Peat, Diesel and Seaweed: A Poetic Inquiry to Design Green Transition in Northwest Highlands
Lead Research Organisation:
University of the Highlands and Islands
Department Name: Inverness College UHI
Abstract
This project will involve an interdisciplinary poetic inquiry to support the strategic design of key elements of the net zero vision of the coastal communities in the northwest Highlands of Scotland. The research will engage in creative ways with local organisations and young people on ideas, feelings and action around three areas of the green transition that are crucial for and distinctive to the northwest Highlands.
1. Peat: The carbon sequestration already delivered and its potential to be increased through peatland management and restoration.
2. Diesel: Fuel for marine vessels, including fishing boats, fish-farming vessels and offshore wind farm service boats and the potential for transition to renewably generated hydrogen.
3. Seaweed: The potential for seaweed and other local resource cultivation to deliver green livelihoods in future.
The project will support the commitment to sustainability as expressed in the Northwest2045 vision (https://www.northwest2045.scot/) and will explore how delivery of this vision can be supported, including through new knowledge, thus contributing to a community-driven research and knowledge exchange agenda for a smart, sustainable future. The research will use a poetry-focused methodology to help local people to articulate their feelings, ideas and aspirations in responding to the climate crisis, on three strategically important topics that reflect the unique situation of NW Sutherland's sparsely-populated, natural-capital-rich maritime environment. These topics have been selected with our partner, Assynt Development Trust, the host organisation for the NW2045 network, as relatively under-discussed locally and understudied biophysically and economically, compared to other topics such as road transport, food, waste and housing, yet with significant climate change impacts (both positive and negative) and potential to make a difference and inspire behaviour change.
The research will use structured interviews, workshops and arts events to find out how people think and feel on each of the three topics. There will be tightly focused discussions with peatland managers and harbour staff. In order to explore seaweed and other resource cultivation livelihood opportunities, more open-ended creative workshop discussions will be held with young people.
The findings will make a vital contribution to the Regional Land Use Framework (RLUF) on NW2045's new digital platform, which is a place-based cross-sector/stakeholder mechanism to design collaborative action towards net zero. We will also present findings to agencies and other bodies that can help to deliver relevant support, as well as back to our local communities.
1. Peat: The carbon sequestration already delivered and its potential to be increased through peatland management and restoration.
2. Diesel: Fuel for marine vessels, including fishing boats, fish-farming vessels and offshore wind farm service boats and the potential for transition to renewably generated hydrogen.
3. Seaweed: The potential for seaweed and other local resource cultivation to deliver green livelihoods in future.
The project will support the commitment to sustainability as expressed in the Northwest2045 vision (https://www.northwest2045.scot/) and will explore how delivery of this vision can be supported, including through new knowledge, thus contributing to a community-driven research and knowledge exchange agenda for a smart, sustainable future. The research will use a poetry-focused methodology to help local people to articulate their feelings, ideas and aspirations in responding to the climate crisis, on three strategically important topics that reflect the unique situation of NW Sutherland's sparsely-populated, natural-capital-rich maritime environment. These topics have been selected with our partner, Assynt Development Trust, the host organisation for the NW2045 network, as relatively under-discussed locally and understudied biophysically and economically, compared to other topics such as road transport, food, waste and housing, yet with significant climate change impacts (both positive and negative) and potential to make a difference and inspire behaviour change.
The research will use structured interviews, workshops and arts events to find out how people think and feel on each of the three topics. There will be tightly focused discussions with peatland managers and harbour staff. In order to explore seaweed and other resource cultivation livelihood opportunities, more open-ended creative workshop discussions will be held with young people.
The findings will make a vital contribution to the Regional Land Use Framework (RLUF) on NW2045's new digital platform, which is a place-based cross-sector/stakeholder mechanism to design collaborative action towards net zero. We will also present findings to agencies and other bodies that can help to deliver relevant support, as well as back to our local communities.
