The Bristol Green Capital Partnership. A case study

Longhurst, James; Townsend, Ian

Abstract

The Bristol Green Capital Partnership is a unique 10-year-old partnership of some 800 organisations drawn from the public, private and voluntary organisations with the Bristol city region and beyond. All members have pledged to support the vision of Bristol as “a low-carbon city with a high quality of life for all”.
This paper will describe the rationale underpinning the establishment of the partnership in 2007, its development from an initial 12 members and discuss the factors that enabled it to widen its scope, reach and impact over the last decade. The Partnership has been instrumental in identifying the opportunity for Bristol to bid to become European Green Capital and supporting and promoting three submissions from Bristol, culminating in the award of the title for the year 2015. In Bristol’s year, as European Green Capital, the Partnership played a significant and substantial role in implementing the ambitions of the year. Examples of these activities will be given to demonstrate the reach and rigour of the approach and success factors will be discussed. The Partnership is acknowledged as one of the key vehicles through which the legacy benefits of the Green Capital will be discharged. To ensure it was capable to take on this responsibility, the Partnership reorganised the Board that oversees the Community Interest Company (CIC) with a board of directors made up of the Initial Funding Partners, drawn from anchor institutions in the city and its sustainability sector. Alongside these, directors are elected from the wider membership to ensure an explicit Partnership-Board connection to ensure the voice of members is clearly articulated. The paper will conclude with a summary of the current contributions this novel and unusual cross-sector sustainability partnership is making to the sustainable development of the city region through its commitment to ‘enable, deliver and lead’ sustainability action in Bristol.

Citation

Longhurst, J., & Townsend, I. (2017, June). The Bristol Green Capital Partnership. A case study. Paper presented at Sustainable Development and Planning, UWE Bristol

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Sustainable Development and Planning
• Conference Location: UWE Bristol
• Start Date: Jun 27, 2017
• End Date: Jun 29, 2017
• Acceptance Date: Jun 29, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 7, 2019
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: partnership, Green Capital, Bristol
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/885429
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : 9th International conference on Sustainable Development and Planning