The Mile Upstream Project
Hung I-chen, Guo Yi-hui, and Cheng Yu-ti, three students at the National Taiwan University of Arts, collected sewage water from all over Taiwan and and turned them into popsicles for a project titled “Polluted Water Popsicles.�
The Mile Upstream Project
By Jane Brady, emergencydesign.com supported in part by
This report is intended as a research document, not to be published without full credit to those referenced in word or image.
Map: Google
The River Dart, its waters and watershed. Who sees it, hears it, drinks it, swims in it? Who cares for it? What’s their relationship to the river? What about it do they value? How many different perspectives of the river can be gathered with a view towards cooperative stewardship? Every river has its people. The specific context for the Mile Upstream Project is one mile of the River Dart as it moves through Totnes, Devon. The project is being conducted in the spirit of Action Inquiry, which is a way of simultaneously conducting action and inquiry in order to increase the effectiveness of a wider set of actions. It began as a way improve my own practice and to develop a methodology that would be useful to the Bioregional Learning Centre. ‘The Mile Upstream’ dovetails well with the change strategy of the Westcountry Rivers Trust who were looking for ways to authentically introduce the concept of water stewardship, particularly with businesses, where discussion typically hinges on usage and related cost – what’s extracted from a water supply and what’s discharged back into it. An opening statement to a business by WRT in wanting to change this dynamic might be along the lines of “What we want to discuss with you today is the importance of the River Dart to your business, together with the potential benefits to you and your customers of further enhancing the river environment and promoting your green credentials” followed by an ask for involvement. But for many businesses, particularly where their relationship to a river or water is indirect,
this kind of pitch may not be compelling or relevant enough to create behaviour change. WRT are key participants in several high-level initiatives, such as World Wildlife Fund’s WaterLIFE with its mission to “bring together communities, business and Government for the benefit of people and nature” via catchment partnerships. Important data is emerging through the work undertaken by 108 catchment partnerships across England and Wales and over 1,500 organisations involved in the Catchment Based Approach (CaBA). For example: • Only 17% rivers and streams in England are at good ecological status • The water industry is responsible for 1/4 of all reasons for not achieving good status
Project approach: “The story so far...” A quote from Professor Patricia Shaw, from her book, Changing Conversations in Organizations, a Complexity Approach to Change, in response to an enquiry around the lack of ground rules in her facilitation approach: “Yes, I am not trying to set up a special kind of interaction. These discussions have an ‘everyday quality’ – they are messy, branching, meandering, associative and engaging. They are similar to the mode people value and recognize in many informal kinds of conversation. They include formulating and making reference to proposals, analyses and frameworks. They involve jargon, speculation, anecdotes and personal revelation. They are shot through with feeling tone and bodily sensation with which we are all resonating and responding to in different ways. It is a very active, searching, exploratory form of communication in which the way the future is under
• Agriculture is responsible for nearly 1/3 of all reasons for not achieving good status
perpetual construction is more than usually evident to us all. In a way,
• The key issues facing rivers are abstraction and pollution from sewers and farms.
a complex web of stories in which they themselves and the activities
the participants are constructing an emergent story, or more accurately in which they are engaged are evolving as meaning shifts and evolves. That evolution is self-organizing, every participant plays an important
CaBA conservation and engagement projects are having a significant impact up and down the UK and involve local communities and volunteers.
part, yet, while no-one is single-handedly in control of the evolution, the evolution is not out of control either. The kind of storytelling I am alluding to is not that of completed tales
However, few, if any, demonstrate that communities at large are noticing, understanding or taking action around a full range of watershed issues or benefitting from the aggregation of a wide and/or selfdetermined variety of experiences and solutions.
but narrative-in-the-making. Rather than stating aims, objectives, outcomes, roles as abstract generalities, people use a narrative mode. The starting point is often ‘the story so far’. This is an absorbing process because a person’s identity in this situation is evolving at the same time. We are not ‘just talking’. We are acting together to shape ourselves and our world.”
