Manchester – A Certain Future

Steering Group Meeting

Tuesday22nd July2014

5-7pm

BDP, 11 Ducie St, City Centre.

Action Points

Item / Discussion / Action
1. / Present: Dave Coleman (DC), Steve Merridew (SM), Damien Burton (DB), Vicki Ramsten (VR), Ali Abbas (AA), Kate Chappell (KC), Jonny Sadler (JS), Gudrun Cartwright (GC), Holly Bonfield (HB).
Chaired by Gavin Elliott (GE)
Apologies: Nigel Rose (NR), Helen Seagrave (HS)
2. / Introductions and actions carried over
-SL has been working with Rachel from Creative Concern on developing a subscribers list. Rachel has emailed the endorsers list from the old website and SL has emailed all those on the Mailchimp list asking them to sign up to the new website. Both Rachel and SL have asked members of the two lists to sign up before the 31st July. This will create one list of people who are interested in M:ACF. This list can be added to the master list once established. The subscribers list will be created by the next SG meeting.
-JS - Will Swan is a strong candidate for the Buildings Group Chair role. JS is to invite him to the August Steering Group meeting and send his email to SL to add to the contact list.Nicola Percival contacted GE informing him that the buildings group had not met in 6 months and it was losing momentum.
-Jessica Bowles is working on Community Strategy over the next 5 years. JS to ask when she can attend a Steering Group meeting.
-Rowena Burns from CityCo was involved with previous City Centre GI Initiative. The proposal was quite well developed but stalled due to lack of enthusiasm from the City. However, this could be ‘revived’ quite easily and implementation strategy developed.JS met with Alex at City Co and discussed a joint partnership.
-DECC data now published, Ali to discuss later on. / SL
JS
JS
3. / Thematic Chair Reports
Energy (DB)
-Continued discussions with the universities, the aquatics centre, and hospitals to see what their aspirations and opinions were. There appears to be mixed opinions from these discussions, DB will do a written report concerning this.
-The group are planning a breakfast meeting at Rylands Library in partnership with University of Manchester. The content will likely focus on a business audience and may include a workshop with master classes on selling energy efficiency internally, quantifying project value, technologies, and masterplanning for developments. The Group is also looking at a similar event for community renewables.
-Currently considering who to invite, want about 10 -20 businesses to be involved. Enworks are running a business support programme at the moment and would be good to contact.
-Go through multiple networks to let them know about the event.
-The SG discussed their thoughts on fracking. Would be good to look at Tindell’s thoughts on nuclear and then publish a M:ACF report on fracking.Fracking is completely incompatible with M:ACF’s targets.
-JS - it needs to be distinct that the report is the views of the SG, not the views of the city.
-DB to research fracking and give a presentation to the SG. Might be beneficial to align with Friends of the Earth or Tindell who have the data already.
Buildings
-No Chair in position. Will Swan may attend the next SG meeting.
Green & BIueInfrastructure (SM)
-The EU funding event occurred on the 16thJuly. Presentations were given from New Economy, Enterprise Europe andthe RSPB. UK cities in this region do not bid as much as other cities do. Oftencities that do bid have teams to advise them. SM will do a write of the outcomes of this meeting and organise a follow up meeting soon.
-On the 24th September, Green and Blue will be running the RIBA City Health Check event. This will be addressing the use of public outdoor space and the link between health / wellbeing and green spaces. VR and SM are currently looking for appropriate speakers for this event. VR and SM also to look for a sponsor for the event. SL to offer some administrative support for this event, workload dependent.
Sustainable Consumption and Production(GC)
  • The Waste Group are keen on moving things forward. Have looked at and revised the actions in the SCP Plan for 2014-15.
  • An action plan is currently being created around food waste.
  • DEFRA have launched an innovation fund to provide grants for projects which divert waste from the waste stream run by community partnerships. This will be discussed at the next meeting to see if there is a sufficiently developed project that meets the criteria.
  • The SCP group supports the Manchester Food Board’s priorities in food waste procurement.
  • News articles have been uploaded onto the Platform.
  • GC will be meeting EB next week.
Transport
-ER has resigned from her post as Transport Chair. JS to look for an appropriate Chair. / DB
DB
DB
SM
SM, VR
SL
JS
4. / Target and Scrutiny Chair Reports
41% CO2 Monitoring(AA)
-Latest figures from DECC show that Manchester has not reduced its emissions as much as anticipated.
-Have prepared an article for the M:ACF and Platform site.
-Group have agreed on a work plan and will prioritise looking at the targets against the latest analysis, the total carbon footprint of the city and a sectoral review of emissions to see who is creating the most CO2.
Adaptation (JC)
-Keen to support future Climate UK’s event.
-At the last Adaptation Group meeting, an approach for reviewing plans and strategies in terms of their coverage of adaptation issues was discussed. Need to understand where Manchester City Council are at the minute andhow theirpolicies and strategies address climate change impacts and adaptation themes.
-AGMA is underway with an application to UNISDRs Resilient Cities network.
Low Carbon Economy (JS in the absence of HS)
-JS is commissioning CLES to do a piece of research on what is meant by a low carbon economy in Manchester and how to make progress.
-Part 1 how to define and measurea low carbon economy. This will be reported back on in Sept.
-Part 2 is what needs to be done by October following the report.
-Would be good to do a workshop after October and involve the wider stakeholders.
Low Carbon Culture (DC)
