ACCESS - Advancing Capacity for Climate and Environment Social Science
ACCESS - Advancing Capacity for Climate and Environment Social Science
Lecture theatre at the University of Exeter

Webinar Series

A series of ACCESS webinars have been designed to address practical topics in environmental social science.

Each webinar will focus on one or more of the 5 core areas of work within ACCESS:

  • Enabling successful interdisciplinary working
    case studies and stories from the social science community of best (and worst!) practice in collaborative working across research, policy & practice
  • Building capacity and empowering social scientists
    conversations about required skills and training needs for social scientists in the knowledge exchange and impact space
  • Supporting innovative and agile social science responses
    exploring solutions to mobilise social science insights more effectively and effect change across policy and practice
  • Championing social science
    promoting and communicating the value of social science knowledge, methods and data to different audiences
  • Embedding the ACCESS Guiding Principles
    examining ways to embed Environmental Sustainability, Knowledge Co-Production and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion across environmental social science.
Image of Stewart Barr and details of his webinar

How can we de-carbonise travel in the workplace from values to action

Recorded Thursday 14 November 2024

Professor Stewart Barr (ACCESS Leadership team) from the University of Exeter explored academic perspectives on how we can de-carbonise travel in higher education and practical efforts to change practices, systems and policies through applying the ACCESS Guiding Principles.

Slide deck

Image of George Warren and information about the webinar

How to use the Environmental Social Science kNowledge Exchange Map of Opportunities (ESS NEMO) to improve research impact, collaboration & understanding.

Recorded Thursday 17 October 2024

Dr George Warren (ACCESS Knowledge Exchange Fellow) from the University of Surrey introduced ESS NEMO and the range of tools on offer, outline ways in which they could be helpful, and present an interactive example of how ESS NEMO can be used.

Photo of Ruth Lamont and webinar details

Growing the social sciences within environmental organisations

Recorded Thursday 19 September 2024

Dr Ruth Lamont from Natural England gave an overview of a collaborative Flex Fund project to support better understanding of the social sciences, and encourage improved use within environmental organisations.

How can we decarbonise society in ways that are place-sensitive and fair?

Recorded Thursday 9 May 2024

Climate change policy targets necessitate rapid and deep decarbonisation of energy sectors globally. In this ACCESS webinar, Professor Patrick Devine-Wright (ACCESS Director at the University of Exeter) critically discusses the challenges this poses for policy and practice, and social science.

Pictures of Lorraine Whitmarsh and Birgitta Gatersleben

Behaviour change and the climate emergency: policy choices to drive social action

Recorded 7 March 2024

In this talk, Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh outlined how behavioural science can inform efforts to engage the public with climate change, and how policy choices can drive social action to achieve net zero. The webinar was chaired by Professor Birgitta Gatersleben.

This webinar is a partnership between Campaign for Social Science as part of their project Election 24: ideas for change based on social science evidence and ACCESS.

Why do we need Environmental Social Sciences?

Recorded 8 February 2024

Professor Birgitta Gatersleben (University of Surrey and Co Director of ACCESS) explored how Environmental Social Sciences (ESS) are essential to help address environmental issues, which are ultimately social issues.

This talk outlined what we mean by ESS and why it is needed to address the environmental challenges that we face. Birgitta drew on some of the findings from work in ACCESS Work Package 1.

Other webinars

Putting behavioural change into practice

In this webinar Professor Lorraine Whitmarsh and Pete Dyson discuss how policymakers can use behaviour change evidence in practice, with examples of what works in environmental and transport policy.

Applying the Behaviour Change Wheel to biodiversity policy

How do we tackle climate and the biodiversity crises simultaneously? To enable transformative change, effective human behaviour in support of nature conservation is urgently required. Melissa Marselle explains how the Behaviour Change Wheel can help us understand how current policies and interventions can be more effective.

The Behaviour Change Wheel was used to audit the content of National Biodiversity Strategy Action Plans published in the IPBES Values Assessment Chp 5, Section 5.3.4.2

Why is psychology crucial in tackling the climate and ecological crisis?

In this webinar – hosted by the Culture & Social Psychology Research group at the Open University – we hear from three psychologists, Stacey Heath, Sarah Golding and Lois Player. 

They discuss how psychology can help us understand the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss,  and how psychological perspectives can support climate mitigation and adaptation, nature recovery and ensure effective policymaking. Read more

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