In April 2023 Scot Gov published the first Public Procurement Strategy for Scotland. It is committed to integrating social value and wellbeing into public procurement. This event showcases the local authority and other organisations trailblazing local procurement. @socialenterprise.scot

Leading expert on Community Wealth Building, @neilmcinroy.bsky.social, will open the first in our ‘Championing The Local’ series. ‘Building Vibrant Local Economies’ will include practical advice for community groups on governance structures, benefiting the economy and wellbeing of communities.

What a wonderful sculpture. I love the idea of her keeping someone company who happens to be travelling the Southern Uplands Way on their own.

With all the uncertainty in the world we need more resilience and building local value chains is one way of doing it. Come and learn how you could do this in your community.

The first of our ‘Championing The Local’ free events takes place on 7 Sept. Building Vibrant Local Economies will help community groups realise their ambitions by explaining the range of business models available, showcasing IDBMs in food, renewable energy and retrofit. 🔗 seda.scot/championing-...

Local value chains are gaining traction, especially given all that is going on in the world at the moment. Thanks to the hard work of one of our speakers, @neilmcinroy.bsky.social, the Community Wealth Building movement is moving forwards in Scotland. Find out how it can be rolled out further here.

“Like a woodwind solo drifting through a mountain valley these houses play a continuous melody marked by theme and variation in cedar, stone and timber beam,” says Trevor Roddy of homes by Blue Sky Architecture, the Vancouver-based practice led by Bo Helliwell and Kim Smith. LAST CHANCE TO BOOK!

There's a groundswell to get children outside more. Let's discuss how.

It's incredible how fewer bugs and allergies children in outdoor nurseries pick up.

Unfortunately this culture of fear seems to be prevalent across the public sector.

Kyle and Lochalsh Community Trust has acquired part of a commercial forest beside Loch Duich with a view to building an eco-village offering affordable housing, woodland crofts and business units. It hopes the development will attract young families to the area and help keep the local school open.

On International Women’s Day, SEDA Land thanks all the inspirational women who have helped us in the past year. Here are a few of them. Clockwise from top left: Bea Nichol, Megan MacInnes, Flora Fraser, Magdalena Blazusiak, Lucy Filby, Savannah Fishel, Sophie Cooke, Lorna Dawson, and Gloria Lo

Fantastic line-up for the next SEDA Land event. This is a timely event given that local authorities across Scotland are becoming more open to the idea of outdoor learning.

Now is the best time in decades for Scottish farmers to convert to nature-friendly practices, according to @soilassocscot.bsky.social co-director David McKay. by @scotsman.com rural affairs correspondent @katharinehay.bsky.social

Jeremy Leggett @highlandsrewilding.bsky.social has come up with a big new idea, the “nature prosperity pump,” which combines sustainable forestry, rewilding, and the work of Inverness-based Makar to address Scotland’s climate & biodiversity crises and its housing emergency @vickyallan.bsky.social

Thanks farmers, rangers, builders, students and many more at the SEDA Land workshops who gave real insights into different ways of managing land, advocating that locals, who understand the land and community best, lead the change. But they need professional help and a more collaborative approach.

It’s time for Scotland to break with US tech. Isn’t independence in reality something of an illusion in this global world dominated by tech and economic oligarchs? Isn’t what Scottish independence offers really an opportunity to pick sides? From Connor Beaton ✍️

Although Britain has one of the highest levels of membership of environmental organisations in the world, it has little impact on our closeness to nature. Some interesting thoughts on why in this might be by Miles Richardson in @patrickbarkham.bsky.social's article.

Glad someone is talking sense about this very popular local venue. Yet again a knee-jerk reaction by a local authority to demolish. And Jocelyn doesn't even mention the embodied carbon aspect. Demolition would be a lose lose scenario.

Thanks Paloma, Andy, Amy, Finlay, Cormac, Ashleigh, Anna, Ray, Geoff, John and Glo. Without you it would not have happened!

MASS CLIMATE LOBBY: On Friday, Scotland’s biggest-ever lobby of politicians on climate issues took place in Holyrood. The event was organised by @sccscot.bsky.social, which we've now joined. @gailhalvorsen.bsky.social attended on behalf of SEDA, lobbying MSPs including @lornaslater.bsky.social

Less than two weeks to go until the @uofglasgow.bsky.social and @scotecodesign.bsky.social green careers fair. The careers fair will showcase jobs that operate along ecological principles to highlight the wide range that is available. 📅 Wed, 24 Sept 2025 ⏰ 10am—4pm 📌 Glasgow University Union

Most careers fairs tend to promote only a narrow range of jobs. The SEDA Green Careers Fair will redress the balance by highlighting openings in regenerative farming, forestry, bioproducts, environmental NGOs, environmental law etc, all of which are growing sectors looking for recruits.

Remember all that fulminating in the billionaire press about "free speech" (ie their freedom to abuse Muslims, trans people etc with impunity)? Now that people are being arrested for speaking about an issue of the utmost gravity, the self-appointed guardians of liberty have fallen strangely silent.

