About this Event
University of Essex Business School × Climate Fresk × Community Climate Action
We have the knowledge. We have the people. We have many of the solutions. So how do we turn them into action?
Climate change is increasingly a business, organisational and community challenge – affecting everything from buildings and supply chains to transport, energy, food and the places where we live and work.
And yet there is an interesting gap.
Recent government research found that only 24% of adults believe they can personally influence decisions affecting their local area, while just 13% had taken part in social action during the previous year.
So what happens if we deliberately bring together the people who have knowledge, ideas, skills, networks and local influence – and give them the opportunity to work on the problem together?
That's what this day is designed to find out.
We're bringing Climate Fresk and Community Climate Action to Essex Business School, creating a space where students, researchers, academics and professional staff can work alongside businesses, community leaders, local organisations and people who want to make things happen in and around Colchester.
And it's hard to imagine a more appropriate place to hold that conversation.
When and where
📅 Saturday 30 January 2027🕛 12pm–5pm📍 Essex Business School, University of Essex, Colchester Campus
The workshop is completely free, with a light cold lunch, tea and coffee provided.
Places are limited to 28 participants to keep the workshop genuinely participative and give people time to make useful connections.
A Business School built around doing business differently
Essex Business School is home to the UK's first zero-carbon business school building.
It's also among the top 6% of business schools globally to hold AACSB accreditation, with the accreditation process specifically recognising the School's commitment to sustainability, research, education and societal impact.
Sustainability and responsible management are embedded across its teaching and research.
But this event asks us to take the next step:
How can we connect that knowledge and capability with the people, organisations and communities around us?
First: understand the system
We'll begin with Climate Fresk, the internationally recognised collaborative workshop based on the science of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Working together around a table, you'll explore the causes and consequences of climate change and the relationships between them.
Rather than simply listening to a presentation, you'll build the picture collaboratively.
That gives everyone in the room – whether you're a climate researcher or encountering the subject properly for the first time – a shared foundation from which we can start thinking about action.
No previous climate knowledge is required.
Then: bring it back to Colchester
In the second part of the day, Community Climate Action will turn the conversation towards the places where we live, study and work.
We'll explore opportunities across five areas of everyday community life:
🌱 Food – how we produce, buy, share and think about food locally
🏠 Housing – warmer, more efficient and more climate-resilient homes, buildings and neighbourhoods
🦋 Nature – protecting and restoring biodiversity and creating more space for nature
🚲 Travel – how we move around our communities and make sustainable travel easier
⚡ Energy – how we generate and use energy, and the potential for community energy projects that create lasting local benefit
We won't try to solve all five in a day.
Instead, we'll explore what's already happening, where the gaps are and where the people in the room see opportunities to do something more.
Why bring a university and its community together?
Universities have an extraordinary concentration of research, expertise, young talent, facilities, networks and ideas.
Businesses bring commercial knowledge, resources, influence and the ability to implement and scale ideas.
Communities bring local knowledge, relationships, lived experience and an understanding of what will – and won't – work on the ground.
Usually, those assets don't all sit around the same table.
For this workshop, they will. And that's the interesting bit.
Could a student research project help solve a problem facing a local organisation?
Could university expertise unlock a community project?
Could a local business provide resources, skills or space?
Could community knowledge change the way we think about a problem?
Could an idea developed here become something much bigger?
We don't know. That's why we're bringing everyone together.
Who should come?
We're particularly inviting people from across the University of Essex ecosystem – and you certainly don't need to study or work in sustainability.
Students, researchers, academics and professional staff from business, economics, engineering, social sciences, psychology, data, law, health, politics and other disciplines can all bring something useful to this conversation.
We're equally interested in people from Colchester and the surrounding communities, including:
- local businesses and entrepreneurs
- charities and community groups
- councillors and community leaders
- schools and educators
- cultural and sporting organisations
- sustainability professionals
- people already developing local projects
- residents who simply want to become more involved.
You don't need to represent an organisation.
You don't need to be a climate expert.
And you don't need to arrive with a fully formed idea.
You might have a problem you'd like help solving.
You might have an idea you'd like to develop.
You might have expertise, research, contacts or resources that could help somebody else.
Or you might simply want to understand the challenge and meet other people interested in doing something about it.
All of those are good reasons to be in the room.
What will you leave with?
By the end of the workshop, you'll have:
🌍 A stronger understanding of climate change and the systems connecting its causes and consequences.
🏘️ A clearer picture of local opportunities across food, housing, nature, travel and energy.
💡 Ideas for practical action within communities, businesses and organisations.
🤝 New connections between the University and wider Colchester community that could lead to collaborations, research, projects or partnerships.
🧭 A better understanding of where you could contribute – through your knowledge, skills, organisation, research, networks or influence.
And potentially, the beginnings of something that continues beyond the workshop itself.
From knowledge to action
This workshop is being delivered through a partnership between Essex Business School, Community Climate Action and Climate Fresk UK – bringing together expertise in business and research, community mobilisation and climate understanding.
It's part of Initiating Climate Action in Colchester and Norwich, a wider programme funded by The National Lottery Community Fund exploring how climate understanding, strong local organisations and community knowledge can combine to create meaningful, locally led action.
Across six workshops, we're bringing together around 180 people from education, culture, sport and their wider communities.
We're testing a simple idea:
Understanding → Connection → Action
Because perhaps the challenge isn't simply that people need to know more about climate change.
Perhaps we also need to get the right people, knowledge and resources connected to one another – and give people greater confidence that they can actually change something.
Come and be part of the experiment
Places are completely free and limited to 28 people.
📅 Friday 30 January 2027, 12pm–5pm📍 Essex Business School, University of Essex, Colchester Campus🥪 Light cold lunch, tea and coffee provided
We're deliberately keeping the group small enough for everyone to participate properly, make useful connections and contribute to the conversation.
If you're part of the University of Essex, run or work in a local business or organisation, lead something in your community, have an idea you'd like to develop – or simply want to help make something happen locally – we'd like you in the room.
Bring your expertise. Bring your questions. Bring the problems you think we should be solving.
Then let's see what becomes possible when we put them all around the same table.
Event venue & nearby stays
Essex Business School Colchester, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, United Kingdom
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