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About In Our Nature
About the programme
With support from the National Lottery and a coalition of funding partners, we’re running an exciting programme to help create a greener, healthier and more connected Manchester. Why? Because change starts right here, at home and in our communities.
We're sharing lots of practical tips, advice and hacks on how to eat healthier, save money, travel smarter and power our homes in a way that's fit for the future.
We’re partnering with communities across the City to bring a series of community projects to life, and shouting about all the amazing groups and everyday heroes in our city to make it easier to find out what’s happening in your local area and get stuck in.
Sign up here to get programme updates, tips and inspiration straight to your inbox.
Getting Manchester to Zero
The programme will support the target set by Manchester to be a zero-carbon city by 2038 or before – 12 years earlier than the national 2050 target. To achieve this citywide, emissions will need to reduce by 13 per cent every year until 2038.
Making our city zero carbon won't be easy. It will take significant steps from organisations and businesses, and small steps from individuals. At the same time, we know that Manchester needs new homes and jobs to keep thriving. We need to ensure that this happens in a way that is aligned with our carbon commitments and ready for our changing climate.
We share the city, so we share our carbon footprint. We all have a crucial part to play and we hope this programme will help unlock the potential of resident and communities to take action on the climate emergency.
Who’s involved?
The programme is funded by the National Lottery Climate Action Fund and a coalition of funding partners including Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, the Wates Family Enterprise Trust, the Co-op, Suntory Beverage and Food GB&I, Danone UK & Ireland, JCDecaux, Coca-Cola GB and Tetra Pak.
The programme is a partnership between the Manchester Climate Change Agency and Partnership, Manchester City Council, Hubbub, Amity, the Tyndall Centre for Climate Research and Commonplace. You can read more about the partners on the following page.
We’ll also be teaming up with a range of local organisations, groups and businesses along the way. If you are an organisation in Manchester that wants to get involved, please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.
Curious to find out more?
Check out the upcoming projects below and find out how to get involved
We'd love to hear what you're already doing to tackle climate change and what could be done to help you
Meet the partners involved
The Manchester Climate Change Agency was established in 2015 and is responsible for overseeing and championing climate change action in the city, along with the Manchester Climate Change Partnership. The Agency advocates that everyone in Manchester has their part to play and reaching our targets will rely on us all working together with every resident and business making and delivering their own commitment to act. The Agency helped to establish the Manchester Climate Change Partnership in February 2018. The Agency has since influenced and supported members to develop their own bespoke climate change action plans, covering both partners’ operational activities and work to engage their wider stakeholders to take action. The Agency has been successful in influencing Manchester City Council to make Manchester one of the first cities in the world to adopt climate change targets in line with the Paris Agreement (based on recommendations by the Tyndall Centre).
Hubbub is an environmental charity that creates campaigns around sustainability that are fun, enjoyable and sociable. At Hubbub we believe that living in a way that is better for the environment, our families and our communities should be accessible to everyone. We concentrate on things you're passionate about and are relevant day-to-day, like fashion, food, the homes we live in and the spaces around us. Hubbub is leading on the city-wide communications campaign and will be delivering a series of behaviour change projects in the partner communities.
Manchester City Council declared a Climate Emergency in July 2019. The declaration recognised the need for the Council, and the city, to do more to reduce CO2 emissions and mitigate the negative impacts of climate change. It committed the city to become zero carbon by 2038 at the latest.
The Council is a key member of the Manchester Climate Change Partnership. The Council’s Climate Change Action Plan 2020-25 was developed to ensure that all aspects of the Climate Emergency Declaration were converted into clear actions with tonnes of CO2 savings identified. The Plan builds on over a decade of previous activity which has seen the Council’s direct CO2 emissions reduce by 54.7% between 2009/10 and 2019/20.
Since declaring a Climate Emergency, the Council has set about transforming the way it works to ensure that climate change is at the heart of the organisation and our work with partners. A key focus of activity is engaging at the neighbourhood level to reduce carbon emissions. We are working with communities to influence behaviour , so that reducing carbon emissions is built into the everyday activities, not only of the Council but our community organisations, local businesses, and residents. This will include the production of ward carbon reduction action plans across the city which capture local initiatives and demonstrate how these can contribute to the overall targets for the city.
Amity means friendship and harmony between individuals or groups. It also means deep relationships and mutual understanding - which we aspire to create by sharing an understanding of how humans function at the most fundamental level. At Amity we are fascinated by the process of bringing people together to take inspired action and lead change in their community and we care deeply about understanding and sharing the fundamental human factors for this being successful. Through our Programmes, Coaching and Group Facilitation we guide people to realise their innate potential for creativity, collaboration and wellbeing.
For the programme Amity will work alongside each community group to deliver a bespoke Inspired Community Action Programme. This programme will inject sustainability into community action by supporting groups to understand the source of inspiration. Groups will be guided in their development as they decide how to respond positively to the climate emergency. Amity will facilitate residents from across Manchester to come together to expand their impact, and will also ensure the programme remains community-led by supporting members of the groups to be central to decision-making. Participants will also be welcomed into the Amity Community - an online space in which members connect with others for support and inspiration as they enact positive change in their local communities.
The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research is a partnership of universities bringing together researchers from the social and natural sciences and engineering to develop sustainable responses to climate change. We work with leaders from the public and private sectors to promote informed decisions on mitigating and adapting to climate change.
At Tyndall Manchester we work with organisations to translate global climate change goals into local action, drawing upon research experience on carbon emissions, energy systems, social practices and governance.
Commonplace is proud to be a strategic partner with the MCCA led team, and is providing the digital community engagement web service for the Zero Carbon Manchester pilots.
Commonplace works closely with other key partners to help the citizens of Manchester contribute to our ambitious Climate Change Action Plans being developed at community level.
The project is funded by the National Lottery and a coalition of funding partners including the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, the Wates Family Enterprise Trust and a coalition of corporate partners including the Co-op, Suntory Beverage Food GB&I and Coca-Cola GB.
This engagement phase has finished
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