It's utterly mad. These people are the opposite of terrorists. THEY WANT PEACE. The police know they're not terrorists. The government knows they're not terrorists. Yet, on the Home Secretary's orders, they're being arrested under the Terrorism Act. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

"Why is it that a tree never moves?" Atul Shah's provocative and accessible book 'Organic Finance' opens with this powerful poem. Do read! "Interest rates, exchange rates, stock prices are all numbers which abstract reality and have often been converted into hard facts and supreme gods"

How Scottish society could be transformed by the multiple benefits of intergenerational living. Full recording and slides of SEDA Land’s Radical Housing Conference Scotland 2025 part 3 now available. Thanks to partners @agilehomes.bsky.social & @archifringe.bsky.social seda.scot/radical-hous...

@gailhalvorsen.bsky.social of @scotecodesign.bsky.social kicks off the Zoomers and Boomers Soirée talking about her experience of living in an intergenerational household at the Radical Housing Conference Scotland Part 3. @agilehomes.bsky.social @archifringe.bsky.social

A thoroughly fascinating evening. If I was to sum up I would say we need more grassroots initiatives to encourage community activities such as Bristol's Play Street Order; inclusion of intergenerational living in NPF4; and more multi generation cohousing projects. Thanks to all involved!

Can Scotland’s housing emergency be solved by more intergenerational living? Come along to our Zoomers and Boomers event at Augustine United Church, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh tomorrow at 6pm. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/radical-ho...

Looking forward to chairing this event to try and understand why, in Scotland, why intergenerational living is not more common and why we don't value the benefits it can bring. I benefitted enormously from growing up in the same house as my grandparents.

Renowned Scottish singer-songwriter and environmentalist Zoë Bestel is performing a version of Utopia, live, at Radical Housing Conference Scotland Part 3, in Augustine United Church on Wed 11 June, 6-9pm. Sophie Cooke will read a newly-commissioned poem at the same Zoomers and Boomers Soireé.

Fraser/Livingstone Architects’ Robin Livingstone will talk about intergenerational living and how this can work in practice, through the lens of the zero-carbon, multi-generational community he’s developing on the edge of Forres in Moray. SEDA Land/Architecture Fringe event, 11 June, 6-9pm.

Students! Looking to enhance your CV and make a positive impact? Join SEDA LAND as a volunteer at this September’s Green Careers Fair! No prior experience required—just bring enthusiasm & eagerness to learn. Email [email protected] for more info!

We'd love to hear your views about intergenerational living – something mostly lost in the UK as we gravitate towards the nuclear family. Can architecture be part of the solution?

We were so lucky to have such incredible artist performing at the conference. Thank you Beth and Chris!

SEDA Land thanks all those who came to Birnam Arts for the Radical Housing Conference on Friday. From activists and timber home manufacturers, to investors in construction and retrofit hubs, we managed to assemble a fantastic group. Thanks to @agilehomes.bsky.social for bringing the event North.

In parts of this septic isle, fresh water has become first undrinkable, then unswimmable, then untouchable. How did it come to this—and where do we go from here? Must read about the global fight to halt abuse of our rivers by @robgmacfarlane.bsky.social, extracted from his book Is A River Alive?

On World Press Freedom Day, it emerges Israel has arrested prominent Palestinian journalist Ali al-Samoudi in the Occupied West Bank.

Access to a safe, civil, low carbon, affordable home is not a lot to ask for, but the housing crisis has cut off supply! So it's time to get radical, because doing what we always did, will only get us what we always got. Are you a housing radical? 🎟️ www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/radical-ho...

Great offer for some of the best speakers on housing in Scotland!

Retrofit definitely needs well qualified people as it can be extremely complicated, but I would argue that that could be a surveyor, an engineer or A.N.Other. This is exactly what we will be discussing at one session of the Radical Housing Conference being held on 2nd may.

📍 In Honduras, a father and son stood up to illegal logging and paid the ultimate price. Their brutal deaths are a chilling reminder of the dangers faced by land and environmental defenders around the world. 🛑 This must end. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Henry Leveson Gower, chief executive of the Centre for Economic Pluralism, who previously led innovation policy in the food and drink chain at Defra, will argue for a shift to nature-based solutions that have a positive natural capital outcome. 📅 28 April, 4-6pm 📍 Online seda.scot/events/natur...

This is one way to get more quality homes built quicker and using local timber – off-site prefabrication. Hear how at The Radical Housing Conference Scotland.

RADICAL HOUSING CONFERENCE SCOTLAND 2025: John Forbes, of Communities Housing Trust, will look at ways of fast-tracking housing developments; the SFT’s Diarmaid Lawlor will look at methods of raising capital for affordable homes. 📌 Birnam Arts & online 📆 9am-5pm, 2 May 2025 🎟 seda.scot/events

Fantastic! Works like this are more likely to change hearts and minds than the bare facts.

It's a disgrace how many schemes have been set up by the Scottish government and aborted. We need long-term commitment and trusted installers. I feel like a stuck record but, we know how to do it – so let's work out how.