1000 better stories by Scottish Communities Climate Action Network
This vignette explores the magic of people from all walks of life coming together in a protest for a cause, demanding a better future for their communities. It was recorded on 25 October 2025, the day of Scotland Demands Better march and rally in Edinburgh, organized by Poverty Alliance. Kaska speaks to Sandy Greene from ScrapAntics in Dundee who shares her personal experience as a lifelong activist and the way a peaceful protest can resonate throughout lives of individuals involved, local communities and a wider society. You will hear vox pops from members of Dundee Changemaker Hub, protest participants and ambient recordings from the day.
In this crossover, we share a standalone podcast episode from Transition St Andrews about their reuse and repair initiative. You will hear about the programme’s projects and activities and its positive impact on students, staff and local residents within the community.
In this crossover, we share an episode of the CycleHub Stories podcast A Journey of a Bike Time. Cycle Hub.Org director Scott Francis talks about why the organisation was formed. We meet David, who comes to the Dundee Cycle Hub to donate a bike with a story. We also hear from Fiona Brunton, Engagement Coordinator for the Students Association at Abertay University.
In this crossover, we share an episode of Edinburgh Communities Climate Action Network’s new podcast series Climate Jam. Host Eirini talks to Pianodrome’s co-founder Tim Vincent-Smith about the story behind building the world’s first Pianodrome in Edinburgh. They discuss the importance of community, circular economy and how a project needs a soul to make it work.
In this episode, Kaska Hempel explores the ideas behind the Narrating Change workshop - a creative experiment in using storytelling to bring community voices into climate adaptation policy-making.
In this cross over we share a 2022 episode of The Highland Good Food Podcast, published by Highlands Good Food Network. Host, Laura Dorantt, speaks to Anna from Planet Sutherland, Mairi from the Fearn Free Food Garden and Emma from the Auchtertyre Community Garden. They discuss the importance of community food projects, which offer a space for learning, a place to gather and grow.
In this cross over we share the first episode of the Paperboats podcast, associated with the Paperboats collective of Scotland-based writers focussed on nature and environment in a time of climate and ecological breakdown. Host, Ian Grosz, talks with Paperboats co-founders Sandy Winterbottom and Elaine Morrison about the ideas behind the movement and its work so far.
2024 marked the five-year anniversary of Greener Kirckaldy's ownership of their community building and 100 years of the community land ownership movement in Scotland.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to the creative duo behind Art Moves Fife, Gillian McFarland and Kate Downes, about slow movement through landscape as a means to mobilise creative response to climate crisis, creative patience in thinking about solutions and tails wagging dogs.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, speaks with Marie-Anne Brown, a manager at Magpie in Banchory, about embracing a circular economy lifestyle, balancing social and climate responsibilities, and planning for extreme weather.
We continue on our theme of climate change fuelled flooding and how we are adapting to it in Scotland. In the last two episodes we touched on responses from creative organisations and farming. Today we focus on future-proofing of newly built public buildings.
In this episode, we share a recording of a panel discussion on Farming and Water held at the Groundswell Outreach regenerative farming meet up at the Falkland estate in Fife, last July. The session explores how landscape-level, regenerative management can help us adapt to the climate-induced extremes of floods and droughts. It also touches on the barriers to implementing such an approach.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska, talks to Everyday Changemaker Simone Stewart at the Barn’s “Plenty?” Festival in Banchory last October. They discuss degrowth and snails, storm Frank’s influence on the Barn’s creative direction, and the value of improvisation and community in an emergency. One year on, they also reflect on the impact of last year’s flooding which interrupted the festival.
In this cross over episode from Harbour Voices podcast by Open Road, we hear a story of Hans Unkles' all electric lobster boat.
Retrofit coordinator, Matthew Clubb, talks through benefits and options of the retrofit project for Torry in Aberdeen. This is a recording of a talk from GO Torry! event in June 2024.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska, revisits Torry in Aberdeen for a GO Torry event, celebrating community's growing resilience in the wake of People's Assembly and its Declaration last Spring. We hear of RAAC and retrofit, outdoor classrooms and stealthy resistance, poetry and community with a heart.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Gareth Allenby from YMCA Glenrothes about weaving climate action into life journeys of young people experiencing homelessness and the joys of judging coleslaw competitions.
