The online home of positive news, The Rooftop, is at COP26, reporting on charities and non-profits from around the world that are helping to tackle climate change.

Campaign Collective founded The Rooftop in September 2018 to celebrate the achievements of smaller charities, social enterprises, community interest companies, public sector organisations, trade unions, and individual campaigners, whose voices often go unnoticed by the mainstream media.

Some of the stories that The Rooftop has covered during COP26 include:

Love Not Landfill, an eco-fashion campaign which has launched for the third time this year, encouraging sustainability through a fashion pop-up, featuring clothes from different charity shops. With UK landfills being dumped with roughly 350,000 tons of clothing each year, this campaign displays that sustainability can be cool, stylish and accessible for all, in a time where fast fashion is at its highest.

Image courtesy of Love Not Landfill

City to Sea, a not for profit campaign preventing plastic pollution at its source. Its ‘Plastic Free Periods’ campaign is not only educating women worldwide on more eco-friendly options during their menstrual cycle, but is also campaigning for the government to allow plastic free products to be available for free in schools, addressing period poverty and social justice too. 

The Country Trust, a climate change charity focused on children, believes reaching a net zero future is in the hands of the next generation. This year they’ve launched their ‘Climate Action Farm in a Box, a free hands-on cross curricular program that educates children on the connection between farming, the food we eat and climate change. Across the globe farming produces around 20% of all greenhouse gases, so this initiative is important to educate and encourage young people on making conscious eco-friendly decisions in their lives.

A more creative spin has been taken by the National Theatre of Scotland, connecting schools and community groups in India and Scotland by putting together a digital art installation disguised as an online shoe shop, ’Millipede.shop’. The series of digital pieces centred around shoes and feet is to provoke reflection on everyone’s individual carbon footprint, and encourage everyone to take the first step forwards in reaching a net zero future.

The Rooftop team (clockwise from top left): Ian Morton, Sarah Colombini, Simon Francis, Nancy Platts, Lizzie Lewis, Delia Antoine Burdett, Tom York, Nikki Anderson, Louise Akers.

Simon Francis, Editorial Director of The Rooftop, who visited the COP26 Summit in Glasgow, said:

COP26 has provided a landmark moment for politicians and companies to take stock of their past and pledge to commit to ending the climate crisis. However, the real power of COP has been the vibrant civil society actions and protests which have put the pressure on those inside the official complex to make the right choices. The Rooftop will continue to highlight successful environmental activity from charities, social enterprises, trade unions and other campaigners.

For more positive news stories about issues that matter, visit: therooftop.news.

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