SWM Presentations, Reports & News
SWM Presentations, Reports & News
Read useful and focused reports on a range of topics and catch up with past issues of our SWM e-newsletter.
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A low carbon vision for the West Midlands in 2020
Date uploaded: June 2009. Sets out a positive and practical vision of a West Midlands that has achieved carbon reduction and an improved quality of life by 2020.
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A Sustainable Future for the West Midlands: Regional Sustainable Development Framework
Date uploaded: June 2009. Framework providing sustainable development criteria to inform sustainability appraisals for policy and projects in the region.
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An update on Sustainability West Midlands activity
On 11 December 2009 Sian Thomas from Sustainability West Midlands (SWM) gave this presentation at the West Midlands Sustainable Development Officers Network(SDON). It explores the recent progress made by SWM and how you can get involved with what we are doing.
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Birmingham's Carbon Savings 2009-10
Sustainability West Midlands produced this report on behalf of Birmingham Environmental Partnership to provide a figure for reporting on the CO2e target for Birmingham 2009/10 which is 120,000 tonnes of CO2e saved and to disseminate the good practice reported.
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Brief to appoint Sustainability West Midlands Associates
Date uploaded: August 2009. Due to the growth of Sustainability West Midlands (SWM) and demand for our services, we are currently seeking to expand our capacity through the appointment of associates. If you are interested please download the brief for more information. Applications are required by 6pm on Friday 4th September.
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Building Britain's future - West Midlands Green Economy
On 29 July, Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate change, visited Birmingham with a very interesting question and answer session following these presentations.
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Challenging convention and exploring new models
This presentation by the Business Council for Sustainable Development United Kingdom (BCSD-UK) was delivered at a workshop held by SWM in December 2009. It explores lessons learnt from credit crunch, developing a process template for analysis crunches, models for managing risk, exploiting new opportunities and what it will take to build resilience.
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Everyone Matters in a Sustainable Community - Conference Report
This conference report from Regional Action West Midlands (RAWM) and Sustainability West Midlands (SWM) was written by Jeremy Bruce and was published in September 2009.
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Findings from the Regional Growth into the Low Carbon Economy study
On 15 January 2009 Simon Slater from Sustainability West Midlands (SWM) and John Walker from the West Midlands Regional Observatory (WMRO) delivered the following presentations, 'What would a local low carbon strategy look like?' and 'Low Carbon Economy in the West Midlands', respectively.
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How to Develop Green Collar Jobs in Your Area - Examples of good practice
This presentation is a collection of success stories in the West Midlands region. It demonstrates how businesses, commmunities and regional bodies seize the opportunities created by a Low Carbon Resource Effience Economy (LCREE).
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How to Develop Green Collar Jobs in Your Area - Overview of Low Carbon Economy Policy in the West Midlands
This presentation by Dr Simon Slater, Executive Director at Sustainability West Midlands, reminded the participants about the Regional Sustainability Vision for 2020 and the challenges we are facing in realising it.
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How to Develop Green Collar Jobs in Your Area - What is a Green Economy? - and Where are the Green Jobs?
Peter Young, Strategy Director at Enviros Consulting, opened the workshop session with his stimulating presentation. He explained what a Low Carbon and Resource Efficient Economy (LCREE) is and what are the possible ways of achieving it.
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Involving children and young people in sustainable living and climate change agendas
The National Children's Bureau and Sustainability West Midlands held this event on 27 January 2010 to share national and regional perspectives and experiences and group work to help participants learn, network and action plan.
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Leadership - mind the gap?
This presentation was given by Simon Slater at the Environment and Economy workshop at the West Midlands Regional Observatory Annual Conference.
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Low carb or low carbon? A Healthy Environment Conference
Dr Simon Slater, Sustainability West Midlands, gave this presentation on 8 March 2010 at the regional 'A Healthy Environment Conference' run by the Health Protection Agency West Midlands. The purpose of the presentation is to discuss how tackling health inequalities and carbon reduction together will make our region more sustainable.
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Low Carbon Economy in the West Midlands
Advantage West Midlands commissioned the West Midlands Regional Observatory and Atkins to produce the report, 'Low Carbon Economy in West Midlands' to understand the strengths that currently exist in the regional economy and identify the low carbon opportunities available across those strengths. Sustainability West Midlands chaired the steering group.