Publications
Haggith M
(2025)
Twelve Words for Moss by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, Allen Lane, Dublin, Ireland, 2023, 178 pp., £16.99 (paperback), ISBN 978024155683-2
in Green Letters
| Title | Our Future As Seaweed |
| Description | This is a collective artwork created by participants in a seaweed workshop in which some of the results of visioning about the future were then expressed by the young participants in visual form on paper made from seaweed, and incorporating words written on pieces of seaweed-frond shaped paper. |
| Type Of Art | Artwork |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | The image of the artwork was shared on social media and gained some appreciative attention. Further impacts will be assessed as the artwork is shared more widely, e.g. on the local partner's digital hub. A follow-up poetry session with the young people is planned. |
| Title | Poems |
| Description | My research methodology is poetic inquiry, so the data analysis is generating poems and 'poemish' pieces of writing on the themes of peat, diesel and seaweed and more generally on climate change and the green transition. Many of these are works in progress as the analysis develops, and the poetry as a whole will evolve as the final iterations of reflection complete. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | One of the poems has already been read out at an event at Future Observatory at the Design Museum. Their impact will be assessed once the work is more complete and shared more widely (e.g. with our local partner). |
| Title | The Sea As A Time Machine |
| Description | This is a workshop method for creative writing about climate change. It encourages participants to think back in time (as tide falling) and out into the future (as tide rising), imagining transferring good things from the past into the future, as a way of thinking courageously and writing creatively about climate change. The method has a mechanism built into it to determine whether the exercise has any influence on participants' thoughts and feelings about climate. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Data from the use of the method is under analysis. |
| URL | https://edshare.uhi.ac.uk/475/ |
| Title | The seaweed visioning method |
| Description | I began with the workshop method used by the CULTIVATE project to help people to think about the future, but then modified it using seaweed as the central metaphor. So the core vision that was generated was like a holdfast, the elements of that vision were the seaweed fronds, the resources from the present were the spores from which the vision could grow. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | When we trialed it in a workshop with young people, this method, coupled with the art and poetry element, led to a marked improvement in the participants' hopefulness about the future, as evidenced through the poem, 'The Future', which was the result of poetic analysis of words and phrases from the participants before and after the workshop. |
| URL | https://www.mandyhaggith.net/news/a-day-at-the-seaweed-10-mar-2025 |
| Title | Peat, Diesel and Seaweed data |
| Description | Transcripts of interviews, survey data and workshop data (words written on paper moss fronds, seaweed fronds etc, by workshop participants) which are used in the poetic inquiry process. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | It is the basis of the poetic inquiry, so poems have been written using the words in these texts. |
| URL | https://pure.uhi.ac.uk/en/datasets/peat-diesel-and-seaweed-data |
| Description | NW2045 |
| Organisation | Northwest University |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | This research project is in partnership with the Northwest 2045 network, a consortium of local community organisations, non-governmental bodies and landowners in the Northwest Highlands, which share a vision for achieving net zero for the region by 2045. The project findings will be used by NW2045 to guide action towards the vision, and our creative outputs will be integrated into their digital hub. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The NW2045 has helped to shape the project themes and focus. Their director chairs the reference group for the project, helping to guide the design and implementation of the research and acting as a gatekeeper for research participants. Their fiscal hub is Assynt Development Trust, which has hired a young person to lead the project's youth outreach, and we have regular meetings about the project to ensure that we are working closely and effectively. |
| Impact | Engagement by local community partners in the research (e.g. Assynt Foundation, John Muir Trust, Highland Harbour Authority and various young participants) Blog post about the project Strengthened reference group for the project Strong transdisciplinary working using creative methods to feed into land use and local economic planning |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | Interview by Future Observatory |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I was interviewed for the Future Observatory's news channel on their website, and they edited it into a piece about my project and the use of poetry that I am making. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://futureobservatory.org/news/a-good-poem?_cldee=Ltcvxt3km-ibgDtaFTf9OVnKRDc4tnJlK1SVODJieudANk... |
| Description | Public walk to write peatland poetry |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 5 people took part in a mountain peatland walk on Quinag, hosted by John Muir Trust, in which we wrote poetry about peat. There was considerable discussion and participants said they felt lighter and inspired at the end. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Sea as a Time Machine workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | 20 undergraduate creative writing students took part in an outdoor writing session at the beach in Cromarty, in which we used the Sea as a Time Machine method to explore climate change, the past and the future. The evidence is strong from what they wrote that they were much more hopeful about and motivated towards climate action at the end. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Sea as a time machine workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 8 people participated in a creative writing workshop using the Sea as a Time Machine method to explore climate change. The evidence from their responses was that they were much more hopeful about climate action at the end than at the start. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Seaweed enterprise drop-in |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 15 people attended a drop-in session as part of a wider Assynt Development Trust consultation about a seaweed enterprise. They expressed opinions about the value of seaweed and its future potential. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Workshop with school children |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | 12 high school students and 3 teachers/supporters attended a workshop in Lochinver, in which they learned about seaweed, met the organisation planning a new seaweed enterprise locally, made art, generated collective poetry and did a visioning process about the green transition in the area. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| URL | https://www.mandyhaggith.net/news/a-day-at-the-seaweed-10-mar-2025 |
| Description | Workshop with young people about peatland restoration |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | 12 students attended a creative workshop to explore the potential role that peatland restoration can play in the green transition in our area. They were very negative about climate change at the start but were more hopeful by the end, and learned a lot about peat in the process, while having fun. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |