A new year, a new Government?
The start of a new year and already there are the familiar rumbles of a General Election. The feelings of general unrest seem to be growing, amidst a time of climate anxiety, global boiling, economic upheaval, and broken or overburdened support systems. Resulting in an increase in the polarity between surviving and thriving, with a lack of long-term strategy around our collective wellbeing.
Last year, we released our Creative Wellbeing Economy paper, where we made a case for a deeper, more long term reconnection with core values across the whole of our lives, with a particular focus being wellbeing for people and planet.
Why we need the CWE framework
Here in the UK, the measurements of wellbeing are collected via the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) ‘Measuring national well-being (MNW) programme’. This data slice aims to bring together how people are doing on a personal level, as well as in their respective communities, and an overview of the nation’s wellbeing as a whole.
The latest data shows that from January to March of last year, 5.8% of adults rated their life satisfaction as low. This showed a decline in life satisfaction when compared with 4.6% of adults in 2018. Further, between 2020 to 2021, 23.7% of adults in the UK reported feelings of anxiety and depression. This shows a clear decline compared with 17.8% between 2015 to 2016. Further, 70% of those surveyed felt that they had no say in what the government does in Great Britain.
Our interpretation of data taken from ONS MNW Programme.
Evidence, moreover, confirms the wider social and psychological benefits of environmental action as countries which do better in terms of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are ranked higher in happiness and wellbeing. In 2021, our Cleaning Up Fashion report signalled the need for a more holistic approach to support transition away from purely economic measures of business success and towards a ’wellbeing economy’, which prioritises care at all levels of society.
Yet last year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a u-turn on a number of key policy proposals for net-zero measures. This came despite the IPCC ‘Climate Change 2023’ Synthesis Report, citing that “global surface temperature has increased faster since 1970 than in any other 50-year period over at least the last 2000 years.”
To embed the benefits of a wellbeing economy requires incentives that focus on the social as well as economic benefits of, for instance, design for longer product lifetime, reuse and repair, extended producer responsibility, and consumer education. The research around the wellbeing economy and placing creativity as central to this methodology is at odds with the current political system, but offers us an opportunity to develop a roadmap which reframes the narrative toward a more regenerative, purpose driven and community minded economy.
While climate change is a thematic issue throughout the aforementioned report and our work, this inertia suggests that far too many of us are existing in the vulnerable reality of survival mode, facing a cost of living crisis, economic uncertainty, career stagnation and social anxiety in the current economic and policy climate.
This extends itself to a lack of value shown by the government towards adopting a STEAM education curriculum and a future proofing of creative jobs and skills, with wellbeing at its very core. A curriculum which embeds key skills and critical creative thinking as the backbone of a long term vision supporting a values system based on thriving, not just surviving.
Our CEO Tamara Cincik said:
“If we cannot make the case for a deeper, more long term reconnection with core values across the whole of our lives – education, housing, business practices and community – then we run the risk of allowing populism to grab control of the narrative, where failed linear economic business models which crash and burn the economy and our climate, only to profit the very few with short term goals and gains, at the expense of 99% of us.”
The EAC urges Government to act to tackle global deforestation
A new report by the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) urges the Government to act with urgency towards the UK’s part in global deforestation.
The report suggests a number of recommendations including the following:
That significant action is required to reduce the impact on deforestation of the UK’s consumption of agricultural products. While the UK is the 15th largest contributor to tropical deforestation in global terms, the intensity of UK consumption (measured in footprint per tonne of product consumed) is higher than that of China.
Addressing consumption patterns in the UK, which rely on the current global supply chain are essential to the UK’s contribution to the alleviation of global biodiversity loss. The first step in addressing them is in recognising the need to reduce the UK’s overall consumption.
A reiteration of the recommendation the EAC made in their September 2021 report on The UK’s footprint on global biodiversity, which reflects that of the Global Resource Initiative Taskforce, that the UK Government should commence the process of setting an environmental footprint target with the aim of reducing the UK’s global environmental impact, including its deforestation footprint.
The Environmental Audit Committee Chair, Rt Hon Philip Dunne MP, said:
“Countries all around the world contribute to deforestation, and the international community of course needs to do much more to tackle deforestation. Yet on some measures the intensity of UK consumption of forest-risk commodities is higher than that of China: this should serve as a wake-up call to the Government. To demonstrate genuine global leadership in this critical area, the UK must demonstrate domestic policy progress, and embed environmental and biodiversity protections in future trade deals.”
Clare Press’s brilliant new book is just the positive reimagining of the fashion sector we need for 2024!
Image shows Clare Press in a white t-shirt. Clare has long blonde hair and red lipstick on.
What will you be wearing tomorrow? Will your jacket have been grown in a lab, or your jeans coloured using bacteria? Will we still have shops? What does the future of work look like for the people who make our garments?
Wear Next presents a crystal ball look into tomorrow’s wardrobe, imagining 16 scenarios likely to shape our fashion futures, from conscious, fair, slow and upcycled to biointelligent and digital.
We all know that the current fashion system is wasteful, environmentally harmful and exploitative. If we carry on as we do now, it could account for a quarter of global emissions by 2050. Now it’s time for solutions. They already exist! Creative thinkers are dreaming up new ways to craft our sartorial identities that don’t wreck the planet.
Clare Press, our Global Sustainability Expert and presenter of the much loved Wardrobe Crisis podcast, introduces us to fascinating innovators around the globe who are redesigning fashion from the ground up, and changing it in the most fundamental ways.
A must-read for 2024!
The UK plans to ratify the UNESCO Convention for Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has announced that it is planning to ratify the 2003 UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, bringing it in line with the 182 other UNESCO member states already ratified.
We began advocating for this development, after we interviewed Daniel Carpenter, the Executive Director of Heritage Crafts for our podcast on the UK’s endangered heritage and crafts as part of their Red List and the benefits of valuing these for our collective wellbeing.
DCMS has since launched a public consultation on the initial stages of implementation, focusing on the defining and identifying intangible cultural heritage in the UK.
Daniel Carpenter said:
"For the first time, living heritage knowledge, practices and skills will have official status alongside buildings, monuments and museum collections, contributing to new opportunities for placemaking, tourism and community identity, as well as a statutory responsibility on the UK to safeguard the most at-risk examples."
How to have your say:
Respond online here
Email: IntangibleCulturalHeritage@dcms.gov.uk
GCSE in British Sign Language available in schools from 2025
Students may soon be able to study British Sign Language (BSL) as a GCSE following a consultation into the course content.
As part of the GCSE, students will be taught at least 750 signs and how to use them to communicate effectively with other signers for use in work, social and academic settings.
The BSL GCSE should be available to teach in schools from September 2025. However, as studying BSL is not part of the National Curriculum, this will not be mandatory and instead schools are able to teach BSL to their students if they wish.
‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’ Awards 2024
The Department for Business and Trade has announced its ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World Awards’ for 2024.
The awards, which are free to enter, will recognise and celebrate the global trading success of small businesses from across the UK. From iconic clothing to ice cream makers, assistive dyslexia software and world-class consultancy, the UK makes, creates, designs and engineers amazing products and services that are sold to the world.
Entries will close at 23:59 on Sunday 14 January 2024.
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