The intention for the Mile Upstream Project is to engage in lots of conversations with people at a grass roots level about water, with the River Dart as a natural starting point. The goal is to document a wide range of ideas and actions (conceived or accomplished) that begin to expand the definition of water stewardship. The vision is to make known a broad range of pathways so that community-led river stewardship becomes a real possibility in the long term and is not seen as a special project requiring extraordinary effort, or a role for others.
For the 4th Dojima River Biennale in 2015, Take Me To The River – currents of the contemporary, curator Tom Trevor refers in his foreword to philosopher Giles Deleuze and Félix Guattari who developed: “a philosophy of the future which they describe as ‘becoming–’... rather than seeking a universal common ground from which to narrate the future, or attempting to appeal to a total conjunction of present times, the process of becoming serves to account for relationships formed organically between the discrete elements of an ‘assemblage’ (whether social, linguistic, conceptual, ‘practical’ or otherwise).”
some conversations
“Sacrifice Field”
done
person’s occupation
location
main topic
key point
outcome (if any) or observation
septic tank truck driver
industrial estate
water extraction
extracting water from mains to clean tank, on whose authority? transaction/cost? disposal of waste water
how many transactions around water happen everyday?
kayak group paddle organiser
next to KEVICC
rubbish in the river
close relationship with water
clean-up kayak paddle
swimmer
above the weir
health & wellbeing
closest relationship with water
swimmers are ‘caneries in the mines’
used furniture seller
industrial estate
river as a problem
dog owners use river trail, bring their dogs into shop, are a nuisance
simple problem-solving: new signage and tie rails for dogs
roofing company owner
industrial estate
location brings no direct value
not possible to get flood insurance
their business is all about keeping water out!
hydropower developer
Totnes Weir
key river access point
micro hydro location is a prime destination/access point for the river
public all-day event “First Ever Archimedes Screw Fest” w/over 100 attendees
P
supermarket customer champion
Mill Leat @ Coronation Rd.
riparian responsibility
open to collaboration to care for leat
convening of stakeholder meeting
P
IT director w/ecology online retailer
industrial estate
merging of business interests
they take care of landscaping on their property, use river for photoshoots, but it’s not made the most of their website
they sell water quality test kits, part of the stewardship toolkit?
angler
SW Water pumping station
water quality
no issues perceived, despite fishing adjacent to sewage pumping station
what happened to the Town Crier?! we should know about discharges
ornothologist
river trail @ industrial estate
monitoring
part of a club, committment, regularity of monitoring
do people with similar values do similar things – Buddhism & ornothology?
photographer
Brutus Bridge
personal challenge
many amateur photographers don’t publish their photos
who’s shooting under the water?
film maker
café on the Plains
wellbeing
scores high in reason to live here, has made impressionistic Dart film
how many creative people’s skills could be brought to bear?
sculptor
met at a workshop
aesthetics of EA flood works
concrete wall, possible to improve on it? who knows what it will look like?
Submitted letter to the EA about flood prevention works
ferry pilot
Steamer Quay
water rights
lots of rules & regs, e.g. Dartmouth Harbour Authority, significant affect of tides
a wealth of information, could be employed in a non-obstacle way
ex wildlife volunteers
at Screw Fest
dissolution of volunteer-based orgs
very willing, no idea who to contact, stopped volunteering after many years
mechanismns for engagement are not forthcoming
business owner (food)
industrial estate
values, connection to a larger movement exposing animal agriculture
water is integral to many other systems and movements, some of which have expert supporters and powerful messaging
Writing letter to the EA about flood prevention works
teacher (alternative curriculum provision)
industrial estate
land use, improvements
new basketball court constructed right at property line with river trail w/gate access to trail along fence
considered use of unloved riparian land
flood management worker www.bamnuttall.co.uk
industrial estate
bureaucracy, corporate messaging
surface water run-off poster (he had no idea what it meant)
waste of subcontractors’ corporate marketing money?
river gazer
on the old bridge
the surface tension effects of water
what students are learning about water in school
direct link from kids to parents
brewer
brewery backs on to a leat
water quality
evidence – % of nitrates and phosphates in drinking water has increased
further enquiry around access to river water quality data
local historian
public access points
knowing what’s come before
people understanding their rights around river access
we’re losing important knowledge
teacher (primary school)
Staverton
experiential learning
silo’d teaching – ecology can be taught alongside STEM
pilot programme underway
archivist
Totnes Museum Study Centre
history of the industrial estate by the Dart
amazing stories waiting to be brought to life... racehorses crashing across the river...
project the images at a river festival
new riverfront housing development salesperson
Baltic Wharf
importance of river in house-buying process
huge value in location that the developer hasn’t truly paid for
book: “Who Owns the Environment?”
