Visit to Ecobuild 2018

Ecobuild was on this week at London's ExCel and as usual showcased the latest developments in sustainable approaches to the built environment. As well as the stands for the latest in high performance building materials, renewable energy sources and innovative design, a few more specifically environmental issues were also represented from WWF and the Woodland Trust to Airlite pollution neutralising paint, UN Sustainable Develpoment goals & Population Matters.

Man's impact on the Planet (Population Matters)

Particularly enjoyed this graphic sculpture of human impact and a thought provoking seminar with architect Dr Walter Stahel (see http://www.product-life.org/en/node) on the Circular Economy. Stahel promotes a different way of thinking about resources that incorporates all the costs from cradle to cradle with re-use and recyclability embedded in building and product development from the start. He thinks of human labour as the "ultimate sustainable resource" which can replace mechanised energy consumption to reduce the human resource footprint. "We should design objects that don't end up as plastic waste on a beach in Hawaii". I think we could all agree with that. 

Meanwhile locally Adam David Ge-Saelis creates buildings, furniture, lighting and interiors using a minimum of 95% recycled waste. He helped create Ecobuild's Waste Zone this year and will be showcasing some of his work to the public in Brixton in April.  

Adam has a lot of great ideas and has made some impressive structures with re-used materials. See http://ongean.org/ for more details.

The Great Greenhouse Build - we need your help!

Our current outdoor learning project with Gatton School is to build a greenhouse in the community garden made from recycled plastic bottles (see picture below - this is what we hope the finished greenhouse will look like). The year 6 pupils come to the garden for an hour a week to work on this and despite lots of hard work on their behalf, it is slow going. After the Easter holidays, we have just two more lessons (ie two hours!) to finish the project. 

Clearly this is going to be impossible - currently we have completed two side walls of the greenhouse (below), but we still have the back wall, the front wall with a door, two roof panels and two gable ends to make, and then we have to fit all the pieces together! Plus we have many more plastic bottles to cut.

So we really need some volunteers to rally round and help out. At the first community session during the Seed Swap we had some great helpers and managed to build a wall of the greenhouse.

Here's how you can help:

Because two more hours with 12x 10-year-olds isn't going to be enough to finish the build, Sharon will be hosting some working parties in the garden in the Easter school holidays. Please come and help - we REALLY NEED YOU! There are tasks for all abilities so don't feel you need any particular skills to make a contribution. If you have a hammer or a cordless screwdriver and can bring them along, even better.

The drop-in sessions will be from 12pm-4.30pm on:

Good Friday April 3

Thursday April 9

Friday April 10

The Community Garden is at 5 North Drive, SW16 1RN.
We're tucked in behind the big red-brick house at that address, with entrance through the black fence to the left of the building. We'll have a sign on the road.

Bring your friends, bring your family (there's even a playground for little kids to occupy themselves). And if you know anyone else who might be interested in helping out, please spread the word. The more the merrier. It really is good fun and hugely satisfying.

If you would like to come along, or have any questions, please drop us a line at TootingCommunityGarden@gmail.com or the Tooting Community Garden Facebook page so we know how many people to expect.

Hope to see you at the garden!

Ecobuild 2014

This year's Ecobuild had plenty to catch the eye and ear.  I was particularly interested in the Resource section on reuse and the circular economy. Here's three projects which sounded good:

• The RSA's Great Recovery Project about how redesigning systems can help conserve valuable resources and minimise waste. 
  
• The London Re-use Network who give young people a chance to develop skills repairing unwanted household items which are then provided to those most in need, in social housing for example, at the same time saving more dumping in landfill. 
  
• Rentez-vous which enables women to rent fashion items from each other and from fashion houses rather than buying wardrobes full of things rarely to be worn.

Meanwhile a seminar we attended on Community Energy will definitely be helpful for the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone project.  As well as these highlights, Ecobuild as usual hosted the best in sustainable design, construction and renewable energy.  It's invariably an inspiring event to sample all the latest ideas and to gather useful information.             dt

Ecobuild Trip

This year's Ecobuild was bigger and better than ever before, mixing lots of high tech, next generation eco products with useful demonstrations and lectures from leading thinkers such as Richard Heinberg and Susan Greenfield.

Several members of TTT went along and were impressed by the range of innovative building  products that were on show. Such as; insulation boards made out of straw, carpet tiles made from recycled carpets, a solar water heating system that works 24 hours a day, night or day, or OLED lighting that can revolutionise the way we think about colour, interior design and lighting in our homes and buildings.

It was all very exciting stuff, and gave us an insight as to what it could be like in our homes in the future.         Malsara

Eco Build 2011

With less than two weeks to go for this years Eco Build 2011, TTT are gearing up for a fascinating day out the event on 2^nd March.

If you are interested in learning about energy efficiency in buildings, understanding the benefits of the Feed in Tariff, seeing live demonstrations on solid wall refurbishment, modern glazing solutions, existing loft insulation and finding out about the latest technology in harnessing solar energy, energy efficient lighting, urban planting, bee keeping plus much much more, then come and sign up for your FREE pass at http://www.ecobuild.co.uk/index.html


Personally, I am looking forward to seeing the seminar on Freecycling and a complete interior makeover for £0.00  This could give me some solutions for my Victorian refurb.

The event runs from 1-3 March 2011. If you are interested in joining a group going for the event on the 2^nd March, we will be meeting at 10.00am by the ticket barriers at Tooting Bec Northern Line tube station. Please let us know by email if you would like to join us for this really inspiring event.

Hope to see you there - Malsara