The Living Wage for Wales is a collaborative effort to promote the benefits of Living Wage accreditation for employers, workers and the economy in Wales.
Cynnal Cymru is the Living Wage Foundation’s accreditation partner for Wales, supporting employers from the public, private and voluntary sectors with the process of accreditation. Cynnal Cymru uses its employer networks and understanding of how organisations operate to help them overcome barriers to accreditation. Cynnal Cymru also plays an important role in promotion of the Living Wage to employers.
Citizens Cymru Wales initiated the Living Wage campaign in Wales, and leads the Living Wage for Wales campaign strategy. As the home of community organising in Wales, its diverse member organisations across Wales set goals, identify campaign targets and train community leaders and workers to take action as part of Living Wage campaigns.
The Living Wage Foundation has dedicated staff time to support accreditation and initiatives such as Living Wage Places, and to co-ordinate marketing and communications around Living Wage Week.
The foundational economy community of practice started in July 2020 as part of the Welsh Government’s Foundational Economy Challenge Fund. Its aim was to share learning and innovation, build relationships and encourage collaboration.
The Challenge Fund provided support to projects looking to try out new ways to address challenges – some emerging, some age-old – faced by foundational economy businesses or those relying on their services.
These included:
the recruitment, retention and skills of the workforce
the delivery structures and design of services
the recruitment, retention and skills of the workforce
the delivery structures and design of services
The aim was to explore a range of solutions that could potentially generate viable, adaptable models that could be scaled up and spread to strengthen local economies and community wealth-building.
Staring in 2019 with an initial 52 projects, it was always expected that some experiments would not succeed and conditions were made even more challenging by the impact of the pandemic.
A community of practice was also however put in place to help capture some of the rich learning and insights generated by all the projects taking part. The examples in the case studies below give a flavour of the projects supported by the Fund – their successes, challenges and above all learning, about how best the foundational economy in their area or sector can be supported. The Fund closed in March 2021 but, at the request of members, the community of practice has continued. Its role continues to be to share learning, encourage and expand dialogue and facilitate collaboration.
This St David’s Day, we are asking organisations across Cardiff to think about the little things they can do to ensure a fair day’s pay for their workers, whether it’s understanding how to become an accredited Living Wage employer, or reaching out to other organisations to encourage them to consider the real Living Wage, or helping us share the positive messages about the difference that paying the real Living Wage can make.
Cardiff Council is currently the only accredited real Living Wage local authority in Wales. The Council and partners are championing Cardiff as a Living Wage city which is having positive impact on the city and its employees. As of 1 February 2021, 45% of Wales’ total accredited employers were based in Cardiff and Cardiff employers had contributed to 69% of total uplifts in pay. Recent research by Cardiff University has shown that real Living Wage accreditation by 124 Cardiff employers has resulted in 7,735 workers receiving a pay rise which has added over £32m to the local economy in just over 8 years.
To hear more about the benefits of the real Living Wage from employers and employees in Cardiff please watch this video.
Leader of Cardiff Council, Cllr Huw Thomas, said:
“The seemingly small things really can make a big difference, and I know the significant impact paying the real Living Wage has had in the lives of our own staff. We’re pleased to be supporting organisations across the city to enable them to do the same for their own employees, and this St David’s Day I would encourage any Cardiff business interested in paying the real Living Wage to get in touch to find out more.”
Cardiff Council understand the wider benefits that the real Living Wage can bring to individuals and employers, as well as to the City; and they have made a commitment to reimbursing accreditation fees for SME employers based in Cardiff through their accreditation support scheme. For more information about the real Living Wage in Cardiff please visit the website.
Cardiff Council also encourages local employers to provide a Payroll Savings and Loans Scheme to their staff, enabling their employees to save directly from their salaries and if needed, access affordable credit from an ethical provider. More information can be found on this on the Cardiff & Vale Credit Union’s website.
Cynnal Cymru is the accrediting body for the real Living Wage in Wales and are here to help you through the accreditation process. Get in touch, join the movement, do the little things.
We wish you all a happy St David’s Day. Diolch yn fawr!
Today is International School Meals Day, celebrated this year on the 13th March. This day emphasises the importance of ensuring that every child has access to healthy, sustainable, and delicious school meals. As a sustainability charity and the facilitator of the Foundational Economy Capabilities Network, funded by Welsh Government, we care deeply about access to sustainable and healthy food for everyone across Wales. Food and education are foundational sectors of our economy, and we work with many organisations working to improve the availability of sustainable, healthy and nutritious food in schools.
International School Meals Day promotes healthy eating habits, highlights the connection between nutrition and education, and encourages an understanding of the significance of providing quality, nutritious meals in schools.
Nutritious school meals are essential in promoting child health, wellbeing and learning. Healthy food nourishes students to support social and academic development and promote healthy eating habits. The link between healthy eating, education and better learning cannot be understated.
On International School Meals Day, schools, educators, parents, and policymakers come together to emphasise the importance of providing healthy and balanced meals for students. The focus is on sharing best practices in nutrition education and ensuring every child has access to nutritious meals that support their potential.
Take a look at some programmes in Wales supporting nutritious food in schools.
Universal Primary Free School Meal Programme
Over the past two years, Wales has been implementing the free primary school meals programme. In Wales, all primary school children can access the Universal Primary Free School Meal Programme, ensuring that no child goes hungry at school. This initiative tackles child poverty and promotes healthy eating within schools. It also increases the variety of food options available, improves social skills during mealtimes, and enhances both behaviour and academic achievement.
