December 24, 2023
Our recent Christmas Celebration gave us the chance to hear about some of your proudest achievements from 2023, and was also a reminder of how much has happened for Sustainable South Hams in the last year! Read on for a round up of where we’re at now, what we’re looking forward to, and the wide range of things we’ve been up to.
We’ve been really pleased to work closely with South Hams District Council (SHDC) this year. In July, SHDC pledged core funding to assist SusSH in our work and in October, our Change Makers online event saw a good number of you joining to hear about the council’s new Corporate Strategy with regards to Climate & Nature. Although their feedback form on this is now closed, you can read responses or send your response via email.
We’re working with SHDC on the new Composting Pilot Series, in which we would welcome your involvement! We’re looking for practical people who’d like to get involved with brown bin conversions and anyone interested in a composting deep dive weekend in March/April (email info@sussh.org if either of those is you!). We’re also excited to be developing home composting demo sites, bringing mentors into communities with a home composting advice roadshow and looking at options around street-level compost projects.
The SHDC Keep it Local event in November, facilitated by Sustainable South Hams at Follaton House, created space for some amazing conversations around the challenges of selling locally and potential solutions. The two focal points of the discussion were around creating a food culture and exploring business-to-business infrastructure, both physical and digital. See the details of these points here.
Probably our biggest project of the year was the Rivers Assembly in March. This event saw around 150 project, group and community leaders gathering to share knowledge, discuss projects and develop new ideas. Since then, we…
- Had a follow up gathering in April
- Learned from the exemplar Yealm Estuary to Moor Project
- Understood how groups are helping rivers using Bathing Water Status
- Supported the set up of Wild About The River Erme (WATER)
- And wrapped up with an update from all the amazing projects that have sprung out of the Assembly
The Sewage Scrutiny Group are continuing with their important work, and Martin Fodder would be keen to hear from anyone with specific expertise, particularly with data analysis or engineering, who might like to support their work.
Throughout 2023, we’ve held a great series of Change Makers events (previously Group Leaders’ Gatherings) including:
- Social Media for Sustainability Groups
- Community Fridge Tour
- Saving Earth Resources (and Scaling Earth Resource Management)
- Starting & Developing Your Community Group
- Young People and Education (ahead of 2024’s planned Assembly)
- And our lovely Christmas Celebration!
We’re looking forward to our January Change Makers event on Thermal Imaging Cameras, and following up on climate adaptation in February - hope to see you there!