Environment News
Wellbeing: a new paradigm or just a fad?
As someone with a long interest in language and how it is used, I am often fascinated by how changes of terminology take place. Suddenly people are using a new term, sometimes to refer to a new concept or approach, but sometimes the new term simply replaces an old one. Well-being is not a new term or even a new concept, but it is certainly being used much more these days, and in different ways too.
I am a great believer in the idea of ‘confluence theory’, the notion that significant changes...
Future of wellbeing: what does this mean for you and your organisation?
From debates on wellbeing as a political goal, to positive psychology 'wellbeing' is being used more and more. But what does this term mean? And more importantly, perhaps, what does it mean to civil society organisations?
Many charities have wellbeing at the heart of what they do, even if they don't realise it. The sector can play a vital role in this directing this issue to shape society into a good society.
Join us on 23 February for the Future of Wellbeing seminar (PM4) at NCVO's annual...
The future is not what is used to be
This Autumn the latest in NCVO’s Third Sector Foresight pocket guides series, Future Focus 7, will study the future of campaigning. Here Nick Wilson, new Third Sector Foresight Officer and winner of a Sheila McKechnie Foundation Award for campaigning, looks at what the recent Camp for Climate Action tells us about that future.
Over the Bank Holiday weekend Climate Camp staged six days of protest in Blackheath, London, under the banner “The future is not what it used to be”. This was just the ...
Community in times of adversity
Coming together
There’s been a lot in the news recently about shares and markets, but what about the price of a different type of share? The Eden Project’s recent Big Lunch initiative puts a high value on community sharing. A slightly hamfisted connection there, or one with some credence? Billed as an event ‘to put a smile on Britain's face’, the support for the Big Lunch may have been because of its timing. Several of those commenting (see for example Steve Bridger’s piece) have drawn the...
The future of the sector/government relationship
I am currently spending two days a week at the Office of the Third Sector where I am working with others on a futures analysis project. I am spending my days thinking about current trends and future implications, and I’m aware of what a luxury that is and the stark contrast to my usually hectic and meeting-filled days at NCVO Third Sector Foresight!
I’m identifying the drivers that will or could influence the future interaction between government and the sector. We are also looking at what...
A world apart, but facing an issue together?
The New Internationalist has been exploring issues around the current economic crisis and climate change through a series of events, interviews and articles. Their most recent publication looks at grass roots solutions to climate change and the impact this has on local economies – with an article featuring communities in southern Brazil.
- Is there anything we can learn from these communities?
- Can the VCS in the UK simultaneously tackle the issues of recession and climate change? Read on to find...
Thinking through climate change and the VCS
Climate change is a complex issue which can seem overwhelming and possibly irrelevant to voluntary and community sector organisations. However it does have implications that could affect your organisation.
Have you thought about how it may impact on your organisation or those who use your services?
- Climate change will shift global population movements. Increasing numbers of ‘environmental refugees’ could change the demographics in communities as well as lead to greater demand on services....
Ethical consumerism and the economy – a bending trend
“A trend is a trend is a trend, until it bends”
Ged Davis from Shell famously said. His comment encapsulates one of the difficulties of strategic analysis, which is the way in which individual drivers relate to each other. A trend can seem to be progressing in a fairly predictable fashion, until a shock or a counter-trend knocks it off course. This is usually what is behind those predictions that were so famously wrong.
I was reminded of this today as I updated our driver on ethical...
The ‘green squeeze’
Recently the Foresight team have been discussing what the impact of an economic downturn will be on ethical consumerism. The Government agenda has focused on green issues for some time now (for example the last budget set a target for all public buildings to be carbon neutral by 2019), and this year’s G-8 summit has seen countries pledge to take this even further. More and more individuals and organisations have been embracing the movement; however, in the current economic environment, we...
‘One small step for man….’
I recently read an interesting article about individual responses to environmental change. The main thrust of the piece centred on the fact that steps taken by one person can lead others to do the same. The author termed it ‘viral social change’ and it seems to me that this is probably the biggest influencer of people’s behaviour in all manner of things. It’s the modern version of ‘lead by example’ but this current change relies more on peer leadership than anything else. This is quite...
