Scotland’s commitment to renewable energy received high praise from the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon this week at the Rio+20 Earth Summit - and Scotland’s local communities now have a huge role to play in helping to deliver the country's goals on renewable energy.
A critical part of Scotland’s leadership will be its ability to support community-owned renewable energy.
Social media has changed everything. Global brands now have an opportunity to engage with customers at a grassroots level, increase brand loyalty, and help solve some of our most pressing social and environmental challenges. It’s also smart business. 84% of consumers are more likely to buy brands that give something back to the community. Local-level social enterprise is a great way for big brands to engage with their customers.
And if you’re not doing it, you’re missing out.
Where there is a community interest there is an opportunity for a "community interest company" (CIC). And judging by the impressive growth of CICs - a new company structure introduced in 2005 under the Companies (Audit, Investigations and Community Enterprise) Act 2004 - we can see a growing trend in people taking an active interest in their communities.
We have come a long way in urban design for environmentally sustainable living – energy efficient housing, green spaces, smart transport infrastructure, zero waste resource management – but no matter how resource efficient our new eco-cities are, if they don’t work for people they simply won’t work. We need to build on the amazing knowledge, and experience we have from the eco-engineers, architects, and technologists and utilise the insight, knowledge, and expertise of those that understand how to make communities thrive.
The news that those involved in the recent riots were predominantly unemployed young people and not organised gangs - according to official figures from the Home Office today - is not really news. The growing number of ‘NEETs’ - "not in education, employment, or training" - has been an ongoing concern for the government for decades.
The number of children in absolute poverty in 2015 will rise by 500,000 to 3 million according to The Institute for Fiscal Studies, as reported in the Guardian today. To clarify, this number relates to children living in poverty in the UK.