Evidence indicates that school meals have numerous benefits: children are more likely to attend and remain in school, learning outcomes improve, socioeconomic disparities diminish, food insecurity is reduced, and low-income families experience less financial pressure.
In Wales, leading projects such as Welsh Veg in Schools are aiming to get more organically produced Welsh veg into primary school meals across Wales. Coordinated by Food Sense Wales, the pilot project works with partners including Castell Howell and Farming Connect Horticulture to help get more locally produced organic vegetables into school lunches.
Can cook aims to eliminate Ultra Processed Free Foods, tackling child poverty and obesity rates. Their “Well Fed” programme includes initiatives like Cook-at-Home meal boxes, mobile shops, and Meals on Wheels. Check out our full story on Can Cook.
How do school meals relate to the wider world?
School meals in Wales and across the world are crucial interventions resulting in lasting positive impacts across multiple sectors the sustainable development goals. Read more on the School meals Coalition.
Our global food production and consumption systems are unsustainable and are currently the largest contributors to the climate crisis, the nature emergency, deforestation, the global water crisis, and biodiversity loss.
The broader benefits of school meal programmes have the potential to positively impact multiple sectors, including health, education, climate, and economic outcomes. These programs can serve as a catalyst for improving children’s health by engaging them in food systems and nutrition education. Additionally, school meal initiatives provide opportunities for UK-based industries to grow, invest, and develop more sustainable food systems.
Investing in school meals could align with the green growth agenda by emphasising the delivery of healthy and sustainable meals. This focus can inspire innovation and encourage investment by businesses throughout the entire value chain, from agriculture and food production to distribution. Such initiatives can create jobs and enhance productivity, leading to direct growth that is both inclusive and sustainable.
By prioritising sustainable suppliers along the whole value chain, there is opportunity for public procurement to make progress towards climate and environmental sustainability goals such as, eliminating plastic waste, reducing food waste and supporting sustainable land use practices. An extended school meal programme has the potential to improve health education, life outcomes and to catalyse innovation, and investment across multiple sectors, transforming food systems benefiting not only job growth but also aligning with our climate and biodiversity goals.
Cynnal Cymru facilitates the Foundational Economy Capabilities Network, funded by Welsh Government. The foundational economy covers the sectors that are crucial to our daily lives, including food and education. Read more about the foundational economy and the work of the capabilities network here.
How do you develop a sustainability career? For so many starting or changing career paths, making that first step into a sustainability role can be difficult. Join Cynnal Cymru in a facilitated discussion on how to upskill your workforce or develop your own green skills.
In this current climate and nature crisis, green careers are becoming more desirable and necessary. Looking towards a sustainable future, more and more people are rethinking the places they work for and the kinds of roles they play. With net zero goals and the growing visible local impacts of extreme weather, we urgently need more people taking action in their workplace as well as communities. Given that we spend up to a third of our days in the office, too, it’s crucial that you and your staff feel fulfilled and passionate about your work. Learn how to be a part of meaningful change towards a just transition in your job role or staff development.
In this half-day event, Finley Povey from Transport for Wales will discuss apprenticeships and how organisations can create their own internal schemes, joined by Cynnal Cymru’s Abi Hoare who will share their experience of the Future Generations Leadership Academy, and additional speakers to be announced who will share their experiences entering into sustainability roles. In a Q+A with the speakers and networking opportunities throughout, this event will help you understand how to upskill a green workforce, what opportunities are available for individuals, and how to inspire your staff’s next steps.
Who is it for?
This event is open to all individuals and organisations over the age of 18.
Cynnal Cymru Members can get two free places to this event. A limited number of free student places are available for Cardiff University students. Please email abi@cynnalcymru.com to secure your free place.
Speakers
Finley Povey – Sustainability Coordinator Apprentice at Transport for Wales
Finley joined Transport for Wales as a sustainability coordinator apprentice in January 2024 and has worked across the Sustainable Development and Climate Change team supporting on future generations, sustainable impact, heritage, environmental compliance, ecology, and climate change initiatives. This includes supporting policy or delivery plan development, ensuring administration activities and other duties are undertaken effectively, undertaking environmental audits across various TfW locations to assess environmental impact and compliance with sustainability best practice, working on decision-making tools to align with the Well-being of Future Generations Act and social value, as well as supporting the creation of TfW’s first sustainability exemplar project to integrate well-being, energy-saving, and biodiverse features into a depot site. In her talk, Finley will be telling us about why organisations should give apprentice opportunities to help build the next generation of sustainability conscious champions.
Jennifer Rudd– Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group
Dr Rudd has a decade of experience working in chemistry and the technical circular economy, developing next generation solar panels and working on hydrogen generation and carbon capture. Using this knowledge, Dr Rudd developed the You and CO2 programme in 2018, seeking to teach young people about climate mitigation. Since then, she has worked on a number of climate change education programmes across the disciplines, age ranges and countries. She has helped train teachers in Nigeria, co-created a programme for Welsh primary school pupils to learn about fast fashion, co-developed a new scale for measuring climate capability and consulted for a range of third sector and educational institutions on climate change education programmes.
Dr Rudd is a member of the Net Zero by 2035 commission, advising Welsh Government on pathways to Net Zero, she has been invited to present her work in the Senedd and at trade events in London.
Dr Rudd has communicated the climate emergency through national talks, radio and printed media and gave a TEDx talk in 2019. She is regularly invited to give talks on climate change mitigation and climate change education and was nominated for two Swansea University awards in 2020.
