The summer is here, and Cambridge Carbon Footprint is out and about! This Friday CCF will be celebrating the start of another season of Open Eco Homes with a launch event at St Luke’s Centre, offering a great opportunity to ask experts about making your home low carbon.
To help you turn expert insulation advice into reality, we have some loft hatch insulating pillows to give away. Although winter seems very distant sitting in the sun, it will come again, so take up this opportunity to insulate your loft hatch. They are designed for hatches that are approximately 60cm x 75cm and open UPWARDS. Contact Mary in the office if you’d like one.
Did you spot the Cambridge News feature on CCF? If not, you can now find it on our website!
We are currently in the process of moving from Newmarket Rd to Tenison Rd and may take a little longer to respond than usual. At the moment the best way to get in touch is via info@cambridgecarbonfootprint.org.
Hope to see many of you in one of our events soon!
Open Eco Homes Launch Event – Friday 10 June
St Luke’s Centre, Victoria Road, Camb CB4 3DZ 7.30-10pm
We are celebrating Open Eco Homes 2011 with an exciting launching event comprising a panel of local eco homes’ experts.
- Ask about making your home low energy, warm and comfortable
- Eco Homes showcase and chance to meet home owners
- Browse stalls with low energy solutions
Now is also a good time to book your tour into one of the Open Eco Homes houses later in June. Places are limited, so be sure to check our website and choose the houses you want to visit! Please pick the houses you want to visit before booking. There is a lot of interest and lines may be very busy, please try again and we will answer your call as soon as possible.
Training workshops for volunteers interested in giving presentations on behalf of CCF 27 June
During the CCF consultation after the AGM on May 19th, we asked people to prioritise CCF projects. In third place, after Carbon Conversations and Open Eco Homes was “workshops and presentations (for other organisations)”.
We are now offering a three-session training course for people interested in running workshops and giving presentations, as part of CCF’s essential outreach.
The 2-hour sessions will be facilitated by Penny Henderson from 7.30-9.30pm on Mondays June 27th, July 11th and July 18th. During the first session, participants will choose a partner and together they will plan a session on a topic. Between sessions the pair will plan a 1-hour session on their topic for a particular audience of their choice.
During the second and third sessions, each pair will have the opportunity to present 15 minutes of their session to the rest of the group, which will provide a safe option to try out one way to present their topic. The members will give and receive constructive feedback in this supportive atmosphere.
Participants will need to attend all three sessions. If you are interested but the dates are impossible for you, please let us know. This will be a closed group for a maximum of 8 people. This is a great opportunity to develop your presentation and workshop skills with a view to putting these into practice later on, helping us to increase other organisations’ understanding of climate change and carbon reduction. Please contact Beejal Parekh at CCF if you are interested.
Grow Your Own: Organic Allotment Visit 28 June
Tuesday 28 June 2011, 7.30 – 9.30pm, Meet at the entrance to the allotments on Coldhams Lane opposite Vinery Way
Visit to an allotment with a fantastic variety of crops, soft fruit, apples, pears and a great selection of vegetables – peas, beans, salad crops, courgettes, potatoes and much more.
More information on the CCF website
Eco-Renovations Group meeting 30 June
Thursday 30 June, 7.30 – 9.30pm, place TBC, contact Beejal if you’d like to come
A meeting for volunteers interested in getting involved in organising eco-renovations events. More information on our website.
Skills Share Day 2 July
Saturday 2 July 2011, 2- 5pm, Ross Street Community Centre, Ross Street, Cambridge
Learn and revive forgotten skills that could help us all in an uncertain future, including:
- Bike Maintenance
- Sewing, knitting, crochet and spinning
- Jam and chutney making
- Home-made yoghurt
- Sprouting
- Herbal Remedies
- Grow Your Own
And more to come, check our website!
Helpers needed! To get involved contact Beejal
Bike Ride to Lode Mill and Picnic 10 July
Sunday 10 July, 10.30am – 2.30pm, Meet at Parker’s Piece, cycle to Lode. If you are unable to cycle lifts may be available, contact the office.
Join us on a bike ride to Lode Mill, a watermill at the junction of Quy Water and Bottisham Lode, near Anglesey Abbey.
