Over the past two weeks, I have had the privilege of working alongside the OnePlanet team to develop a resilience template for local governance, inspired directly by the National Emergency Briefing. 

This project comes at an extremely important time for climate action and therefore OnePlanet. Collaborative systemic action has never been more crucial to encourage sustainable progress – with heatwaves, wildfires, and food hyperinflation being among the many recent calls to action.  

But how can we help?  

This is the question that my work at OnePlanet aimed to help solve. Through creating a benchmark resilience template and a best practice action plan for local governments, I aim to help OnePlanet to provide a resilience score for local governments and, in turn, suggest the best steps they can take to improve their sustainability efforts. 

How was the project completed? 

The project was made possible through two factors: the amazing OnePlanet team, alongside efficient use of the OnePlanet platform. 

The platform: OnePlanet also now allows users access to an AI uploader, the ability to upload PDFs, from academic papers to strategy plans, to automatically create action plans. Using this tool, I was able to complete my project over 10x quicker than using manual input.  

I used this uploader to compile the academic papers of all 10 NEB experts. This data was then used to create a template for local governance, comprised of the One Planet Living principles and geospatial indicators. Assessing local areas’ geospatial indicator data will therefore allow OnePlanet to rate the council from 1-100 based on how sustainable their choices are – the OnePlanet Score.  

Once I had created the template, I used the findings of the NEB experts to create a ‘best practice’ action plan, offering possible solutions to focussed issues identified through the OnePlanet Score. For example, if a local government is struggling with CO2 emissions, they could incentivise locally sourced vegetarian diets to their constituents. 

The team: I had the pleasure of joining consistent meetings with the core team at OnePlanet, and even attending an amazing daytrip to the Isle of Wight at the end of my internship. I could not have asked for more welcoming and inspiring colleagues – they answered every question I had, welcomed me with a smile to every meeting, and – above all – listened intently when I suggested new ideas (even my slightly naïve or overly ambitious requests!). 

My parting thoughts 

Overall, I want to say a huge thank you to the OnePlanet team. Being given the opportunity to create meaningful work during a 2-week internship is rare and could not have happened if not for the friendly, student-forward approach of Pooran and Viviana. 

I would greatly encourage other students to get involved with OnePlanet where possible – I truly could not have had a more valuable experience anywhere else!