Future Tooting! Local Air Quality and Energy Efficiency event, Saturday 21st April

Have your say on local air quality and energy efficiency at Future Tooting!

All welcome on Saturday 21st April 2:00 - 5:00 pm
At the United Reformed Church, Rookstone Road, Tooting SW17 9NQ

We have teamed up with local campaign groups to host an event on air quality and energy efficiency in Tooting, with speeches from local politicians and a chance to put your questions to the local representatives. 
Tooting MP Rosena Allin-Khan will speak on the day, and representatives from the major political parties will join a discussion chaired by London Assembly Member Leonie Cooper.

We are creating a space where:

• local people of all ages can come and have their say
• you can find out more about how air pollution and dirty energy production are affecting all our lives
• you can explore what we can do about it

Drop in to find out more about local and city-wide initiatives to measure and limit air pollution, the use of electric buses and local renewable energy.

There will be stalls and activities for all ages from 2:00 pm, speeches start at 3:00 followed by live music from local singer songwriter Sherika Sherard.

For enquiries, please email furzedownlowcarbonzone@gmail.com

Future Tooting is organised by:

• Furzedown Low Carbon Zone
• Transition Town Tooting
• Wandsworth Environment Forum
• Community Renewable Energy Wandsworth
• South Thames Colleges Group

TTT's new series of practical & participative local 'Carbon Conversations' is running in April and May

Carbon Conversations is back! Our new series of six free meetings in April & May in SW16 - organised by TTT's Ben Cuddon. The six facilitated workshops enable individuals to explore how they can reduce their personal carbon footprints. The meetings bring together small groups of local people to discuss the areas of our lives where we can reduce our own carbon emissions: travel, food, domestic energy, consumption and waste.

A quote from a past participant: "The beauty of Carbon Conversations is the optimism, creativity and shared ideas"

During the six weekly sessions you'll discuss in a supportive atmosphere all the practicalities of making your own 'low-carbon lifestyle' changes. Making these changes is never one size fits all. 

Exploring your own situation, start point and preferences is so valuable and makes the series personal and practical. 
The meetings are well structured with a mix of games, activities and exercises.


Click here for the flyer and see below for summary details:
Venue: in SW16 near Streatham Common Station 
Timings: all meetings run from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm 
Dates: six Thursdays from April 19th to May 24th, one a week
Free: there is no fee to take part. The only cost is currently £14 for the workbook and learning materials, which TTT charges at cost. Sessions are led for free by TTT's trained Carbon Conversations facilitators. 

TTT has run over 10 series of Carbon Conversations since 2011. 
On average participants are able to identfy how to reduce their own carbon footprints by a third - by over 4 tonnes of carbon.
Wait a minute! 
What does 'four tonnes of carbon' mean? 
You may already be worried about shorthand & jargon. The way we facilitate the meetings means that you do not need to be an expert. 
Although it's a complex subject, we guarantee that by the end of the sessions you will learn useful new language and concepts and understand the practical elements of household carbon reduction.

This is a great place to start if you want to reduce your carbon footprint, meet some friendly and like-minded people and explore the topic as it affects you, rather than being lectured at!

As a participant said: 

"At the last session I don't think anybody wanted to leave!"

 Join us to find out how to reduce heat loss from your home!

 

Pop-up Cinema in Furzedown on Fri 27th January: Naomi Klein's 'This Changes Everything'

Join the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone screening of Naomi Klein's 'This Changes Everything' The film explores the global fight against climate change, the role of capitalism and what citizens can do.

The film has been described as "purposely unsettling...ultimately encouraging".

When? Doors at 7:00 for film at 7:30 on Friday 27th January

Where? The Furzedown Project, 93 Moyser Road SW16 6SJ

Tickets cost £5 for waged and £2 for students / unemployed - including wine, soft drinks and our famous popcorn
  

All welcome!

Please reserve tickets by emailing us at furzedownlowcarbonzone@gmail.com 

Your ticket entitles you to a 50% discount on the purchase of low-energy LED light bulbs for use in many parts of the home. 

We're making this LED offer available via our bulk purchase, to enable you to start saving money and reduce your home's carbon footprint.

Community Energy in London - Question Time

Tooting's own Furzedown Low Carbon Zone (FLCZ) is joining Community Renewable Energy Wandsworth (CREW) and Repowering London to host the city's first gathering of all local community energy groups:

Community Energy in London - Question Time
Free Entry!