Facilitators
Simon Slater, Director at Cynnal Cymru – Sustain Wales
Early on in his career, Simon worked with the late Rhodri Morgan and Welsh Government as they explored what it meant to have the duty to promote sustainable development in your constitution. His Wales experience renewed his interest to work for the benefit of communities and the environment. He has subsequently worked across the world as an environmental advisor with royalty, charities, government, councils, and business. This has included borrowing ideas from Wales, such as creating a Board member for Future Generations for a Regional Development Agency 10 years before the Welsh Act.
More recently he has been running sustainability or community regeneration charities such as Sustainability West Midlands, the Springfield Project, and ecobirmingham. He is looking forward to coming back to Wales to continue to be part of the country’s sustainability story. “Wales changed me, now I want to be part of a charity that is helping Wales to change”.
Clare Sain-ley Berry, Cynnal Cymru – Sustain Wales
Clare has a background in delivering partnership projects for the natural environment and sustainable resource use and uses this to help shape our policy and development work. She enjoys facilitating collaboration across sectors and devising practical programmes to deliver strategic aims.
11:00 Q+A Session facilitated by Clare Sain-ley Berry
11:30 Networking
12:30 Close
Our thriving community of mutually supportive members provides an opportunity to share learning, challenge thinking and mobilise action, be this through co-designed events, hosting networking sessions or simply sowing seeds for future collaborations or thought-leadership.
If you would like to talk to a member of the team about how we can support your organisation, please contactmembership@cynnalcymru.com.
Supporting the Foundational Economy: Connecting Local Suppliers to Social Housing Providers
Challenge-led innovation has the potential to fundamentally transform social housing within Wales, not just for residents, but for local supply chains who will benefit from increased contracting. Combining this with the broader social impact created by better homes, and more ‘Made in Wales’ suppliers will also benefit the communities around us, creating a prosperous future for Wales
Lee Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, SimplyDo
A consistent challenge for the Foundational Economy in Wales has been a lack of connections between ‘anchor’ institutions and local suppliers.
A challenge-led partnership – funded by Welsh Government – between innovation management company SimplyDo and five social housing providers set out to change this. The goal was to increase access to Made in Wales supply chains, particularly from smaller and harder-to-reach organisations that could also contribute to sustainability objectives.
The Welsh Innovation in Social Housing (WISH) project led to the identification of over 700 local suppliers to meet specific needs in the social housing sector whilst also enabling the modernisation of processes and wider contributions to Net Zero goals.
Here’s how it was done.
Who are SimplyDo, and why are they working with Welsh Government?
SimplyDo’s mission is to bring innovative people together to solve transformational challenges. The Wales-based team offer a proven combination of a state-of-the-art digital product with people-powered innovation that streamlines services and business operations and, crucially, helps organisations solve complex challenges by connecting the right people with the right ideas. As a result, they enhance impact and efficiency.
The Welsh Government has recognised the value of both innovation and collaboration in its work to strengthen the Foundational Economy. This is the part of the economy that supports everyday life, such as housing, care, and food. Policy objectives include supporting more and better jobs with fair working practices, increasing living standards, and growing Wales-based businesses by supporting the public sector and other organisations to increase the use of ‘Made in Wales’ products.
Having run a successful pilot working with a housing association around the Optimised Retrofit Programme, SimplyDo received further Welsh Government support to scale up activity to support five social housing providers.
Project Partners
Caredig Housing – Caredig Housing provides over 2,900 high-quality, affordable homes and provide a range of services to people and communities across Swansea, Carmarthenshire, Neath and Port Talbot, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire.
Caerphilly County Borough Council – The council delivers a wide range of services to almost 180,000 people living in the Caerphilly County Borough including education, environmental services, highways, leisure facilities, planning and social services.
ClwydAlyn– ClwydAlyn was formed in 1978, and is a Registered Social Landlord managing over 6,200 homes in North and Mid-Wales.
Rhondda Housing Association (RHA)– RHA (Wales) is a Housing Association (now called Beacon Cymru) based in Rhondda Cynon Taff. It owns and manages more than 2,100 homes and properties and provide a range of services for over 3,000 people.
Trivallis– Trivallis provides homes to 25,000 people in Rhondda Cynon Taff and Cardiff Bay. Its primary role is delivering homes which are safe, secure and affordable to people who are in greatest need.
Getting Started
The WISH programme started in 2023, working with five social housing providers to solve specific challenges linked with the Foundational Economy. Although these varied amongst the different partners, most related to difficulties in finding and vetting suitable local suppliers due to lack of data, particularly if there were extra characteristics needed, such as specific accreditations or being based in a specific locality. The problems were compounded by lack of time for horizon scanning and exploration of potential solutions.
This experience echoed one of the key findings of Cynnal Cymru’s Foundational Economy Community of Practice – that ‘anchor’ organisations in Wales, such as local authorities and housing associations, struggle to find local suppliers to carry out work for them, and local suppliers can find procurement processes inaccessible and complicated.
The WISH project’s approach to bridging this gap focused on removing barriers on both sides of the procurement relationship.
The first step was to use data analytics to complete a horizon scan for the social housing sector in Wales. This was to help generate both incremental and radical ideas to solve some of the issues appearing over the next 5, 10 and 20 years.
Five challenges were then identified with the project partners. Four of these were procurement-led, focusing on connecting better with existing suppliers and products:
Caredig Housing required a new automated invoice system to replace inefficient manual processes, but had limited time to horizon scan for a localised solution amongst a global marketplace.
Caerphilly County Borough Council required Welsh suppliers with capabilities in housing retrofit coordination, assessment, design, and evaluation, to support carbon reduction.
ClwydAlyn also required retrofit installers within Wales, especially when trying to find suppliers within north Wales.
