Patrick Harvie - Secret Santa or Ghost of Christmas?

What do we want from our leaders? A moot question this year.

At COP27, we saw humanity continue its struggle to deal with our existential challenge in an equitable and effective way. Was there much improvement since COP26, where many of our human family were excluded from the debate, never mind the decisions? Those in positions of power thinking they must limit engagement and inclusion in order to achieve ‘sensible’ decisions and ‘effective’ delivery.

But of course, that is a fantasy. A view from deep inside the bubble, reinforcing its own logic of top-down power, the patriarchal mindset so deep-rooted in our most enduring challenges. A secure, thriving, equitable future is possible for all earth’s species no doubt, but will only be achieved by inclusion, by hearing all voices and accepting all contributions, perspectives and interests, human and otherwise.

Within our species, civil society is fundamental to resilience and to delivering change. It’s one of those places where we safeguard our humanity. Scotland, a rich and well-educated country by global standards, is blessed with a strong and vibrant civil society, with many organisations and individuals who share knowledge, skills and passion in service of our common good. It is a bulwark against greed, disinformation and inequality. It is a tool for progressive social change.

Civil society is also a balance to ineffective and abusive political power. We need political leaders who wield their power with wisdom, to enable civil society to thrive. We need civil society to be engaged, inclusive and informed in order for politics to thrive. Where it works well, they are productive partners with clear boundaries, and achieve more together than they ever could apart.

All the more disappointing then, that our political leader who most directly relates to SEDA, Scotland’s Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings Patrick Harvie, is deaf to the voice of Scotland’s sector representative body for designers of a zero carbon built environment.  Nearly a year ago, SEDA’s 10 official observers at COP26 wrote to Minister Harvie, reaching out with 20 specific points of mutual engagement and received no response. {Editor’s Note – as we go to press, we have finally received a reply, Horray! Thank you, Patrick. More info to follow}

Sadly, this is not the first time. When we asked all parties to answer SEDA members’ questions for the 2021 elections, we got replies from Labour, Liberals and the SNP, but not from the Green Party.

Maybe Patrick Harvie doesn’t need our input. Maybe he has it all covered and we can relax and wait for Zero Carbon Scotland to emerge from his sack of presents. Trickle down environmentalism. But I really don’t think so. Anyway, aren’t the Greens meant to stand for cooperation and participatory democracy?  

Scotland needs an effective partnership between government and civil society if we are to achieve a Just Transition away from our county’s culture of environmental destruction. Because that problem is at root a problem of culture much more than it is a problem of carbon. And the ‘Building’ in Patrick’s Ministerial title is really about building as a process, much more than building as a product. We need to build a broad consensus for a new progressive culture of construction.

Governments have traditionally seen the construction sector as a lever for economic growth, but the Greens don’t really believe in growth, so what is their vision for construction? It should surely be that construction is a lever for equality, for health, for biodiversity, for the circular economy. Public procurement as a tool to deliver social and environmental progress, rather than economic growth.

But that requires huge change from a sector whose inertia holds it back, stuck in patterns of self-harming behaviour that creates 40% of our solid waste, as well as 40% of our carbon emission, where painters die before their time because of the products they use, where modern apprentices are 97.3% male and where men are three times more likely to die by suicide if they work in construction. These are individual symptoms of a deep cultural malaise that needs leadership in positions of power to relegate to history.

Patrick’s ministerial leadership pack contains both sticks and carrots. Sticks of Building Standards and Planning controls, carrots of huge public procurement funding. Organisations like SEDA can help make the sticks better targeted and the carrots more nourishing. But his bag must also hold hearts and minds. Lack of stakeholder inclusion in the construction sector is one of its deep-rooted weaknesses, an addictive bad habit that holds back progress. Hearts and minds deliver culture change in a way no stick or carrot can, but the agenda for a shared future has to be set from the top while fed from the ground.

It's interesting to compare the discourse between government and civil society between our various crises. With the pandemic, every day Scotland’s Chief Scientific Officer and First Minister were on the TV and radio communicating with the public, with the Cost of Living Crisis there have been emergency financial measures and bills quickly passed to restrict rent rises. But with the climate & biodiversity crisis, when the Climate Change Committee has for years said there needs to be urgent action in Construction, we have never seen Scotland’s Chief Architect on our screens, and half my office has never even heard of Patrick Harvie, didn’t know we had a Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings. Crisis, what crisis?

As we Scottish ecological designers navigate this landscape of culture change, we seek out fellow travellers for mutual support and to achieve more. We do that individually by joining SEDA and other organistaions, including political parties. SEDA does it by working with other organisations, like we do through the brilliant SEDA Land, and just last week through participating in the Wellbeing Alliance of 115 charities, economists, businesses, trade unions and academics who sent a joint open letter to Scotland’s First Minister calling for an “urgent transition to a Wellbeing Economy.”

Maybe Nicola’s ears work better than Patrick’s, who knows? In the end, there need to be engaged ears for progressive dialogue to thrive. SEDA’s responsibility is to articulate a voice in the public space, a voice of sanity, a voice for a thriving human future in a thriving Scottish environment. But also to listen and engage. As the recent climate marches show, we have many fellow travellers. Please embrace this discussion as to how best embrace dialogue with government. The door is open. Everyone’s welcome. Merry Christmas and let’s work together for a happy new year.

Tom Morton

SEDA Director