London 21 Sustainability Network

London 21 promotes, supports and networks those engaged in community-based action for sustainability in the Greater London area. Currently (March 2005), over one and a half thousand organisations and individuals are involved in the London 21 Sustainability Network. It provides information services including a monthly e-newsletter with London-wide news and events listings, e-mail discussion groups, a quarterly printed newsletter and a website with a directory of contacts and communitybased project case-studies, and news and events listings www.london21.org

London Green Map Project
London 21 also runs the London Green Map Project, an interactive London-wide website that allows people to search by postcode and add their projects. See www.london-green-map.org for more information.

London Sustainability Weeks
London 21's largest project to date is London Sustainability Weeks. This two-week programme celebrates local action for sustainability in Greater London, to coincide with World Environment Day on 5 June. Events are organised by local organisations and London-wide networks: there are nine supporting partner organisations, who work on issues such as food-growing, recycling, city farms, energy etc. This was run on a small scale in 2003 (with about 50 events in one week). In 2004, London 21 received financial support for this work and expanded the event from one to two weeks. The partnership of organisations supported over 350 local events across the city. Certain days were designated theme days to focus attention on issues such as energy, working with black and minority ethnic groups, cycling etc. The core idea is that it can be hard for small projects to get any media coverage on their own. By working together they are able to provide a much stronger story for the press and TV. Local authorities are also now actively involved. Most of London’s 32 local authorities work with local communities to organise events in their own areas and also run a major London-wide conference for secondary schools on an environmental theme. The idea of ‘local sustainability festivals’ is now being taken up by other UK cities and the 2004 ANPED AGM also agreed that this was something that should be developed in other cities and regions across Europe.

Reference Building our own futures: Local action for sustainable development across Europe in the 21st century A report for ANPED, the Northern Alliance for Sustainability, Chris Church, March 2005