Video

Thinking about Recovery—An Audience with the CUSP Advisory Committee

As UK and EU governments struggle to articulate the foundations for a fair, green recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, we explore what can be learned from recent debates about wellbeing, societal transformation and sustainable prosperity. For the last five years, our CUSP Advisory Team has supported, guided and inspired our work at the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity.

In this unique webinar, you hear their thoughts about this vital issue and engage with the audience in this vital conversation. Speakers are: Camilla Toulmin (CUSP AdCom Chair, Economist and former Director of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)), Alice Bell (Director of Communications, Possible), Jane Davidson (Pro Vice-Chancellor Emeritus, University of Wales Trinity Saint David), Katherine Trebeck (Advocacy and Influencing Lead, Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll)), Henrietta Moore (Director, UCL Institute for Global Prosperity), Oliver Bettis (Former Chairperson of the Sustainability Board, Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA)), Sian Ferguson (Trust Executive, Ashden Trust, JJ Charitable Trust and Mark Leonard Trust), Jeremy Oppenheim (Senior Managing Partner, Systemiq Ltd), Simon Sharpe (Deputy Director, UK Government’s Cabinet Office COP26 Uni); chaired by CUSP Director Tim Jackson.

Food, Farming and Countryside Commission - Trade Unwrapped: Jane Davidson and Carwyn Jones in Discussion

Throughout this series, Trade Unwrapped talks to trade experts, policy makers and the British public to understand what issues really matter. How much do we or should we care about standards, fairness, and about protecting British interests? And what are the connections between trade and climate, nature, jobs, and health?

Jane Davidson and Carwyn Jones discuss the ‘recipe for conflict’ at the heart of the Internal Markets Bill, the impact it could have on standards in devolved nations - and how the UK could find common ground.

Paramaethu Cymru Online Gathering 2020

Watch the talk here

Why Paramaethu Cymru?
Permaculture finds a natural home in Wales, a country which has sustainable development in its constitution and has always valued the local ‘square mile’, cooperation and education. There are many examples of permaculture in practice here, including smallholdings, community gardens, design courses and schools programmes and now is the time to make all this more visible.


Paramaethu Cymru – the term ‘paramaethu’ (from para, lasting: amaethu, farming; maeth, nurture) was adopted at the 2012 Eisteddfod – now has a bilingual website at http://wales.permaculture.org.uk where we are mapping projects, courses, events and news. This will enable permaculture to connect to national institutions concerned with government, farming, environment and education, as well as allowing the general public to get involved in their local area.

Programme

Dr Jane Davidson: 12pm Jane Davidson is the author of #futuregen: Lessons from a Small Country and Chair of the Wales Inquiry of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. From 2007- 2011, she was Minister for Environment and Sustainability in Wales where she proposed legislation to make sustainability the central organising principle of government; the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act came into law in 2015. She is patron of CIEEM (Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management) and Tools for Self Reliance Cymru. She lives on an organic smallholding in west Wales.

Jane Powell: 2pm What should we ask for in a Food Manifesto for Wales? – is to help shape the food system in Wales. It is closely aligned with the Well-being of Future Generations Act and is based on principles of citizenship and shared values. See https://foodmanifesto.wales/ for further details.   

Dr  Matt Swarbrick: 4pm What would permaculture inspired farming in Wales look like?                                                                             

Matt is a farmer at Henbant in North West Wales. He is an ecologist by background, is passionate about farm-scale permaculture and would love to see the world's problems solved through good farming and great food. 

We’re now on a mission as a farm to see what happens if you apply permaculture design to a small welsh hill farm.. Is it possible to produce real food, pay a mortgage, build biodiversity and soil, build social capital and community, and to do so while enjoying it? And if it is possible surely that would solve the world's problems? Well possibly not  but it could solve most of Wales' problems? If it can, why aren't more people doing it? And what would it look like if they were?..

Matt will share a short video and we then can discuss this topic... It's just as relevant.

Dr Elizabeth Westaway: 6pm   Food as Medicine -  a public health nutritionist who is promoting nutrient-dense food and 'Food as Medicine' to reduce/prevent diet-related non-communicable diseases, e.g. Type 2 diabetes. 

#futuregen US Launch: How Do We Protect the Well-being of Future Generations and Put Hope Into Action?

John Rawls said "Do unto future generations what you would have had past generations do unto you." Only one country in the world has put this idea into law: Wales, the smallest country in Great Britain. How can other countries, states, higher education policy-makers, local governances, and institutions put these principles into practice? And why is a clear vision and framework for change now more necessary than ever?

Watch this lively discussion—moderated by Meghan Fay Zahniser, Executive Director at AASHE—with Jane Davidson, proposer of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act and author of "#futuregen: lessons from a small country," and Leith Sharp, Director and Lead Faculty, Executive Education for Sustainability Leadership at Harvard University, as the three discuss why now is the time for others to also consider what actions should be taken today to protect our children tomorrow.

Buy the book: https://bit.ly/futurgen

The Well-being of Future Generations: Lord John Bird and Jane Davidson in Conversation

Jane Davidson and Big Issue co-founder Lord John Bird discuss Wales's groundbreaking Well-being of Future Generations Act, and the development of similar legislation in the UK, led by Lord Bird. Moderated by Professor Tim O'Riordan, this conversation delves into what the Act means for Wales, how Lord Bird took inspiration from it, how it has influenced people and governments around the world.

Former Welsh minister and author of #futuregen Jane Davidson and Big Issue co-founder Lord John Bird discuss Wales's groundbreaking Well-being of Future Gene...

Tortoise: Has the virus shown us what it will take to tackle global warming?

In a matter of weeks the immediate threat of mass casualties has forced governments to assert powers and spend funds never contemplated in the battle against climate change. Coronavirus has also shown us we can work and study remotely and have almost everything we need delivered to our door. It’s had the moonshot treatment. Doesn’t climate change deserve it too?

Chair: Giles Whittell, Editor and Partner, Tortoise

Special guests include:

Jane Davidson, Pro Vice-Chancellor Emeritus, University of Wales; Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing, Wales (2007-11); author, #futuregen Lessons from a Small Country

Juliet Davenport, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Good Energy – a renewable energy company with a mission to power a greener, cleaner future together with its customers. An innovator, Juliet has been developing technologies and innovations for over 20 years to fight climate change and transform the energy sector for the better. In 2013, she was awarded an OBE for services to renewables. She currently sits on the board of the Renewable Energy Association, Innovate UK and is Vice President of the Energy Institute

Spencer Dale, group chief economist, BP. He is responsible for advising the board and executive team on economic drivers and trends in global energy

Visit Tortoise’s website here

Cardiff Business School: What Wales Is Doing Today, The World Will Do Tomorrow

"What Wales is doing today, the world will do tomorrow"

These are the words of UN Assistant Secretary General Nikhil Seth, and in her new book, “#futuregen – Lessons from a Small Country”, former Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing in Wales, Jane Davidson explains how she proposed what became the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

During the Briefing, she will explain why this groundbreaking legislation was forged here in Wales, and will explore how this shift from traditional economic growth to a more sustainable future is creating new opportunities for communities and governments all over the world.