City Hall, The Queen's Walk, London SE1 2AA, United Kingdom
6pm to 9pm on Thursday 12th November 2015

Please confirm your place as we are filling up. Email us at: communityenergyinlondon@gmail.com

Carbon Conversations - Energy at Home

We're into week 2 of Carbon Conversations and this week, workshop attendee, Robin Dru, gives his report on the session focused on Home Energy.

This week's session on Home Energy was fascinating, full of tips and new technologies. Over the course of the evening we:

• discussed what is important to us in making a home comfortable, 
• played a game based around reducing a family’s carbon emissions (oh yes we did!) 
• and had the chance to learn from Susan, a green architect who has set out to reduce the carbon emissions of her home by 80%. 

We all left excited, with some practical tips and new ideas to implement in our own homes.
First off we thought about the important things to each of us in our own homes. This ranged from practical things like bike storage and south vs. north facing through to things like positive family/house dynamics.

The discussion hovered over the issue of how to get other house members on board with making changes. Several ideas were thrown up, like making things easy e.g. clear signs for what can be recycled, making things fun e.g. smart meters to monitor energy consumption and making things comfortable e.g. draught-proofing your house.

After this we moved into playing a game based around a family with a limited budget trying to reduce their carbon footprint. Whilst the game was perhaps a little one-dimensional, it helped to expose us to different ideas, divided into good housekeeping, weekend jobs, appliances and building jobs. A flavour of things mentioned: housekeeping changes like regularly defrosting your fridge and freezer and monitoring your monthly bills; weekend jobs like draught-stripping windows and doors and bigger changes like triple-glazing windows and various types of insulation.

Finally we had the pleasure of listening to Susan, an inspiring architect who has managed to reduce the carbon emissions of her family home by over 50% in 3 years for ~£25,000. Whilst obviously she has the advantage of construction being her bread and butter, she offered us some a couple of key tips: 1) the importance of awareness and monitoring and 2) the importance of comfort (and how the vast majority of times carbon reduction goes hand-in-hand with this).

We left excited and energised from the session, equipped with knowledge and greater understanding of energy consumption in the home. Right, now to find a smart meter!

For more comprehensive information on changes you can make, please visit the Energy Saving Trust.

If you'd like to find out more about the Carbon Conversations series of workshops, please contact us. We hope to run another series in the autumn.

Number 7 in TTT's '12 tweets to Christmas'

Here is tweet number seven:
No.7 tips for xmas: Wear jumpers, hug friends, lower the heating! More energy & money saving tips @thecarbontrust: goo.gl/j0VKqQ

Carbon Conversations Meeting 2 - Hunting Energy Use In The Home

Report on Carbon Conversations by Eleanor. 
On 27th May we looked at our carbon footprints and then at home energy. I'll try to explain without jargon while recognising that learning new 'carbon literacy' skills is useful.

Carbon Footprint:
Our carbon footprint is a measure of the amount of emissions in tonnes of C02 equivalent (called C02e for short) that we use to live our lives. The average personal footprint in the UK is twelve tonnes of C02e.

So ... where would you 'hunt for carbon' if you want to reduce your own footprint?
Our individual carbon footprints are made up of 5 main areas:

As a group everyone was well below the national average, but we are all still keen to do better. The next conversations will give us the tools to take practical steps to reduce our carbon footprints overall.

C02 in our homes
Just to get everyone thinking we started with an exercise to determine what home comforts mattered to the group. The conclusion we came to was that once we have basic shelter, it’s all personal. Everyone has different priorities and will approach this opportunity from a different perspective.

Turning to home energy, there are two routes to a low carbon home
1. Use less energy (gas and electricity)
2. Switch to an energy provider who puts renewable energy into the national grid.

The Low Carbon Home game was a bit of fun to see if we could reduce the carbon footprint of a family house by 6 tonnes over 6 years. Some actions are free and easy to do like monitoring energy use and turning down the thermostat. Others require some time and a small investment like changing the light bulbs and some like fitting double glazing or a new boiler require building work to be carried out.

Three practical local projects: do join us!

