www.oursouthwest.com & project team today
www.oursouthwest.com, as it champions sustainability, provides a useful one-stop-shop of internet access to news, information, environmental data, contacts and links for everyone working towards a sustainable future for the South West, including business managers, policy makers, environmentalists, teachers, lecturers and school,
college and university students.
Its unique "Quotes Corner" features a vast range of quotes and quotations: environmental quotes, sustainable development and sustainability quotes, quotes about business and the environment and business and sustainability, quotes about the importance of people and social issues, as well as quotes containing pearls of wisdom and wit.
The site holds several key documents and reports concerned with sustainable development issues for the South West including, for example, low carbon, sustainable tourism, renewable energy targets etc. All these can be found via the site's
A - Z Site Index.
Since its original launch in 1999, climate change has become an increasingly important environmental and sustainability issue. In September 2002 the site launched a new section "Climate Change Impacts" hosting the work of the South West Climate Change Impacts Partnership (SWCCIP) that is directly concerned with how the region adapts to climate change. In November 2005 a new section "Low Carbon South West"
was launched - this brings together in one place information on the strategies and actions being taken to help the South West move towards a low carbon future.
In January 2006 another important new section, "Low Waste South West", was added to highlight the strategies and actions for addressing the region's waste issues.
In its "BUSINESS" section, the site contains an extensive range of advice, special management guides including our ground-breaking guide on "Resource Efficiency & Corporate Responsibility - Managing Change",
our nationally recognised "Greener Events" practical guide to help reduce the environmental impacts of conferences and seminars, tools and sources of help, and also hosts the web pages for the South West Energy and Environmental Management Groups (EEMGs).
www.oursouthwest.com is currently managed and kept under continuous development by the Sustainability, Climate & Environment Directorate at GOSW in Bristol:-
Phil Harding MBE, Managing Editor & Webmaster
Rachel Malone, Assistant Editor & Design
Elizabeth Cooksey, Website Admin. Support.
The team currently managing oursouthwest.com: Elizabeth, Phil and Rachel
Contact details are on the The "our south west" project is very grateful to regional partners and the many individuals whose work, activities and contributions are published or highlighted on this website. Their work towards a more sustainable future for the region (and beyond) is extremely important and highly valued.
Origins
The original “our south west” project came about after the Government Office for the South West (GOSW) organised a regional consultation conference “Sustainable Futures for the South West” that was held at Bristol Zoo in November 1996. The purpose of the conference was to consult
with regional partners and key interest groups on how sustainable development could become more of a mainstream issue for the region. (For a general description of what sustainable development means for the South West region see the Regional page of this website.)
Outcomes from this conference included the production of “Changing for the Better”, a general guide to sustainable development and the South West – this is featured on the www.oursouthwest.com millennium archive, and work that led to the creation of the region’s round table for sustainable development,
Sustainability South West. One particular recommendation to emerge from the conference was that GOSW should develop a project involving young people and the concept of sustainable development.
Positive approach to sustainability
After consulting with a range of experts, Plymouth Young Persons Agenda 21 (PYPA 21), various contacts and regional partners, GOSW’s then “Environment and Energy Management Team” developed a project to promote sustainable development to the region’s young people.
The aim was to emphasise the positive side of sustainability by valuing the beauty and diversity of the region
rather than concentrating on negative aspects such as waste and pollution. GOSW offered the region’s young people an opportunity to identify what they themselves felt was special about the South West at the millennium where they lived. Their views and images of what was special about the region to them
so that they would want to secure a sustainable future were sought during 1998 and the outcome was featured in a millennium archive called “Our South West”.
This unique archive, which also featured special items of interest submitted by local authorities and other organisations and a bio-diversity audit of the
region, is now featured on the www.oursouthwest.com website.
The name “our south west” was chosen to represent pride, value and a sense of common ownership and responsibility: “this is a great place to be, it belongs to all of us, we all have a responsibility to look after the South West and secure a sustainable future”. The original concept of “our south west” still remains; it sets a challenge to value what we have – and to care for and protect it by working towards a more sustainable future.
Project launch
Having collected contributions from throughout the region, in January 1999 GOSW launched the “our south west” millennium celebration of “what is great about this part of England” at a televised event in Bristol. The project was launched with its own website, a CD ROM archive and, during 1999, a touring
exhibition of selected images from the project which travelled to Bristol, Plymouth, Bodmin, Bridgwater, Dorchester, Yeovil, Salisbury and Tewkesbury.
Over 12,000 visitors had the opportunity to see the exhibition and there was extensive coverage on local TV, radio and in local newspapers. During 1999 nearly 400 SW
secondary schools applied for and received their own free copy of the CD ROM archive.
The original team
The original production team for the “Our South West” project in 1998/99 was led by Phil Harding, Regional Energy & Environmental Officer at GOSW and comprised Martin Boulton – Agenda 21 Co-ordinator, GOSW; Theo Wood, Terri Gough and Rob Stafford of COI - Bristol and, for CD ROM and website design and production, Ian Newton of !Xclaim Multi Media. Other
partners involved in the original project included: The Environment Agency (SW), the SW Biodiversity Partnership, PYPA 21, Avon Environmental Education Liaison Group, Devon Environmental Education Working Group, Common Ground, The CREATE Centre (Bristol), Sustainable Somerset, Tony Whitehead (RSPB), Nigel Howe, Wendy
Emmett, BBC and Barclays Bank (who sponsored the touring exhibition).
Progress and expansion of www.oursouthwest.com
Within weeks of its launch and during the course of 1999, GOSW undertook major development and expansion of the website. This was in response to the perception that emerged during the development stage of the Our South West project that a rapid growth in the use of the internet and e-mail was underway
for communicating information of all types. GOSW wanted to ensure that all interested parties in the region would be able to readily access key regional and national sustainability information.
The site was to become the region’s flagship for promoting sustainable development issues and was probably one of the world’s
first regional websites dedicated to encouraging and enabling sustainable development at the local, regional and business level.
Sustainability, Climate & Environment Directorate
Government Office for the South West
