Communicating Climate and Nature through Community Events

Earlier this month, Sustainable South Hams hosted a Changemakers meeting all about communicating climate change through community events and festivals. The
meeting was well attended by representatives from many different community groups, events teams, organisations and Councillors across the district.

Our speakers helped set the scene by sharing the successes of sustainability festivals in other areas. We heard from Kate Benham from Action on Climate for Teignbridge, who hosted the with the Arts Climate Festival in June this year. The festival was incredibly well supported by the wider community and quickly gathered momentum. The festival programme included a wide range of performances, exhibitions, workshops and activities that all aimed to raise awareness of climate change and what it means for Teinbridge. The festival was delivered over 8 days with 40 events, 12 locations, 1300 schoolchildren and 2.5k participants across the district.

Zoey Cooper and Jess Magill from Exmouth Town Council spoke about the Exmouth Festival, a community arts festival that threads sustainability throughout both its programme and its delivery. The festival team ensured sustainability was at the heart of a cohesive communications strategy that encouraged the audience to “tread more lightly”. They also developed resources for traders and artists to showcase excellent sustainable practices, put together a thoughtfully curated programme of performances and walkabouts themed around climate and nature, implemented excellent waste reduction solutions like the Exmouth Cup, and rewarded those travelling to the festival by bike or foot. The carbon footprint of the whole festival is being measured.

We also heard from Paul Liengaard from NDP Circus, who is working with South Hams District Council to develop the South Hams Festival planned for June 2025, about his plans for the district wide arts festival so far. The festival is themed around climate and biodiversity and will see communities across the South Hams hosting their own events and activities as part of a wider festival programme.

The meeting closed with a lively discussion about how we communicate climate change through community events and the types of activities that might best engage our communities with this theme.

Some of the key points fed back by the group included ideas that messaging should be simple and framed in the positive, celebrating success rather than judging or
preaching. Groups and events can focus on communicating climate action rather than climate change and encourage achievable steps that can lead to lasting change. Avoiding greenwashing is absolutely critical to ensure events have integrity and a meaningful impact. In terms of activities our attendees would like to see at a climate and nature festival, the most popular activity type was those involving mending making, and repair – with events such as clothes swaps, repair cafes and activities that use repurposed or upcycled materials seen as excellent ways to engage our communities with ideas of waste and carbon reduction. Other activities include nature walks, nature-based art workshops and exhibitions, events that encourage walking and cycling, and celebration of locally grown food, plant based foods and community food growing initiatives.

Thank you to everyone that attended and took part in the discussion, it was a fantastic opportunity to discuss impactful messaging behind climate and nature change.

If you are a town or parish councillor in South Hams looking to explore this conversation further, please sign up to our Climate and Nature Symposium on Friday 11th October. If you have ideas on how to help inform the climate and nature theme for South Hams Festival, email us at info@sussh.org. 

Our next Changemakers Meeting will be held on Friday 27th September 10.30am to 12pm at The Mansion, Totnes – all about energy efficiency.

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