News
Saturday Afternoon Volunteering at Whistlewood Common
Mon, 15 June 2020
Whistlewood Common is ten acres of community-owned land in Melbourne, South Derbyshire. The site has been designed along permaculture principles (a sustainable design framework).
They are currently running volunteering sessions every Saturday afternoon from 1 to 4pm. They want everyone to be able to enjoy the fresh air (whilst socially distancing) and benefit from being within a natural environment. They have lots of space and lots of jobs to be done. You are welcomed to come along to do your own photography or art. For safety, they will have a decontamination station set up to keep shared areas and tools hygienic. Bring your own refreshments and gardening gloves if you can.
Keep an eye on their Facebook events page as there will be usually more detail of activities going on and latest updates.
Nottingham City Council Secures £50,000 Funding for ‘eCargo’ Bikes
Mon, 15 June 2020
Nottingham City Council was successful in its bid to the Energy Saving trust and have secured nearly £50,000 of Government funding. This will be used towards a fleet of electric bikes designed to move heavy loads around the city. The council is teaming up with local manufacturer Raleigh to produce the ‘eCargo’ cycles.
This scheme will initially establish a small fleet in Nottingham - 15 'eCargo' bikes including 12 two-wheeled bikes and three trikes. Later this year, the bikes will be made available to local partners, including Sustrans, Nottingham Bikeworks, Ridewise and the two universities. Eventually, the hope is that these bikes will be made available to local businesses in both the public and voluntary sector.
Councillor Adele Williams, Portfolio Holder for Transport at Nottingham City Council, said: “...We know that eCargo bikes have been very popular in other major European cities and we hope they will prove so in Nottingham – we have set out to enable a clean freight system as part of our Carbon Neutral action plan. Securing the funding for these bikes demonstrates our commitment to achieving this….’
Virtual Sustainable Living Tours
Mon, 11 May 2020
Hockerton
Organised by Hockerton Housing Project
£0 - £8.50
The Hockerton Housing Project is a small community of five earth sheltered homes built in 1998 on the outskirts of Hockerton, Nottinghamshire, UK. They usually offers tours around their site, but these are currently cancelled until the beginning of June. Provisional dates for later this year are listed at the end.
In the meantime, they are offering live interactive Zoom tours of the project led by one of the residents covering their own home and the land. You will be able to ask questions about growing your own food, renewable energies and more.
If you are interested, you can book a ticket here.
They are also running a weekday Zoom tour aimed at younger people about the challenges of climate change and living in a sustainable community.
You can book a ticket for this here.
They are also encouraging any students interested in sustainability to visit this video gallery. For children in years 5 and 6, they suggest they look at The Green Pioneers Open University video. The areas of GCSE and A level syllabus coverage is detailed in their education brochure.
When COVID-19 restrictions lift, provisional dates for on-site tours this year are the following:
- Saturday 6th June, 2pm - 5pm
- Saturday 4th July, 2pm - 5pm
- Saturday 12th September, 2pm - 5pm
iFixit Repair Guides
Mon, 11 May 2020Do you have any broken items in need of fixing? Even though Repair Cafés cannot open at the moment, do not throw them away. See if you can fix them using a manual from iFixit. iFixit is a wiki-based site that teaches people how to fix almost anything including cars, phones, game consoles and household appliances. Anyone can create a repair manual for a device, and anyone can also edit the existing set of manuals to improve them.
A New Matchmaking Service for Community Energy Groups
Mon, 11 May 2020
PowerPaired is a new, free online platform which provides a matchmaking service to bring together community energy groups and the owners of sites with potential to host community-owned renewable energy projects. Their aim is to increase the number of community owned renewable energy projects in the UK by making it easier for them to get off the ground. They want to help communities take control of the way their energy is generated, saving money and tackling climate change at the same time.
Other support tools will be available including partner Pure Leapfrog’s legal template documents.
Created by sustainability NGO Forum for the Future, over 100 sites are already on offer from the National Grid, churches, schools, and offices across the UK.