Platform – It is time to share

Platform is a new online news source and information portal for sharing knowledge and intelligence on sustainability across Greater Manchester. The articles cover themes from energy to society, living, economy, health and buildings.

"Sharing knowledge across a city region can help us all to work towards a more sustainable future by connecting good ideas with great people and organisations", says Beth Perry one of the developers behind the Platform and Director for Mistra Urban Futures platform in Greater Manchester.

The platform is aimed primarily at decision makers in business, government and the third sector but it will hopefully also contribute to bridge the gap between those who 'govern' the city region and the 2-3 million people who live or work here. The aim is reduce a democratic deficit in terms of awareness and understanding of what’s being done on sustainability in the city region. It will make work towards a sustainable future better known and more transparent.

In one of the articles Beth Perry reflects on the everyday concerns that citizens have around sustainability. Not talking the language of carbon, she suggests, does not mean people are sustainability illiterate.

The portal has been developed by the Greater Manchester Platform together with the Centre for Sustainable and Urban Regional Futures (SURF) at the University of Salford and Manchester-based communications agency Creative Concern. The platform has been developed as a part of the O-Zone project.

Share the experience at http://ontheplatform.org.uk/

Read the article by Beth Perry From litter-ati to liter-ati: the challenge of a low carbon culture?

Follow the latest news on Twitter: @On_The_Platform