Green Partnership, Nottingham

Nottingham Green Partnership (NGP) brings together organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors to work on environmental issues in the City of Nottingham. It was founded in 1992 on the initiative of Nottingham City Council.
In its early period there were eight sub-groups working on different topics: Built Environment, Natural Environment, Energy, Waste and Recycling, Pollution, Transport, Purchasing and Economy, and Publicity, Education and Training. However, it has been hard to sustain this level of activity over the life of the Partnership and only a couple of these still meet. NGP also helped to set up Nottinghamshire International Development Forum, a coalition of local organisations working on development issues. NGP is coordinated by a steering group that meets about four times a year.
Over its life NGP has been given a substantial amount of funding each year by the City Council for allocation to environmental projects. (This has usually been £40,000 but is currently slightly less.) This has enabled a wide range of projects, events and publications, and has often helped to lever in additional finance from other sources.
NGP partnered with the City Council to develop Changing Times, the Local Agenda 21 process for Nottingham. This gathered priority issues and action ideas from many local residents and organisations, and led to publication of the strategy Changing Our City, Changing Ourselves in 2001.
It has also played a prominent role in other initiatives, including:
*Living for Tomorrow, a high quality local sustainability magazine produced three times a year
*Ten Years On, a conference in 2002 marking the 10th anniversary of the original Earth Summit
*Celebrate Sustainability!, "green weeks" of events in May-June 2005
For further information go to www.nottingham-green.org.uk or email the Coordinator, Mike Peverill.