'Every Tree Tells a Story' wins Strathlabs launch prize
The Strathclyde Business School team from 'Every Tree Tells a Story' were delighted to be awarded a first prize for their 'Living Lab' work as part of the recent StrathLab launch. Professor Sarah Dodd, Dr Juliette Wilson, and Dr James Bonner plan to make good use of the new StrathLab facilities, especially mobile technology allowing real-life data and engagement recording.
StrathLab is an ecosystem for the entire community at the University of Strathclyde and also for Strathclyde's partners in the wider community.
The ‘Living Labs’ use inclusive co-design to identify and prioritise what matters to the people of Glasgow and beyond, helping to co-create solutions that solve real-world problems, and generate evidence of impact in inclusive and socially progressive ways.
Every Tree Tells a Story (ETTAS) is a collective organic project, founded in Glasgow in 2021, and conceived as an innovative response to the need to more deeply explore the connections between place, nature, community, (inclusive) society, and ecojustice.
ETTAS supports postcard centred story telling in partnership with school, communities, artists, activists, walkers, students and policy makers and teh team invites citizens of all ages to simply share their stories of trees on specially designed postcards, through an informal vox pop approach, in the city’s squares, pubs, parks and trails.
The SBS team has also run more structured pop-up workshop events, collaborating with primary schools, libraries, cultural centres, universities and other civic institutions. Some stories are shared in words, some in drawings, and some in both forms. ETTAS generates sustainability value for participants through voicing and sharing their connections with nature. ETTAS’ citizen social science data also captures the role, value, and impact of trees in citizens’ lives, facilitating democratic and grounded evidence-based policy mapping for urban forestry.
The collective is led by Strathclyde University and Glasgow City Council, and other friends involved in ETTAS include Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow University, and actor-activist Tam Dean Burns.
Published: 13 November 2024
