Community Solar PV project for Surrey schools

Plans are well advanced for a co-operative venture that will install solar PV panels on several schools in Godalming and Guildford. The scheme will provide cheaper electricity for the schools, pay an attractive return to co-operative members, and save many tonnes of carbon.

Anyone over 16 can become a member by investing between £250 and £20,000. Investments can only be made between 30 August and 7 October 2011, and will be accepted on a first come first served basis.

To register your interest visit Wey Valley Solar Schools Co-operative

Are you keen to cut your energy bills?

 

Are you keen to cut your energy bills, but don’t know how?

Woking LA21 is offering free home energy audits to help you avoid wasting energy and, more importantly, saving you money.

Our trained auditors will spend time assessing your home and identifying areas where you can make the most energy savings for the least financial outlay. It’s quick, simple and could save you several hundred pounds each year!

 To book your free energy audit, or to find out more, please contact Woking LA21 at wokingla21@yahoo.co.uk

 

Garden Wildlife Watch survey results 2011

The 2011 results for the annual Garden Wildlife Watch survey, full and abridged, are now available here.

Summmer 2011 newsletter

Woking Local Action 21 Summer newsletter 2011

1 ‘Food and Climate Change’ 22 June 2011, 7.30, HG Wells centre

Emily Lewis-Brown will be presenting the latest thinking about Food and Climate Change at the LA21 AGM on 22 June at 7.30.  Emily is a respected commentator about the issue, and is well known for her work with theFood Climate Research Network.  Her talk will set out the case for reducing the climate impacts of the food sector, recognising wider issues such as food security and animal welfare.

There is a stronger case than ever for everyone in Woking to be aware of critical environmental issues, such as Climate Change, and to take actions that will protect future generations.  The food we choose to eat has a significant impact on the environment.  The talk at the AGM will explain why environmental issues are just as important as health issues when making food choices

The event will be held at the HG Wells Conference and Events Centre in Woking and is free to attend; there is no need to register

2 Free Home Energy Audits

We continue to offer our highly successful free home energy audits. Two of our trained and CRB checked volunteers will visit you at a mutually agreed time, and assess how you can most effectively save money and reduce your impact on the environment, by looking at the energy use in your house.

Some quotes from satisfied auditees:

“Many thanks, nice to meet you both. Real areas for action here.”

“Thank you both so much! I really appreciate you giving up your weekend for me and I’ll have a good look at the audit and see what changes I can make.”

Often auditors are able to identify simple, quick and cheap actions which can have a significant effect on fuel bills.

If you would like to book an audit, please contact info@actionwoking.org or phone 0800 783 2503 , as Action Woking are now co-ordinating the audit bookings on our behalf: if you would like to join the group as a volunteer auditor, please contact the Woking project leader, Rod Brans, at rodbrans@greenbee.net

3 Home Energy Audit project now ‘adopted’ by Action Surrey

Our free home energy audit project has been such a successful model that it is now being promoted by Action Surrey throughout the whole of Surrey. Action Surrey is helping co-ordinate efforts and manage administration of the scheme.  So, if you have friends who live in Surrey, who might be interested either in having an energy audit performed for them, or who would like to join the growing team of auditors, then please put them in contact with Action Surrey,at  info@actionsurrey.org .

The county wide scheme is developing with Transition Reigate and Banstead getting a team of 4-6 auditors together ready to offer energy audits in east Surrey, Elmbridge carrying out their first audit next week and Transition Mole Valley forming an energy group with auditing as a main planned activity for the coming year. Waverley and Runnymede are also keen to get a scheme off the ground in the coming months.

4 Gardening for Life

Our Gardening for Life (GFL) project has been the longest standing of all Woking LA21’s projects. For the past 5 years we have conducted an annual survey of wildlife and environmentally friendly practices in Woking gardens. This project was praised by the national Gardening with Wildlife in Mind Forum last year and we have previously presented our results at a Forum meeting

Gill Stribley, who conceived this project in 1998 and has led it ever since, is now ‘retiring’ from the project, and would like to find a new team of volunteers to take on and develop the GFL activities to allow her to step down.  If you are keen to work with others to develop new projects and activities in Woking to further eco-friendly gardening practices, then please contact Gill at gill@stribley.demon.co.uk

5  Other summer events

We will also be present at a number of summer events, so if you are interested in finding out more about what we do, want to meet some of the people involved, want to sign up for an energy audit, or want to find out how to get involved, why not come along and meet us there.

