Sustainability and climate justice: a planet for people today and tomorrow

What we stand for 2021: AGM 15/09/21

A messages from Ruth Allen, CEO BASW

Dear Members

It is time to book your place at this year’s Annual General (members’) Meeting and pre-event on 15th September. In the build-up, we are releasing weekly updates on some key priorities for the organisation under the heading ‘What We Stand For’.

One theme will be released each week. These six don’t represent all we are working on and prioritising. The Annual Report, out in time for the AGM, will cover much more. But the six themes are important issues that we absolutely need to address as an organisation – and some are things that get less air time in our sector. 

One of those perhaps is the release today; the role of social work and BASW in addressing the great challenges of environmental and climate justice. This very week we have had the hardest hitting report yet from the United Nations about the enormity and pace of climate change and the need for more urgent action.

We can get lost in the scale of the challenge and in the anxiety it can provoke. But social workers – and BASW - can make a difference.  Social workers can make a difference  – whether helping people raise local concerns about elevated air pollution, challenging lack of access to public green space,  training as a responder or coordinator for environmental emergencies (such as floods) or helping people cope with the anxiety about the global situation.  We can support campaigns and write about what this means for us and our work. To do this, social workers need to be informed and supported, and BASW can help provide that. We also need to be an exemplary organisation in our own environmental practices.  

Please take a look at our updated Sustainability, environmental impact and climate justice statement and plan of action for 2021-2023 which also includes some of the change we have already made – and the way Covid has changed our approach to travel and use of hotels for the long term.

And make sure to book on the AGM!

Take care

Ruth