Innovate UK: Net Zero Living
The transition to Net Zero and beyond is the biggest innovation challenge and opportunity of our time, and requires collaboration at an unprecedented speed and scale.
Therefore Liminal were delighted to be appointed by Innovate UK, together with Urban Foresight and Forum for the Future, to build a place-based community of practice to support 52 local authorities from across the UK to learn from each other and collaborate on navigating the transition as part of the Net Zero Living Programme.
It is a £60 million, three-year programme that is underpinned by the fact that many of the immediate solutions needed to transition places to net zero already exist. However, challenges are often encountered when trying to deliver these solutions at scale. There are often barriers to overcome including coordinating many stakeholders, engaging with citizens, attracting finance or navigating procurement and governance processes.
Local authorities can directly address or influence up to 30% of the UK’s total carbon emissions, and help facilitate the reduction of emissions across a place even more, through their influence in planning decisions, policy setting and defining local goals.
The Brief
What we did
Activating a sense of community requires effort, focus and careful curation. It is not something that usually happens by accident. Those communities that thrive embed responsibility and share the risk and reward. To ensure active engagement across the 52 local authorities we have designed and are delivering three main activities that promote collaboration, facilitate learning, and encourage idea exchange.
Quarterly Events (In Person) - Firstly, quarterly in-person events offer a valuable opportunity for all participants to meet face-to-face, share experiences, and build deeper and trusted relationships. These events feature expert speakers, workshops, and interactive sessions centered around practical implementation of net-zero programmes. Most importantly these events will help foster a sense of community and enable participants to draw inspiration from each other's work. These quarterly events provide opportunities for cross-pollination of ideas, fostering a culture of collaboration and learning.
Monthly Meet-Ups (Online) - Additionally, monthly online sessions provide a platform for sharing progress updates, discussing challenges, and seeking input from fellow cohort members. They also feature expert-led webinars, thematic discussions, and case study presentations to deepen understanding and facilitate cross-pollination of ideas. They also provide space for participants to ask for support or offer help in a supportive and action oriented environment.
Community Platform - Furthermore, to promote daily interaction and knowledge-sharing, we have established a dedicated online community platform. This online hub is a centralised repository of resources, best practices, and success stories. Participants access this platform at any time to seek advice, share insights, and initiate discussions on specific topics of interest. The platform is also facilitating peer-to-peer mentoring, allowing more experienced cohort members to guide and support those in earlier stages of their journey to net-zero, allowing participants to pose questions, offer solutions, and contribute their expertise.
The project kicked off in July 2023 and has two years to run. The sense of purpose and community is ever increasing and the level of interaction and support between places, irrespective of geography, is already inspiring.
The programme also includes leadership and mentoring support and the facilitation of mentoring between cohorts, developing action learning sets (issue based solutions) through the community platform, all of which aims to build agency among participants to lead their respective councils’ climate agenda.
We are looking forward to sharing members’ good practice examples of innovation to a wider audience, as well as bringing other local authorities and the wider net zero community along with us.
“Making net zero a reality in the UK by supporting local/regional authorities to achieve their net zero ambitions by connecting, collaborating, sharing experiences and adopting innovation.”
Image credit: Alexis Antoine on Unsplash
