Climate Change is the biggest threat to our existence and tackling it can often feel like an insurmountable task. Brent, alongside many other councils declared a climate emergency in 2019 and have pledged to do everything in our gift to reach net zero by 2030. The team’s work won an UnAward in 2023.
by Nadia Khan
However, we know that we cannot possibly do this alone. It needs to be a united effort with our community, partners and stakeholders. Our work starts with awareness, education and behavioural change.
The London Borough of Brent is very diverse. 64% of the community come from global majority backgrounds. There are 149 different languages spoken here, and 55% of residents were born outside of the UK. Brent is also a borough of faith, with 80% of residents following a religion compared to the London average of 71%.
Therefore, the first step to working with the community is to understand who our community is, what their needs are and the barriers they face. This understanding goes beyond only grouping people under the conventional ‘Black’ or ‘Asian’ categories. These categories do not mean much to people on the ground, and they often identify more under the banner of faith or as more specific groups or needs. In Brent, we have done some ground-breaking work on climate action with local communities, increasing representation and tackling climate inequality.
Sadly, seldom heard communities, including those from global majority backgrounds and faith groups, are suffering the most from climate change both globally and locally — in Brent.
These populations often live in the poorest, most polluted areas. They have less access to green spaces and a lack of good quality, efficient housing. On top of that — they feel excluded from the climate conversation, which is dominated by white, middle-class voices. Therefore, much of our work is focused on tackling climate inequality and increasing representation. Without this, we cannot possibly hope to encourage residents to engage.
Although climate change is urgent, many people from seldom heard backgrounds are more concerned with basic day-to-day survival. Many have been hit hard by the cost-of-living crisis and are reliant on food banks, for example. There are also language and access barriers, lack of trust in councils and government which has led to historic disengagement from council processes. There is a great deal of climate anxiety and overwhelm as well, so some people just don’t get involved unless you use the right techniques and messaging.
We understand that we can only reach our net zero goal by 2030 if all communities are involved in the conversation around climate change. For this reason, we have been committed to actively working side by side with Brent’s diverse communities and partners.
We go to where the community is, produce resources that they can tailor to their needs and co-create projects with places of worship and local groups. This is not a 9 to 5 task, because the voluntary and faith sectors do not work in this proscribed way. Therefore, flexibility and love of community is key. We do not employ a one size fits all approach.
It is so important to use climate messaging that relates to residents’ real lives and makes things easier. For example, showing them that they can save money and improve their health by taking certain actions that also benefit the planet.
We recognise the importance of partnering with faith leaders to help mobilise the communities in Brent to take climate action. We set up a Faith Climate Action Group with faith leaders who are committed to looking after the planet. Engaging faith communities through religious stories and teachings is also beneficial to sparking a deeper meaningful connection to climate action messaging. We have been supporting faith communities to be active and visible on the climate agenda and help reach those who have been neglected or unheard for too long.
In addition, we set up a Climate Ambassadors programme with leaders from global majority communities. These ambassadors are trusted voices. They work with us to help reach groups on the ground by communicating with local people in their language and using the right terminology. The phrases ‘climate change’ or ‘climate emergency’ are not well understood by seldom heard communities. It is important to engage them through terms they know such as what their faith says about looking after the planet, or other words such as pollution, donating and recycling, and reducing food waste.
Despite being a small team, we have made measurable impact in the community on climate change. We try to be innovative and creative in our approach in order to reach diverse communities.
Some of our creative projects have included:
· Climate Change and My Religion Exhibition with faith leaders from the community
· ‘From Brent to Bowl’ reducing food waste cookbook – foreword from celebrity chef, Asma Khan and recipe from Nadiya Hussein (Celebrity Chef)
· Launch of a Faith Climate Action Plan
· Creating Change: Ethical fashion workshops with schools, and Sustainable Fashion Show and panel discussion in partnership with Junk Kouture
· Faces of Climate Change exhibition and documentary
There needs to be a longer-term approach to involving communities in this area. Developing trust and a working relationship takes time, as does behavioural change. We are currently working on more innovative solutions to reach wider groups of people and accelerate our journey to net zero.
Nadia’s work won the 2023 UnAward for Best ethical comms behaviour/diversity. Here’s what the judges said:
“Highly creative and multi-faceted campaign based on deep audience insight with a focus on engaging seldom heard voices. Collaboration and co creation built strong relationships that provided the grounding for the success of this climate change campaign and, no doubt, the success of future service delivery.”
Nadia Khan is climate action partnerships manager at Brent Council.
*Sign up for the comms2point0 eMag*
The comms2point0 eMag features exclusive new content, free give-aways, special offers, first dibs on new events and much, much more.
Sound good? Join over 3.5k other comms people who have subscribed. You can sign up to it right here