Furzedown Low Carbon Zone
We had a productive monthly planning meeting last week - please see the minutes and actions here. 
In outline we're at the stage of visiting local partners to explore sites where there is space and interest to be involved by 'hosting' renewable energy generation equipment - whatever technology is appropriate - and sharing in the benefits.
A second stage will be to engage with local people who can become involved as co-owners of a community generation scheme. The Furzedown Festival in June is a target for that, certainly for informal sharing of the project.
Next planning meetings are on 8th May and 3rd June in Furzedown...please come along if you would like to be involved at this stage. Details will be on the TTT Events Calendar on this blog. Contact us on this email link for any further information.

Eighth series of our 'Carbon Conversations' meetings
We are going to offer a free series of local Carbon Conversations from the 19th May to early July this year. Running on Monday evenings (with one Tuesday for luck), this will be a set of six participative meetings which enable individuals to discuss, understand and take control of their carbon footprint, and work out ways to reduce energy consumption and expenses.

It's a very engaging and practical set of meetings.....and even fun.
We'll cover home energy, food, travel and transport, and general consumption of 'stuff'.
All the details are in the flyer for this next series: please click here.
Please contact Charles at transitiontowntooting@gmail.com with any questions.

'Cleaner Air 4 Communities' Project
This project brings citizen science and local action to the challenge of measuring and advocating for clean air. The toolkit - click here to link to a pdf copy - describes some of the steps that can be taken by a community group.
Graham Petersen recently took part in air quality measurement at Clapham Junction, with the Battersea Society (there's a case study on this experience in the toolkit). There is some funding available to support this project, and Graham is investigating that, with a view to improving air quality in Tooting. Please use the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone contact email for more info.

All welcome to join in with these three projects. Please get in touch!

Community Renewable Energy in Furzedown

We want to share this exciting news from the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone (FLCZ) AGM last week. There's no time like the present, and we have decided to take the plunge and try our hardest to establish a community renewable energy project in Furzedown.

What will that look like?

In outline we'll be supporting the generation of local power that should bring local benefits; probably a co-operative enterprise with a legacy for the future.  There are several models for this across the UK and abroad, and there is good local advice available: at the same time it is a pioneering project, and it will be challenging.

Much more information to come as we get going, and we welcome local participation, partners, and support. We have a diverse team who want to make this work. More contributors welcome!

We covered other topics too in the AGM, and the FLCZ aims to keep being active on accessible social, behavioural and technical projects that help demonstrate the value of low-carbon living, now.
Links: 2014 AGM minutes  For background: 2013 Annual Report.

Report on our 'Energy we can all afford?' meeting

Our ‘Energy we can all afford?’ meeting in St Alban‘s Church, Furzedown was a very lively session (see the flyer and speakers here). Discussion was much more heated than the bitterly cold evening outside.
We touched on a set of significant and interrelated topics: wellbeing, poverty, and our own capability to keep our homes warm; UK energy policy and supply; energy costs and affordability – and what we can do to take action in response.
I won’t try to systematically summarise 7 diverse speakers, or the questions: here are some cross-cutting points from all, plus a few quotes, to consider as individuals and communities.

Some social and physical facts to do with energy, cold, and poverty

·         Though our weather isn’t the coldest, UK homes are among the coldest in Europe

·         30-50% of winter deaths are caused by cold

·         37% of Wandsworth Borough’s homes were built pre-1919 (with solid walls, so cavity  wall insulation is not possible). The national average is 23%

·         Where can home heat be wasted? Have a look at this drawing

·        10,500 households in Wandsworth are in ‘fuel poverty’ (that is, the household spends  more than 10% of income on fuel) because of varying combinations of 3 factors:  poor heating and/or insulation, low income, the high cost of fuel

·         It’s estimated that by 2016, 1 in 3 households in London could be in fuel poverty

This evening: Energy we can all afford?

Tonight we are co-hosting a free public meeting that will explore the energy challenges and opportunities that face us now - as a country, a community, and as households - and suggest practical ways forward. This event is timed to coincide with the new Energy Bill currently going through Parliament.

The meeting will be held at St Alban's Church Hall, Pretoria Road, Furzedown SW16 1RR, from 7pm to 9pm. We have a diverse and exciting group of invited speakers: please have a look at the flyer by clicking here.
Many thanks to our partners and supporters - and all welcome!

