South Ken ZEN+ Theory of Change

What does success look like for a neighbourhood-scale climate programme? And how can we know if we’re making progress towards it?

These are central questions we’ve been exploring as South Ken ZEN+ moves into its next phase. With 22 member organisations working on climate and biodiversity across their own institutions and through projects across South Kensington, there is a lot of activity underway. We wanted to take the time to understand how this work connects, what it is helping us to achieve, and what progress towards our shared ambition for a net-zero, nature-positive South Kensington looks like in practice.

This is where our new Theory of Change comes in. Developed with PRD, who also supported our evaluation of the first phase, the framework brings the different strands of South Ken ZEN+ together and sets out the changes we want to see, the work that will help us get there and how we can track progress along the way.

Our Theory of Change focuses on three areas: People, Places and Institutions.

• People are at the heart of the programme. The focus is on bringing South Kensington’s institutions together around a shared climate agenda, building skills and expertise, engaging the public and visitors, and helping South Ken Culture Quarter become a recognised example of collective urban climate action.
• Places are central to creating a greener, more biodiverse and climate-resilient neighbourhood. This includes shared nature recovery and greening projects, investment in green infrastructure, and action on risks such as extreme heat and flooding.
• Institutions play a key role in decarbonising buildings and operations and preparing for a changing climate. This includes accelerating action on Scope 1-3 emissions and making heat and flood risk management a shared priority.

The Theory of Change will continue to develop alongside South Ken ZEN+. As the programme progresses, we’ll use it to reflect on what is working, what is not, where we need to focus our efforts and how the different strands of our work are contributing towards our 2030 goals.

It gives us a shared framework for the next phase of South Ken ZEN+ and a way to keep learning as we work towards a net-zero, nature-positive South Kensington.

Take a look at the South Ken ZEN+ Theory of Change HERE.