The first Open Eco Gardens event is almost here! Following in the footsteps of our hugely popular Open Eco Homes events, Open Eco Gardens is a source of inspiration to all eco minded gardeners. Read more below or on our website and book a visit to your favourite gardens soon.
Before Gardens, Transition Cambridge is hosting a Home Energy Fair on 5th July, with short talks and stalls to offer advice on how to make your home more energy efficient.
Towards the end of the month we also have another eco-renovation in progress event. This time we will go examine two Victorian cottages to find out how the owners have improved them and what could still be done. These events are always popular, so booking is essential.
Open Eco Gardens is just round the corner! 14 July
Saturday 14 July, 11am – 2pm
Mark your diaries for July 14, Open Eco Gardens is here! Similar to our annual Open Eco Homes event, we are going to be opening up the gates to some of Cambridge’s Eco Gardens for guided tours and questions.
We consider an Eco Garden to be one which includes at least one of the following: food growing, water conservation, encourages wildlife, or uses permaculture design. Community gardens, allotments, home gardens, college gardens and public gardens will all be showcased. Find out more and choose the gardens you’d like to visit on our website.
Booking is essential!
Eco Renovation in Progress 23 July
Monday 23 July, 7.30 – 9.30pm, Bermuda Road
Due to popular demand, our eco renvovation in progress events continue this summer with a look at two adjacent Victorian Cottages on Bermuda Road (full address given upon booking). Experts Anne Cooper of AC Architects and Alex Rice of Efficient Ideas will take groups on a tour to explore renovations that have already been done and give their recommendations for future work as well. A must-see for anyone contempating their own renovations in a similar home!
Booking is essential as numbers are limited, and our Eco Renovation events usually fill up fast! Email us or call 01223 301842 to reserve your spot today!
Thinking about what happens in groups 18 September
Tuesdays 18 September, 16 October, 13 November and 11 December, 7.30 – 9.30pm, Central Cambridge
Are you a Carbon Conversations facilitator, interested in finding out more about working with groups? Learn to encourage members to become more confident about responding to feelings in groups, through the experience of being in one and reflecting on it. We will also provide some teaching about being in groups.
Booking essential, places limited to 12
Trip to Hockerton Housing Project 29 September
Saturday 29 September, 11am – 7pm
Join us on a tour of Hockerton Housing Project. The tour lasts three hours, from 2pm to 5pm. It takes about 1hr 45mins to get there from Cambridge so we’ll leave around 11am which will give us time for a picnic lunch. We expect to arrive back in Cambridge by 7pm at the latest (the plan is to car share).
Cost: £24 (payable in advance) plus a contribution towards travel costs (payable on the day). We can offer a couple of bursaries to our volunteers.
Booking essential, places limited to 10. For further information, or to reserve your place, email Mary at info@cambridgecarbonfootprint.org
CCF office closure August 6th to 10th inclusive
Due to staff holidays, the CCF office will be closed for one week from Monday August 6th to Friday 10th inclusive. This means that any messages received during that time will almost certainly not be dealt with until the following week. If you need an urgent response, pleasecontact Bev.
IT Officer – Volunteer Opportunity
Do you have the skills and some time to support and improve our use of PCs, software and networking – to help us work even more effectively towards a low-carbon society?
More details on our website.
Greetings from the CCF fundraising team
Over the years, CCF has received some very generous funding from key individuals and we have been successful in securing some grants in the past. However, to keep things moving forward we now need to raise around £25,000 over the next 12 months. It’s an ambitious target and while we have lots of ideas for fundraising events in the pipeline, including a Ceilidh and an auction, we also want to ask you – CCF’s followers, supporters and volunteers – to help.
Firstly, we’d like to say a big thank you to everyone that has donated to CCF in the past and particularly to those that already make a regular monthly donation by standing order. This type of regular giving is really important to CCF and it would help us hugely if more people felt able to set up a standing order to give a small (or not so small!) amount of money each month. If you feel you are in a position to do this just visit our donate page and see the bank details at the bottom of the page.
We’ll set up a fundraising tracker on the website so everyone can keep up to date with our progress!