RHA Wales required local suppliers and fitters of carpet and sheet vinyl flooring. This was both aimed at increasing their spend with local suppliers, and improving their purchasing impact through their ability to use recyclable and recycled materials.
The challenge from the fifth partner, Trivallis, had a different focus, requiring a supplier that could provide or help design a product to schedule, and prioritise the most critical, of the 56,000 tenant maintenance requests generated per year. Requirements included connecting and combining diverse data sets to identify trends and predictive cycles.
Once the challenges were identified, SimplyDo used their ‘Made in Wales’ AI-powered product to produce a long-list of potential suppliers, and in-house research to rate and shortlist these potential suppliers.
The Results
The project had originally set a goal of engaging 400 suppliers across all the challenges with 5 being shortlisted per challenge.
The actual outcome went far beyond this, with 747 suppliers identified for the four procurement challenges:
Caredig’s challenge of a new automated invoice system to replace inefficient manual processes resulted in 264 potential businesses being identified, 99 rated as suitable, with 11 applications submitting applications and 5 ultimately shortlisted.
For Caerphilly County Borough Council’s project, a total of 156 organisations were found, with 66 of these being within specified postcodes. These suppliers are being invited to join Proactis in order to be part of future procurement activity.
ClwydAlyn’s challenge resulted in a total of 195 organisations being identified, with 64 of these based in north Wales, the area the association most wished to target. These suppliers have been invited to join a new hyper-local procurement micro-framework as part of work with the newly formed Onnen organisations.
RHA’s challenge resulted in a total of 132 organisations being found, with 88 within the CF/NP postcodes. These suppliers are being engaged in future procurement activity in line with the RHA’s maintenance strategy.
Trivallis’ challenge-led innovation resulted in the creation of a draft Expression of Interest form for SBRI Centre of Excellence funding.
Capturing the collaborative power of innovation across so many social housing providers was wonderful, and means that we were able to create the broadest possible impact and share learning across those organisations.
John Barker, Associate Director of Innovation, SimplyDo
Contribution to the Foundational Economy Objectives
Through the WISH project, hundreds of local suppliers were identified to meet the needs of the housing associations, building relationships with local and hyper-local businesses that will contribute both towards the Welsh Government’s ambition to increase spend on ‘Made in Wales’ products and services and sustainability objectives,
As one WISH partner identified: “This has provided us with an enhanced pool of suppliers to engage in readiness for procurement activities.”
These local suppliers have now been linked with some of their key local anchor institutions – not just for the lifetime of this project, but as potential partners for longer-term procurements.
The suppliers were also sourced with specific attention to their ability to contribute to Net Zero aims. Two social housing providers were equipped to better deliver retro-fitting services whist RHA created an opportunity for suppliers to explore the greater use of recycled and recyclable materials.
The ClwydAlyn challenge also identified 26 Welsh organisations whose staff could be upskilled to acquire the PAS and MCS accreditations relating to renewable energy systems and installations, supporting a future-ready and highly skilled workforce in Wales.
The Welsh Government has Foundational Economy objectives of helping to achieve Net Zero, promoting environmentally friendly production and consumption, and increasing the use of ‘Made in Wales’ products to build a strong and productive supply chain. The WISH programme has clearly made outstanding contributions to these objectives.
Spreading and Scaling
SimplyDo has identified potential areas to spread and scale the findings from this project.
The learning from this project has led SimplyDo to identify further potential uses of this proven process. This includes potentially focusing on Foundational Economy areas with similar supply chain opportunities. For example, decarbonisation innovation in areas such as public transport and healthcare.
From American suffragist Helen Todd’s original speech in 1911, labour movements worldwide have used the concept of bread and roses to fight for the circumstances where populations are not just surviving but thriving, too. In the Well-being of Future Generations Act, culture is explicitly written as one of the necessary elements of a thriving Wales. The Act intends for ‘A Wales of Vibrant Culture and Thriving Welsh Language. A society that promotes and protects culture, heritage and the Welsh language, and which encourages people to participate in the arts, and sports and recreation.”
The ongoing pressure on the cost of living, the health service and heritage and arts organisations in Wales illustrates the everyday challenges decision makers are having to make on budgets and priorities. When austerity hits, one of the first things to be cut is cultural services, and we’re seeing that now across Wales and the UK. The Wellbeing of Future Generations Act challenges us all to not neglect our cultural responsibilities and connections in favour of other priorities.
While we’re not a cultural institution at Cynnal Cymru, we care deeply about wellbeing in all its manifestations. Our Fair Economy team accredit the Living Wage and Living Hours Wales, helping organisations to create working conditions that don’t just meet the bare minimum requirements for living, but help their staff to thrive too. We’ve seen huge transformations where individuals no longer have to work multiple jobs and can spend more time with their families, get enough rest, and engage with the culture and community around them.
Culture plays a key part in unlocking sustainability action and is often forgotten in technical debates around carbon reduction. As Gus Speth, US climate scientist put it:
“I used to think that top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. And we scientists don’t know how to do that.”
How are our team thriving while surviving?
Sometimes we think about culture as something serious, expensive, and reserved for a few kinds of activities. But just like sustainability is made up of the little changes that add up in all our work, cultural well-being can come from small moments in our everyday lives. Outside of their work at Cynnal Cymru, our staff have rich lives engaging with cultural moments both big and small.
Abi, our Membership Officer, spends one day a week as an apprentice at an antique jeweller, learning how to make and repair fine jewellery. Recently she’s been challenged by learning how to use CAD design as a tool to design and model jewellery, exploring a whole new creative community. Our Head of Business Development, Clare, recently joined a group at the NoFitState circus building to watch part of the Festival Mondial de Cirque de Demain, livestreamed from Paris. When we can take the time for them, these moments of intercultural engagement can inspire us to think outside our daily spheres and even try new things.