We will be at:

Sat June 11th WAVS volunteering day in Town centre,

Sat July 9th Pyrford and Wisley Flower show,

Sat16th July Knaphill and Byfleet fetes

Sat 23rd July Horsell fete.

6 Want to find out more?

 If you want to find out more about LA21, what we do or how to get involved, then visit http://wokingla21.wordpress.com/about/  or email wokingla21@yahoo.co.uk

 National news

7 National Carbon targets

“Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has confirmed that the government will adopt targets to halve carbon emissions by 2025 and put the UK on course for a 60 per cent decrease by 2030.

The carbon budget has proved controversial in the Cabinet, and Huhne was reliant on the personal intervention of the Prime Minister in the face of stiff opposition from Chancellor George Osborne and Business Secretary Vince Cable.

A leaked letter suggested that Cable is concerned that the strict targets would damage the UK economy, but Huhne argued that adopting the budget will provide greater confidence and certainty to companies investing in low-carbon technologies.

“By providing long-term clarity for investors, the Fourth Carbon Budget places the UK at the leading edge of the global low-carbon industrial transformation,” Huhne concluded. “It is a framework not just for action on climate but for growth and prosperity.” “

For details of what NGO’s and other organisations have to say see Business Green’s article on this.

8 Green Deal

from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13626406 , 2 June 2011

“The government has revealed more details of its Green Deal scheme to help people pay for home insulation and other energy saving measures.

The plan should be launched in the autumn of next year.

Under it, authorised companies will pay for the insulation work and homeowners will repay the money, plus interest, through additional charges on their energy bills.

The government hopes people will repay loans of up to £10,000, over 25 years

Climate change minister Greg Barker said: “The Green Deal is the government’s flagship energy saving plan to transform the country’s homes to make them warmer and cheaper to run.

From next year, people will be able to access up to £10,000 upfront to pay for energy efficiency work, repaying the costs through savings on energy bills.”

9 Green Investment Bank

Nick Clegg used his speech on 23 May to announce some finer details about the Green Investment Bank, GIB:

• The GIB is a world-first – no other country has a dedicated ‘green’ investment bank.
• The bank will be open for business from April 2012, when the first investments can be made.
• Government will provide £3 billion in initial capitalisation from asset sales. This is expected to catalyse an additional £15 billion of investment by 2015.
• Early priorities for investment will be on projects related to offshore wind, waste and promotion of non-domestic energy efficiency.
• The bank will have full operational independence and will be led by a new board
• The bank will be able to start borrowing funds in April 2015.

Eco House Open days and Oak Tree House tours

Two events/activities you may be interested in:

1. Oak Tree House Tours

Tours of Woking’s low carbon demonstration property will now run every Saturday, 10am-11:30am and most Wednesday’s at 2pm. To book a tour, please follow this link:

http://www.actionwoking.org/oaktree

2. Surrey Eco House Event: 26^th - 27^th March

On Saturday 26^th and Sunday 27^th March, 30 homeowners throughout Surrey will open their doors to the public to share their knowledge and experience about making their own homes more energy efficient and ecologically sustainable. To find out more and to book free tickets please visit:

http://www.actionsurrey.org/latestnews?item=30

http://www.surreygreenhomes.org

2011 Gardening for Life Survey now available

The 2011 Gardening for Life annual survey is now available here. The link to the survey can be found half way down the page, and there is a wealth of information on wildlife friendly practices also here.

Summary of Transition Woking meeting 27 Jan 2011‏

For those of you who want to, but have not yet connected into the Transition Woking Initiative I have copied their minutes below. This is a once off, until they have their own website.

———————————————————————————————————————————–

Some of those not present at the meeting have requested a brief
summary, which I will set out below. however this is entirely from
(poor!) memory so please feel free to add anything I may have missed
by replying to this thread.

