London's climate resilience, impact storytelling and dealing with overwhelm

A monthly digest of inspiring projects, useful resources and opportunities to create systemic change.

Hello! For anyone new here, this is my monthly digest. Each month I look out for interesting things to share with you from my travels and conversations with clients and collaborators. We’re talking culture-shifting campaigns, breakthrough technologies, impactful learning resources, funding opportunities, exciting jobs… These digests provide you with a monthly dose of inspiration and support for all the brilliant work you do. They’ll also encourage you to look after yourself and everything you need to thrive whilst you do it. I hope you find something here to fuel your growth and feed your soul.

I love to include what you’re working on, please reach out if you’ve got something to share with us!

I write this issue with a big spring in my step. It’s early days and there’s an awful lot of work to do, but the Labour Party’s landslide victory in the UK’s General Election this month marks the beginning of some long-awaited systemic change to British politics.

In Keir Starmer’s new cabinet, only one out of the 25 ministers attended a private school. The rest were educated at comprehensive schools, making it the most diverse cabinet in terms of educational background in UK history, a significant move towards a government more representative of the broader UK population. More than half of the elected MPs (335/650) are new to parliament, marking a significant influx of fresh faces into the House of Commons, a special but in many ways anachronistic institution I got to know as my first employer - a story for another day. Significantly, Labour has proposed reforms to the House of Lords, aiming to replace it with a democratically elected second chamber, part of a broader effort to restore trust in the political system and modernise British democracy.

I’ve listened to many interviews with newly appointed ministers in the last couple of weeks, and I’m feeling really hopeful about the UK for the first time in a while (my frustration with Boris Johnson’s government during the pandemic in part inspired this project). If you didn’t catch it at the time, I urge you to watch Keir Starmer’s brilliant first speech as Prime Minister which promises “a return of politics to public service” - wild that this even needs to be said, but it really did.

I hope you enjoy this issue!

Gen

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The Palace of Westminster, London

Following extreme weather events including flash floods in 2021 and a 40-degree heatwave in 2022, the Mayor of London commissioned the London Climate Resilience Review, an independent study to guide London’s preparations for more extreme weather. The Review gathered evidence from individuals, communities and organisations including the NHS, Transport for London, London Fire Brigade, the Metropolitan Police, Borough Councils, the GLA, UK Government, NGOs, the financial services sector, sports and cultural institutions. The findings and 50 recommendations, which call for strategic, delivery, capacity building or investment actions, are directed to stakeholders across London, including the Mayor of London, UK government, local authorities and the community and voluntary sector.

Wilding is a new documentary telling the story of a young couple that bets on nature for the future of their failing, four-hundred-year-old estate in the UK, Knepp. Though told upon inheriting the land that it was a “biological desert,” husband and wife owners Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree dared to place the fate of their farm in the hands of nature. Deciding in 2000 to abandon farming, they ripped down the fences, set the land back to the wild and entrusted its recovery to a diverse mix of animals. Over the last decade the Knepp estate has become a huge rewilding and commercial success, recognised as one of the most significant rewilding experiments in Europe.

Tara Brach’s teachings blend Western psychology and Eastern spiritual practices, mindfulness, and a full, compassionate engagement with our world. She is a much-loved voice in Western Buddhism, offering a thoughtful and caring approach to freeing ourselves from suffering. I’m a big fan of her books and her podcast, and I loved this two-part series on embodied presence, in Tara’s words, “a guide to replanting ourselves”, exploring how we are so often dissociated from the life of our body and the challenges of pain, fear and trauma, and how we can gradually and skillfully reconnect with a wholeness of being.

Creatives for Climate is a global network of 40,000 change-agents using creativity to drive climate action. In response to the UN Secretary-General's call for advertisers to combat greenwashing and support genuine climate solutions, they launched a pioneering handbook, 'The Anti-Greenwash Guide for Agency Leaders.' Sign up for their ‘Beyond Anti-Greenwashing’ webinar on 10th September here to learn about the latest anti-greenwash regulation and get inspired by industry leaders who are applying transformative practices in their agencies. 

Pregnant Then Screwed is a small and mighty charity working to end the motherhood penalty in the UK. My brilliant former client Lauren Fabianski is their Head of Campaigns and Communications. In her recent piece for Grazia, ‘What A Labour Government Means for Families’, she keeps up the pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s new government to stand by their election campaign promises.

Considered Capital is on a mission to open up alternative funding for startups, founders and socially-led businesses. Determined to challenge the notion that Venture Capital is the only way to fund your business, Considered Capital helps teams to find funding options that align with their values through courses and tools. Check out their new live UK funding database here.

Running Out of Time is an annual climate relay that raises awareness, inspires action and celebrates great climate campaigns, projects and events across Britain. The 2,500km 2024 Relay started on 6th June at Ben Nevis, weaving through 50 cities and towns and ending at Big Ben in Parliament Square in London on 4th July, the day of the General Election. The event comprised 210 stages and 80+ visits to climate & nature projects, sporting bodies & venues, schools, events and iconic locations. The message in the baton supported the Climate Coalition’s national United for People, Climate and Nature campaign, calling for politicians of all parties - and leaders in all walks of life - to cut emissions, restore nature, and help those most affected by climate change.

Vessantara is a much published and well-respected English Buddhist author, meditator and teacher. He is a senior member of the Triratna Buddhist Community. He holds a particular love for Tibetan Buddhism and his known particularly as an effective storyteller. Read his 20 suggestions for dealing with overwhelm here.

The School for Moral Ambition is on a mission to help as many people as possible take the step towards a job with a positive impact. They believe in the power of small groups of driven individuals to bring about big changes in the world. With their fellowships, they bring together talented, ambitious people to tackle the most urgent problems of our time. They are growing this year and they are on the lookout for a Community Manager in Berlin and a CEO for North America.

Eleanor Gordon-Smith is a writer and ethicist currently at Princeton University. Read a recent piece from her advice column for The Guardian, Leading Questions, which takes an inquisitive approach to life’s puzzles and grey areas, “I feel despair about the state of the world. How can I find the courage to not abandon hope?”

Google.org brings the best of Google to help solve some of humanity’s biggest challenges - combining funding, innovation, and technical expertise to support underserved communities and provide opportunity for everyone. They’ve launched a €15M open call for European nonprofits, civic entities, academic institutions, and social enterprises to help scale initiatives promoting democratic resilience in the region, including through the use of advanced technology and AI. Find out more here.

Part of the University of the Arts London’s new Social Purpose Group, the AKO Storytelling Institute is on a mission to enable storytellers and campaigners to make a greater social impact through their work. Through interdisciplinary experimentation and collaboration, they develop evidence-based approaches to the theory and practice of storytelling-for-change. Their new milestone report, Impact Storytelling: the Ecosystem, the Evidence and Possible Futures, has been designed to be an essential resource for storytellers, creatives, researchers, and funders aiming to collaborate and harness the impact of storytelling for social change.

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