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Mini summit on worklessness and green solutions - Colin Hines presentation
Colin Hines, convenor of the Green New Deal group came to inspire us all to think locally and what the green new deal could mean for Birmingham and the West Midlands.
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Mini summit on worklessness and green solutions - GOWM presentation
This presentation by Helga Edstrom and John Lee introduced the role of the Government Office and the economic inclusion panel and the funding streams available for example the Future Jobs fund.
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Mini summit on worklessness and green solutions - Groundwork Black Country GAP scheme
Amit Dattani presented on the great example of the Graduate Apprentice Program (GAP) that he runs and the benefits and constraints to the program. This very successful program has helped 78% of its graduates get into employment in a sector they are interested in and the rest into further training.
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Mini summit on worklessness and green solutions - Groundwork Stoke presentation
This presentation by Heather Sheldon explored the intermediate labour markets in Stoke as a tested way of improving employability, how this has worked and the process behind this.
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Mini summit on worklessness and green solutions - Jericho Foundation
A motivational presentation from Tim Warner from The Jericho Foundation gave a background to the organisation and detailed some of their great work on retrofit in the region, particularly in Summerfield.
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Mini summit on worklessness and green solutions - The scale of the West Midlands worklessness challenge
This presentation by Glynn Jones set the scene for the West Midlands and the context for worklessness within the region.
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Moving Ahead: A Green Transport Charter for the West Midlands
On 4 December, we held a joint event with Centro to discuss their Green transport charter. This gave delegates the opportunity to discuss the charter, how it can be improved and next steps for the charter.
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Options for retrofit finance and delivery workshop
These presentations were given by SWM associates Jon Morris and Matthew Rhodes, and John Sharpe, Sustainable Housing Action Plan (SHAP) on 25 May 2010 at the SWM event, 'Options for retrofit financing and delivery workshop'. They aim to help others to understand the draft research on different options for financing and delivering the large scale energy efficient retrofit of existing housing stock.
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Planning for Sustainable Homes: Meeting the Low Carbon Challenge
Date uploaded: June 2009. A guide to good practice in planning policy for encouraging new low carbon homes aimed at planners and policy makers.
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Review of the application and reporting of the West Midlands Economic Strategy underlying principles 2008-09
Sustainability West Midlands review of how the underlying principles of low carbon and environment, equality and diversity, and rural renaissance set out in the regional economic strategy were being applied and reported on after the first year of delivery.
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Review of the application and reporting of the West Midlands Economic Strategy underlying principles 2009-10
Sustainability West Midlands produced this report in June 2010 to provide a review of the application of the underlying principles in the 2009-10 progress report for the West Midlands Economic Strategy (WMES). This will help to inform the future guidance for any future West Midlands or sub-regional economic strategies seeking to deliver sustainable development.
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Roadmap 2020: Sustainable Development Priorities for the West Midlands Workshop
This presentation was given by Dr Simon Slater, SWM and Stephen Owen, URSUS and SWM at the Roadmap 2020: Sustainable Development Priorities for the West Midlands Workshop on 30 March 2010. The aims of this event were to identify priority areas for activity to achieve the West Midlands Low Carbon Vision 2020 and to identify key actions to ensure progress on priorities.
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Scoping Study of Good Practice in Finance and Delivery Models for Low Carbon Housing Retrofit
This report is a first step towards creating a replicable and appropriate model for financing housing retrofit activities on a large scale to reduce carbon emissions across all tenure types.
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Sustainability West Midlands - BCSD-UK event
Dr Simon Slater, Executive Director, SWM gave this presentation on 3 March 2010 to introduce SWM at a BCSD-UK event. The presentation covers who we are and our vision for the future of the West Midlands. It also discusses the SWM business sector programme as well as the low carbon opportunities in the West Midlands. Finally it includes examples of some of the case studies of good examples for the region which we feature on the website.
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Sustainability West Midlands AGM presentations
The presentations which are available to download from this page were given at our Annual General Meeting held on Thursday 10 December, at our offices.
