We have moved again! We’re very pleased with our new office in the Future Business building behind the Westbrook Centre off Milton Road. Visitors welcome! Please ring first to check we’re in: 01223 659962 or 07837 183271.
Due to a lot of interest, we have added a third thermal camera training. You can also take part in one of our other popular trainings, come to our volunteer lunch or autumn seasonal meal, join us on an exciting visit or give a hand at our stall – plenty on offer this October!
Climate Friendly Homes Training 18 October
Tuesday 18 October, 7.30 – 9.30 pm, Cambridge Carbon Footprint, Future Business building, Milton Rd, Cambridge
Come to this training to become a surveyor for CCF’s Climate Friendly Homes Project. The project provides a free service to householders to help them make practical plans to reduce their carbon emissions. Find our more on our website or email the office to book a place.
Volunteer Lunch 19 October
Wednesday 19 October, 12.30 – 1.30pm, Cambridge Carbon Footprint, Future Business building, Milton Rd, Cambridge
Our volunteers are invited to join us for delicious vegetarian and vegan sandwiches from Taste of Cambridge, provided by us! Find out more on our website. Booking by Monday 17th October essential, so we know how much food to order: email the office.
Thermal Imaging Camera Training 20 October
Thursday 20 October, 7.30 – 9.30pm
Due to high demand this autumn, we are offering a third training in the use of our thermal imaging camera. Early booking is advised. Find our more our website. Booking essential – email Beejal!
Autumn Seasonal Meal 23 October
Sunday 23 October 2011, 7.00 – 9.30pm, Ross St Community Centre, Ross Street, Cambridge
Come and join us for our autumnal seasonal meal. Please bring food and drink to share, with as much of it local, seasonal and home-cooked as possible! Let us know what is in your dish and where the ingredients came from with a tempting label! There will be a prize for the most local and delicious home-cooked dish! The meal will be followed by games. Tell your friends and bring as many people as you can!
Find out more on our website.
Stalls Training 24 October
Monday 24 October, 7.30 – 9.30pm, Cambridge Carbon Footprint, Future Business building, Milton Rd, Cambridge
For volunteers old and new, a workshop on running our stall at events. The training is for new and old volunteers alike, a useful refresher for anyone that hasn’t been on a stall in a while, and a great introduction and confidence booster for those that have never done it before! Find our more on our website or email the office to book your place.
Tour of Peterborough MRF 26 October
Wednesday 26 October, 10am, Peterborough
The Materials Recycling Facility in Peterborough is an essential element in the city council’s integrated strategy to raise recycling rates to over 65 per cent by 2020 and to use non-recycled waste as fuel in an energy-from-waste plant. It is home to the city council’s award-winning Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Re-use centre,which has the capacity to repair, recycle and dismantle around 20,000 domestic appliances annually. Equipment at the site includes a Stadler ballistic separator – which separates materials based on how they bounce; a Titech autosort unit to separate plastics from other materials; and a destoner to clean glass after it comes out of the bottom of the ballistic separator.
Please contact Beejal if you would like to attend (booking essential) and for transport details (we are hoping to hire a minibus). More information on our website.
Rainwater Harvesting 27 October
Thursday 27 October, 7.30 – 9.30pm, Ross Street Community Centre, Ross Street, Cambridge
The aim of this workshop is to promote rainwater harvesting as a means of living more sustainably. Hear Graham Cross of Halsted Rain, UK leaders in the collection and use of rainwater in the urban environment, talking about a new approach to the rainwater harvesting market with a focus on affordable, easy to install and visually discreet solutions that help reduce mains water consumption and manage sustainable drainage.
Send the office an email to book your place! Find out more on our website.
Opening of Smart Life – stall volunteers needed! 31 October
Monday 31 October 1 – 4pm, Cambridge Regional College, King’s Hedges
We are looking for volunteers to help run our stall at the opening of SmartLIFE. Could you offer an hour or two – please let Beejal know! More information on our website.
Workshops and Presentations Training October-November
Wednesdays 26 October, 2 November and 9 November, 7.30 – 9.30pm, location TBC
We are offering a free three-session training course for people interested in running workshops and giving presentations, as part of CCF’s essential outreach.
Find out more on our website. The course is almost full, booking essential – email Beejal.
Trip to BedZed 8 November
Tuesday 8 November, 11.30am – 5.30pm, BedZED Centre, 24 Helios Road, Wallington, Surrey, SM6 7BZ
Beddington Zero Energy Development is the UK’s largest 
mixed use sustainable community. It was designed to create a thriving community in which ordinary people could enjoy a high quality of life, while living within their fair share of the Earth’s resources. The community comprises 50% housing for sale, 25% shared ownership and 25% social housing for rent. The holistic design works on three levels:
1. the design solves problems such as heating and water usage;
2. the design and services offered help people make sustainable choices such as walking rather than driving; and
3. the community have created their own facilities and groups to improve quality of life and reduce their environmental impact.
If you are interested in taking part, please get in touch with Beejal or check our website.
