The RoundView is an accessible toolkit for sustainability thinking and learning developed by University of Manchester academics through research and co-production with a range of partners, including the UK National Commission for UNESCO, Manchester UNESCO City of Literature, Galloway and Southern Ayrshire UNESCO Biosphere, Tesco, Natural England, the Great Manchester Wetlands Partnership and the National Trust. Creative, hands-on learning tools combine art, science and poetry to empower people of all ages to embed environmental sustainability in their decision-making at home, school, work and in their communities.

The RoundView’s unique, holistic learning system shifts the dial from overwhelm and anxiety in the face of environmental challenges to hope, clarity and inspiration – and importantly, community-led action on acute climate and environmental challenges.

After receiving The University of Manchester’s Humanities Strategic Civic Engagement Fund, the project team aimed to test the RoundView’s hands-on learning toolkit as a means of engaging with schools and community groups across Greater Manchester, with public libraries as key nodes to amplify reach. The funding allowed for provision of RoundView learning toolkits to the library services of eight boroughs in Greater Manchester. The toolkits were also a feature of the 2024 Festival of Libraries.

Feedback gathered from the trials highlighted the toolkit’s accessibility, also showing an increased understanding of sustainability and stronger willingness to act among students and library visitors.

 The Executive Director of Manchester UNESCO City of Literature commented:“The integration of poetry into learning mechanics of the toolkit has been seen as a key link to the libraries’ mission, and a useful hook to explore further literature and resources in the library related to deepening learning about the local environment, heritage and sustainability.”

 The project revealed that there was great potential to use the toolkit as a resource for school visits to libraries and the project team is applying for an Impact Acceleration Account fund to enable this development, along with building new networks with the four other UNESCO Cities of Literature in the UK.

This pathway to impact has been an iterative process, allowing for genuine co-production with stakeholders, an essential contributing factor of its success to date.

The Chief Executive and Secretary-General of the UK National Commission for UNESCO sees the RoundView learning approach as “a powerful way to activate and build capacity in UNESCO’s core competencies for sustainability leadership”.

• The RoundView has gone on to be featured as a project on the City of Literature’s website.