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide emissions relating to UK consumption. Published 13 December 2012. Last updated 19 March 2020. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/874120/Consumption_emissions_March_20_v4.pdf (accessed 02/04/20)  https://oxfamapps.org/media/press_release/average-brit-will-emit-more-by-12-january-than-residents-of-seven-african-countries-do-in-a-year/ (accessed 02/04/20)  https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/your-carbon-footprint-revealed-climate-change-report-finds-we-each-produce-11-tons-of-carbon-a- year-427664.html (accessed 02/04/20)

Bibliography:  Mike Berners-Lee (2019) There Is No Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years. Cambridge Press  IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change  IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways  https://carbontracker.org/carbon-budgets-explained/ (accessed 02/04/20)  https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-how-much-carbon-budget-is-left-to-limit-global-warming-to-1-5c (accessed 02/04/20)

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VONNE CLIMATE ACTION ALLIANCE Appendix I

SUBMISSION TO THE CLIMATE ACTION FUND OF THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND

Declaration of a Climate & Ecological Emergency and VONNE Climate Action Plan

VONNE is the regional support body for the North East Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Sector. We represent over 1200 member charities, voluntary organisations, community groups, networks and social enterprises from across the region, with further reach through our many networks. In June 2019, following engagement and consultation with our members, we have made the strategic decision to increase our focus on climate change, ecological breakdown and the just transition to a carbon-free future. As part of this work we wish to formalise and communicate our views on the Climate and Ecological Emergency to our members and wider networks and begin to shape our action plan to respond. VONNE recognises that business as usual risks climate breakdown with profound consequences for people and planet. We view the prevention of runaway climate change as an eco-socio-economic challenge and prerequisite to achieving social justice for all.

The scientific evidence is clear that without rapid and far-reaching changes in energy, land use, transport, buildings, industry, and the economic system itself, we face man-made climate catastrophe.

We believe it is the responsibility of every organisation including our own, to transition their purpose and operations to be consistent with keeping global heating below 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels – the level considered ‘safe’ by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which states “global net human-caused emissions of CO2 would need to fall by about 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching net zero around 2050.”

At the current rate, global heating will likely rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels between 2030 and 2052. How we act and the decisions we take in the next decade are crucial. A state of climate emergency is the appropriate societal response.

The rapid transition to a net-zero emission pathway must also be a just and fair transition and go hand in hand with ensuring a more sustainable and equitable society.

We therefore commit to deploy our resources and use our influence to help accelerate the transition and make changes to minimise the climate impact of our operations.

198 The VONNE Board recognise that in the short-term we lack the resources and internal expertise to develop a comprehensive climate change/ carbon reduction action plan or assess our current organisational carbon footprint and the targets we should be setting ourselves and by when. However, part of our commitments over the next 12 months is to resource an appropriate formal accreditation/ action plan process, following which we will update our Climate Emergency Declaration with targets and a comprehensive action plan to achieving them.

Our commitments for the next 12 months:

Regional Leadership

 To undertake to convene a NE Climate Coalition bringing together a range of organisations across sectors to work up joint proposals for actions/ activities across the climate change, ecological breakdown and the just transition to a to a carbon-free future, that make sense to tackle at a regional scale and then to take those proposals to UK Government to seek their support. The Coalition will also create a regional campaign to unite the efforts of sectors, organisations, households and individuals around a collective regional vision to address the climate emergency.

 To advocate strongly through our network of partners and stakeholders for ambitious levels of commitment to action on climate and ecology by decision makers at all levels, alongside appropriate allocation of resources to enable concerted action at all levels of society.

VCSE Sectoral Leadership & Influence

 To inspire, encourage and support our member organisations and the wider North East VCSE sector to take urgent collective action to tackle this shared crisis at an organisational level and through their programmes of work.

 To attract multi-year regional level funding to initiate the delivery of new climate action projects and programmes of work with the VCSE sector across the region with the aims of raising awareness, increasing activities to respond to the Climate and Ecological Emergency and facilitating organisational and individual behaviour change.

 To support learning and sharing across the VCSE sector and in particular between specialist environmental organisations and the wider sector. This will include the provision of and signposting to useful resources, training and networks to support organisations and sharing our own approach, tools and learning in this area of work.

199 Operational

 The staff team, supported by a lead Board Member (Mike Pratt?), will carry out an initial climate impact audit of our core operations and current programmes of work to ensure that they are entirely consistent with delivering effectively against the challenges of a climate and ecological emergency. We will then develop an action plan of immediate actions we can undertake to reduce our impact and carbon emissions.