Back by popular request!: Eating well on a budget
Back in March a group of us took part in an Eating Local challenge with a difference: Eating well on a budget. We agreed to eat mainly local, seasonal food on a budget of £21 per adult per week. (People had said to us, regarding our previous Eating Local challenges, “It’s all very well, eating local if you have the money, but it isn’t possible to eat local, seasonal food on a tight budget.”) Actually, all of us found it quite possible, although it needed a bit of planning and thought, and I personally found I felt healthier doing it, as it meant I ate slightly less at each meal. I enjoyed it and am intending to take part again and hopefully continue to do it afterwards this time. To see how we got on last time, visit our blog, and to join us in September, email Helen.
Bev
After Rio
The outcome of the Rio +20 UN talks was a great disappointment – a weak, piecemeal approach to tackling climate change, woefully inadequate to the challenge.
One good piecemeal improvement since is the U.S. Court of Appeals ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency can count greenhouse gases as pollutants, enabling new regulations on emissions from vehicles, power plants, etc.
Also Nick Clegg announced Mandatory Carbon Reporting, forcing Britain’s biggest 1600 businesses to reveal their CO2 emissions. The sooner this is extended the better! But the government’s Energy Bill will have bad results, without major changes. It’s also likely to harm community energy projects.
So how do we keep motivated in the face of disappointments? I find inspiration in the pleasure and promise of working together to build a low-carbon society. Many of us draw strength from reinforcing our connection with nature, as described here by Rebecca Wills.
How about you?
Tom Bragg
City Planning Consultation
Cambridge City Council is consulting on plans for how Cambridge should be in 2031. Let’s advocate the low-carbon, human-scale Cambridge we need by then!
The Council’s Issues and Options Report and summary include chapters:
6 – Sustainable development, climate change, water and flooding
12 – Promoting and delivering sustainable transport and infrastructure
They are also consulting on a related Sustainability Appraisal.
CCF will be submitting its views on these. If you would like to be involved or have suggestions on what we should include please email me tom.bragg@cambridgecarbonfootprint.org by July 9th.
Or do make your own submission by the July 27th deadline, as described here.
Transition Cambridge Home Energy Fair 5 July
Thursday 5 July, 7 – 9pm, Emmanuel United Reform Church, 72 Trumpington Street
If you want ideas on how to reduce your energy use at home, this event is for you. Insulation, renewable energy, energy monitors – come and talk to a range of commercial suppliers as well as charity/non-profit organisations offering independent advice. Find out more on Transition Cambridge website.
Visit to Innovation Farm at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany 10 July
Tuesday 10 July, 7 – 8.30pm, NIAB, Huntingdon Road
Join us for a guided tour of the NIAB Innovation Farm, a showcase of novel crops for food, medicine and fibre. Including soya beans suitable for UK cultivation, nettles for fibre production and much more. Your chance to see the cutting edge of crop development.Email Helen Holmes to book a place. More info here: http://www.innovationfarm.co.uk/
Greeniversity meeting 19 July
Thursday 19 July, 7.30 – 9pm, Please contact us for details of venue
This will be our first meeting to discuss how we will bring the Greeniversity idea to Cambridge. Everyone is welcome!
Greeniversity is about people getting together to learn green skills from other local people who have skills they are willing to share. All sessions are free or low cost; sessions can range from how to grow your own veg, knitting or customising charity shop clothes, servicing your bike or insulating your loft. You could take a one off lesson or a five week course – Greeniversity is very flexible. The idea is to have fun and meet new people while you learn how to be a little greener. You can see what Peterborough’s Greeniversity is like here http://www.greeniversity.org.uk/. We’ll be looking for people who’d like to offer sessions, starting in September, so get in touch if you’d like to offer something!
Fill in a CamBaking survey and help create a community bakery in Cambridge
CamBake is for people in Cambridge that love bread – not taste-less, soul-less industrial bread but bread that still remembers the oven it was born in, made locally – from the finest locally produced ingredients.
CamBake is a community bakery, just starting out now. Please help us to shape the bakery project by filling in this survey, which should not take more than 3-5 minutes. All responses will be treated confidentally and details will not be passed on to any other parties.