The State of Happiness brings together four years of groundbreaking work based on in-depth pilots - from teaching resilience to children in schools to promoting neighbourliness - with three councils in very different areas of the country: Manchester, Herfordshire and South Tyneside.

Against a background of intense pressures on public spending, the report recommends prioritising programmes that:-

- Teach children resilience in schools - drawing on strong evidence that this improves academic performance and behaviour as well as employability of pupils
- Promote opportunities for neighbours to get to know each other, based on clear evidence that this tends to enhance wellbeing
- Provide support for isolated older people to help them create and maintain social networks, and reduce anxiety and depression
- Shift transport and economic policies to encourage lower commuting times and allow people to spend more time with their families and friends
- Reshape apprenticeships and other programmes for teenagers to strengthen psychological fitness to help young people find and keep work
- Support families so parents are happier and children are less likely to face problems at home and at school
- Promote activities that are simultaneously good for the environment and reducing CO2, and make people feel better about their lives

click here for full document

LAA - Potential connectivity map

View in a new window - Download here as a pdf (5mb)

9th June: (as this is the only date that our external journalist speaker can make)

Richard Hammond: Green Travel Writer for The Guardian: how to market your green credentials to the national press - the hooks, the words, the facts, the wolly blah to avoid, and the Good Stuff to Get In, that journalists are looking for. We plan for Richard to be joined by a local journalist and copywriters to enable you to hone your message for local and national, and increasingly demanding, audiences.

PLUS

Community Energy Plus team: Carbon Literacy - All You Ever Wanted To Ask About Carbon and Never Dared Ask......the first session of its kind in Cornwall! with thanks to CEP (currently writing the Cornwall Climate Change Action Plan).

To book a place, please contact Manda at the CoaST office manda@coastproject.co.uk

Manda at the CoaST Office

Increasing sustainability for tourism businesses in Cornwall

An informal seminar on:
Reducing utility costs and increasing marketing potential
Date - April 16th
Venue:- Juliot’s Well Holiday Park, Camelford, North Cornwall.

Download the full programme here

An evening presentation will be given by Megan Quinn, international renowned expert and speaker on peak oil and co-writer and producer of ‘The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil’. The presentation will be followed by a discussion on how to explore community solutions to rising oil prices and climate change.
Date - Saturday 26th March 2008
Time - 7pm – 10pm
Venue - Shire Room, Bodmin Town Hall, Cornwall

Suggested donation of £2 per person.

For more information or to book your place please contact Organic South West on 01208 78988

All central Government departments will be included in a pioneering emissions trading scheme that will also target emissions from large businesses including supermarkets, banks, hotel chains and department stores.

The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC), scheduled to begin operation in 2010, is a mandatory emissions trading scheme that will cover around 5,000 public and private organisations, including government departments, retailers, banks and local authorities, which combined account for 10 per cent of the UK economy's emissions.

Public sector bodies in England, including local authorities and hospitals, would be supported in becoming more energy efficient through an extra £30 million over three years in interest-free loans for energy efficiency projects.

www.defra.gov.uk/environment/climatechange/uk/business/crc/index.htm
www.salixfinance.co.uk/home.html

Download the Environment Kernow conference report here
Download the Press release here