For example:

- We will engage our landlord at MEA House to switch to a renewable energy tariff and to improve building energy efficiency as well as engage other tenants in an on-going dialogue in how we might collectively improve our practices through the MEA House Eco-Council. - We will reduce our catering carbon footprint by transitioning to meat-free catering, reviewing the use of palm oil in purchased food and challenging our caterers to report on carbon and food waste management when developing menus. - We will build considerations of environmental impact into our procurement processes - We will ensure that staff and contractors (e.g. freelance assessors) are supported to develop appropriate levels of ‘climate literacy’.

 We will carry out a full review our policies and procures through a Climate Emergency lens and make the required changes to further reduce our environmental impact.

For example:

- We will review our travel policy to support sustainable travel and consider positive incentives for reduced and sustainable travel in staff holiday policy. - We will be flexible in our working practices to help staff reduce the carbon impact of commuting

 We will carry out climate impact assessments as part of the development of new projects or programmes of work in order to mitigate and reduce environmental impacts and to where possible include proactive positive climate impact activities across all of our programmes of work.

 We will commit staff resources and financial resources from our Organisational Development Designated Fund to resource an appropriate formal accreditation/ action plan process such as Investors in Environment, following which we will update our Climate and Ecological Emergency Declaration with targets and a comprehensive action plan to achieving them.

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VONNE CLIMATE ACTION ALLIANCE Appendix J

SUBMISSION TO THE CLIMATE ACTION FUND OF THE NATIONAL LOTTERY COMMUNITY FUND

EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY POLICY Policy Statement

Background

VONNE has an equality and diversity policy covering both how its services are provided and the way its staff are recruited, selected and treated.

It is important to understand the difference between the concepts of equality and diversity. Equality (or equal opportunities) is about protecting certain groups of staff against unfair treatment based on a particular personal characteristic.

Scope This policy is intended to assist VONNE staff, volunteers and Board members in complying with our commitment and responsibilities to promote our Equality and Diversity agenda and to adhere to relevant legislation. It aims to cover all aspects of the operation of VONNE:

 in recruitment and selection of staff

 as an employer (during employment)

 in the delivery of its services

 in its relations with external service suppliers, funders and experts

Statement

As well as accepting our legal responsibilities, we are committed to broad principles of social justice and are opposed to any form of discrimination and oppression. Our policy will apply to all of those who come into contact with us, i.e. those who presently use directly provided services or services provided on our behalf; potential users of services; other agencies and professionals; employees and job applicants; and the general public.

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We aim to ensure that no-one is treated less favourably on the grounds of

(a) age; (b) disability; (c) gender reassignment; (d) race; (e) religion or belief; (f) sex; (g) sexual orientation; (h) marriage or civil partnership status; (i) pregnancy and maternity or (j) Caring responsibility.

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that we and our staff do not unlawfully discriminate under the terms of any legislation and codes of practice in force from time to time relating to discrimination in employment and the provision of goods, facilities or services.

Employment, Recruitment and Volunteering

VONNE is committed to the principles of valuing diversity. We recognise the benefits that can be secured through employing a diverse workforce and harnessing the individual talents of staff from different backgrounds and with different skills. These include:

 Tangible business benefits such as improved staff morale, absence levels, customer satisfaction and profits  An improved company image leading to a wider customer base and a wider pool of people to recruit from  The avoidance of costly legal proceedings caused by breaches of equality legislation.

VONNE recognises that, in our society, there is discrimination against groups and individuals. The aim of this employment policy is to ensure that the recruitment, selection, training and promotion of individuals is based solely on criteria of merit and ability, and therefore no individual will be discriminated against.

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VONNE will ensure that no job applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of sex, race, colour, nationality, national or ethnic origin, responsibility for dependants, disability, religious belief or non-belief, age, lesbian, gay, bisexual or gender identity, marital status, family circumstances or caring responsibilities, membership or non- membership of trade unions or involvement or non-involvement in trade union activity and any other status as identified within the Human Rights Act 1998.

We aim to ensure that:

(a) Job Description All jobs whether permanent or temporary shall have an up-to-date job description setting out what the worker will be required to do. All job descriptions shall include a section on the post holder’s responsibility to work in a way which promotes the equal opportunities policy and associated practice.

(b) Person Specification Every job shall have a person specification outlining the minimum essential requirements necessary to carry out the task of the job description. This will consist of the minimum essential skills, abilities, knowledge and experience necessary to carry out the tasks of the job including willingness to abide by our Equality and Diversity Policy. Formal qualifications should not be necessarily required unless related to the job – for example, appropriate legal qualifications to practice as a Solicitor.

(c) Advertising All vacancies shall be openly advertised in relevant national or local publications or our website as appropriate unless the Finance Sub Group and Chief Executive agree that there is a valid reason to restrict the post to internal applicants only. All job adverts will give a clear message that VONNE offers jobs based on merit and that everyone has a fair chance to make a difference and succeed. All job adverts will be placed to reach as wide a readership as possible, subject to financial considerations.