This wide variety of presentations were really interesting and it was great to hear how our members from different sectors are working towards a sustainable future for the West Midlands.
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Sustainability West Midlands Business Plan 2009-12
This is the three year Business Plan for Sustainability West Midlands, approved by our Board in September 2009, and reviewed annually. It sets out our key external and internal objectives as a not-for-profit business seeking to fulfill our role as the sustainability adviser for the leaders of the West Midlands.
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Sustainability West Midlands Business Plan 2010-11
This is the Business Plan for Sustainability West Midlands which has been approved by our Board. It sets out our key external and internal objectives as a not-for-profit business seeking to fulfill our role as the sustainability adviser for the leaders of the West Midlands.
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Sustainability West Midlands launch event - April 2009
This presentation covers the main direction and draft work programme launched for consultation with SWM members and stakeholders in April 2009. Good overview of SWM future direction, subsequently tailored and shortened in other presentations.
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Sustainability West Midlands Submission to the Examination in Public of the Regional Spatial Strategy
Date uploaded: June 2009. Submission by Sustainability West Midlands for the revision of the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) covering carbon, communities, and construction draft policies.
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Sustainable Commuting & Business Travel Workshop
The BITC and Sustainability West Midlands held this event on 10 February 2010 to inform organisations as to how the benefits of encouraging staff to cycle to work or car share.
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Sustainable Development Action Plans for Regional Public Sector Organisations
On February 22 2010 Simon Slater presented to the Civil Service West Midlands group about key regional Sustainable Development challanges, what a Sustainable Development Action Plan is, and the lessons from SWM on working with Advantage West Midlands to develop and deliver a plan.
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SWM Annual Customer Review
The aim of the annual customer survey was to remind customers about the range of activity we were involved with in 2009-10 and an indication of which of our priorities for 2010-11 were of most relevance. This information will be combined with our evaluation of events, projects, and members to produce a standalone annual review and mid-term evaluation required by our grant funding.
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SWM Case Studies Form
Sustainability West Midlands are writing case studies for our website to promote sustainability related award winners and good practice in the region and to create a resource for others looking for ideas and methods on how become more sustainable.
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SWM Climate Change Solutions event - May 2009
SWM chaired the morning session of this event. This features standard SWM presentation, but with slides at end highlighting key carbon / energy issues for region
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SWM introduction at West Midlands Sustainable Development Officers network meeting - June 2009
Standard SWM presentation, but with slide at end exploring links and support for local authorities to prompt discussion.
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SWM Newsletter - April 2010
This month's newsletter included our upcoming events 'Options for retrofit finance and delivery workshop' and 'Voices from the future 2020:How will we be powered?' as well as continuing our search for the West Midlands' Top 50 Green Leaders.
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SWM newsletter - August 2009
Here is a copy of our first newsletter which we sent at the beginning of August. In this month's edition - we discussed amongst other things: the brief to appoint SWM Associates, RegenWM prizes 2009 and upcoming events from around the West Midlands.
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SWM Newsletter - August 2010
This month's newsletter discussed our event 'Working towards a Smarter Future' on 9 September and a letter we sent to the Local Authorities leaders and Chief Executives offering our support to LEPs in generating a low carbon economy. Other news featured the launch of RegenWM's Prizes competition.
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SWM Newsletter - December 2009
This month's newsletter discussed the Copenhagen summit as well as the launch of The City Region project which is led by SWM. We also featured the announcement of The Regional Low Carbon Task Force, new funding opportunities for long term energy and environmental projects and the updates to the SWM website.
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SWM Newsletter - February 2010
This month's newsletter discussed the second of our series of Voices from the future 2020 events entitled 'How will we travel?' with key speaker Julia King. We featured the Lunar Society's 7th Annual Lecture with Jonathon Porritt which we are sponsoring. We also encouraged our readers to share their good practice through The West Midlands Low Carbon Economy Awards which are open until March 31.
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SWM Newsletter - January 2010
This month's newsletter discussed our vision for the coming year and important new projects which are being launched in the region such as the Green New Deal pilot. We launched six case studies we've produced for the OPEN project. We also featured updates on our City Region Low Carbon Economy Leadership Programme and Business Futures projects.
