Civic House Coworking Studio welcomes new Climate Change Champions Sniffer

Civic House Coworking Studio is steadily growing its community of fixed desk users, many of whom are organisations with hybrid employees and flexible needs. Climate Change specialists Sniffer are the Studio’s newest fixed desk members! Here, they give us an insight into their varied and vital work. Join us as the Coworking Studio welcomes new Climate Change Champions, Sniffer!

Can you tell us who you are and what you do?

We are Sniffer! We’re a team of 11 (and growing) with backgrounds ranging from creatives, scientists, campaigners and policymakers.

Our vision is a flourishing and fairer future for all in a changing climate. So, we act as a catalyst. We collaborate across sectors and places to enable transformational change. Then we deliver a range of work relating to climate change impacts, climate adaptation, flood resilience, place-based and community projects. In Civic House Studio, you might regularly see some of our Glasgow-based team (Alex, Jonny, Andrew and Aoife) or some of our colleagues based outside Glasgow. You can learn more about our team here.

Can you tell us a bit about Sniffer?

Sniffer was originally initially set up in 1989. In the three decades since then, we have moved from focusing on research to responding to the impacts of climate change, and working towards fairer future places.

Partnership working and collaboration has always been at the heart of what we do. Some of our work includes the Adaptation Scotland programme, Climate Ready Clyde, and supporting the development of Scotland’s Flood Resilience Strategy.

What are the best bits about your work?

Jonny: For me: getting to work with incredible and inspiring people across Scotland; helping people take meaningful action; connecting people in new and creative ways.

Alex: I love creating spaces where people in communities can meet their local decision-makers and tell them about their lived experience of climate change impacts and what they want to do about it, so that action can be planned, resourced and delivered properly in a way that benefits everyone.

Andrew: For me, the most rewarding part of my work is getting to contribute directly to communities who will be most affected by climate change. Thats when you can really feel the impact that our work has.

Aoife: Working with a small team, with people who really want to see and make change. Saying ‘yes’ to uncertainty – climate adaptation is a process, not a destination and we are always learning new ways to approach complex problems.

Any challenges?

Alex: It can be challenging working on the climate crisis every day – it’s hard not to get emotional about it and we have to keep an eye on our mental health.

Jonny: Scale of transformation(s) required; dealing with uncertainty and complexity.

Andrew: We still have an issue around amplifying the voices of less well represented communities, particularly those from ethnic minority backgrounds. That’s something I’m actively working to change.

What attracted you to Civic House Studio Coworking space as a base for your work?

Fantastic ethos, welcoming and interesting co-workers; to learn from and network with others; ease
of access near transport options. And of course, Parveen’s!

Can you tell us about what sorts of professional – or otherwise!- plans are brewing over the next few months?

As the Coworking Studio welcomes new Climate Change Champions, we are excited to share your upcoming projects with our audience!

Creative Climate Futures
Through a new project called Creative Climate Futures, we are inviting communities across Glasgow to collaborate with decision-makers, technical experts and artists to understand what climate change means for their neighbourhoods, create “climate-ready” futures, and speed up local action to make these a reality. In effect, the project will have climate justice at its centre – recognising that our response to climate change must also tackle inequality and its underlying causes. Creative Climate Futures is led by us at Sniffer, working with Creative Carbon Scotland, Community Land Scotland, Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector, the Scottish Communities Climate Action Network and Glasgow City Council. Creative Climate Futures is funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The funding has been awarded through Glasgow City
Council’s Communities and Place Fund.

Flood Resilience Conference
We are holding the next annual flooding conference at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh on 8th-9th February 2024. The theme is Scotland’s Flood Resilient Future, and it will be a hybrid event with attendance online or in person. During 2023 Scottish Government has been working collaboratively to create a Flood Resilience Strategy. This strategy enhances the Flood Risk Management Planning process by establishing and communicating Scotland’s long-term ambitions for increasing flood resilience. So, the conference will be an ideal opportunity to raise our collective ambition and plan together for the
future.

Tickets to attend the conference are now available via our Eventbrite page: Scotlands Flood Resilient Future – Flood Resilience Conference 2024 Tickets, Thu 8 Feb 2024 at 10:00 | Eventbrite

Where can we find out more?

https://www.sniffer.org.uk/
Tweets by SnifferScotland

Anything else you’d like to add?

We’d be keen to hear from you if you have any ideas on or experience with using creativity to engage people with climate change (especially in Glasgow), get in touch with Alex (alex@sniffer.org.uk) or Andrew (andrew@sniffer.org.uk). So, please pop over to say hi if you see us in Civic House, we’d love to get to know other co-workers using the space and hear about your work.