We’ll be meeting at 10.30am on Parker’s Piece. Bring food and drink to share! More information and a few photos of our picnic spot on the CCF website.
Ask Andy
The value of an 80% carbon reduction
I am still nonplussed when friends and colleagues repeat that we just have to get over the message that saving carbon will save money and people will sign up to the 80% carbon reduction agenda.
Be careful what you wish for!
We know that the low hanging fruit will save us about 20% for little or no cost. But, to achieve the 80% savings we need, we are up against the laws of diminishing returns. The final parts of our eco renovation projects will involve unrecoverable costs as well as disruption from builders. And while the costs are immediate and ours, the benefits are less specific and well in the future.
I worry that people who started such projects because they were promised savings will give up and spend the money saved on a flight to Barcelona. I am not the only one. It has been a delight to find the Common Cause report, published last September by Tom Crompton, Change Strategist at WWF. It joins together two threads already important to CCF: values and messaging.
We have to promote eco-renovation because it matters; to the environment, to other people, to the future, but not to our bank balance or our image.
Read more on my latest post:
http://goldfin.blogspot.com/2011/05/value-of-80-carbon-reduction.html
Hope, despair and 4°C
Keeping global temperature rise below 2°C is “just a nice utopia” according to Fatih Birol of the International Energy Agency. What happens to hope in the face of increasingly gloomy predictions for the future?
Ro Randall argues that we have to distinguish between despair and loss of hope. Read more
here http://rorandall.org/
CCF AGM and Consultation meeting 19/5/11
Ro Randall and Andy Brown, the founders of CCF, stepped down in the May AGM. Read Bev Sedley’s report on the meeting and what plans CCF has for the future. You can also find CCF’s 2010 Annual Report, with details of all the projects, on the website, together with the 2010 accounts.
CCF Gardening in June – gardening without rain?
By Keith Jordan
Spring droughts are nothing new (my garden/allotment note book records several over the last 3 decades) but I never remember one as extreme as 2011.
It has been a real challenge for gardeners over the last few months. Parsnips and other seeds failed to germinate having had no rain, and by late May many plants, like rhubarb, were stunted or visibly wilting. However, deeper-rooted plants like blackcurrants are still looking good.
Read the full article with tips on how to manage with drought on our website.
In Transition 1.0 – screening and discussion 8 June
Wednesday, 8 June, 7.45-8pm, The Stables, St Andrews Church, Histon CB24 9EP (just past King Bill pub, down lane on the left)
The first detailed film about the Transition movement, about communities around the world responding to peak oil and climate change with creativity, imagination and humour. Followed by drinks, cake and discussion, Free Admission
More information on the HICCA website
Great Shelford Open Vegetable Gardens Sunday 12 June
Between 12noon and 5.30pm, ten vegetable gardens and allotments will be open to visitors with the opportunity to talk to the gardeners
Admission by programme, price £3. Programmes available in advance from 28 High Street, Great Shelford or on the day from 28 High Street, 138 Hinton Way and 30 Westfield Road. Teas available.
Organized by Sustainable Shelford
Green Enterprise: Urban Self Reliance 27 June
Monday 27 June, 7.30-9.30pm, Friends Meeting House, Jesus Lane Cambridge
Our speaker is Chris Southall, just the man to inspire us get going on the eco-DIY.
In just a few years, with a minimal budget and using mainly recycled materials and DIY, Chris has transformed a very ordinary house in Clacton-on-Sea into an inspiring, comfortable and economical eco-home. They grow much of their own food in a garden based on permaculture principles, while insulation, solar panels and a wood burning stove have allowed them to reduce their energy consumption by 76%. Chris reckons their commitment to eco-living saves them £15,000 pa. You can see Chris interviewed by BBC’s Working Lunch here
Cost £5
Draught Proofing and Ventilation 5 July
Tuesday 5 July, 7.30-9.30pm, St. Lukes United Reform Church, Victoria Road, Cambridge
Experts and experienced householders to answer your questions
- How do I stop the draughts?
- How much ventilation do I need?
- What are my ventilation options? (including windows, roof vents and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery)
Free entry, donations welcome
Organized by Transition Cambridge