Abstract/Summary

Climate Change communication to the Public is in general presented in a negative fashion and often depicts the resultant costs and impacts as distant. Its substantial gloom together with the less immediate consequences significantly weaken responses. Narratives and stories are potent arbiters of meaningful communication and are an important vehicle for communication in our information rich lives. Importantly, they reduce jargon, gather and translate information, provide insight, reframe evidence and engage audiences. It has been argued by many observers that stories are potentially useful in driving change; presenting a way to value what is gone, expressing emotions, and helping us assert our determination to salvage something and work towards the future. This paper details the methods utilised by the authors to generate stories and case studies in a community in Ireland over a 4 year research period. The aim of the work was to identify and assess the salience and potency of storytelling – as part of a ‘co-creation’ process – with regard to galvanising local action in the generation of sustainable models of lifestyle practice for residents. In this paper co-creation includes the planning phase of co-design and the implementation phase of co-production. The demonstration of these sustainable lifestyle practices were a strong driver for the sustainable transition of this community supporting the reduction of its ecological footprint by 28% over 4 years, evidence of which is highlighted in this paper.