In this Edinburgh Fringe special, Kaska speaks to Lewis Coenen-Rowe about the trees and myths that inspired his deforestation opera STUMPED, becoming an artist activist, and about the importance of coming together for storytelling like this to help us imagine a better future and take collective action.
Kaska Hempel reports from the Fife Climate Hub gathering in celebration of their first year. We hear how they have built on longstanding partnerships, welcomed new faces and the critical importance of leadership from governments in support of the urgently needed community climate action.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Rebecca Gibbs from SCCAN about rollerblading for sanity, turning NET zero into NOT zero and the invitation to get into climate adaptation planning with us.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Alex Daniels from Transition Dundee about gleaning, fair access to fresh food and his favourite glut-busting recipes.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Paul and Chloe about making dreams come true and turning the forgotten patch of land into a safe place for community connection and play.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Martin O’Neill from The Stove network about coming home and creative placemaking with his community.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Rachel Cooper of The Crichton Trust about taking large strides and small steps in their journey towards their zero carbon future teeming with life.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Tom Burns, Marketing Officer from Shax, about the circular economy with a heart.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Sally Hinchcliffe, a founding member of Cycling Dumfries.
Dell McCLurg of the Merkinch Community Council reflects on turning life's challenges into local activism and the creation of the community's Merkinch Local Nature Reserve.
Jon Dixon from the new Holm Grown and Maria from Knocknagael CIC talk about shielding their green spaces from the wave of urban sprawl in Inverness.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Gina and Mike at Aultnaskiach Dell about the ways they have been taking care of their tiny, urban woodland.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Everyday Changemaker Louise Marshall, the producer for Dance and Accessible Arts at Eden Court in Inverness.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Iain McKenzie, a volunteer and Vice Chair of Inverness Foodstuff.
In this crossover episode, Katie Revell, a podcast producer and a member of SCCAN's Story Circle and the Storytellers Collective, shares a bonus episode from her Testing Ground podcast series.
Our SCCAN intern, Madeleine Scobie, interviews three more people from Arran Eco Savvy. During her visit to Arran, she talked to Jess Wallace, Sustainable Food Coordinator and Nikki Harris, Eco Savvy shop manager. She also spoke with Stuart Wallace, ebike mechanic, online in October.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Hollis, a volunteer involved in Dundee’s Wee Forest project.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Harold, one of the core volunteers running Fruit Bowls Community Garden.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Gisela de la Espada, a garden coordinator for Yusuf Youth Intitiative’s Victoria Community Gardens, forstering diversity among their volunteers and nature.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Rowan, who works for Uppertunity with their Growing Spaces Group. Uppertunity supports individuals with learning disabilities, autism and mental health barriers.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Catherine Lawson, one of the volunteers behind Bonnie Dundee (In Your Neighbourhood) group.
Kathi Kamleitner reports on her summer visit to the Wild Seas Weekend in Argyll and the Seawilding project which is fast becoming a template for community-led marine regeneration efforts around Scotland’s coastline.
One of our Story Weavers, Lesley Anne Rose, interviews community artist, Andrew Crummy. Andrew is one of the team of behind the vision for the The 360 Center, an inspiring community led project to transform the site of the former Cockenzie Power Station in East Lothian.
This is a cross over episode from the Disrupting the Doughnut of Doom podcast by our friends at EMEN (Ethnic Minority Environmental Network). Podcast host, Andrew Williams, interviews Thalia Groucott from Glasgow Food Policy Partnership. They discuss how what we eat, and how we grow it, affects the climate, the countryside and the communities we live in.
What is deliberative democracy, and can it help your community involve more people in creating a better future for all? SCCAN Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, explores the idea in this story from the People’s Assembly in Torry, as the community stand up against becoming a sacrificial zone yet again.
Today’s Everyday Changemaker is Peter Moffatt, Transition Black Isle trustee and a man behind its website. Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, caught up with him at SCCAN’s Northern Gathering in Inverness on the 16th of September.
Kaska Hempel, our Story Weaver, interviews Tom Nockolds, who is one of the people behind the community-driven retrofit project, Loco Home Retrofit, based in Glasgow.