Fiona, our Finance Officer, stops crunching numbers to write fiction when she’s not at work. She’s currently working on two novels, one that’s nearly finished and one that’s a fresh project – an old school, tongue-in-cheek heist set in the modern day. Our Marketing and Communications Officer, Beli, also writes fiction, having recently written a short story for the Beyond/Tu Hwnt bilingual anthology of Welsh deaf and disabled writers.
As a crafty team, our staff are often sharing ideas and tools. Recently, our Living Wage Programme Lead, Grace, gave Fiona some embroidery frames and she’s started a new project from them, planning to make two pieces of iridescent insects. There are so many ways we can appreciate and explore ecology and sustainability in ways that are creative, whether that’s researching beetles for a creative project or photographing the beautiful view on one of our coastal walks in Wales, like our Living Wage and Human Resources Support Officer, Alys, who recently walked some the Pembrokeshire Coast.
Blue Lagoon Quarry photographed by Alys Reid Bacon
Integrating Cultural and Sustainability Work
Too often, we can become siloed in our approach to sustainability. The Well-being for Future Generations Goals challenges us to think about everything that a society needs to thrive. No single person or organisation can do it all, but when we work together, we can make lasting and impactful changes. As a membership organisation, we are inspired by the organisations from outside the sustainability sector who are committing themselves to sustainability work, such as our members Arts Council Wales, Ffilm Cymru, and Media Cymru from the arts sector. We’re all aware of the need to change our behaviour to look after our climate and natural environment, and at Cynnal Cymru we’re committed to empowering organisations from every sector to turn that knowledge into actionable steps.
So how can culture help sustainability?
At the recent South East Wales Climate Coalition event, our former Board member Andy Middleton reminded the audience that “change happens by those who hold the best parties.” Joy, creativity, and culture must necessarily go hand in hand with our passion for a better society.
One of our members Coleg y Cymoedd have embraced an Every Day Every Decision approach to sustainability to encourage their staff and students to drive the culture of change based on what is important for them. The technical aspects are still happening, but just backstage. These kinds of innovations that think about what drives behaviour change are so important and integral to our ways of working at Cynnal Cymru.
Another change in culture is moving towards long-term thinking. This is one of the ways of working encouraged by the Future Generations Commissioner. We have benefited from attending the Futures Hub training as they begin to build a community of practice around the change of culture.
To quote educator and author Peter Drucker: ‘The best way to predict the future is to create it.’
If we’re too busy looking at the numbers, the facts, the long reports of data, we can neglect to imagine a future that is full of joy, passion, and creativity. Wales is a land of song, literature and culture, and we must savour and treasure these things in little and large ways to create a sustainable future that is authentically Welsh, authentically ours.
At least that’s what Benjamin Franklin said in 1789, which has fueled centuries of debates over taxes, but not so much on the subject of death. We all care about what happens to us after we die, whether that’s the way our funeral is handled or how our loved ones are supported. These days, as with everything else, more of us are thinking about the impact death has on the environment.
In Wales annually there are around 36,000 registered deaths, 80% of which will result in a cremation at one of 18 local authority and private crematoria across the country.
To encourage and support the transition of the funeral sector to more sustainable ways of working, Cynnal Cymru members Brendan and Carolyn Day introduced the Greener Globe Funeral Standard in 2020. Both had a keen interest in the environment, with Brendan having had a career in the bereavement sector and Carolyn having worked in insurance and compliance. It made sense, given their shared interests and expertise, to create a sustainability audit process for businesses in the funeral sector. After five years, Greener Globe Funeral Standard now has registered clients not just in Wales, but also across the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands.
Carolyn Day and Brendan Day Directors of Greener Globe Funeral Standard present the Environmental Bronze Award to Clive Phillips at Margam Crematorium.
Bespoke online questionnaires are provided for crematoria, funeral directors, and suppliers, with a cemetery version being released this spring. The first step requires the funeral organisation to demonstrate that it has recognised the need to operate sustainably by adopting an environmental policy and providing evidence that this is cascaded throughout the organisation.
The second step is the completion of the full Sustainability Audit Questionnaire covering key aspects of the business, each answer being evidenced with copies of documents or photographs uploaded to the GGFS website.
The audit generates an award – Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum – depending on the score generated by the environmental benefits/cost environmental aspect scoring matrix. In addition, a bespoke improvement plan is provided to indicate where further changes can be made to lessen the impact of the business on the environment.
It is great news to report Margam Crematorium, operated jointly by Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot Council, became the first crematorium in Wales to receive the Trusted Crematorium Bronze Award.
Margam Crematorium
To protect the environment, crematoria must reduce their carbon footprint. Their primary fuel is gas, which results in the production of CO2. Margam Crematorium must be commended for significantly reducing its gas consumption, by working closely with its cremator suppliers, Facultatieve Technologies who have developed new software and hardware. As a result, between January – August 2024 a total cumulative gas saving of 186,000kWh was recorded. A pro rata annual reduction in CO2 of 52tons. This saving will be ongoing and can be rolled out to other sites, not only in Wales, but across the UK.
Brendan and Carolyn look forward to Margam Crematorium completing the sustainability audit and achieving a higher award.
