We need "do-ists" as much as "activists", in these extreme times - and Climate Emergency Centres are a great example
From Climate Emergency Centre website
The Alternative has a preferential option for truly ground-up and community-empowered initiatives. So it’s great to check in with the Climate Emergency Centre (CEC) movement - whose subtitle is “the establishment of empty buildings as inspirational community hubs, for the benefit of people and planet”.
What we most like is the practicality of the tool-box that they use to create such centres. Once the private or Council owned empty property has been identified, a local CEC group can begin discussions with the owners about having access to the building on a “meanwhile lease”.
According to their Handbook, “owners are asked to reduce their Business Rates payments by 80-100% through a meanwhile lease of the property to a not for profit/charitable organisation (your CEC). In addition, the property owner can build good relationships with the local community and the local Council through supporting a creative and positive sustainability initiative.” [See the original legislation].
There is a growing map of initiatives pulled together under these schemes, which is also a supportive network of practice and knowledge. The Alternative’s framework of CANs (citizen action/community agency networks) overlaps with CEC’s - we’d be interested in bringing our methods and theories about the development of complex relationships within communities to this movement.
The green thinker Rupert Read casts this kind of community construction as representing the “Moderate Flank” of climate activism - appealing to everyday “do-ists” as much as committed activists. As he writes in the Independent:
I think you know what to do. It’s too late to wait for governments to act adequately: they don’t intend to. We need to start acting, in the communities where we live, in the places where we work, to make ourselves resilient. To adapt, transformatively, to our deteriorating climate.
What kind of thing do I have in mind? Well, what’s being done by the emerging, inspiring network of Climate Emergency Centres, for starters. One-stop shops for anyone and everyone who wants to start making needful changes, from the ground up. The idea is that these centres provide a space for uniting communities in finding solutions to environmental problems at a local level. Why not get involved?
Then there’s what’s happening in an increasing number of professions: from Lawyers for Net Zero, a group of in-house lawyers committed to ensuring businesses work for the environment, not against it, to those creatively disrupting the advertising industry from within. From Fiduciaries for the Future, who are making money green, to the emerging network of academics bolstering climate change research and teaching via Faculty for a Future.
And then there are the parents like @heymothership who are trying to give their kids a future by promoting practical tips on things you can do for the planet every day. This is the change we need – from everyone. The time has come when we need to become not just activists, but do-ists.