Listen to an inspiring example of work by a tranditional storyteller in residence, helping community of Fittie in Aberdeen come together and face the past, present and future of the place where they live and love. Story was developed and perfomed by Cara Silversmith, with an introduction from our Story Weaver Lesley Anne.
Today Roz Littwin reads "Long Live Lenny", her short story creatively exploring the good work of the Edinburgh Remakery.
Our Everyday Changemaker today is Ruth McLaren, Arran EcoSavvy's project and communications development officer.
In the first episode of our Everyday Changemakers shorts series we meet Carolyn Powell from Huntly Development Trust who's working on community-led town centre regeneration.
We share an episode from Collaborative Mobility UK podcast channel. CoMoUK is the national charity dedicated to the social, economic and environmental benefits of shared transport. Among many other things they provide excellent support and resources for community groups wanting to set up shared car or bike clubs.
What can we learn from the multigenerational wisdom of Gaelic tradition bearers about reconnecting our communities to places where we live, to our past and to our future in the changing climate?
In today’s episode we continue our story on ins and outs of creating a Community Climate Action Plan, based on Keep Scotland Beautiful’s work over the last couple of years.
Community Climate Action Plans (CCAPs) - what are they, how does one go about making a good one and is it worth the hassle? To answer these questions over the next couple of episodes, we talk about Keep Scotland Beautiful’s work with communities to help them with such planning.
We cross over from our 1000 Better Stories Blog today as Joana Avi-Lorie interviews another one of our mini-grant recipients, Jo Gilbert. Jo is a spoken word artist and writer from Aberdeen, who writes in Doric and English. They talk about their journey into poetry, class, challenges in connecting to nature, and the importance of diversity of voices in conversations about climate action.
Hazel Darwin Clements, the project co-ordinator at Porty Community Energy, shares an honest look at what communities can do to share cars and bikes. She has helped start a peer-to-peer car share club and run an eCargo cycle library trial this year with the mission to help people reduce their car use and make local travel more pleasant. We hear from representatives of CoMoUk and HiyaCar as well as professor Jillian Anable, Chair in Transport and Energy at the University of Leeds, and members of the community who have been involved with the projects.
In this episode we cross over to our 1000 Better Stories blog, and SCCAN Story Weaver Joana Avi-Lorie shares two of her favourite contributions from last year.
In our last episode this year, we hear about the success story of Neighbourocracy movement in India, its promise for community driven action on climate and its current expansion into Europe.
Our guest host, Katie Revell, invites you to hear a sample of stories from the Soil and Soul project.
In today’s episode you will hear Kaska Hempel’s interview with Gill Davies, a Manager of SCCAN’s Investing in Regional Networks Programme, which has been funded by the Scottish Government.
In today’s episode SCCAN Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to managers of Climate Action Hub pilots funded by the Scottish Government. Alison Stuart is the manager of North East Scotland Climate Action Network (NESCAN) and Joan Lawrie, the Project Manager for North Highlands and Island Climate Hub and the development manager in Thurso Community Trust. The hub pilots have been in place for around 2 years now and they represent a new way the government plans to support community climate action across Scotland.
In today’s episode Kaska Hempel, SCCAN Story Weaver, speaks to Alette Willis, one of the researchers involved in the Shifting The Narrative project funded by the British Academy, and carried out by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, with SCCAN as a partner. The project investigated how traditional storytelling can help communities achieve place-based climate action.
Our Story Weaver, Kaska Hempel, talks to Karen Ridgewell about year one of Scottish Climate Action Town project, delivered by Architecture and Design Scotland (https://www.ads.org.uk/) and funded by the Scottish Government.
In this episode we focus on helping children process their climate anxiety in a holistic approach using stories. One of our mini-grant recipients, Maria Barros, invites us on an immersive and interactive journey with Nefelibatas (Cloud Walkers), and SCCAN Story Weavers Kaska Hempel and Joana Avi-Lorie chat about Joana’s research and practice in using such stories to help children tackle anxiety.
Have you ever tried to get your head around climate models? And what they show may happen in the next 50 to 100 years to the places you where you live, places which you love and care about?
Join Luke Winter, one of our mini-grant recipents on his adventure to Knoydart. Stories of the land and how it has changed hands in recent history.