Mark Isherwood MS, Chair of the Cross-Party Group for Funerals and Bereavement in the Senedd presenting The National Association of Funeral Directors (NAFD) with their Environmental GGFS Bronze Award. From left to right – Phil Blatchly, NAFD Wales President; Barry Pritchard, NAFD Chair; and Mark Isherwood MS, Chair of the Cross-Party Group for Funerals and Bereavement in the Senedd.
If you know a crematorium, cemetery, funeral director or supplier who is looking to work more sustainably, please contact Brendan and Carolyn at info@ggfs.co.uk
Our thriving community of mutually supportive members provides an opportunity to share learning, challenge thinking and mobilise action, be this through co-designed events, hosting networking sessions or simply sowing seeds for future collaborations or thought-leadership.
If you would like to talk to a member of the team about how we can support your organisation, please contactmembership@cynnalcymru.com.
Curious about starting an Electric Vehicle (EV) fleet? Confused about the planning and infrastructure required?
Join Cenex experts, Keith and Connor, for a specialist session on the future of transport. If you have any specific questions in mind then please send them over beforehand or a brief explanation of what you would like to discuss.
‘Ask the Expert’ is a new series of informal drop-in events where you can join our specialists for a short presentation and guided discussion around a chosen topic.
Who is it for?
This session exploring EV fleets and infrastructure is for Cynnal Cymru members only.
Our thriving community of mutually supportive members provides an opportunity to share learning, challenge thinking and mobilise action, be this through co-designed events, hosting networking sessions or simply sowing seeds for future collaborations or thought-leadership.
If you would like to talk to a member of the team about how we can support your organisation, please contactmembership@cynnalcymru.com.
Keith Budden leads Cenex’s work to develop partnerships with public and private sector organisations, helping them deliver net zero mobility. Over the last ten years he has enabled Cenex to grow and increase its impact across the UK, Europe through the development of Cenex Nederland and globally including helping establish the Global Sustainable Mobility Partnership of partner NGOs.
Keith has significant experience of working in international settings having lived and worked in East and West Africa. He has recently led Cenex EV policy advice for the Governments of Seychelles, India, Thailand and Uruguay. He has previously worked for International energy company E.ON, Birmingham City Council as well as environmental NGOs.
Connor Allen
Technical Specialist | Cenex
Connor is a chartered Automotive engineer with professional experience in data-led fleet strategy development, low emission vehicle testing, and project management.
As a technical specialist within the Cenex Policy, Strategy and Innovation Team, he delivers customer projects relating to the development and deployment of new and emerging low emission vehicle technologies.
Cenex was established as the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell technologies in 2005.
Today, Cenex focuses on low emission transport & associated energy infrastructure and operates as an independent, not-for-profit research technology organisation (RTO) and consultancy, specialising in the project delivery, innovation support and market development.
They also organise Cenex-Expo, the UK’s premier low carbon vehicle event, to showcase the latest technology and innovation in the industry.
Their independence ensures impartial, trustworthy advice, and, as a not-for-profit, they are driven by the outcomes that are right for you, your industry and your environment, not by the work which pays the most or favours one technology.
Finally, as trusted advisors with expert knowledge, they are the go-to source of guidance and support for public and private sector organisations along their transition to a zero-carbon future and will always provide you with the insights and solutions that reduce pollution, increase efficiency and lower costs.
This was the takeaway from our latest event, Can Stories Change Our World? , which brought together Cynnal Cymru members and other sustainably-minded businesses. We brought in three speakers to discuss how they use storytelling in their work and talk to us about the power and challenges of storytelling as change. This is clearly a topic on many people’s minds right now. It’s something we talked about in our September newsletter, and drew in a huge number of questions during this event. We discussed questions such as how you deal with apathy and depression in climate conversations, how to use comedy and positivity to tell poignant stories, and how to specifically reach Welsh audiences through storytelling style or platforms.
Ant Green, founder of animation and illustration studio Motion Manor designed for positive change, discussed the importance of telling visual stories that imagine a fair and sustainable future.
“In climate narratives, we’ve created a doom and gloom outlook because it’s the clearest outcome. We know what a bad outcome looks like, but we’re not so sure about the details of that good outcome.”
Motion Manor, a Cynnal Cymru Member, have used their animations and illustrations to visualise this positive future for organisations such as the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations. While they use animation and illustration, Motion Manor ensures that their stories are rooted in reality – for Ant, that’s the key.
“Show a snapshot of real people doing real things, even when using stories or illustration.”
Camille Lovgreen, Cynnal Cymru’s Sustainability Advisor, echoed Ant’s sentiment of needing to situation any storytelling in real life examples, even when writing fiction. Alongside our Sustainability Strategist Karolina Rucinska, Camille wrote a series of fictional stories envisioning Wales in 2051. In their imagination, Wales had implemented all sustainability advice and was seeing a thriving environment and community. Through this set of stories, they were able to begin a conversation around what it looks like to successfully implement climate policy, as well as inspiring the hope that energises this movement.
A similar set of stories was created by the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales (NICW), looking at Wales in 2100. The Chair of the NICW, David Clubb, was our third speaker. David stressed the importance of taking out time when thinking about long-term futures. David also discussed the need to evaluate not just how but where you’re telling your stories. NICW have recently made the decision to leave the big platforms, namely Meta and X, and move to open source versions that fit into their values. This decision comes at a time when many organisations and individuals are moving away from big name platforms in recognition of their censorship, unethical practices, and goals that don’t look out for regular people.
How do we tell our own stories?
For Ffilm Cymru, the development agency for Welsh film and a Cynnal Cymru Member, visual storytelling is embedded into their work.
Films such as this can be used to encourage behaviour change through emotive storytelling.
