Last year we wanted to make sure we looked back over what we’d achieved to learn from it and carry the lessons through into this year. Here’s a short summary so you can see what supporting our work means.
Engaging with politicians – this year we have worked hard to ensure we get our message across to more elected representatives in Birmingham. In the picture is our lead campaigner on Energy and Climate Change, Robert Pass, with Gisela Stewart MP, but we’ve also held meetings with other MPs and councillors from all the different parties.
We promoted reasonable and fair debate on the hottest topics of the moment. Here is the panel from our debate on the HS2 plan and whether it would promote sustainable transport and jobs.
We went out and about talking to people about our campaigns. This picture is from Go Green Week at Aston University where we were asking students to “Rate their Digs” and talk about energy efficiency in the lead up to the Energy Bill going through parliament.
We got our hands dirty and planted flowers and edible plants from seed bombs around Birmingham.
We took some risks and broadened our ways of trying to engage with people. Here’s a shot from a street opera on climate change which we supported.
We went to more festivals than ever before, raising money for our campaigns and giving volunteers the opportunity to enjoy time in a field watching live music in between shifts.
We were recognised for our work. We won a couple of awards last year; one from the Be Birmingham Environmental Partnership (see picture with Rob Hopkins of Transition Towns) and an Earthmovers award from Friends of the Earth.
We took a national campaign idea from Friends of the Earth to ask David Cameron to Halve Rubbish and turned it into our biggest local campaign of the year. The results of which you can read about in the article by John Newson.
We have provided practical and fun solutions to transport problems. As well as responding to endless consultations on transport matters, we also decided to do something to engage people with cycling. Our “bike trains” in September were a big success and showed what can be done for very little cost.
Our Santa Parade once again caught the attention of thousands of shoppers on Buy Nothing Day. We also went over to see the people at the Occupy camp.
At the end of the year, we also put on a film together with Midlands Cooperatives to raise awareness of climate issues around the talks in Durban.
So, as you can see, it was another busy year (we could have put in a lot more pictures if we had more space). Thanks to everyone who was involved and please do contact us if you fancy making 2012 just as special.