Ro Randall on ‘Behaviour change: solution or diversion?’ 23 November
Wednesday 23 November, 7.30 – 9.30pm, Wesley Methodist Church, Kings Street, Cambridge
Behaviour change is currently a key government policy for dealing with climate change. In this talk Rosemary Randall will discuss the rationale for behaviour change policies, present some key criticisms of the approach and offer an alternative psychological model for engaging people in change. Find out more on our website.
Join our Eating Local blog!
Four of us (Carolyn, Rod, Penny and Bev) are now into our fifth week of six weeks eating locally. I hope some of you have been following our blog on the CCF website! We have been asked if other people can join in – yes, you can! If you want to join us, email me (Bev) and we will tell you how to access the blog.
We would like to keep the discussion going after the six weeks – 
lots of interesting issues have come up – it hasn’t just been a list of what we ate (although there has of course been some of that + how we sourced our food). We are also planning to compile a list of our sources to put on the “resources” section of the CCF website as a downloadable pdf. One of the issues that came up is the fact that local doesn’t necessarily mean low carbon – we need to eat meat and dairy sparingly, even if it is organic and local. I must say it’s been rewarding and fun, if a bit frustrating at times (especially if, like me, you can’t eat food with gluten in…..) Try it and see!
Carbon Conversations Revisited!
The first meeting of the Carbon Conversations Revisited group has taken place! Eight of us met to discuss reducing consumption and waste: how we are getting on, sharing ideas, what’s going well and what’s hard.
Read Bev Sedley’s full report the new Carbon Conversations Revisited group on our website.
Denial, culture and ideology
Is climate change denial all to do with anxiety and defence as I suggested last month? Dan Kahan’s research argues that denial can be a rational response. His work on cultural cognition shifts the argument to the interesting area of ideology.
Read Ro Randall’s full article at http://rorandall.org
Grow Your Own – Plan for drought in 2012
In an ‘average’ year, the Cambridge area generally has annual rainfall levels between around 510 – 610mm (20-24”) – similar to parts of the Middle East and Cyprus, Corsica and Sicily. This year rainfall levels are even lower (so far) making gardening much more of a challenge.
Read Keith Jordan’s full article on our website.
Solar School initiative
Newnham Croft is launching its new Solar School initiative this Friday! Find out more and help Newnham Croft go solar by purchasing tiles on the Solar Schools website.
Climate Rush Rendezvous 9 October
Sunday 9 October, 4.30 – 6pm, Centre at St. Paul’s, Hills Road, Cambridge
Climate Rush Cambridge is about to launch. On Sunday 9th October, join a public meeting to stir your climate passion, discover your local battlegrounds and form a community willing to stand up to an oil-run world.
The climate change movement needs your inspiration. We need to create smart, gorgeous and radical ideas, we need to push things faster, we need to choose our climate change battles and we need to win….
100 years ago the Suffragettes taught us how to campaign. It’s time to look at their model: street theatre, subvertising, smart networks and their outright refusal to shut up.
Listen to Ro Randall question why influential people are still apparently in denial about climate change, and failing to act, and what, if anything, we can do about it. Be inspired by Dr Helen Pankhurst – granddaughter of Sylvia – as we remember the stories of the Suffragettes. Remember that we are all in this together: hear Tony Juniper explain this great threat and the even greater opportunity. Join workshops, plan protests and find a community who are scared of climate change and will take action.
Hear the stories of women who have changed the world with their campaigns, then join us in planning our next moves. It’s your ideas, your energy, your anger and your passion that will make history.
Cambridgeshire Renewables Infrastructure Framework (CRIF) – Community Event 18 October
Tuesday 18 October 2011, 5 – 7pm, The Maltings, Ely
In the UK, all new homes that are built from 2016 must be zero carbon. This means high energy efficiency and renewable energy for homes. We will start to see more local energy generating projects in Cambridgeshire. Not only can these energy schemes benefit new homes but also there is opportunity for local communities to benefit if your community wants to generate its own electricity and heat. If you want to know how you can be involved or just find out more about the energy challenge for Cambridgeshire – please join us.
More details on the CRIF Project here.
Transition Cambridge: The Turning Point 19 October
Wednesday 19 October, 6 – 7.30pm, Cambridge Arts Picturehouse Cinema, St. Andrews Street
Transition Cambridge is teaming up with the Arts Picturehouse to show a double bill of films, starting with The Powerdown Show (Episode 1, 20 minutes) followed by our main feature, The Turning Point (40 minutes). The Powerdown Show is part of a series of films made in Ireland, introducing the issues around peak oil and climate change and leading into thinking about positive solutions. “The Turning Point: a Return to Community” is an inspirational film showing how a community in Scotland is making the transition to a more resilient and sustainable way of life. The films will be followed by a question and answer session with local transitioners Anna McIvor and Liz Serocold. Normal picturehouse charges apply (£8.50 full price, £7.50 concessions, £6.50 members). Find out more on the Transition Cambridge website.
Grow Your Own Session in Trumpington 29 October
Saturday 29 October, 10am – 1pm, Trumpington allotments
Join experienced allotmenteer Dave Fox on his plot in Trumpington. Get stuck in as we plant, nurture and harvest veg and fruit. These sessions are ideal for novices and people with any amount of practical growing experience – it’s more of a mutual sharing than a lesson! If you’d like to join in, see Transition Cambridge web page here, and book soon as spaces are limited.