Imagine a physical place in the heart of Stroud, where everyone could go to gain impartial advice on making environmental upgrades to their homes and transport. A place where people can come and gain roadmaps to their own future health and wellbeing, as well as their wider community’s. A place that’s designed to encourage, facilitate and urge us all to make the right choices to protect our environment and to maximise our wellbeing. We may even see the equipment of the future displayed so we can all get a feel of what our homes, villages and towns could look like in the future.
There seems to be a ground swell of groups and individuals across the Stroud area talking about this, and this thought piece is a place to sketch out an initial idea. The hope is, that when people start talking about this utopian centre more widely, there is already a form of words to refer to. Please feel free to discuss, criticise or whatever. But please think about the idea.
Below are some more detailed thoughts on what could be in the centre and how it would operate. But before that, it is worth pointing out that something similar already exists – just outside Swindon. It’s called the National Self-Build and Renovation Centre and it has displays of building and renovation equipment. We also have other exciting local projects like SPARKS Bristol and Planet Cheltenham to be inspired by.
What would be in the centre?
Depending on the size, actual pieces of equipment or models of equipment – think heat pumps, household batteries, water saving fittings etc. Local suppliers can display their environmental wares as well as leaflets and contact details. There would be details of grants available and signposting to other free or low cost resources. On the wellbeing side, again the range of local paid-for therapists together with signposting to free resources aimed to help people improve their wellbeing.
Why mix wellbeing up with environment?
Ultimately, for us humans to thrive in our world we rely on a supply of things like food, water and clean air. By protecting our environment we protect the supply of these basics, which means we can all focus on on maximising our potential.
How would it work?
Ideally staff would be able to advise centre visitors and direct them to the right resources in the centre. The staff would be trained to give impartial advice at a signposting level – it would be impossible for anyone to know everything!
Why would people want to come?
Who wouldn’t want happiness for themselves and their loved ones? Everyone would come! Another spur could be the nature of the promotional literature for the centre. It would be in exhibitors’ interest to promote the centre. Data may be another form of promotion. There is plenty of data, released on a regular basis, that shows how we in Stroud perform compared to our neighbours. This benchmarking data is available for both environmental performance and wellbeing. Where we lag behind others, perhaps the benchmarking will give that extra push to do better than peers.
How will it be funded?
One possible funding model would be to some kind of self-funding regime. The idea is that any local companies who display in the centre will sponsor or pay a little to cover the costs. A room for talks and hosting events may also contribute to the costs. It is a bit difficult to see though, how it could start without some initial seed funding.
What are the benefits?
Ultimately a truly sustainable and healthy Stroud. But side benefits could include extra trade for local installers and wellbeing professionals. More footfall to the town centre would be beneficial to other shops. And we’d be part of a wider trend across the South West, which has Environmental Centres popping up everywhere from Totnes to Bristol to Cheltenham.
What’s the plan?
Spread the word at the moment. Maybe sufficient interested groups, companies and individuals can get together to start transforming this vision to a reality. A roadmap could look like this:
- Gain sufficient bunch of interested parties
- Develop an on-line version that gets promoted
- Move to some temporary pop-up versions
- Finally move to a permanent self-funded version
Let us know what you think using this short form, or contact us by email to let us know your thoughts.
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