Bringing university expertise and community knowledge together to turn climate understanding into practical local action in Colchester.

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 fr

Description supplied by the event organiser.