P
P
P
P
P
P
brewery
How can small businesses afford to think about water?
New Lion Brewery
The story so far... New Lion Brewery is a craft brewery with a strong community connection, brewing award winning beers that help boost the Totnes economy and working with local businesses and community groups to create experimental and one-off beers. When they launched in the autumn of 2013, the brewery engaged a consulting brewer and manufacturing chemist (in Nottingham) to test the quality of the drinking water they use. The type of laboratory service NLB comissioned – Liquor Analysis – tests for liquor potability/brewing efficiency by looking at Alkalinity, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulphate, Chloride, Nitrate and pH. Now, in 2017, New Lion Brewery produces 45 barrels of beer a week. They recently conducted another water quality test and noted an increase in nitrates. The reading is well within allowable limits, but it does leave an unanswered question around why the increase. Who does Mat the brewer contact to verify the findings? What kind of data does South West Water have by comparison? Another kind of test – High Pressure Liquid Chromatography – is routinely used in all aspects of food and beverage analysis. This analysis is capable of detecting limits as low as Parts per Trillion (ppt). The following analytes can be tested to satisfy higher demands (e.g. from national supermarkets in relation to beer sales) and also when spent grains are used in the food chain. Aflatoxins/Mycotoxins, NDMA/ATNC, Pesticide Residues, Ethanol, Ethylene, Methanol, Glycols. Is this kind of testing affordable for small businesses, and might there a reluctance to test at this level given an unclear path if the results are significant? What does South West Water test for, when and how?
Delivery of an EcoVolt in California
For river water quality testing, DEFRA prioritize nitrate-vulnerable rivers or those where incidents have been reported (like dead fish). The EA’s data on the Dart is old (2009). Members of the public (often people buying new houses) can submit enquiries which would be forwarded to the Rural Payments Agency.
operations and produce methane that is converted into heat and electricity. Lagunitas Brewing Company predict that with two EcoVolts its water footprint will drop by 40% and they will recover 20% of its facilities’ energy needs. Lagunitas Brewing Company also say that the system has been a money, time and petrol-saver. Previously, they had to truck over 50,000 gallons a day of its concentrated wastewater to a treatment plant in Oakland over 40 miles away.
Where is the innovation happening?
Where are the opportunities locally?
Craft breweries in the US, such as Lagunitas Brewing Company and Bear Republic Brewing Co in Sonoma County, California, are using a new onsite wastewater treatment system housed in a shipping container. The EcoVolt, developed by Boston-based startup Cambrian Innovation, is powered by electrically active bacteria that use anaerobic digestion to scrub the breweries’ wastewater of up to 90% of pollutants.
• • • • •
Each EcoVolt unit, which is targeted towards other boutique food and beverage operations such as wineries and dairies, can process up to 300,000 gallons of wastewater per day, and enables the breweries to reuse water in their cleaning
Townwide sustainable practices regarding water usage Rainwater harvesting Cleaning processes at the brewery – harvested rainwater? Bottle-washing as a community resource (Mat is already pursuing this) Collaboration with other small breweries to compare water-related best practices or water quality testing within a catchment • Submit a river water quality enquiry on behalf of an entire catchment? • Awareness-raising around water with beer drinkers
community energy Totnes Renewable Energy Society & Dart Renewables
How can technology and innovation bring focus to river ecology?