Ffilm Cymru’s work relies on the power of storytelling:
“Stories have the power to provoke immense transformation in our society, as we’ve seen recently with ITV’s Mr Bates vs The Post Office. They can also affect smaller personal shifts in perception and awareness that can snowball into positive change. It’s up to organisations like ours to help harness that power, and promote action on climate in creative, engaging and entertaining ways.”
Just this month, Media Cymru and Ffilm Cymru Wales have launched a climate themed R&D content fund to support more climate stories and sustainability storytelling.
Is storytelling just for arts or cultural organisations?
Many of the attendees of our event came from organisations outside of the creative sector. The reality is that in every sector, telling your story in a way that reaches the right people is crucial.
Thrive Women’s Aid is a Cynnal Cymru Member organisation that supports women, children, and young people in Neath/Port Talbot who are affected by domestic abuse. They help survivors rebuild their lives and independence in safe communities, supporting entire families to break the cycle of abuse permanently and foster healthier, safer environments for all.
In this video, they tell the impact of their work through simple and effective storytelling.
As we look into the new year, it’s a great time to consider the stories you tell, and how and where you’re telling them.
Can Stories Change Our World? was part of Cynnal Cymru’s quarterly series of Cardiff-based events. Make sure you check out our next event coming soon, Growing the Sustainability Workforce, where we’ll hear from Future Generations Leadership Academy participant Abi Hoare and Finley Povey from Transport for Wales. The event is free for Cynnal Cymru Members, Sparc|Sbarc residents, and we have a limited number of free places for Cardiff University students. Don’t miss it!
How do you develop a sustainability career? For so many starting or changing career paths, making that first step into a sustainability role can be difficult. Join Cynnal Cymru in a facilitated discussion on how to upskill your workforce or develop your own green skills.
Are you starting your sustainability journey? Looking to understand how to apply sustainability strategy to your organisation?Join Camille Lovgreen in our open Integrated Sustainability Taster Workshop, where you can begin to understand what goes into sustainable strategy and look at next steps for your organisation.
Cynnal Cymru members receive one free place on the Integrated Sustainability Taster Workshop. Spaces are subject to availability – contact Abi to register your free place.
Things you should know
The Living Wage Wales 2024 Gift Guide is now live! You can buy from, or visit all of these employers whilst being reassured that the workers involved are being paid fairly for their work
Our thriving community of mutually supportive members provides an opportunity to share learning, challenge thinking and mobilise action, be this through co-designed events, hosting networking sessions or simply sowing seeds for future collaborations or thought-leadership.
If you would like to talk to a member of the team about how we can support your organisation, please contactmembership@cynnalcymru.com.
In 2019, a group of representatives from registered housing associations across Wales sat down around a table with one aim: to find a way to work together to help alleviate the climate emergency.
They agreed that understanding their carbon impact, both as individuals and organisations, and being able to make informed decisions on reducing carbon emissions, had the potential to be transformative for the social housing sector and communities. Thus Carbon Literacy Cartrefi Cymru (CLCC) was born – a consortium that would provide a platform for knowledge sharing across the sector, collaborative problem solving, and peer to peer teaching to deliver Carbon Literacy training to staff across Wales.
One phrase in the meeting notes from the earliest days of the CLCC succinctly summarised what the approach would be:
“This consortium is about reaching you where you’re at and helping from there.”
Fast forward five years, and the CLCC is now coming to a close, having achieved exactly what it set out to do. The consortium’s flagship project, a fully accredited Carbon Literacy training course tailored to the social housing sector, has been delivered to 598 people across Wales, thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of the CLCC trainers who have passed on their knowledge to their peers and colleagues. The course has received two substantial updates and has been fully translated into Welsh. Its final iteration will continue to be used by members to certify their staff as Carbon Literate. Many of those housing associations are now certified Carbon Literate Organisations, and continue to champion carbon reduction in the workplace. As was inevitable with a large group of disparate organisations, not everyone’s time as members of the CLCC looks the same. Each had their own priorities, their own challenges to overcome. But the consortium’s ethos of looking at where each member was and guiding them to where they wanted to be played a huge role in the success of the project.
Bron Afon Community Housing was a part of the CLCC from the start, and remained as members throughout the lifetime of the consortium. Nadine Davies, Community Decarbonisation Officer at Bron Afon, said, “The CLCC has enabled us as an organisation to come together and learn about the importance of climate change and carbon emissions. It provided us with valuable skills, networks, and guidance for us to deliver the course to our colleagues successfully.”
Reflecting on her term as Chair of the CLCC since May 2023, Nadine added,
“The CLCC created a space for us to discuss and share in confidence what was going well and what our struggles were when delivering Carbon Literacy. I found the regular meetings and coming together with others delivering the course useful and it was good to listen and take on board points raised. I very much enjoyed my time as Chair of the CLCC and without it I don’t think we would have had as much success with the delivery of Carbon Literacy as we have. I look forward to continuing to deliver Carbon Literacy to the rest of our staff and the wider community to help tackle climate change.”
Fast forward another five years from now, and we hope that we will still be seeing the positive impact the CLCC has had. Consortium members are talking about rolling out Carbon Literacy to their tenants – and with more than 100,000 houses owned across the consortium, that’s a lot of people. We’ve created a Climate Essentials course to help trainers pass on key knowledge in a shorter, more accessible format, and encourage interest in the full training. For some member organisations, certified Carbon Literacy training is now mandatory for all new staff, and will continue to be delivered long into the future. For those housing associations who want customised training or advice, individually or collaboratively, Cynnal Cymru’s team can work with them to ensure that the success of the CLCC is just the first step on their carbon reduction journey.
