As we face increasing pressures, from climate change to pandemics, we need to work together to build a better vision that supports a healthy and active society.
That means market, state and citizens, because – as Jon Alexander states so eloquently in his book Citizens – “the answer to everything is all of us”.
How the private sector can drive the UK towards a low-carbon future is a report created by Route to Zero. It acts as a framework for business and local government to be enabled to drive change – at scale. It’s powerful and action-orientated and asks for joined-up stable national policy.
The report highlights how businesses are designing solutions, mobilising investment and delivering innovation now. The voices in the report are from large manufacturers to fast growing SMEs requesting support from policy makers to create the right environment to scale change to net zero. This means streamlining regulation, investing in infrastructure, empowering local authorities and ensuring procurement policies align with climate goals. Above all they ask for long-term policy clarity to unlock private capital and investment.
As Terry Scuoler, CBE Chairman of Independent Economics who authored the report explained “This report is a call to action. The UK has the skills, ingenuity and ambition to lead in the low carbon economy. By creating the right conditions for business to thrive, net zero can be turned into a national success story – economically, environmentally and socially.”
We attended, spoke at and sponsored a recent Route to Zero event on the report.
Dr William Bird MBE, spoke of how proud Intelligent Health is to sponsor the event and how our aim is to connect communities to place and people and promote behaviour change in towns and cities to lead to better health and environments.
Mayor of Liverpool, Steve Rotheram, was at the event and explained his plan for the Liverpool City Region to be net zero by 2035.
Liverpool was the first combined authority in the country to declare a climate emergency in June 2019 and Mayor Rotheram explained how green spaces aren’t just the lungs of a town and city, they are also the places to get active too.
He outlined how the city’s tactic is to split the approach to a green economy into three sections: industrial, transport and housing. This includes the installation of battery-powered electric trains that are a third-less polluting than their predecessors, utilising sustainable methods of house construction and decarbonisation of intensive energy industries.
We create resilient, healthier communities by connecting to each other, the environment, and providing vital health knowledge, using engagement and data-driven insights. This is achieved through our suite of impactful programmes and measures:
- Beat the Street
- Roots Health Academy
- Eco-travel Education
- Physical Activity Clinical Champions training
- Health Creation Index.
Beat the Street is our core programme, which was built to create the conditions for healthier place and people, by bringing a whole community together. It aims to increase our connection with the environment and each other through movement and fun.
Consider Burnley, a former mill town facing significant challenges.
Gamification allowed them to green their neighbourhoods earning 2,500 trees which the community then planted, demonstrating the powerful synergy between individual wellbeing and planetary health. They used the engagement to bring everyone together to identify what was strong in their town and have unified under the banner #OutdoorTown. Five years on, they have a new confidence, have attracted wider funding and are proud of where they live.
“Beat the Street supports our place-based working in Burnley by inspiring people to explore and discover new places from their doorstep and beyond,” said Paul Foster, Chief Executive Burnley Leisure & Culture.
“It fosters collaboration around a shared, positive vision for the community, highlighting local assets and helping people see them in a new light. As a strategic tool, it enables cross-sector collaboration, supports planning, and—most importantly—promotes civic pride.”
True health equity cannot be achieved without addressing the underlying social factors that shape people’s lives. Poverty, inequality, lack of access to education and opportunity – these are not just social problems, but health and economic problems as well. By tackling these root causes, we can create more just and resilient communities, where everyone, regardless of their where they were born, thrives.
That’s why we are delighted to support the work of Route to Zero.
To find out more about Route to Zero, please visit the website
Discover Liverpool’s pathway to net zero
To find out more about how Intelligent Health can bring partners closer to their communities and enable positive behaviour change, at scale, check out our programmes
