Blog
Celebrating 30 years of Sniffer’s achievements and changes

As Ruth Wolstenholme steps down as Verture’s (then Sniffer’s) Managing Director she takes a look back over the past three decades since our charity was founded charting our success and how we have evolved and changed.
As I step down from the role of Managing Director at Sniffer there is much to celebrate from Sniffer’s 30 years. It is a journey that I have been personally involved in from the very start and whilst I have seen a lot of changes in that time there are some key threads woven throughout our history that have been key to our strength and success. In this brief overview I set out our story.
1990s
Sniffer was conceived in the Crown Bar in Belfast in the late 1980s. Our origin was as an informal forum to identify the shared research needs of those with a remit in environmental protection in both Scotland and Northern Ireland – and SNIFFER, the Scotland and Northern Forum for Environmental Research was born.
We constituted formally as a charity and registered company in 1994 with a focus on the promotion of scientific research in the areas of air, water, waste and the environment. Our initial members were organisations that have now been subsumed into SEPA, Local Authorities Scottish Water, Scottish Government and Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in NI. We were soon identifying shared needs and tools for action and commissioning 50 or more research projects each year – disseminated as hard copy reports.
2000s
By the 2000s we were taking a thematic approach to protecting the environment including in relation to the Water Framework Directive, environmental regulation, and even leading a European Research Area Network on the urban environment.
We were ahead of the game in addressing climate change impacts, producing a handbook on climate trends across Scotland, initiating the Scottish Climate Change Impacts Partnership (SCCIP) and publishing research on differential social impacts of climate change. We started our first Flood Risk Management knowledge exchange role in 2005. With an emerging interest in people, we extended our charity articles to include societal engagement, wellbeing, quality of life and sustainable development.
2010s
In 2012 we rebranded as Sniffer, with a focus on being knowledge brokers for a resilient Scotland, acknowledging our shift away from commissioning research. Our focus was as an intermediary across many sectors and policy areas.
In the same year SCCIP became Adaptation Scotland and we started our place based adaptation work. At first this was focused along the A9 corridor and then with Climate Ready Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere, followed by Climate Ready Clyde as a flagship partnership approach to addressing regional adaptation. Increasingly we worked with communities, holding climate conversations and leading a collaboration with disadvantaged groups in North Glasgow.
2020s
In the 2020s we embarked on our new strategy with a vision of a flourishing and fairer Scotland in a changing climate. We are equipping and empowering climate ready leaders with our award winning Adaptation Capability framework , public sector climate action network and Becoming Climate Resilient training. We are collaboratively developing tools for action, for example the Community Climate Adaptation Routemap, now available in Gaelic. And we have also become very adept at delivering climate ready place based partnerships – actively managing five initiatives.
Charting our change
Across these eras there are a number of step changes which I believe echoes wider changes in how environmental change has been addressed in Scotland
Firstly in terms of our role – we have shifted from research mangers producing insights for others to use, to knowledge brokers where we actively managed the way in which knowledge was shared, to a role as catalyst and changemaker with a focus on achieving impact. Such impact can be empowered leadership, shaping of policies or people and places that are better equipped for a changing climate.
Secondly, throughout this time the nature of our collaboration has changed too – progressing from efficiency savings for public sector organisations to genuine partnerships to share insights, perspectives and visions of climate ready futures and collective ways of getting there.
Thirdly, we have seen a shift in the types of knowledge that we hold. Our early focus was on science and technocratic solutions with the environment as receptor and people regarded as polluters. Increasingly this has shifted to understanding societal impacts and lived experience.
This has meant addressing a bigger system of environment, people and economy and hearing the voices of communities and business as well as public sector. It also means we have looked at new ways of working, for example acknowledging the role of creative practice in changing connections, changing meanings and changing power. Increasingly, when looking to grow a fairer future, we are thinking about transformation and the role of governance mechanisms, understanding and challenging power imbalances and the root causes of vulnerability.
Through all of this, one thing that has been a constant in our work is that we have been at the forefront, being innovative and pioneering, anticipating new opportunities and ways of working, having a pivotal role in climate adaptation and resilience over the last two decades, and embedding fair and inclusive approaches. And I believe that despite our evolving role we have retained the trust and confidence of our partners which for me has been such a rewarding element of our work in building relationships for common goals.
So we have been preparing the ground for a fairer and flourishing future for many years and now it’s time for a new era with our collaborative approach and vision captured in our soon to be shared new brand. It is with great pleasure to be handing the leadership baton to our new CEO, Jo Kerr.
Ruth has shared more on Sniffer’s 30 years of success in a presentation below.