The story so far... Totnes Renewable Energy Society (TRESOC) has been in operation since 2007. Their mission is to develop community-owned renewable energy projects that bring economic, environmental and social benefit to the local community. Local TRESOC members have an equity stake (an investment of £370,000) in Totnes Weir Hydro, twin turbines that supply clean, renewable electricity to the adjacent community college (KEVICC) and a foundry on the industrial estate. The 300 kW scheme is expected to generate around 1,200 MWh of clean electricity each year – enough to power around 280 homes1. Designed to withstand the impact of high spring tides and increased river levels due to climate change, this small-scale hydro plant has been performing ahead of expectations. The developers of Totnes Weir Hydro, Dart Renewables Ltd also have expertise in river ecology, which was a priority for them in developing the scheme. A best practice fish pass, installed adjacent to the turbines, allows more salmon and sea trout to migrate past the weir and spawn in the Dart catchment. It is expected that over time the population of these species will increase. An automatic fish counter has also been installed to monitor the number and sizes of fish using the pass. This will provide valuable data on the species in the river Dart which will be shared with the Dart Angling Association, the Environment Agency and others. 1.
Estimate based on figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change showing actual generation from hydro power and showing that annual UK average domestic household consumption is 4,170 kWh.
Where is the innovation happening? Innovative Swedish environmental technology is being used in Russia for phosphorus retention and recycling. A poultry farm near St. Petersburg is using Bioptech’s Polonite® filters to prevent phosphorus discharges. The project, financed by the John Nurminen Foundation and the Baltic Sea Action Plan Trust Fund, aims to reduce eutrophication in the Baltic Sea. Are we looking hard enough for clean tech solutions to pollution problems? Here in the UK, Community Energy (as a subset of Renewables) offers a clean, practical and local alternative to fossil fuels, despite the current lack of government support. Good Energy have stated that by 2020 UK Community Energy could reduce the UK’s annual carbon emissions by 1 million tonnes, reduce the UK’s coal imports for electricity generation and deliver economic benefits to communities and retain money in the local economy. The movement is resilient – it’s just a matter of time. So why not make small-scale hydropower a win-win for river biodiversity as well? TRESOC and Dart Renewables have a long history of collaboration which allowed them to explore several ways of working together to generate investment. Post-construction
The twin turbines at Totnes Weir and state-of-the-art fish pass.
(of Totnes Weir Hydro), this relationship has led to a new hydro project on Staverton Leat, numerous tours of the plant and a pilot learning project for Key Stage 2 students. The First Ever Archimedes Screw Fest brought together the threads of science, energy, arts and place at the weir, giving a glimpse of a whole systems approach in the context of a day-long free event.
Where are the opportunities locally? • A closer relationship between local engineers, innovators in clean tech and ecologists • Future events like the Screw Fest that promote a whole-systems approach • Promotion of this integrated approach to encourage revisiting the 26,000 viable hydropower sites in the UK (Opportunity and Environmental Sensitivity Mapping in England and Wales, 2010).
supermarket
Can local involvement be seen as a business advantage?
Morrisons
The story so far... Morrisons supermarket in Totnes sits between the Dart and a leat, which is directly in front of the property. The car park backs on to the Dart, where the river path is currently undergoing some flood prevention measures. On a recurring basis, the subject of leat stewardship surfaces in the town, usually because there’s a pile of trolleys in it, or a build-up of Morrisons packaging – it’s an emotive issue. The local Rotary Club have twice cleaned the leat, and Morrisons staff do remove some litter, but do not have the equipment to tackle the task thoroughly. In talking with Terri, Morrison’s Community Champion, it seems that they are more than willing to host a gathering of interested parties in their training room to look at the issue strategically. Want to get supermarkets to care about water? Show that it matters to people at the local level and that they have the knowledge and power to take collaborative action. At the corporate level, Morrisons is involved in farming programmes, has donated to flood victims and produced energy efficiency reports. Most of its corporate responsibilty work seems to be outsourced to large global consultancies. Taking a closer look at Morrisons’ Corporate Responsibilty Review 2015/16, their reduction in operational water consumption target of 20% by 2020 (2012 baseline) has dropped to 5%. Water isn’t a top priority nationally, but it could be locally. Individual Morrisons’ stores do make some adjustments to stock based on local demographics, but generally the connection to place is not strong.
