Penzance: Putting people and planet first
Rachel Yates preparing for a beach clean © courtesy Jesse Ellis
“I just want to see meaningful action in the place where I live and initiatives that actually are doing something rather than paying lip service,” says Rachel Yates, of Sustainable Penzance.
For the last seven years, Rachel Yates has dedicated her time to inspiring her home town of Penzance to address the climate crisis. Rachel’s community organising enabled Penzance to become UK’s first Plastic Free town in 2017, and she has gone on to set up Sustainable Penzance in 2019, a community interest company committed to creating a more sustainable future for the Town.
Rachel’s continued engagement with the council, local schools and businesses, and the wider community led her to be invited to join the Town Deal Board for Penzance and her passion for protecting people and planet is at the heart of her work.
“This is my first time sitting on a Board” says Rachel. “It's been a real eye opener. I'm really pleased that I've been asked to do it, that in itself is progress, that somebody with my kind of attitude and thinking is actually there at the table. It does give me hope that change is coming and we can change things for the better. The key to that is all working together and making sure that our priorities are in the right place.”
Rachel’s influence is helping ensure that crucial decisions in the Town Investment Plan (TIP) and Business Case development seek to protect the environment and are creating a more sustainable way of living and doing business in Penzance.
“We’ve made the people and the environment a top priority. It is the thread that runs through our Town Deal and all the decisions that we make. We are inspired by the UN Sustainable Development Goals and also Kate Raworth’s Donut Economy, which looks at the bigger picture in terms of the environment. For me, it’s really about creating a sustainable community that’s focused on regenerative practices,” Rachel says.
Rachel’s journey to leading Sustainable Penzance and joining the Board
Rachel has always been environmentally aware and felt a connection to the ocean. It wasn't until she saw the extent of plastic pollution on the other side of the world that she realised she had to do whatever she could to change things closer to home.
“I went to the Philippines to help rebuild a school after Typhoon Haiyan in 2014. Out there I saw the awful scale of marine plastic pollution. I'd never seen anything like it before. I returned to Cornwall in the middle of the February storms and I saw exactly the same thing on my home beaches. Something inside me snapped,” she says.
Rachel started to organise beach cleans and became a local rep for Surfers Against Sewage, before becoming increasingly involved in local campaigns raising awareness of plastic pollution and water quality. This set Rachel on the path to working towards a ‘plastic free’ accreditation for Penzance.
“I was sent information on the Plastic Free Communities campaign by Surfers Against Sewage, which was all about tackling plastic pollution at source” says Rachel. “That's what I really loved about it, as we are never going to clean our way out of the problem.”
To gain the ‘Plastic Free’ accreditation for Penzance, Rachel had to achieve five key steps set out in the campaign toolkit:
engage the council and gain support for the change.
engage local businesses and work with them to reduce their single use plastic waste.
work with local schools, community groups and organisations to raise awareness.
and host a number of public events.
Rachel and a team of volunteers then had to set up a steering group to continue the work once accreditation was achieved. They secured a plastic free accreditation for Penzance in 2017 and have been working since to deliver on each of the five objectives. They are committed to making a real difference in their community.
“It's very easy at the moment to say that you are being sustainable, that you are eco-friendly, that you are working on your carbon emissions, but we have to ask ourselves the question ‘is that actually making a difference?’”
“I love the process that we're going through with Plastic Free Penzance and continuing with Sustainable Penzance. And that's what I hope to bring to the Town Deal Board,” says Rachel.
Winning hearts and minds
Rachel recognises that not everyone has had the same longstanding interest in environmental issues as she has, and that she has to support others in order to bring them along on the journey of change she wants to see.
“It's all about positive engagement,” she says. “It's not about criticising people for what they're not doing, it's about really championing and encouraging people on what they are doing, because that builds more positive action.”
Rachel takes this positive approach to working with the local councils too.
“When working with the councils, it's about showing that this is what the community wants. Councils have declared climate emergencies and made plastic free commitments, so it's a case of saying, ‘brilliant, you've made a commitment to doing this. But now you've got to do it.’”
“We do challenge, but instead of saying ‘why aren't you doing this or that’, we ask, ‘How can we help you do this? Can we work together on this? What is it that you need to be able to do this?”
Rachel advocates for behavioural change by making people feel that change is possible.
“For me that engagement and that behavioural change is showing people what's possible, inspiring them around it and making them feel good about it,” says Rachel.
Taking this positive environmental approach to the Town Deal Board
Sustainable Penzance evolved out of the Plastic Free Penzance campaign and organises around ten themes, with sustainable visions for transport, lifestyle, education, business, tourism, waste, energy, rewilding, decision making and food.
This holistic approach has offered generative crossover with the core themes addressed by the Town Deal, and a significant opportunity to make foundational change towards a more sustainable future for the Town.
“This is the stuff that we need to look at differently,” says Rachel. “It's currently not working for the planet and it isn't working for people. So I wanted to bring those visions into the Town Deal and say to people, ‘Can we look at this differently? How do we look at the economy from a fresh perspective to make sure that we're picking projects that aren't just about the bottom line, but they are about people and the planet too. How are they contributing to that bigger picture?’”
Rachel has brought this approach to the wider strategic vision, as well individual projects.
“In pretty much every project that's come in, I've had to pipe up and say, I still don't think it's telling us enough on the sustainability front. I don't think there's enough on the development goals and how does this fit the donut economy? As a result, it's been written into the next stages too so that when projects are being worked up to Business Case, they still meet a certain criteria on sustainability,” says Rachel.
Rethinking transport and connectivity have been prime examples. The focus on sustainability has prompted the Town Deal board to consider how they might support sustainable transport options so that existing residents, and the people who come to live and work in Penzance, no longer have to rely on their cars or air travel to stay connected.
A chance to see meaningful action in your place
“It's been really interesting, hard work,” says Rachel. “The people who you might assume you would have to work really hard with to get them to think differently, have actually responded really positively. Key members of the Board have been incredibly supportive and said ‘right let's do this’, which has been really refreshing. I'm quite new to sitting on a Board, I don't know how things usually work but apparently this has been different, which has been really cool to see and be part of.”
This story was written from a conversation Rachel Yates, chairwoman of Sustainable Penzance and Town Deal Board member.
Penzance is one of 101 places invited by the Government to develop Town Deal proposals to deliver long-term economic recovery, clean growth, jobs and prosperity as part of the £3.6 billion Towns Fund.
Penzance submitted a successful Town Investment Plan and secured a Town Deal of up to £21.5 million in June 2021. Penzance is currently developing business cases to take forward their Town Deal proposals.