(d) Shortlisting and Interviewing Throughout the selection procedure, the only information about a candidate which will be used will be that contained on the application form, together with replies to questions if interviewed. This will be made clear to all applicants from the outset. The front sheet of applications containing personal information will be detached prior to shortlisting.

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Selection criteria and procedures will be regularly reviewed to ensure that they are relevant to the role being filled, and that no part of the recruitment process is discriminatory to either an individual or candidates with a particular protected characteristic. All persons who participate in shortlisting, interviewing and selection processes should be advised/guided in all aspects of recruitment and selection and in Equal Opportunities issues.

(e) Selection and Rejection Decisions about selection shall be made in accordance with the person specification. Once the person has been selected and has confirmed their acceptance, all unsuccessful candidates shall be informed. Records of interviews and applications are to be kept by VONNE for at least twelve months following selection and we will monitor and record the number of job applicants from different gender, disability and ethnic groups at least annually as part of our Equality and Diversity Policy review.

(f) References References can be sought before interviews take place, but used only to support or deny the appointment of a candidate. They should not be used to choose between candidates.

(g) All employees will be given equal consideration for training, career development and promotion.

(h) All employees will be issued with guidance covering issues of day to day management and all expectations of the employer/employee relationship during their induction.

(i) Measures are adopted to promote a balanced workforce at all levels of the organisation.

(j) Any breaches of our equal opportunities statement by staff will not be tolerated, and may result in disciplinary action.

(k) Advice is available to anyone who feels that they have been the victim of discrimination and that suitable avenues for comment and complaint are made available to them.

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Termination of Employment

Redundancy

The redundancy procedure should be applied to all employees. However, in designing redundancy selection criteria care should be taken to ensure that such criteria do not discriminate either directly or indirectly against disabled workers. Disabled workers must not be treated unfavourably for something connected with their disability unless this can be objectively justified.

Reasonable adjustments must be made to remove barriers which a disabled person faces and a non-disabled person does not. Sickness absence arising from and individual’s disability will not be not be included in a calculation.

Dismissal on the Grounds of Capability

Dismissal on grounds of capability should only be made after -  Consideration of whether reasonable adjustments could be made has taken place.  Care has been taken to ensure there is no unlawful discrimination in the decision making process.  Appropriate medical evidence has been obtained.

Delivery of Services

It is VONNE’s intention that anyone seeking to use its services should be treated fairly and without bias. However, we recognise that groups and individuals can be discriminated against both directly and indirectly in the way that services are planned, organised and delivered. We wish to ensure that services are made widely available, are supplied on the basis of eligibility and are delivered in a fair and non- discriminatory manner. In the spirit of partnership, we believe that people who use VONNE’s services should also be mindful of these principles in their dealings with others.

We aim to ensure that:

All of those seeking to use VONNE’s services are given equal consideration having regard only to relevant criteria.

 When meeting rooms/venues are hired we ensure the premises are accessible and suitable for people with disabilities.

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 We increase the awareness within VONNE of the needs of disadvantaged groups in order to provide more relevant services.  We increase awareness of issues relating to Equality and Diversity agenda among all staff and Management Committee members  All considerations of requests for services are carried out using clear, published, non- discriminatory criteria for eligibility.  All organisations and individuals working on VONNE’s behalf are conversant with this policy.  All of the services we make available are widely publicised in appropriate forms, having particular regard, where appropriate, for people who do not use English as a first language or have special communication needs.  Any breaches of our equal opportunities statement by staff or service users will not be tolerated.  Advice is available to anyone who feels that they have been the victim of discrimination, and they will be referred to VONNE’s Complaints Procedure.

This policy will be reviewed to reflect current legislation.

Services of others VONNE will endeavour to operate its selection of other providers within the principles of this equal opportunities policy and as far as possible ensure that any third parties it instructs or works with adhere to similar principles.

Legal Obligations In valuing diversity VONNE commits itself to go beyond the legal minimum regarding equality. However, in applying this policy VONNE still needs to take account of current and future equality legislation (and associated codes of practice) including, but not limited to the following:

Equality Act 2010 Equality Act 2006 Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007

The above legislation protects individuals against direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment (including bullying) and victimisation.

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Responsibilities All staff are expected to have read and understood this policy, ensuring they behave in accordance with its principles, encourage the same level of behaviour in colleagues and immediately report any breaches witnessed.

All Managers are responsible for ensuring this policy is understood and complied with by staff in their area, dealing with breaches and complaints (whether reported or not).

Equality & Diversity policy Reviewed by Finance Sub Group November 2019 To be reviewed November 2022

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