February 2010 Newsletter

Welcome to our February newsletter with this month’s news and views from Cambridge Carbon Footprint.

Contents

Cambridge Carbon Footprint events coming up:

Communication Workshop: Creativity with Anne Miller

Tuesday 2nd February, 7.30pm – 9.30pm, St Luke’s Centre, Victoria Road
This workshop will teach you a powerful technique for being more creative when thinking about how to reduce carbon emissions (or anything else). It will be run by creativity expert Anne Miller, Director of The Creativity Partnership. Participants are invited to discuss and build on a carbon reduction issue on which they would value creative ideas from the group.
Price: £10/£5 Free for CCF volunteers.

Eco-renovation in practice – visit to AC Architects

Thursday 11th February, 6pm, AC Architects, Victoria Road
In 2002 AC Architects took on the challenge of renovating the corner shop at the junction of Albert Street and Victoria Road as an exemplary low energy building for their own office use with residential accommodation above. This building visit allows you to see the results and listen to a talk on the project by the Director, architect Anne Cooper. Booking Essential.
Price: Suggested donation £1-3

Water: a practical workshop on conservation & sustainable drainage at home

Monday 15th February, 7.30 – 9.30pm, St Luke’s Centre, Victoria Road
Simon Bunn, Cambridge City Council’s Sustainable Drainage Engineer will explain the best ways of making your home water-efficient, including rainwater harvesting, water butts, rain gardens and the law about paving over front gardens.
Price: Suggested donation £1-3

Grow Your Own workshop with Keith Jordan

Monday 22nd February, 7.30 – 9.30pm, Ross Street Community Centre
Time for horticultural action! Plans and preparations to increase your supply of fresh seasonal produce in 2010. Subjects to be covered: seeds, soil, compost, rotations etc. It’s the time for starting some seeds off under cover and last chance to plant fruit bushes. Also lots of time for questions and discussion.
Price: Suggested donation £1-3

Wild Food Walk at Coe Fen with Jacky Sutton-Adam

Saturday 17th April
A guided forage walk to discover some of the many edible wild food plants that can easily be found and used to supplement regular foods. Jacky almost guarantees we’ll find at least 10 plants worth eating and those that want to try using them can come with a basket, a pair of gardening gloves and a small knife to forage. To book, send an email with your name and a contact telephone number to sally.davis@cambridgecarbonfootprint.org. Maximum 12.
Price: Suggested donation £1-3

Wild Food Lunch

Saturday 8th May 2010 11am-2pm
A chance to get your hands on some wild food recipes and your teeth into a tasty wild food lunch! We’ll take some freshly foraged wild food plants and turn them into delicious lunchtime dishes to share together.  Price: £10 per person to cover costs. Places strictly limited to 8, booking essential by email to sally.davis@cambridgecarbonfootprint.org

All events free unless otherwise stated. Donations welcome towards costs.
Booking advisable, but not essential – call 01223 971353 or email sally@cambridgecarbonfootprint.org.

Other events:

Cambridge Parliamentary Candidates Debate – What is your vision for Cambridge in 2020?

Wednesday 10th February, 6.30 – 8.30pm, B Bar, Market Passage

Debate organised by the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership. Your first chance to hear all four parliamentary candidates debate environmental issues.

Opportunities in Public Transport – talk from Peter Miller of ITO World

Monday March 1st 7:30-9:30, Friends Meeting House, Jesus Lane.
Talk from Peter Miller of ITO World http://www.itoworld.com
For more details visit www.green-enterprise.org http://www.green-enterprise.org

100 years of Growing Your Own Exhibition

There is an exhibition on in London Called “The Good Life- A 100 Years of Growing Your Own” at The Garden Museum, Lambeth PalaceRoad, London SE1 until March 7th. Entry £6/£5 0207 401 8865 www.gardenmuseum.org.uk

The exhibition Starts with the allotment act of 1908, includes Dig for Victory campaigns during two world wars, revisits the self sufficiency movement of the 1970′s and looks at present boom in grow your own, including community gardens and allotments waiting lists using gardening memorabilia, photos, journals, personal memoirs and tools to tell stories which illustrate what was grown and why.