Alexia provided a further outline of the transition model including
what would be involved in registering with Transition if this was
desired.

General consensus was that we do want to become a Transition Town,
whether ‘official’ or not.

Raising Awareness group reported on progress.

Food group reported that a positive meeting was held in November.

Transport group reported that no action had been taken since the first
Transition Woking meeting in October.

Became clear that several ‘leaders’ (not necessarily in the strict
sense) are likely to be required to move Transition Woking forward.

Established the need for a website and a contact email address for new
(and existing) members.

Ian took on the task of administrator for central communications i.e.
Transition Woking emails. This subsequently evolved into
administrative responsibility for:
a new central email address (TransitionWoking@gmail.com),
a new Google Group (http://groups.google.com/group/TransitionWoking
and TransitionWoking@googlegroups.com),
a new website (http://sites.google.com/site/transitionwoking/home),
setting up the next food group meeting and proposing the next
Transition Woking meeting.

Possible dates for next meetings were mooted as early February for the
food group and late March for Transition Woking.

Possible venues for future meetings were discussed. Potential options
included pub function rooms, homes and community centres such as Oak
Tree House. Clare subsequently followed up on the latter and Oak Tree
House appears to be viable provided that Transition Woking obtains
insurance (volunteers needed to investigate this – see Clare’s email
of 28 Jan). Clare also stated that a tour of Oak Tree House can be
arranged.

Further news from Action Woking

Eco-open house event

On March 26th & 27th, inspiring homeowners across Surrey will be inviting members of the public into their homes, to show and talk to them about what they have done to make it more environmentally friendly and energy efficient. If you own a low carbon property in Surrey and would like to involved in this event, please contact us.

http://www.actionwoking.org/latestnews?item=30

Free E-on PowerDown when you refer a friend

Action Woking is offering a FREE E-on PowerDown device, worth £18*to every low carbon community member who refers-a-friend for a free cavity wall or loft insulation survey through Action Woking!

Installing cavity wall insulation costs as little as £129, contact us at to arrange your free, no obligation quote.

http://www.actionwoking.org/latestnews?item=28

Woking’s Car Share Scheme- WeCar

Woking Borough Council is offering you WeCar. This is an innovative new way of providing car hire to businesses and residents that is convenient, affordable and good for the environment.

http://www.actionwoking.org/latestnews?item=26

Oak Tree House Open Days

Action Woking have advised me of the following:

Oak Tree House Tours- every Saturday

Starting from Saturday 19^th Feb, tours of  Woking’s low carbon demonstration property will run every Saturday, 10am-11:30am, by appointment only. To book a tour, please follow this link:

http://www.actionwoking.org/oaktree

Woking- Transition Initiative? – follow up meeting Jan 27

Following the successful initial event held in September, Alexia, Jenny and I promised we would facilitate one follow up meeting for you to give you the opportunity to start discussing how you would like to organise yourselves.

We now have booked the Woodham Hall at Christ Church, Woking for 7.15om on Jan 27.

Based on  feedback from the September meeting, we are suggesting we structure the evening as follows:
1. More on the transition model: what the Transition Network suggests should be considered when establishing a group, how some other groups are doing it, and what would be involved in registering with Transition if this was desired
2. The second part of the evening will be over to you (though obviously we will offer you some facilitation support if you want us to).  We suggest that questions needing to be addressed would be:

• Do you want to be a transition group?
• What do you need to be thinking about to take the idea forward?
• Where are your resources and how will you use them to best effect?
• If you decide not to go the transition route, how will you progress the three project areas which were loosely established at the last meeting (Food, Transport and Getting the Word Out)?
• How are these three project areas progressing – feedback from each?
• What are the next steps? – meeting dates. locations, website, email address.

We do hope you will be able to come, and to bring a friend (or several friends!) with you to expand your group. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t come to the last meeting- the more people involved- the more opportunity to create change!

In the meantime, do look here before the meeting:
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/ The news and community tags take you in lots of useful and thought provoking directions which may stimulate your appetite.