-DC and JS to seek the adding of climate change questions to the MCC citizen survey.
-DC to meet with Nicola Percival to formulate benchmark questions for the large organisations whose leaders committed to supporting the roll-out of low carbon culture earlier this year.
-The Carbon Literacy Project currently developing an e-learning framework to support the roll-out of Carbon Literacy to the CL4RPs consortium of GM housing associations,and four GM local authorities, but in time this will be made available to a wider range of organisations.
-DC to meet with Todd Holden about GM carbon footprint work, and will introduce AA to connect up MACF work to the similar GM work being performed in parallel.
-Recent Smart Cities delegation from China expressed great interest in Carbon Literacy when it was showcased to them as part of Manchester's Smart Digital Cities initiatives.
-DC seeking to have a group meeting with academics from UoM, MMU, SCI, and Tyndall to discuss academic foundation for methodologies for measuring Low Carbon Culture change across the city. / JS, DC
DC, NP
AA
5. / Enabling Groups
Finance (NR)
-Jessica Bowles came along to the last Finance and Governance meeting. The bid has been circulated to the SG group to read and comment on the next few days.
-It will be likely that a decision is made towards Christmas time.
Communications / Events (VR / HB)
Deep Dive
Communications / Events (HB / VR)
VR and HB presented jointly on this, talking through the Draft Communications Strategy Paper previously circulated, which included:
-A modelfor the engagement and communications approach.
-Influenced heavily by theCommunicationsworkshopdeliveredby Steve, where the audiences and M:ACF messageswere discussed.
-Businesses, learning establishments and Manchester residents are thebroad target audiences. There is a needto identify what the SG are already doing in these categories. This will dictate what activities are focused on in the year. However, this paper outlines aspirations and the outcome of Clean and Green Bid will hopefully provide greater resource to achieve more.
-Next event is likely to be 1stweek of October and it will be informal.
-December / January might be good to focus on Manchester residents, possibly football fans and / or learning establishments.
-GC - suggests to go to sustainability leads rather than CEOs as there will be a better chance for engagement.
-KC - suggests identifying smaller groups to target. Might be beneficial to target 20 media contacts and having an event for them. Also a good idea to work with umbrella organisations such as City Co. SG agree this is a good idea.
-HB presentedthe website to the SG including the resource library, the events calendar and who is contributing.
-Group agreedthat they would like to change the cover photo and for it not to take up so much room. They also agreed that they ‘quick links’ should be removed and it should be easier to see the page options. Name list of endorsers to be removed also. HB to speak to Rachel about this at Creative Concern.
-The group agree that the events calendar and resource library is good.
-SL is to upload all the previous agendas and minutes that are stored on the Dropbox.
-SG to email further suggestions toon possible changes to the website toHB
For the time being, HB and VR have decide to keep Events and Comms as two separate groups but they will be working together.
HB and VR will update the Draft Comms Strategy Paper for next SG. / HB
SL
ALL
6. / May meeting – list of big issues.
-JS – the work program needs to be revisited and is ready to be timetabled. Will email the document to the SG after this meeting to populate for discussion at the next meeting. / JS, ALL
7 / Developing to 2020 (Smart Plan)
-Greater Manchester colleagues are also doing CO2 analysis. Would be good to generate a set of actions from this.
-Mark Atherton and JS to co-develop a M:ACF and Greater Manchester plan together as they will be similar. It will reduce efforts and will mean that Manchester is more aligned.
-Mark Atherton is to also do a consultation that will go beyond local authority sustainability offers. The timetable in mind for this is end of December, which will then go to an external consultation. Then looking at early May from Magma.
-SG agree to work with Mark Atherton and would like to invite him to the August meeting.
-M:ACF is due for a refresh in 2016.
-Next event to be in September / October. The June AGM and launch for the next five years. Might be worth doing a joint event with Enworks or doing a follow up event from the AGM. / JS
9. / Date of next meeting
19th August 2014.
10. / AOB
-Councillor Jeff Smith who is the executive member of housing and regeneration will be covering KC’s maternity cover.
-GC – George Osbourne has agreed not to weaken the carbon budget, it would be a good idea to promote this.GC to send information to Ali who will tweet it. Should also be sent to Steve Connor for the website.
-M:ACF needs a system for press releases. To be discussed at another meeting.
-Green Building Council conference is scheduled for January 2015. GE - would be good to get someone in place for buildings before then. SM also to be involved. How to do it politically and economically rather than retrofit? Put be put on the agenda for the next SG meeting. / GC, AA
SL
11. / Steering Group Dates and Deep Dive presentations:
Tuesdays, 5-7pm at BDP, Ducie St, Manchester, M1 2JB
19th August - Green & Blue Infrastructure
23rd September - 41% Reduction Monitoring
21st October – Finance
18th November - Energy
23rd December – TBC – Adaptation
Next event: September / October
12. / Future Agenda Items TBC
  • Definition of LCC and it’s measurement. What would the sector representatives report on?
  • Mapping.
  • Blog Content.
  • M:ACF Visits.
  • Low Carbon Economy – ‘what is it’
  • M:ACF Funding Application.
  • Good Growth – ‘what does it look like?’
  • Build relationship with The Low Carbon Hub.
  • Is M:ACF charitable trust, etc.
  • System for press releases.
  • How to get to the big idea?
  • Green Building Council conference
Next event: September / October