Where is the innovation happening? Infarm builds ultra-efficient, modular, app-controlled, indoor hydroponic growing systems that are responsive to the growing demand for local, transparent, and dynamic food production. They are “a team of plant scientists, roboticists, industrial designers, IT wizards, architects, futurists and chefs. Their focus is democratising growing technologies to produce high quality produce at affordable prices. Berlin’s Metro Cash & Carry supermarket, part of the Metro Group wholesale chain, has implemented the Infarm hydroponics system in store, growing herbs, radish and greens which Infarm says will be available at a price comparable to Metro’s other fresh goods.
Kräuter Garten by Infarm at Metro Cash & Carry, Germany
Where are the opportunities locally? • • • • • • • • •
Store-specific water consumption targets Store-specific sustainability officer? A storewide initiative around water (employees and customers) Collaboration with EA and local artist to transform the aesthetics of the flood defence work along their property line Greener cleaning products River science lunch breaks for employees Host a local version of the Kräuter Garten If Morrisons don’t use glyphosate, the community should know about it Leat clean-up strategy and action plan
food company Tideford Organics
The story so far... Tideford Organics is the UK’s only maker of 100% organic vegan soups and sauces (no GMO, no pesticides, gluten free, no added sugar). For over 20 years, their business has been based on an ethos. They encourage people to become meat-free by offering great-tasting alternatices and a clear educational message, “a little vegucation goes a long way”. They were a contributor to The Totnes & District Local Economic Blueprint, a report carried out by Totnes REconomy Project. Based on public data, the report estimated the potential value of Totnes’ localised economy. A statistic around the category of Food & Drink that emerged from this report was “If we spent 10% more in local shops than we do at the moment, we would add £2M to the local economy.” Lynette Sinclair, Tideford’s MD, confirmed that the Dart was a source of wellbeing for her personally, and for her employees. Recent flood prevention work has left her perplexed – they have lost access to the river path (simple wooden steps would rectify this). Unlike New Lion Brewery, the testing they do for microbes is entirely focused on health & safety standards and happens after the soup has been made. They have an expectation, based on the expense of their water bills, that the quality of the water provided to them – their number one ingredient – is regularly checked, “We assume a certain level of safety.” Thinking about water holistically in this way sparked interest – as more thoughts emerge, like cleaning practices, there’s an open invitation to continue the conversation.
Impossible for “Clean Water” to be an ingredient on packaging?
SMALL CHANGES, BIG DIFFERENCE Animal agriculture is responsible for a huge number of the world’s problems. Einstein said it way back when, and scientists still agree: eating more veg and less meat is the single best thing any one of us can do to secure the future of the planet. Here’s why:
LIVESTOCK COVERS 45% OF THE EARTH’S LAND
THE MEAT + DAIRY INDUSTRIES USE A THIRD OF OUR PLANET’S FRESH WATER SUPPLY
Tideford’s website includes messages like “Livestock covers 45% of the Earth’s land”, “A plant-based diet cuts your carbon footprint by 50%” and “The meat + dairy industries use a third of our planet’s fresh water supply”. Sources cited are www.cowspiracy. com and www.meatfreemondays.com. Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret is an environmental documentary about “the most destructive industry facing the planet today”, animal agriculture. The film features the expertise of Dr. Richard Oppenlander, Michael Pollan “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals”, Dr. Will Tuttle (The World Peace Diet) and Will Andersen (Greenpeace USA). Is there an opportunity to connect ethos and product to local farming practice to generate more solidarity?
Tideford Organics’ product and message – in line with local farming trends?
Where is the innovation happening?
Where are the opportunities locally?
