News
13/09/2021

Place Standard Tool with a climate lens: cocreating local climate solutions

The Place Standard Tool 2.0 with a climate lens is a joint-led project by Sniffer and Sustainable Scotland Network, together with and funded by Public Health Scotland and Scottish Government. It aims to support integrating climate action into placemaking. It will build on the widely used Place Standard Tool (PST), designed for considering a joined up, collaborative, and participative approach within a place.

Tackling the climate emergency is one of the most serious issues facing our places. This project addresses the need to include climate change issues within a discussion about place, using the Place Standard Tool, and by doing so, maximising cobenefits to drive fair and just solutions that also support health, wellbeing and equality.

Recognised in the Programme for Government 2021-22, Scottish Government commits to creating communities that embed low-carbon lifestyles, while improving health and wellbeing. The Place Standard Tool with a climate lens will play an important part in supporting this.

Project aims

The project aims to better support new and existing users of the PST to consider climate change in their placemaking. The new Place Standard tool with the climate lens can be used at any time when people want to discuss the future of a place, and for considering how global trends will play out in a local area.

The project will also develop learning processes to develop a robust evidence base for decision makers and policy makers of the effectiveness of the PST process in delivering net zero and climate ready places.

PST with a climate lens will be a key tool to help communities to cocreate local climate solutions.

Pilots

Over the past year, new material including an evaluation framework and a guidance document has been developed by the Project team. The PST has been updated to allow consideration of climate change alongside health, wellbeing and other significant aspects shaped by places. We identified communities earlier in the year and have worked with facilitators to review the guidance materials.

The first pilots are taking place across Scotland, with several local communities and organisations, considering local responses to climate change. PST encourages these responses to be imagined and designed holistically to help achieve local priorities such as tackling inequalities, urban regeneration, improving health and wellbeing and economic opportunities. The four pilots are:

  • Edinburgh’s Thriving Green Places– The project aims to shape an ambitious new vision for Edinburgh’s natural environment and produce a 30-year strategy and action plan to protect and enhance greenspaces with people at its heart.

  • Climate Ready Strathdon – Based in Aberdeenshire, this localities project is running placemaking sessions in collaboration with the local school to feed into what climate ready means for their local area. The project aims to use the climate lens to provide a wider perspective of the challenges facing their community and support the development of solutions that are compatible with a net zero future.

  • Greater Pollok placemaking – The project focuses on the regeneration of Greater Pollok, an area facing challenges of inequality and unemployment. Using place based tools, the project aims to address these challenges and connect the local community to the landscape.

  • Buckhaven neighbourhood plan – Using place based techniques, the project aims to create a collaborative neighbourhood plan to develop the local community that captures all local voices and addresses areas inequalities.

The feedback from piloting the PST with the climate lens will be used to improve the guidance and facilitation resources, which will be available via the PST website.

If you would like to know more about the PST, please reach out to Sam Whitmore at Public Health Scotland.