Carbon Conversations has begun - next one on Home Energy is Monday 4th March

On Monday March 4th we will be looking at carbon-reduction choices and opportunities in the home (including energy consumption and efficiency), and at 'what's important to you in your home?'

We will be joined by architect Susan Venner, who will share her experience of an 80% carbon reduction & refurbishment project at her Victorian house in Balham - done while living in it.  Susan's experience of the 'low-carbon future' now is that for the first time her house is warm! 
Click here to see some of her improvements.  
The house is open to visitors on March 23rd. Click here to book.
If you want to sample Carbon Conversations and join this meeting, we will be at Graveney and Meadow, 40 Mitcham Road, SW17 9NA, from 6:30-8:30pm.
Queries to transitiontowntooting@gmail.com

Exploring ‘The Oil Road'

An evening meeting in Tooting with James Marriott and Jane Trowell from Platform, the arts and activism group

Tuesday 5th February, Mushkil Aasaan, 220-222 Upper Tooting Road

Co-hosted by Transition Town Tooting, Wandsworth Friends of the Earth, Transition Town Wandsworth & Wandsworth Environment Forum

30 people came out on a chilly evening to Mushkil Aasaan’s welcoming hall in Tooting - thank you!

The meeting explored how we are all part of the global, regional & local Carbon Web that binds together oil and gas, trade and finance, governments and communities, wellbeing, health and justice, and the past and the future – in hidden and visible ways.

That long sentence describes a complex field where organisations and individuals have strongly-held and divergent views…and we heard some of those views during the evening. For an image of the Carbon Web, see: http://platformlondon.org/about-us/platform-the-carbon-web/ The Oil Road book describes in detail one strand of this Carbon Web, delivering oil from Azerbaijan to Europe.

Consumption & Production
James, co-author of the book, took us on a short trip along the route, in reverse – not starting with crude oil production in wells drilled 5km below the Caspian Sea, but beginning with oil consumption that some of the audience experienced minutes earlier on a bus on Upper Tooting Rd outside the hall.
We followed the bus fuel’s supply route in reverse – via the road tankers that run at night from Essex to the local bus depot; the ship that brought the fuel to England, maybe from a refinery in the Netherlands; the unrefined oil’s journey by supertanker from Turkey to Italy, and before that by pipeline across 3 countries from the Caspian. All that so we can consume in Wandsworth…

Coming up: arts and energy - last weekend it was food and growing

Starting on Saturday 20th October, there's an interactive installation developed by local school children and artists at Sprout Arts, 74 Moyser Rd. Details here.

Come along this weekend if you would like to get involved with making and creating, and from Monday 22nd, this story of the Three Little Pigs continues as an exciting exhibition.

Coming up on Monday 22nd October, there's the latest meeting of the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone, at 7pm at the Furzedown Project, Moyser Road. Details here

One exciting project we'll report on is the brand-new Archimedes screw turbine that is now producing power in the River Wandle at Morden Hall: enough for 16 households' annual power use.

What can we do locally to generate some community energy?

Please do come along!

Last weekend, TTT had a stand at St George's Community Open Day on Sat 13th October. We displayed pictures of the community garden, met many interested people, and played the carbon food-chain game made of recycled boxes.
Come and try it at another event...here are two groups of young people arranging the boxes in rank order of 'food miles':

Free Energy Training Day Sat 25th Sept

In association with the Energy Saving Trust, Transition Town Tooting are organising a free Energy Auditing Day for homes and community buildings.

If you would like to be able to carry out a basic energy audit of any building then this course will show you some of the processes involved. It includes monitoring consumption and identifying the potential savings that could be made through the introduction of energy efficiency improvements.

Subjects covered will include the following:
• How to understand meter readings and bills
• What is involved in an energy audit
• How to identify and control of different types of heating
• Which types of heating are efficient and appropriate, depending on needs
• Specific issues relating to heat loss and insulation
• Opportunities for reducing consumption and increasing energy efficiency, including efficient lighting and controls
• The basics of some small scale renewable energy technologies
• How an auditing project could benefit your community and how Green Communities and other organisations can support your project


Space is limited so please book your place now by EMAILING

malsaraw@gmail.com


Venue: Christian Education Centre, 21 Tooting Bec Road, London, SW17 8BS; Sat 25th Sept. 10-4.30pm,

Lunch and refreshments will be provided; we just ask for a minimum contribution of £2 towards the hire of the hall.