CCF Opportunities

Carbon Conversations Groups Administrative volunteer

Cambridge Carbon Footprint is looking for a part time volunteer to administer our Carbon Conversations Groups

• Are you looking for a varied and challenging job where you will have the opportunity to develop your administrative skills and resourcefulness?
• Are you available during the day (for 3-6 hours/week) to work at our CCF office for 3-6months?
• The person we are looking for needs to be able to use initiative and to communicate with other volunteers by email, phone and face to face.

If you think you may be interested / for more details please contact  Siobhan Mellon Siobhan@cambridgecarbonfootprint.org 01223 971353

You can get more information about us by visiting our website
www.cambridgecarbonfootprint.org

Have your house surveyed with Climate Friendly Homes

Remember the cold snap?  Did your home get chilly? and how much will your heating bill be?  All this could be a thing of the past when you get some help from the Climate Friendly Homes project.

A volunteer surveyor will contact you to arrange a time to do a survey, which involves completing a form, and lending you an electricity monitor.  Your information will then be passed to a CCF energy expert who will compile a detailed report with recommendations for energy saving measures.

About a month later,  there’s a follow-up visit for the surveyor to discuss the report with you and take back the monitor.  It’s also possible to arrange for a session with a thermal imaging camera to take some pictures of your home to detect draughts and places where heat is escaping.

We are offering this service in exchange for a donation to Cambridge Carbon Footprint.

There’s more information on the website (http://cambridgecarbonfootprint.org/action/climate-friendly-homes-project/)
Please note that at present, we are only able to offer the service to homes within Cambridge. To register, please contact info@cambridgecarbonfootprint with Climate Friendly Homes in the subject line, and giving your name, address with postcode, and phone number.

Show off your eco-renovation during Cambridge Environment Festival

Cambridge Carbon Footprint is planning an Open House event during the Cambridge Environment Festival on June 20th and is looking for inspiring green buildings which demonstrate a range of eco-renovation techniques.  The event will be a chance for Cambridge residents to see first-hand what technologies are available to anyone considering an eco-renovation project for their home. Would you be willing to open your house 11am-3pm and provide brief tours to visitors? If you might be willing to take part, please contact Sally Davis (sally.davis@cambridgecarbonfootprint.org) with a short description of your house, the eco-renovation work done on it and what visitors will be able to see.  We will then get in touch with you to discuss details of what would be involved in taking part.

Volunteer needed to update our lightbulb library

At Cambridge Carbon Footprint we have a lightbulb library that we use to display different types of lightbulbs when we have stalls at events.  We are looking for a volunteer to come and update this library, to get it looking good for our stand at the Akashi Festival.  If you can help, please contact Siobhan (siobhan@cambridgecarbonfootprint.org)

Can you help at the Akashi Festival on the 21st March?

This years Akashi Festival is taking place on the 21st March. We will have stalls on the four different carbon footprint areas – travel, home, food, and stuff.  We are looking for volunteers to man the stalls for a few hours on the day. If you can help, please contact Siobhan (siobhan@cambridgecarbonfootprint.org)

Ro’s reflections: bedtime stories

Effective communication about climate change is essential, so it is disappointing to view the latest commercial from the government. (View it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w62gsctP2gc) The advert features a dad reading his small daughter a scary story about the consequences of climate change. A rabbit sheds a tear. A cuddly dog disappears beneath rising floodwater. The child asks anxiously ‘Is there a happy ending?’ The only solution suggested by the advert is that people should turn their lights out.
The advert breaks most of the ‘rules’ established by research about effective climate change communication. These rules are worth remembering for our own purposes. The list below is taken from a longer critique of the advert prepared by Tom Crompton of WWF and based on a review of the relevant research by Renee Lertzman. Whether you are chatting to your family, writing a leaflet or preparing a workshop or talk, keep these in mind:

1. Be honest and forthright about the likely impacts of climate change, but don’t provoke anxiety or guilt.
2. Be honest and forthright about the impact of dealing with climate change on  current lifestyles, and the ‘loss’ that this will entail. Narratives that focus exclusively on the ‘up-side’ of the climate solutions are likely to be unconvincing. Avoid emphasis on painless, feel-good, easy steps, financial savings/economic opportunities, or ‘green consumerism’ as appropriate responses. And deploy the ‘happiness tale’ (the idea that life will be better if we change) with care.
3. Empathise with the emotional responses that will be engendered by a forthright presentation of the probable impacts of climate change. Expect people to be angry, sad, upset or indignant and provide support for dealing with these feelings.
4. Highlight the rewards that arise from engaging in action collaboratively, with other people.
5. Use the right language, but don’t rely on language alone!
6. Encourage public demonstrations of frustration at the limited pace of government action.

