PRACTICAL ACTION TO BUILD COMMUNITY RESILIENCE

The report details the 'Good Life' initiative in New Earswick, York, which aimed to increase community resilience and reduce carbon emissions in a low-income area. Initial efforts focusing strictly on carbon footprints failed to engage residents, leading the project to pivot toward 'hooks' like nature and green spaces. This adaptive approach, including a partnership with a local secondary school for the 'Jo-Rio Mini Earth Summit', successfully increased participation and strengthened social networks. While the project could not quantitatively prove a reduction in household emissions, it demonstrated that improving social capital and leveraging trusted community voices are critical for fostering long-term pro-environmental behaviour and resilience in disadvantaged areas.

• Initial attempts to engage the New Earswick community by focusing specifically on household carbon emissions and sustainability initiatives were unsuccessful and saw declining participation.
• The project's success depended on identifying locally relevant 'hooks', specifically nature and green spaces, to attract a diverse cross-section of residents and build community links.
• Engagement with the local secondary school, The Joseph Rowntree School, through the 'Jo-Rio Mini Earth Summit' significantly increased participation and empowered students by connecting local action to global sustainability debates.
• Social Network Mapping indicated that the initiative successfully increased the number and strength of social connections, particularly for residents who were previously isolated.
• The project failed to provide measurable evidence of a reduction in household carbon emissions due to a lack of completed 'before and after' surveys, although some participants made individual behaviour-change pledges.
• Modelling of carbon emissions for New Earswick housing suggests that while planned infrastructure improvements by the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT) could reduce direct emissions by 19% by 2020, additional behaviour change and smart meters are needed to achieve a total reduction of 18%.
• The initiative led to the formation of 'New Earswick Sharing Together' (NEST), a community group focused on local food growing and harvesting, which serves as a project legacy.
• For policy-makers, the report argues that the 'Localism' agenda may be difficult to implement in less affluent areas without sustained, flexible support to build the necessary social capital and leadership skills first.

APA

Cinderby, S., Haq, G., Cambridge, H., & Lock, K. (2014). PRACTICAL ACTION TO BUILD COMMUNITY RESILIENCE. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/sei-report-york-jrf-building-community-sustainability-full.pdf

Chicago

Cinderby, Steve, Gary Haq, Howard Cambridge, and Kate Lock. PRACTICAL ACTION TO BUILD COMMUNITY RESILIENCE. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2014. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/sei-report-york-jrf-building-community-sustainability-full.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Cinderby |first1=Steve |last2=Haq |first2=Gary |last3=Cambridge |first3=Howard |last4=Lock |first4=Kate |title=PRACTICAL ACTION TO BUILD COMMUNITY RESILIENCE |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=March 2014 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/sei-report-york-jrf-building-community-sustainability-full.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{cinderby2014practical, author = {Cinderby, Steve and Haq, Gary and Cambridge, Howard and Lock, Kate}, title = {{PRACTICAL ACTION TO BUILD COMMUNITY RESILIENCE}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2014}, month = mar, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/sei-report-york-jrf-building-community-sustainability-full.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }