Development Diaries Week 2

Hi there,

Following on from my colleague Bethany’s entry into the development diary last week, which provides a brief insight into our work here at the hub, it is my now turn. My name’s Jonny and I’m the Islands based Climate action development officer for the North Highlands and Islands Climate Hub and have been in position for about 4 months now. 

So, this week kicked off with International Women’s Day on the 8th March (Mondays don’t count) where we ran a social media campaign aimed at engaging with our followers to share the women in their lives who have been an inspiration. We were also fortunate enough to have Adele Lidderdale, a business owner, PhD researcher, mother and partner, write a guest blog for us for international women’s day that was engaging, informative and highlighted the need and benefit of empowering women. If you want to have a read of Adele’s blog, it is available here.

Also on Tuesday I got to go down to the launch event for Greener Orkney’s new community fridge in Kirkwall. I inadvertently entered just before photos were being taken and have consequently featured in this week’s Orcadian newspaper. Greener Orkneys main aim is to reduce waste within the Orkney Isles, they do monthly litter picks and have more recently implemented the community fridge project, where they receive donations of food from the co-op that would otherwise go to waste and distribute it for free amongst the community. This achieves not only reducing the amount of food going to waste, but also helps reduce food insecurity.

I also met with the Climate Change team from Shetland Islands Council this week and had a productive discussion on their aims and plans for addressing the climate emergency and what support the Climate Hub can offer alongside this for community groups looking to get involved. Other than meetings and engagements, I have been working on a number of presentations this week. This includes developing a workshop for community groups looking to implement a net zero strategy/environmental policy, working on the Hubs carbon literacy training and organising an event focused on circular economies, the first two still need work, but if you are looking to sign up to attend the Circular economies information session (17th March at 7pm and 18th March at 2pm), you can do so below:

Other things that have been going on with the Hub this week involve my colleague Amanda going to visit Helmsdale Community Garden and working on the members area of our website, which will provide assistance with reducing the bureaucracy around running a group and developing projects. Bethany, another Development Officer, also hosted a pair of events on Wednesday the 9th focused on Community fridges and larders, this involved information on how to develop and run a community fridge/larder, with some guest speakers from groups who have successfully implemented them. If you missed it, this was recorded and will be available in the near future. Here at the Hub we have also put up a survey on our website for groups to fill out regarding climate action projects and what support they would like to see offered by the Hub.

So that’s a brief run through of what I and the rest of the Hub have been up to. Next week you’ll be hearing from Amanda, and in the meantime, I hope to see you at the Circular Economies event next Thursday or Friday.