Overview

Extractive energy, food and financial systems are driving climate breakdown, the defining issue of our time.

We’re tackling this by exposing who owns and controls these systems, mobilising impacted communities and envisioning sustainable and socially just alternatives. Drawing on Platform’s unique 40-year history, our team of campaigners, researchers and artists are working across the UK to transform the political, cultural and social conditions in which polluting industries operate.

Our work focusses on:

Team

Workplace

We’re committed to developing ways of working that centre compassion, care and liberation.

Along with achieving our campaign goals, we’re working to create and implement an internal structure that holds us accountable to our principles and also meets our capacity needs.

Consensus and collectivity

We aim to work against hierarchies in how we run Platform and use consensus-based decision-making to structure our collective meetings. We have a clear and open relationship between our Trustees and our staff team. We place equal value on the work of all our staff members, regardless of their role. 

Socially just pay

A key part of that equal value is our Social Justice Waging System for salaried staff. Under this pioneering policy, staff get paid the same core salary rate which is adjusted according to a range of factors, including how many dependents or how much inherited wealth they have, and their length of service at Platform. This policy is one part of a continual process of addressing issues of equality, power and privilege within the organisation and wider society.

Staffing structure

We have a permanent, core team of campaigners who are also actively and collectively engaged in running Platform. They’re supported by a permanent core team who coordinate our finance, HR, communications, operations and organisational development functions. We also work with organisers and researchers employed for a fixed term on particular campaigns.

All of our permanent staff team are involved in the collective running of Platform: we each undertake at least 1 day of collective management work per week alongside our project work. People working on a fixed-term basis aren’t expected to do this work, but are welcome to attend our monthly collective meetings. All staff – whether or not they engage in collective management – are paid according to the Socially Just Waging system. 

Platform has a rotating Management Group of three permanent staff members who oversee the day-to-day running of Platform and meet weekly. We encourage new staff members to join after their first six months and each member serves up to one year at a time.

Our working groups that support the running of Platform are:

• Management Group
• Finance 
• HR
• Fundraising 
• Anti-oppression

Platform has a Board of Trustees who advise and support the Management Group and the whole organisation through quarterly meetings.

Methods & Principles

Our work is deeply rooted in our principles. What we believe in affects what we do and also how we do it. 

We believe in

Social Justice: An equitable distribution of wealth, resources and social and political opportunities for everyone.

Climate Justice: Climate change is an economic, political and ethical issue; its different impacts across the world are rooted in colonialism and racialised, classed and gendered inequality. Action on climate change must tackle political and economic inequalities at the same time. Action should include different responsibilities for countries in the Global North and South and an end to profit-driven energy production.  We aim for our work to be against extractivism in all its forms. 

International solidarity: Taking actions to show solidarity and support those living in states outside the UK who are struggling against oppression or injustice. We see this as particularly important in contexts where the UK has had an impact historically or is currently involved in neo-colonial endeavours. 

Economic system change: The social and economic systems we currently have in place prevent most people – particularly working class, marginalised and BIPOC folks – from accessing the resources, autonomy and the power they need to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives. We work with communities and allies to change these systems and re-distribute power and resources more equitably.

Some of the approaches we bring to our work

Arts and storytelling: We believe in the unique power of the arts to change hearts and minds and shift cultural narratives in ways that can create meaningful change. 

Decoloniality: We acknowledge the impact of colonialism and imperialism on our lives, society and the systems we’ve inherited (capitalism, institutional racism, patriarchy). Our work strives to deeply reflect on this impact and dismantle the power relations that our shared colonial history cements. 

Compassionate organising: We organise for justice in ways that centre and celebrate our ability to feel whole, joyful, playful, and loving. As we campaign to protect lives and livelihoods, we make sure to honour and respect our own. 

Internationalism: Our actions in the UK impact and are interlinked with struggles for liberation and equity across the world, especially in the Global South. 

Anti-racism: We acknowledge the impact of white supremacy on our lives, society and the systems we’ve inherited. Our work strives to support the unlearning and undoing of the structural domination of white people over groups that have been racially othered. 

Place-based work & localism: A place-based understanding allows issues like economic inequality, food security and energy security to be addressed at a local level, allowing for more focused and relevant campaigning and organising. 

This ties in closely with our emphasis on building power with folks and communities who are under-represented in institutions and positions of power. 

Community power: Communities – whether defined by place or identity – are a very important  level for organising. We aim to work with  people and groups most affected by the issues at stake to build the right  demands and visions for the futures of our communities.

Participatory research: Policies and research must be made in direct collaboration with those most concerned and most impacted by the issues at stake.

Building new alternatives now: Our approach to addressing the climate crisis is one that focuses on the practical solutions that we can build and apply now.

Funding

Platform is funded primarily through grants by philanthropic trusts and foundations, as well as from donations from individuals who want to support our work. We do not accept funding from corporations or banks that do not align with our mission, in line with our ethical investment policy.

If you’d like to donate to help us grow, please click here.

Our current funders include:

Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust

Uplit

Leeds Tidal

Community Action Fund (Big Lottery)

Network for Social Change

Climate Change Collaboration

Solberga

Esmee Fairbairn Foundation

Rockerfeller Transition Funds

Open Society

Anne Robbins (Rockerfeller)

Lankelly Chase

Arts Council England

Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Polden Puckham Charitable Trust