It’s a leap from Tideford soup to “stone soup”, but at its most basic level, organizational innovation is mostly about making stone soup. That is, everyone, everywhere, making small unique contributions every day that when combined create something truly great. In the fable, it was the tricksters who looked on while the community added more and more ingredients until it was delicious. In the practice of Agile software development, the role of the trickster has evolved to include coaching. An agile coach guides teams through a transformational process that values individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer
• Including water as an active ingredient in packaging (in a good way) • Seeing water as a river running through multiple businesses; connecting the dots between industries to create shared interest • Mapping and Design Days to clarify all the ways that water touches local business • Localized water testing? • Support of local farmers who consciously use water • Improvement to Flood Defence works
ANIMAL AGRICULTURE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR 91% OF AMAZON DESTRUCTION
collaboration over contract negotiation and responding to change over following a plan. Would rivers benefit from design thinking that includes tricksters and coaches?
online retailer
What if businesses with their backs to the river turned to face it?
NHBS
The story so far... Many businesses rent warehouse space on the industrial estate in Totnes – the part of the river where it changes from ‘scenic’ to ‘smelly’ and then back again. The relationship that those businesses have with the river are varied, ranging from problematic, “people walk their dogs along the river then bring them inside where they pee or get mud on the furniture,” to irrelevance, “the only thing the river means to us is that we can’t get flood insurance,” to positivity, “we turned down other locations to stay in Totnes, being by the river is a bonus.” The Environment Agency’s flood defence work on the industrial estate has recently sparked some comments, “Felt very sad the day the wall went up – what a waste of money and so badly done.” NHBS offer the world’s largest selection of wildlife, science and conservation books plus ecology and biodiversity survey equipment. Sometimes nhbs will stage their photoshoots for products by the river. A recent blog post describes how the accumulation of stacks of pallets is an unavoidable part of their business. They were contacted by the Slapton Ringing Group (bird surveyors based at the Slapton Ley National Nature Reserve, a very important place for local and migrating bird populations) to ask if they could take some off their hands. A regular rotation of willow cutting is undertaken at the site, which maintains the vegetation and helps to avoid major changes in species composition. A carefully constructed pallet walkway allows access to the ringing rides for the volunteers that meet here regularly throughout the ringing season. The pallets salvaged from NHBS were used to replace old ones which have an obviously limited lifespan due to the constantly wet conditions. Prior research into a company’s environmental efforts, however small, can create a springboard for deeper conversations around water. NHBS have 190 Instagram followers and 2,640 Twitter followers. Tideford Organics, have 1,905 Instagram followers and 9,267 Twitter followers. These businesses don’t have their own High St. presence, but they have strong voices online. What’s the total social media reach of local eco-aware small businesses?
Where is the innovation happening? There are countless examples of projects that revitalize local economies through river restoration, like the Hoosic River Flood Chute Naturalization project by Sasaki Associates in North Adams, Masachussetts. “We can’t do a lot about the air, but when it comes to water remediation, landscape architects own this.” (American Society of Landscape Architects). There are also examples of projects that ran out of steam. A Tripadvisor review of Trafford Ecology Park: “It’s a pity, because it has some potential, but like much of Manchester, the area around it is absolutely swamped by rotting litter and not maintained. The place appears more or less to be abandoned.” What’s the most creative collaborative process for determining the best outcome for a river’s revitalization?
Top left: Palette waste reuse. Top right: “The River”, a meandering and almost transparent building built on a 75-acre preserve as a multi-use platform for events and initiatives put on by the community of New Canaan and non-profit Grace Farms Foundation. Gensler’s entry for the Illuminated River competition, a unified scheme conceived to light central London’s bridges along the Thames.
Where are the opportunities locally? • • • • • •
A social media river awareness campaign led by industrial estate businesses Giving the ‘industrial’ stretch of river an identity River story walking tours/app Focus on industrial estates and their relationship with rivers (exhibition?) A national competition for ‘Mile Upstream’ regeneration Joining the dots underneath Totnes – leat appreciation
Public access to the Dart
What role can the arts play in opening up thinking?
What have I learned so far? 1. Place matters. 2. Shared values speed things up. 3. If you simply ask and listen with genuine interest and with a frame in mind, new pathways for problem-solving open up constantly. This approach, “What’s your relationship to the Dart?”, is already resulting in singular actions, e.g. convening around leat clean-up in collaboration with a national supermarket. The actions will build and create a knowledge base around the importance of water to this place. Joining up local water-related success stories, along with inspiring examples of what’s happening elsewhere, creates a platform from which to interact with the community, including businesses, in a way that is credible and relevant. Place matters. We see that we are both citizens of the world, globally connected, and stewards of our places. Exploring environmental and social problems or opportunities on a local stage makes sense. The Global challenges we are now facing (climate change, loss of natural resources, species extinction, population growth and economic growth butting up against planetary boundaries to name but a few) are shared by all, but specific to place. Each place will experience them differently. So it is logical that the responses should also be place-specific, whilst acknowledging the context of an emerging global condition of flux. Here – it could be argued – the traditional notion of self as grounded in a communal sense of place is being washed away, replaced by a ‘network culture’
of shifting meanings and values defined by dynamic movement rather than by static location – people’s place in time rather than in space. But there’s no doubt that each place has a particular power, or draw, based on its intrinsic nature and a set of experiences that people value (possibly in relation to memory). We do not need to be born in a place to be of a place, and we are fortunate to have an iconic river to give us a reference point to help us see the value of the environment that sustains us.
Shared values speed things up. According to the Common Cause Foundation, a large body of evidence shows that values of are central importance in leading people to express concern about social and environmental issues – whether this concern is expressed by changing aspects of day-to-day behaviour, by becoming politically involved, or by volunteering. A common set of values, grouped around compassion, underpin such social and environmental concern. Everyone holds these values to some extent – indeed the majority of people privilege these values above all others. Strengthening and giving voice to these values will help to create responses to a wide range of social and environmental challenges – from climate change to social exclusion. Water is not top-of-mind for most people in South Devon, except perhaps when the water bill hits or there’s a mains leak or flooding. There is no Water Parliament (yet). Businesses are likely to be aware of the role water plays in their entire product or service lifecycle but have little reason to look closely at it even if the benefits are explained. WWF’s research showed that while there can be buy-in for Water Stewardship from senior business directors, those tasked with ‘doing it’ can be confused about what this means in practice. The point of this “Conversations” project is to broaden the thinking in terms of ways to ‘do it’, to expose shared values and open up the possibility of multistakeholder regenerative projects, ideally leading to new livelihoods and shared stewardship.
A new platform. This project is part of an ‘assemblage’ around water. From it, new pathways towards Water Stewardship will emerge that will have traction because they are meaningful to the networks and relations that make up the ‘community’ in this place. There is definitly a question around who drives, builds and holds such a body of knowledge. It doesn’t fit neatly under the remit of any one local organisation. Fortunately, there are organisations like The Bioregional Learning Centre who can both act as a backbone and move with the flow. They are committed to a long-term approach that could capture the vitality of this project, and the legacies of many that have gone before, whilst aggressively moving a whole-systems agenda forward. So much good work around river awareness disappears without trace, like the Cycleau Project. A factor for this happening is that there was no “stickiness”, or engaging kernals of interest or visual quality built in to the process to help it survive. Often, huge amounts of effort go into following a plan of action and completing tasks and yet little thought is given to pulling together learnings, omitting overlap and sharing outcomes in the most innovative ways possible. This shouldn’t keep happening over and over again! A Community Charter (a process that maps and names the things a community values, to protect and sustain a local economy and ecology for the long term) might provide a tangible reference for river awareness work. There are several successful examples of Community Charters, St Ives, for example. This project has already unearthed many potential pathways to Water Stewardship, including interacting with a national supermarket in a different way, and it continues to unfold.
“Creativity is just connecting things.” - Steve Jobs
What does this poster mean?
What’s that foam? How do I find out?
What role can personal stories play?
Could this program include where people wear the clothes?! What happens when you acknowledge water?
What are the most memorable parts of the river’s history?
to be continued... When the industrial estate, including the river, was a racecourse. Photo: Totnes Image Bank.
The River Dart from Sharpham Trust’s Sharpham Meadow Natural Burial Ground
The Mile Upstream Project, ©Jane Brady 2017