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SWM Newsletter - July 2010
This month's newsletter focused on our recent Low Carbon Economy Leadership Follow-up summit. We also featured our Top 50 Green Leaders in the West Midlands, and feedback from our annual customer review.
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SWM Newsletter - June 2010
This month's newsletter included our upcoming event 'Start Smarter Working and Living Event' on 9 September, our report 'Scoping Study of Good Practice in Finance and Delivery Models for Low Carbon Housing Retrofit' and news of our award winning members.
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SWM Newsletter - March 2010
This month's newsletter included the launch of our Top 50 Green Leaders competition, our upcoming event Using low carbon innovation to improve business products and services and our new case study form to help us share your good practice examples from the region.
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SWM Newsletter - May 2010
This month's newsletter included our upcoming event 'Voices from the future 2020: How will we be powered?' as well as launching our annual customer review.
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SWM newsletter - October 2009
This month's newsletter focused on our mini summit on worklessness and green solutions and the conclusions which we are following up as a result of this event. We also featured the newly launched RESCO programme, the OPEN project and the news that Staffordshire has signed the 'Think Local' pledge.
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SWM newsletter - September 2009
Our second newsletter included our comment on August's news and the key headlines, for example the recent launch of a government consultation on its policy statement on regional strategies and guidance on the establishment of Leaders' Boards, the good practice example of Lafarge Cement UK, and dates for your diary coming up including the Sustainable Housing Action programme conference.
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The City Region Low Carbon Economy Leadership summit
These presentations were given by Peter Woodward (an SWM associate), Jonathon Porritt (Forum for the Future) and Simon Slater (SWM) at the City Region Low Carbon Economy Leadership summit on 19 January 2010.
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Top 50 Green Leaders Celebration Event
These presentations were given on 19 July at a celebration event for the Top 50 Green Leaders in the West Midlands who were chosen through our competition. Jonathon Porritt, Forum for the Future was the key speaker at the event.
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Transport in the West Midlands: Supporting Sustainable Economic Growth and Regeneration Conference
Advantage West Midlands, the West Midlands Leaders Board (WMLB) and Birmingham Chamber of Commerce held the Transport in the West Midlands: Supporting Sustainable Economic Growth and Regeneration Conference in Birmingham on 25 March 2010. The conference addressed an audience of local business people. Speakers at the event underlined the importance of good quality transport to the region's recovery from the recession and to realising its ambition to be world class. Transport is also at the heart of the region's ability to meet carbon reduction targets and tackle climate change.
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Using low carbon innovation to improve business products and services
On Friday 23 April, we held this event at the SWM offices as part of the Business Futures project to give businesses a better understanding of how to apply low carbon thinking to existing innovation processes and develop better products and services.
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Voices from the Future 2020: How are we housed?
On Wednesday 21 October 2009, we held an event entitled 'Voices from the Future 2020: How are we housed?' with key note speaker Stellan Fryxell, a partner of Tenborn Architects in Stockholm. This was the first event of our of 'Voices from the future 2020' series which to develops themes from 'a low carbon vision for the West Midlands in 2020.' The intention is to stimulate thinking amongst decision makers in the region of the positive future we can have, and how to get there.
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Voices from the future 2020: How will we be powered?
These presentations were given at an event on 30 June held by Sustainability West Midlands (SWM). The purpose of these presentations is to discuss what sustainable energy could look like in the future and the steps we need to take to get there.
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Voices from the future 2020: How will we travel?
These presentations were given at an event on 22 March Sustainability West Midlands (SWM) held in partnership with Centro and Aston University. The event was entitled 'Voices from the future 2020: How will we travel?' The purpose of these presentations is to discuss what sustainable transport could look like in the future and the steps we need to take to get there.
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West Midlands low carbon housing market framework
Date uploaded: June 2009. Framework providing clear vision, examples and steps to get the region to zero carbon new housing by 2016 and significant improvements to existing housing stock. Comprehensive supporting evidence base of good practice lessons and case studies by type of housing area.
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West Midlands Sustainability Checklist
Our Chair, George Marsh, gave a detailed summary of the background and updated the delegates at the 'Achieving sustainability in construction' conference on the West Midlands Sustainability Checklist.
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