Our Exmouth Our Planet was a brainstorming networking meeting held in November 2019, attended by 96 people including representatives of the Town, District and County Councils and over 50 local groups. We came up with hundreds of steps we could take towards a more planet friendly future. Transition Exmouth became advisors to the Town Council climate action working group, and helped come up with a 10 point list of initial Climate Actions.
One was to fund a website showing Steps people can take towards a carbon Zero future (it’s all about taking one step at a time) and then share it from the Council Homepage , and in a footer on all Council communications.
To really help build a sustainable local economy, links to local businesses and groups who can help with each Step were proposed as part of the website.
The Full Council said Yes in December 2019.
Then of course we all looked at each other wondering where the big know-all expert was, who was going to come along and write this website for us. Guess what? We didn’t find one.
None of us felt that we had the over-arching knowledge , skills, contacts or time to put this together. Then covid-19 hit, and we all had to start learning different technology, different ways of working together.
Jen Gale did the Sustainable-ish Online Festival. And we saw loads of people like us getting on with stuff, and sharing what they know. With the Sustainable-ish Festival playing in the background as we did our lockdown clean-up, we realised that we don’t have one big expert in our group who knows All about Everything… and we do have a lot of people who care deeply about our planet, and who are each expert-(ish) at something.
Our festival pledge was to get this website happening. None of us could write it single-handed, but we started setting up the website structure on google-docs.
“Who wants to make a start on the Steps for Nature ? Transport? Waste? Food? Energy?” Everyone was happy to chip in on a topic dear to their heart, and then comment and expand on everyone else’s work.
We all learned a lot along the way – and there’s lots more to learn.
The OurPlaceOurPlanet.org website now features 25 First Steps (5 things we can do tomorrow for each subject, such as order a veg box) and over 50 Next Steps (things that take a bit more organising, such as setting up a walking bus to school). There are links to 100 local Exmouth groups and businesses who can help with each step, and a couple of hundred inter/national links.
All those Councils who declared a climate emergency last year are now keen to show they’ve actually done something – sharing OurPlaceOurPlanet.org from the Council homepage is an off-the peg action which reaches their whole community, even people who don’t identify as green.
The Local Links idea felt too good to keep to ourselves, so the website was built with the option to select any Place. The inter/national links are relevant to anyone, anywhere in the world. Local links to other Places can be added using a simple table, and we are really excited to see who will be the next Places make the website their own. It’s just a matter of filling in what’s going on in your place… maybe something you and your friends could do over a cuppa, or over the winter?