Can you see why the advert is unlikely to work? I’m offering a prize of a bottle of organic red wine for the best critique that arrives by the end of the month. Send to me personally at rorandall@cambridgecarbonfootprint.org and we’ll publish it in next month’s newsletter.

Politics and Campaigning from Tom Bragg

Last week David Mackay, author of Sustainable Energy – without the hot air  & DECC’s Chief Scientific Advisor, diverted a third of his packed Cambridge talk to counter climate sceptic misinformation, as has Ed Miliband: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/31/ed-miliband-climate-change-scepticism

The problems revealed by the UEA emails and IPPC errors are real, but the underlying science is unaffected. It’s based on decades of varied, world-wide measurements, theory, prediction, checking & repeating – which doesn’t fit well into soundbites! Do take the right opportunities to discuss this with friends & colleagues. A useful general resource is “How to talk to a climate skeptic”: www.grist.org/article/series/skeptics/

Following the Copenhagen Accord, countries responsible for 80% of global emissions have announced their 2020 reduction targets. These weak, voluntary targets , even if met, wouldn’t come close to preventing the 2°C global temperature rise, that the Accord agrees must be avoided to avert dangerous climate change.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8489985.stm So there’s lots of work to be done & political pressure to apply before the next negotiations in Bonn & Mexico!

Ask Andy – Voltage Regulators

I’ve just seen a news item about voltage regulators. Should I get one?

This is a technology that is sometimes used in commercial buildings that is being launched for the domestic market as the Vphase from alternative energy company Energetix. There are two questions.
What is it?

Almost all electrical appliances are designed to operate at 220V, which is the lower end of the European band of supply voltages. The UK grid fluctuates around 240v. Voltage regulators transform this and allow your
equipment to work at its designed rating.

The Vphase It costs £300 and has to be fitted by an electrician next to your fuse box.

How can I tell if it is any good?

The reduced voltage will have three effects.  Some equipment will do less. Old filament bulbs, for example will be 15% dimmer. You may notice this and need more lights on. Some equipment will compensate for the lower voltage and make no saving. For example your kettle will take 10% longer to boil. Some equipment, especially motors, will actually be more efficient as they were designed for the lower voltage. Tests show a 17% saving for fridges.

Vphase think the overall household saving will be about 10%. Experience tells me that the actual savings seen in peoples homes are usually less than the calculated savings. We wait to see the results of their field trials.

With installation, it may cost about £450. I know my electricity bill is a bit less than £200 a year, so it could pay for itself in 13 years, which is not bad as the equipment should last much longer than that.

However, because of the uncertainty of the savings and the potential unreliability of new equipment, I will wait to until I see more news.

Gardening in February – Know your composts? by Keith Jordan

As the garden (and gardeners!) emerges from grey skies and winter dormancy it is time to start raising some new vegetable plants (e.g. lettuces, cabbages, tomatoes and peppers for greenhouses, etc.) to give them a head start. Plants like aubergines and peppers need a long growing period. At this time of year most seeds need to be raised in warmer conditions indoors or under cover in pots and trays of seed compost. The word compost can be confusing to the novice as it covers a range of materials. A very brief summary of the terms used……

1. Seed Compost – specifically for raising seedlings, cuttings. Usually heat-treated to kill weed seeds and fungal spores. Damping Off is one fungal disease that can kill seedlings in untreated compost.
2. Potting Compost – as plants get older move then on to this (has a different nutrient mix).
3. General purpose Compost – if you want to buy just one type that covers everything!
4. Peat-based composts – seed and potting composts and grow bags traditionally used peat as the main fibrous organic material. Industrial peat extraction is very damaging to natural peat bogs and their rich wildlife and releases huge amounts of CO2 (see www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.asp?id=tcm:9-214566 ). Just imagine Wicken Fen Nature Reserve having the surface scraped off!
5. Peat-free composts – the more environmentally friendly alternative made from recycled organic materials such as composted bark. Different qualities available so do experiment.
6. Soil-based composts – some seed or potting composts use soil as the main material rather than fibrous materials like coir, bark or peat. Slower to dry out. More suitable as plants get bigger. Similar names but different composition and use;-
7. Compost from your home compost heap – many garden uses for this nutrient-rich organic material. Lots of advice on www.homecomposting.org.uk/content/view/12/26/
8. Compost from Donarbon’s recycling centre, Waterbeach (www.donarbon.com/composting ) – concentrated organic material made from mixed food and garden waste collected by local Council’s during kerbside collections and from recycling centres.

