Energy Futures, Local Visions: Envisioning Resilient Neighbourhoods

As we face hotter summers, wetter winters, changing energy costs and increasing precarity with the resources that power our lives, what might it mean to imagine an energy future that is not only lower carbon, but more liveable, collective and resilient?
Join CIVIC SQUARE and Nancy Touré for a shared day of mapping, imagining and conversation as we begin exploring what energy resilience could mean for Ladywood, now and in 2050.
As part of a collaboration with the Royal Academy of Engineers and rooted in CIVIC SQUARE’s 3ºC Neighbourhood research, we’ll explore energy as part of a much wider question of how we live well within a changing climate and the limits of our planet. Moving beyond simply changing where our energy comes from, we’ll consider how rethinking our relationship with energy might open up different ways of living, sharing and caring for our neighbourhood, and what this could make possible for Ladywood.
Please do register your place for this workshop to avoid disappointment, as places are limited. We ask that you are able to commit the full session as far as possible. No previous experience is required to take part; we will be learning together! A shared lunch and refreshments are also included.
This session is for people aged 16+.
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• Beginning at 33 Link Road, we will begin with a shared lunch and ground into the workshop: sensing how we collectively relate to our neighbourhood's existing energy landscape, and exploring the interdependence between energy transitions and how we live as a society, drawing upon historical precedence and insights from our 3ºC Neighbourhood research
  
• We will then head for a walk around the neighbourhood (approx 1 hour), prompting each other to reflect on how the ways we live and our neighbourhood physical infrastructure shape our energy demands within our everyday, starting to reflect on the shifts needed to shape a safe, just and resilient energy future, locally and globally. Please wear clothing that you will be comfortable to wear outdoors for the walkshop, be that in rain or shine.
  
• Back at 33 Link Road, we will end the afternoon on a journey to 2050 as we speculate and map together, surfacing the interdependencies and tensions of what a just energy transition might mean in this place. This is an opening session rather than a finished vision; a chance to question together what a different energy future for Ladywood might look and feel like.

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Nancy is both a neighbour in Ladywood and an energy consultant and practitioner with a passion for sustainable buildings and communities. Founder of 2Rays Solar with experience in energy demand management, community energy schemes and more recently in regenerative building practices.

She is keen to explore the interconnections between these areas and how, together, they can help to shape thriving, resilient, low-carbon neighbourhoods and shared spaces.

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Energy Futures, Local Visions is a project led by the to better understand what a successful energy transition looks like from the perspective of local communities.

Decisions about the future of energy should be informed not only by technical expertise, but also by the experiences, values and aspirations of the people and communities who will live with the outcomes of those decisions.

This project is designed to help the Royal Academy of Engineering to bridge gaps between national and strategic energy transition planning and the local voices and contexts which will host, shape and use energy infrastructure of the future. With this project, they are devising a method to help bridge this gap and support already existing efforts in this space in understanding what local communities want from the UK’s energy transition, a method that we will be trialling during this workshop.

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Energy Futures, Local Visions is an open, shared enquiry with no prior knowledge needed to take part; we just ask that you show up with care and curiosity as we learn and explore this approach together.
This session is for people aged 16+.
This might be for you if:

• You’re curious about where energy comes from, how it moves through our homes and neighbourhoods, and what we depend upon to live well.
• You’re interested in the intersections between the social, spatial and technical dimensions of energy, and how these shape our everyday lives.
• You’re keen to explore how the insights of 3ºC Neighbourhood can shape how we think about safe, just and resilient energy futures
• You’re curious about the relationship between energy, material resources and the wider ecological systems we are part of.
• You enjoy thinking speculatively about the future and imagining possibilities beyond the systems we know today.
• You bring lived experience, practical knowledge, technical expertise or simply a curiosity about what a different energy future for Ladywood could look and feel like.
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This Energy Futures, Local Visions will take place take place in and around the Retrofit House site, starting at .

• We regret that access into the house is not currently wheelchair accessible due to both the doorway raised above street level and a narrow entranceway
  
• This Energy Futures, Local Visions activity will be focused on the ground floor, but please note there are steep stairs up to the first and second floor rooms, with no lift available
  
• The house is in the early stages of a strip out process, with flooring uneven in places and many features that need care and repair. Please ensure to navigate carefully
  
• The house has toilet facilities available on both the ground floor and first floor. The main toilet will be on the first floor and the ground floor toilet is available for neighbours with access requirements
  
• The session includes a walkshop lasting approximately 1 hour, following local pavements.
  
• This workshop is only open to those 16+, with no childcare available during the workshop.
  
• Due to the limited space we are unable to accommodate buggies at the house

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