Carbon Cutters AGM this Weds 15th July, and How to Waste Less Food

Dear Carbon Cutter,
This is just a reminder that our AGM will be held at the start of our meeting this Wednesday, with a prompt start at 7.30pm. At the meeting we will be setting a date in August to plan the coming year's activities. Attached is a poster for Wednesday, and the result of the "brainstorming" we had at our May meeting is below.

Hope to see you on Wednesday!

Abingdon Carbon Cutters

How to Make Abingdon Carbon Neutral - May 20^th

Notes based on Group discussions

Suggestions for future action

• Massive push in eco-renovations to lower carbon emissions due to residences and businesses locally

• Requires funding support
• Lobby for subsidy for solar panels
• Lobby for government support of home renewable generation
• Lobby for support for renewable and eco-renovation industry development in this country
• Needs clear, accurate information on what works

• Education about what needs to be achieved through, schools, churches, general public – requires leaflets, newsletters, press releases, public events, presence at local events to promote, encourage and recruit

• Lobby for improved, subsidised local transport to make this financially viable and to provide good public transport links for villages /rail stations etc.
• Find effective ways to reduce car usage – promoting car sharing, lift sharing, set up a local car club scheme
• Promote realistic reduction in agricultural carbon emissions – change of diet, promotion of local organic foods
• Promote community rather than individual existence for a sustainable lifestyle
• Promote and support the development of community food production and sharing
• Transition Town status could provide the impetus for such projects and especially the community-based ethos

Ideas identified for action within such projects

Education

• Seek to overcome scepticism, apathy and ‘head in sand’ attitudes
• Address the environment problem through economic crisis response

• Good economic policies = good environment policies

• reduce travel, reduce consumption
• how do we prioritise?
• Public Relations issues – provide a positive spin on issues, e.g. Make Poverty History campaign. A campaign that makes a lower carbon lifestyle sexy (Carbon Detox suggestions?)
• We need access to information and skills
• We need a Government/local government lead
• Build close links with schools and support staff as they develop the curriculum to include climate change and lower carbon living

Food

• Encourage intensive gardening, e.g. rooftops? (Cuban example)
• Promote Grow local – Buy local (not the big supermarket chains’ version)
• Set up the means for sharing produce
• Provide lessons on how to use everything
• Bring ‘old’ ground into cultivation
• Enable land sharing

• Mini scale – gardens
• Maxi scale Landshare website

• Develop growing skills

• Compost making – Emma, Robert
• Raised bed– sourcing, building, cultivating
• Promoting and publicising skills courses – e.g. Bridget, Robert
• Engaging children – work with schools to provide support and advice for school garden projects (keeping them going through the summer, etc)

• Explore and promote greater local sustainability

• Explore and encourage locally grown food employment opportunities

Transport

• Encourage local employment rather than commuting
• Cut down/out the school run

• Encourage/supervise walking buses
• SRTS (?)
• Smaller local schools?

• Car sharing scheme – local authority run

• Car sharing schemes – need to overcome the desire for individuality/independence
• Lower bus fares
• Share resources / share travel / waste less as a result

Other key issues arising

• The value and importance of working with other similar local groups in the area
• Prioritising effort based on needs/achievability/expertise/resource analysis
• Important to research and quantify carbon footprint of town in order to be able to judge progress towards goal of carbon neutrality – key data to use in ‘campaign’ literature
• Important to use local experts, local responsible council officers/councillors and well-connected people to discern key issues to focus upon in order to have best impact – push at opening doors, have examples ready to show we are ahead of the game (Transition town movement is getting this name)

Cliff Marshall June 2009