In this episode we continue a conversation about how community organisations involved in climate justice work can benefit from collaborating with creative practitioners. We hear from another partnership within Creative Dundee’s CULTIVATE project - Joyce Reid from Transition Dundee and their creative partner - Jade Anderson. Their collaboration focused on a community wardrobe project and destigmatising the idea of second hand clothing.
In this episode we start a conversation about how community organisations can benefit from collaborating with creative practitioners. We talk to Claire Durfour, Climate Creative Producer for Creative Dundee, about their CULTIVATE project which has been partnering creative practitioners with Tayside community organisations working in climate justice. We also chat to members of one of the partnerships, Pauline Lockhart and Carol Malone from Community First based in Forfar, Angus and their creative partners, Kirsty McKeown and Jenny Reid.
Today’s storytellers, Mary Troup and Hazel Darwin-Clements, share personal reflections on how they were inspired to act on climate with their local communities. And on the often random, unplanned, messy and sometimes personally exhausting nature of what we all are trying to do. They both make a powerful case for working together with others so that we can spread our burdens, and so that we can keep ourselves motivated and sane in making a real difference.
The episode starts with a recording of a story “From fossil fuels shirt-and-tie to fossil-free hippie guy” shared by Bruce Donald, a net zero researcher for Thurso Development Trust. He was one of the participants in Paul Bristow’s January workshop on finding, writing and telling our climate action stories to better engage others in our communities.
Now that it's all over, Kaska Hempel talks to SCCAN members about their participation in COP26, their most memorable moments and thoughts on what it all means for community climate action in Scotland.
In August we published a collection of Scottish podcasts with focus on climate justice and action.
In today’s episode we have two stories in store for you. A brief update from Alex MacKenzie about Glasgow’s Lost Woods project and a conversation with Calum Macleod from Community Land Scotland about the Community landowners and the climate emergency report.
Climate Cafés are open, inclusive spaces for people to get together to talk and act on the climate emergency. Community-led, the movement has emerged from the heart of Scotland and there are now sister cafés around the world.
Better Bike Share: Stories of Scotland’s community bike share schemes
As we emerge from our hibernation, we reflect on the challenges the last year has presented for social isolation, and hear about social enterprises who are 'Collaborating in Communities to Improve Mental Health' with the support of the Pockets and Prospects fund. And we have two stories of personal climate action from our recent storytelling training day.
A conversation with Ross Ahlfeld of Inverclyde Community Development Trust, discussing the development of the community pantry the organisation is running in partnership with Inverclyde Council. In 3 months, 400 members have signed up for the new service which addresses food insecurity and food waste.
Our first podcast of 2021 explores community led energy initiatives across Scotland, from the difference it can make, to the challenges still to be overcome. We hear from Greener Kirkcaldy, Cosy Kingdom, Orkney Renewable Energy Forum, Barra and Vatersay Community Limited and Linlithgow Community Development Trust, all pioneers with practical experience of making community energy work.
For our final podcast of 2020, a selection box of book recommendations and eco folk tales.
As part of the European Day of Sustainable Communites, SCCAN ran a number of "story days", working with people to create, record and share personal stories inspired by climate action. Here are a selection of the stories for you to enjoy, including songs, fables, poems and reflections. The work was supported by funding from ECOLISE.
Our final stop in our virtual visit to Dunbar is Belhaven Community Garden, before hearing some final thoughts on the power of community from the volunteers of Tyninghame Village Hall.
Our virtual visit to Dunbar continues and we chat cooking with the Community Carrot and repair and renewal with the East Linton Repair Cafe.
The first part of a virtual visit to Dunbar to hear about the work of development trust Sustaining Dunbar and the life and resonance of conservationist John Muir.
Professor Sir Geoff Palmer shares his thoughts on the intersection between climate action and racial justice.
Looking for inspiration from the outdoors, we chat with Alex Mackenzie of The Lost Woods and Emily Reid of Eco Drama, two projects based in Glasgow who are inspiring young people in their communities to think differently about urban spaces.
We start our search for 1000 Better Stories, visiting Inverclyde in the West of Scotland. We chat to Laura Riley from Belville Community Garden and Karen Orr and Laurie Duffy from RIG Arts about delivering climate based projects during the pandemic.
Introducing the Scottish Community Climate Action Network's new podcast series, 1000 Better Stories.
