Jo Interviewed for BBC Radio 4's Costing the Earth

This morning Jo was interviewed by the producer of BBC Radio 4's Costing the Earth on air quality in Bristol and the potential legacy of the Green Capital year for air pollution. The programme will be featured on February 24th.

AQMRC 'backing Bristol's bid' to be European Green Capital

AQMRC are 'backing the bid' for Bristol to be the 2015 European Green Capital. 

The European Green Capital Award is an annual prize by the European Commission, that goes to one city every year, singling out its environmental performance. Bristol, Brussels, Glasgow and Ljubljana have been shortlisted from 8 entries across Europe.  An independent panel of 12 experts assessed each entry on the basis of 12 indicators, including local contribution to global climate change and quality of local ambient air.

Bristol, Brussels, Glasgow and Ljubljana, will now go forward to present their vision, their potential to act as a role model to other cities, and their communication strategy to the Jury in Brussels on 24 May. Following the Jury’s deliberations the final result, the European Green Capital 2015 will be announced at an official Award ceremony in France on 14 June 2013, hosted by the current European Green Capital, Nantes.

AQMRC and UWE are pleased to be supporting the Bristol bid. Professor Martin Bigg, Director of the Environmental Technologies iNet at UWE is chair of the Bristol Green Capital Partnership and some of AQMRC's work included playing a key role in public engagement activities through the 'Future Bristol' website. We all have our fingers crossed that Bristol will make it third time lucky!

Pledge your support to Bristol's bid here: http://bristolgreencapital.org/back-the-bid.php

Congratulations to Rose on successful SPUR5 application

Rose has been successful in winning a SPUR5 grant from UWE for her project entitled "‘Future Bristol’: exploring public views on low carbon futures through art and digital media". This project builds on current public engagement work via the recently launched website www.futurebristol.co.uk

The interactive website was created with the support of the Institution of Environmental Sciences, Bristol City Council and the Bristol Green Capital Partnership. The two scenarios depicted on the site are based on the results of Rose's PhD, which explored possible low carbon futures for the Bristol region in 2050.

This research project, starting in August, seeks to understand how the public perceives, comprehends and engages with the notion of Bristol as a low carbon city in 2050, by exploring responses to the scenarios and website, and aims to answer the following research questions:

• How do different groups engage with and respond to alternative visions for a low carbon future?
• Which options and features of low carbon futures are popular/unpopular? What additional ideas are elicited by the public engagement process
•  Are creative media and web tools effective for engaging and communicating low carbon futures?

Rose will be using the results of this research to support a bid to the ESRC Knowledge Exchange Opportunities Scheme later in the year to further develop research and engagement activity in Bristol around low carbon futures.

'Future Bristol' website launched!

The 'Future Bristol' website has launched!

'Future Bristol' is an interactive website aimed at engaging the public with the concept of Bristol as a low carbon city in 2050. It presents two alternative possible scenarios for the city in 2050, developed through a large Delphi consultation with key stakeholders in the Bristol region as part of Rose's PhD research. Visitors to the site are encouraged to explore the two scenarios, cast their votes on different features of each, and have their say by joining the discussion on the Dialogue page.

Thanks to the 2012 John Rose Award grant from the Institution of Environmental Sciences, and with additional support from Bristol City Council and Green Capital Partnership, Rose was able to commission illustrations of the two scenarios and an interactive website to allow the results of her research to be communicated in an accessible, engaging and user-friendly way. 

The 'Future Bristol' website also forms a key part of the public engagement and communications strategy for Bristol's 2015 European Green Capital bid, and will be developed into a larger research project over the next year.

Go online, explore and have your say!

Funding success for 2050 Low Carbon Bristol public engagement project

Rose's 2050 Low Carbon Bristol public engagement project is gaining momentum as more funding is secured to support communication activities and a further research bid.

Rose was the 2012 winner of the IES 'John Rose Award', to communicate the result of postgraduate research to the general public. Rose commissioned local street artist Andy Council to produce two visual representations of the future low carbon scenarios for Bristol from her PhD research. 

Scenario X (left) and Scenario Y (right)
©Andy Council 2012

Rose will be using these images as the basis of a public consultation and 'Dialogue' with the public, using an app from local digital democracy company Delib, and has now secured additional support and £2000 funding from the Green Capital Partnership's Community Challenge Fund to design and build some new interactive webpages as part of their redesigned website. 

Rose also yesterday secured a further £3500 of HEAT@UWE bidding funding, to support the development of a bid for external funding for an interdisciplinary research project. This will allow Rose to extend this initial phase of communication and engagement work into a larger and research project.