Still confused? Come along to the next Grow Your Own session on the 22nd Feb. to find out more (see details above).

Generating your own electricity by Martin Roach

The Government has just released its report on the results of the Consultation on Renewable Electricity Financial Incentives as part of the drive to increase renewable electricity generation almost 6-fold by 2020. Here are some pointers on whether the proposed scheme could work for you.
At the moment solar photovoltaic panels appear to be the most viable option for a single householder to generate electricity. For this you need sufficient unshaded roof area (around 9 sq.m.), facing south or south west, from where solar panels can produce around 2.4KwH per day – about 20-25% of the electricity produced by an average family. The cost would be around £7-8,000 but anyone applying before the end of March can qualify for a grant of up to £2,500.
With electricity currently priced at about 10-13p per KwH this gives a saving from your normal energy bill of around £95 – not a great return on the capital outlay. However, the new Government ‘Feed in Tariff’ incentive scheme will pay you 41.3p for every KwH you produce, plus you will save 13p for every KwH you then do not have to buy from your electricity company and if you produce more than you need on sunny days then your supplier will pay you 3p for every KwH you export to them. These prices will rise with inflation and are guaranteed for 25 years. Overall, such an investment will likely give a 7-8% financial return to the householder, certainly better than current bank interest rates.
So what are the drawbacks? Well clearly you need the roof area and the money to spend. Also from a green house gas perspective p.v. cells take 4-6 years before they payback the carbon generated in their production – compare that with 1-2 years for wind farms and most other other renewables. So you decide. The Government subsidies are clearly going to be expensive per KwH produced but then perhaps that is a price worth paying to help kick start a UK renewables industry.
But before you decide make sure you have already done the simple things in your home, like insulation and draught proofing, or a wooly jumper – they give the best return of all!

Seasonal Recipe – Celeriac Remoulade by Jacky Sutton-Adam

While the evenings are certainly getting lighter, many of us find February to be a long, cold month – it’s the last and often the most energy sapping month of winter, with very little evidence in our feeling bodies of the spring to come.  Food-wise, I’m always desperate at this time of year for something raw and crunchy to make a change from all that rib-sticking winter food. Happily there’s a seasonal vegetable that fits the bill perfectly, Celeriac. It’s a large root vegetable, with a celery-like flavour, but a bit milder and sweeter. I like it grated and dressed simply with a white wine vinegar and mustard dressing,  but it also works well grated into a home made coleslaw with mayonnaise,  carrots, red onion and white cabbage.  A whole root goes a long way so I usually use half in a raw recipe and put the remainder into a hearty root veg stew. These two dishes combined take care of my cravings for raw and fresh and the need for something warming to keep energy levels up during the cold. Enjoy!

Celeriac Remoulade

• Ingredients
• Half a celeriac
• A generous handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• 120ml extra virgin olive oil
• 20ml white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Greek yoghurt
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Make the dressing first by combining a good slug of extra virgin olive oil, with white wine vinegar, one part vinegar to six parts oil. Add the yoghurt, Dijon mustard, salt and freshly grated black pepper and mix well. Take half a celeriac, scrub it thoroughly and remove any brown patches. Grate it into a bowl and add the chopped parsley, and mix it all together.   Pour over the dressing and toss the celeriac gently to get everything nicely coated, then serve.

Transition Cambridge Story Competition

Imagine Cambridge in 2050 – how would you like it to be?

Transition Cambridge are running a short story competition, for stories set in the future, when we have successfully adapted to climate change and peak oil, when we have learned how to live sustainably, using far less fossil fuels. What would you like this world to be like?

You can think of this as extension to the envisioning exercise you did if you have been on a carbon conversations course – only further into the future and more detailed.

The stories can be up to 2500 words (1500 if you are under 14). Shortlisted entries will be judged by a panel including prize winning authors Colin Greenland and Jill Dawson and there are over £750 worth of prizes. For more details see

http://www.transitioncambridge.org/storycompetition

There will also be some workshops in March, to get you buzzing with ideas.

The competition is sponsored by Cambridge Sustainable City, AC Architects, Heffers, Cambridge Building Society and Lush