Voscur has joined a range of other public organisations in declaring a climate emergency and adopted a Climate Action Policy that addresses more strategic issues and sets out some newer ways of working. The climate emergency was declared at the Voscur AGM by Chief Executive Sandra Meadows, and was followed by a speech from Joy Carey, from Bristol Food Network, part of the sustainable food campaign Going for Gold Bristol. 

Examples of Voscur's Climate Acton Policies include:

• Working towards Carbon Smart certification for carbon footprint measurement and reduction.
• Encouraging all our staff to prioritise environmentally positive choices in our company pension scheme.
• Including climate action in all future planning. 
• Supporting local climate action initiatives.
• Adding climate action, as part of organisational development, to our training programme (this is available as a bespoke course, as well as a public course). 

Sandra Meadows, Chief Executive of Voscur, said: 

"I’m pleased and relieved that most of us are now on board with the facts about the climate and the environment, and really asking ourselves what we can do – as a city, as a sector, as organisations, as professionals and as citizens. Speaking as CEO of Voscur, I want to be sure we do as much as we can as fast as we can and we want to make sure that Voscur’s role in enabling, leading and developing the sector includes enabling and developing our response to the climate emergency." 

One of the priorities for Bristol City Funds is Environmental Transformation, and we’re working as part of this to support organisations in developing new environmental projects.

We’re also supporting Bristol Green Capital Partnership’s work on a bid to the National Lottery Climate Action Fund and planning to work with the Partnership and other local groups to help accelerate the sector’s actions on emissions and biodiversity.  In addition, we think it is vital that we all contribute to Bristol’s One City Climate Strategy, which will be published next month. 

This list will go on over the coming months and years, so please tell us about the climate actions you’re already involved with and we can promote or support them. Also tell us about your climate action plans, and we’ll aim to support them directly, or help you find the right partner to develop them.