November 2020 - Penzance Town Fund

The Global Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. Learn more and take action.

Everyone in Penzance wants a better future, sometimes we might disagree with the actions to get us there or even what better looks like but we all want the best for us, our families, our friends and our community.

The Global Goals are a framework for achieving that same better future but asking how we all play a part in supporting our global community as well as our local.

Developed by the United Nations after 196 governments agreed their version of what better looks like, the 17 goals are designed to achieve equality for all and reduce our overall impact on the planet we call home.

The goals range from eradicating poverty everywhere through to job creation in a decarbonised world. They try to encompass as many topics as possible without being overwhelming.

As part of the Penzance Town Deal the Board decided to align with these goals and where possible explore what they meant for Penzance and the projects that were eligible for funding through the scheme.

This is the first time that an organisation in Penzance has taken this approach and being first means a lot of uncertainty. There is no trying to be perfect here, that isn’t attainable. It’s about creating new ways of approaching problems, considering the impact of the decisions with as wide a view as possible.

The Penzance Town Deal Board are working towards a set of clear objectives and here is how they align with the Global Goals:

Objective 1:
Improving the quality of employment and enterprise opportunities, in particular within the priority sectors identified in the Neighbourhood Development Plan

Objective 2:
Improving the built environment

Objective 3:
Maximise our natural and green capital as an economic and social resource

The hope is that while the Penzance Town Deal Board work towards these few goals with their objectives that other organisations responsible for the town also look at the work needed to achieve the remaining goals and support the Town Deals work towards the goals above.

This work has not gone unnoticed by the United Nations and early next year representatives from Penzance will deliver a presentation for the United Nations Global Compact on their experience working with the SDGs.

A significant step forward for Cornwall in being recognised as a place for sustainability. A huge step for Penzance being the town at the heart of it all. Other cities that are engaging in these goals are Bristol, Liverpool and further afield in Utrecht.

Had you heard of the Global Goals before? Perhaps by their other name, The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals? If you want to learn more about Penzance and Sustainability then stay tuned to the LovePenzance social media channels where we will be highlighting more organisations working towards the goals.

The Doughnut offers a vision of what it means for humanity to thrive in the 21st century – and Doughnut Economics explores the mindset and ways of thinking needed to get us there.

There are six core principles to Doughnut Economics:

1 – Change the goal
2 – Tell a new story
3 – Nurture human nature
4 – Get savvy with systems
5 – Design to distribute
6 – Create to regenerate

You can watch a really wonderful overview of all of these principles on the Doughnut Economics YouTube channel, so if you’re more of a visual learner head over then and pop back to see how Penzance is working with the principles.

Principle 1: Change the goal
At the moment countries are measured by something called GDP, which stands for Gross Domestic Product. Wouldn’t it be better if we changed that goal to how happy a country’s citizens are?

There is something called the Happy Planet Index and here the UK ranks just 34th.

Principle 2: Tell a new story
We are slowly starting to see this happen. For decades we’ve believed in trickle down economics, in other words, if we let the rich get richer, then everyone benefits. We’ve seen that this doesn’t work at all so we need a new story about how to create fairness and equality in our economy.

Principle 3: Nurture human nature
Drop the human intervention and look at nature for solutions to our problems. What can we learn from what already exists?

Principle 4: Get savvy with systems
There is a lot of recent evidence that demonstrates that for all the planning that happens across the world there are many things that are out of our control. Instead of relying on the old truths we need to find a more nuanced approach that encourages our humanity not hides it behind numbers and data.

Principle 5: Design to distribute
Create systems where the wealth created is distributed and not hoarded. Where everyone can benefit from their input into society. Where no one goes hungry or cold.

Principle 6: Create to regenerate
We are taking more from our planet than we can put back. This means we will run out of resources. We must look at how we make everything and find smart ways to dispose of our unwanted items so that they can be reborn into something new.

Much like we’ve mentioned in a previous post on the Global Goals the Penzance Town Deal Board are putting sustainability at the top of the agenda. When it comes to Doughnut Economics, they are picking up on work started by Cornwall Council when they created a Decision Making Wheel to evaluate projects.

The Board has advanced that wheel a little bit further and soon we will be sharing with you the role of the Doughnut Decision Making Wheel when the Board were choosing the projects for the Accelerator Fund.

Different from the Global Goals the Doughnut helps the Board to get practical with sustainability. It offers questions and considerations. The hope is that the Decision Making Wheel can be used by any organisation and everyone can benefit from a standard set of questions. Making sustainability easy and accessible.

Penzance and the Global Goals

Penzance and the Doughnut Economy

Town Deal projects

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