Working Together to Reach Net Zero the theme at Worthing community conference

A total of 160 attended the call to action from Community to Business: Working Together to Reach Net Zero in the Climate Emergency. The aim was for local businesses to discover how community and business collaboration can drive climate resilience and mitigation efforts, while benefiting local businesses on their journey to net zero.

CREW are delighted to say the conference was a resounding success! Despite last minute changes and loss of power in the main Assembly Room hall which meant at the last minute we had to pick up chairs and host it in the Richmond Room!

Without the support of Community Works coordinating the event and working so closely with CREW and our fellow CIC’s Green Tides and Transition Town Worthing it would not have been possible. The collaboration shows how local groups working together can make things happen!

Feedback from many businesses we spoke to were that they were truly inspired and learned a lot from the day.

David Holmes from Ashes to Blooms who attended the event commented "The Worthing Climate Conference was such an incredible and inspiring event! We know the problem & we know the solutions; all we need is the will”

Amberlouise Everitt, co-founder of CREW gave context to the conference with a presentation looking at where we are now in relation to climate change and how we will be affected in the future. “Even small changes in temperature can mean catastrophic changes for Earth's delicately balanced ecosystems. Climate change increases the rate and intensity of natural disasters. As we are already seeing in many countries this means extreme weather and higher temperatures resulting in heat waves and fires, sea level rise, heavy long periods of rain and flooding. This will only continue to get worse unless we stop using fossil fuels and live within the parameters of our planet's resources”.

Tanwen Morgan looked at local impacts and gave a message of hope. “Individually it can seem insurmountable but we know that by working together as people and communities have in the past, it is possible to plan and act with the urgency needed. For example during the women's suffrage movement, World War 1 & 2 and during the Covid pandemic”.

Sean Hellett, fellow co-founder of CREW, answered questions on a local group panel. “Our vision is for a more resilient self supporting community-working together to protect our own people, spaces and resources. That doesn’t mean turning the clock back! We already know we are going to have to adapt and mitigate the effects that we cannot change in the short term”.

Lisa Atwell Green Tides Chair spoke to businesses about how they can help the planet further by supporting local groups and charities not financially but by volunteering staff for example one day a month to help charities with marketing, fund raising, bookkeeping etc. While Steve Limbrey TTW Chair gave real life practical ways in which TTW projects help and promote sustainable living, including their community resource mapping tool.

We at Climate Resilience Centre Worthing, and our partners Transition Town Worthing, Green Tides and Community Works would like to say a huge thank you to our Net Zero Community Conference Speakers and express our deepest gratitude and appreciation to each and every one of you.

• Sam Zindel - Managing Director of award-winning, digital agency Propellernet

• Nick Gant - Founder of Community 21, Design/Researcher/Assistant Head of School- University of Brighton

• Steve Creed - Co-Founder, Circular Brighton and Hove

• Kevin McDonald - Senior Structurer, Energy Trading Service – EDF

• Pooran Desai - CEO, OnePlanet

• Mike Turner - Co-Founder & Owner, Bird and Blend Tea Co

• Paul Brewer Director for Sustainability and Resources

We would also like to express our gratitude to the workshop support teams Ruth Anslow cofounder of local food store HISBE and local businessman Andy Sparsis who gave their time, passion and expertise.

The speakers' insightful presentations and answers demonstrated passion, dedication and unwavering commitment to the journey towards a more sustainable future. They provided invaluable expertise, knowledge, experiences and visionary ideas. Attending delegates left feeling inspired and motivated to take action on the journey towards net zero.

Talks and workshops during the afternoon and evening covered perspectives on getting to net zero, climate change impacts, renewable energy and eco-conscious living. The speaker's expertise, enthusiasm and insight truly made the conference a fully interactive and dynamic event. We hope the conference will inspire and ignite everyone's determination to act for the future of our planet and future generations. We hope the message will ripple out into groups, organisations, businesses and communities, sparking sustainable practices to help us on this journey towards net-zero.