On 5th May, the Future Leap Network hosted “Closing the Gap: Be Part of a Sustainable Future”, an online free workshop, kindly supported by Weston College and the Accelerate Programme.
After some informal networking over tea, Katherine Piper, Head of Partnerships and Sustainability, introduced the audience to the work being done at Future Leap, including the exciting opening of our second site and our upcoming Festival of Sustainable Business.
Katherine then welcomed Sophia Cheng, Founder of With Many Roots, to present an introduction to climate change and the need to be net zero. She talked about some of the warning signs before inviting the audience to take part in an interactive mini workshop to understand a little more about the complexity of climate change. The workshop was a sample of her invaluable climate literacy workshops she facilitates on a regular basis, often used as team building workshops as well as for education. She mentioned some inspiring solutions from Project Drawdown, before getting the audience involved in an activity that moved “from head to heart” – discussing how the climate emergency makes us feel – and the importance of moving from the stick to the carrot in motivating behaviour change.
Next, Katherine welcomed Future Leap’s very own Senior Carbon Consultant, to offer a whilstle stop tour of understanding carbon jargon and how to measure your carbon footprint. Simon presented on some key terminology, before walking the audience through his “Data Collator” application (using case study data as an example). Simon showcased how Future Leap consultancy can simplify the complexity of measuring your carbon footprint, and then offered examples of how to reduce and offset once the measure has been found.
After a comfort break, Katherine welcomed Julia Anukam from SustainIt Solutions to summarise the actions of COP26. She explained the difference between the green and blue zones, what happened in them, and summarised her delightfully creative slides with a list of good and bad outcomes from the summit.
Finally, the Future Leap consultants were invited to facilitate a discussion together, looking back at the information from the session to offer guidance on how businesses can use this to succeed sustainably. This included Simon Forsyth, and our other consultants, Eleanor Akers and Eoin McQuone.
After some engaging discussions, Katherine from Future Leap and Lynsey from Weston College closed the event with gratitude sent to all those who took part.
Another big thanks to Weston College and the Accelerate Programme for making these insightful and crucial workshops happen in such an accessible manner.