In November 2020, when the world was coping with an unprecedented global pandemic, 29 members of the CLCC still found the time to meet, to talk about what they wanted the consortium’s future to be. Many of the initial targets had already been met, with 65 people already certified as Carbon Literate, and 83 people about to take the Carbon Literacy Train the Trainer course, at the time making it the biggest ever Carbon Literacy Train the Trainer cohort. But the world had changed since the CLCC’s inception, with training now having to be delivered remotely, collaborative working much harder than it had been in the past, and organisations rightly prioritising core business continuity and the wellbeing of their staff over less immediate concerns. It would have been very easy for Covid-19 to spell the end of the CLCC, but luckily its members were committed to keeping it very much alive. It’s thanks to them, the dedicated support of their colleagues, and the enormous enthusiasm of hundreds of people across Wales, that we can look back on the past five years and honestly say that the CLCC has made a difference – and its success will continue to inspire more and better changes to how we live.
Have you ever asked for advice from someone who wasn’t necessarily an ‘expert’ on the situation or topic? What made you do that? Was it that they cared about you and understood you? Was it their profession, a common background, or shared beliefs that led you to trust their judgement? Perhaps you judged their trustworthiness based on how you’d seen them act in other situations?
What does that mean for climate communication? Inspired by a recent pilot training, our Sustainability Strategist Dr Karolina Rucinska considers the role of trust in climate communications.
—
When I was in secondary school, staring at a whiteboard with mathematical equations would fill me with dread. I could not make sense of these abstract concepts at all. But when my friend sat down with me and used plenty of real examples, it would all suddenly click in my mind. In other words, by showing me how the equations mattered in my own life, I was able to truly understand them. Was that school friend more educated or credible than the maths teacher who had been teaching for decades? Certainly not, but he found a way to relay the information in the right way for me. It took me years to realise that I just needed the right messenger for the information to sink in. A recent training by Climate Outreach cemented this idea for me.
Trust is a big deal
Trust is a combination of three factors: the person who seeks it, the person who gives it, and the context. Thus, trust can be interpersonal and institutional, and it is fundamental to all aspects of our lives. According to the 2023 edition of the Ipsos Veracity Index, the top five trusted professions are nurses, pilots, librarians, doctors and engineers, but the least trusted are politicians, government ministers, advertising executives, journalists, and estate agents. This suggests that we can trust unbiased and highly trained people with strong codes of ethics and who can help in life-threatening situations.
But we are all guilty of asking for a second opinion. Even after a long call with an expert, like a doctor, we call our nearest and dearest before making big decisions. Don’t we?
In times when information is distorted, opinions divided, and situations are developing too fast to grasp, we reach out to people who mirror our beliefs. And given that trust in politicians is at an all-time low,, how can citizens trust what is being told to us?
Trust at scale
The good news, according to the 2023 Climate Barometer Tracker survey,is that the UK public do trusts naturalists, conservationists, charities, and NGOs. The bad news, and because climate change impacts all aspects of our lives, is that we listen to other voices too. So, if you are an expert on climate change, pandemics, flooding, vaccinations, and people prefer to call their mums rather than trust you, don’t take it personally. Instead, find voices that resonate with the audiences you want to reach.
The Climate Outreach research report on the issue of climate communication found that trusted people are seen as some combination of:
human
sincere
down to earth
kind
reliable
honest
Who do you think of when you imagine these qualities? Likely those people closest to you, rather than experts putting out reports on climate change.
Earning trust in climate messages, at scale, is desperately needed. With so many conflicting messages and a deep skepticism about the media from many of the general public, there is a lot at stake.
Take low-carbon heating, for example. You can have all the facts and figures, but at the end of the day you’ll likely make the decision because a neighbour or friend made the switch and convinces you to do the same.
Earning trust at scale, therefore, goes beyond finding the right “already trusted” messenger or influencer such as scientists. Earning trust at scale needs everyday messengers who can relate, convey real passion, have a deep, lived experience and are credible. For example, a chef who runs a small restaurant with seasonal foods speaking to other chefs who are looking to diversify their menus and cut food waste. A parent who walks their kids to school speaking to parents who want to stay active and reduce petrol costs but feel alone with the challenge. But earning that long-term trust requires a few more ingredients, plus an unbroken chain of promises, and results.
Now, it has been applied by Climate Outreach in their quest to communicate effectively. They advocate three qualities that communicators need to demonstrate for their audiences to trust them and be open to influence:
Passion: This person really cares about this issue.
Credibility: The person knows what they’re talking about. They’re not just making it up on the spot.
Empathy: The person understands that people have different perspectives. They’re not lecturing or talking down to others.
Crafting a trusted message therefore is about being authentic and knowing yourself as well as the audience. Yes, it is also about showing hard facts, but always within the context and tone of your audience.
Trust starts with your first audience: yourself
’One thing I have learnt from the past few years working in the field of sustainability is that to connect with others, we better know ourselves first. In climate change, where food preferences and chosen mode of transport can lead to arguments, we better know why we do what we do.
To start you crafting a message, begin by asking yourself a few questions:
How reliable am I?
Do I trust myself?
Am I someone that others can trust?
What’s motivating me to communicate?
Do I have a genuine interest in understanding where my audience is coming from?
What non-climate interest makes me feel passionate?
To find out how to use these questions, and to fully appreciate the ideas shared in this piece, and to put them all together, I recommend reading the report Beyond Trusted Messengerand to follow Tara Bryer for further updates about the training.
If you or your organisation would like to take deeper action against climate change – including communicating with staff, customers or wider stakeholders – please get in touch!
