Tips from TV star on cutting your fuel bill

Thanks are due to the Mercury for a great preview in today's paper of the home energy event coming up on 27 November.

There is such a thing as a free lunch

Transition Westcombe has launched its latest food project, an online urban foraging map detailing the free larder of edible plants growing around us.

So far the map – which you can find at www.tinyurl.com/freefoodmap - lists fruits and other foods including elder, rosehip, firethorn, cherries, chestnuts, Swedish whitebeam, and blackberries.

Anyone can edit the map, like a Wikipedia page, and we hope local people will contribute to it so it becomes a bank of community intelligence about local wild food locations.

There really is such a thing as a free lunch, or at least a free pudding or preserve, and it’s all around us - like the syrup and topping used in this firethorn berry cheesecake.

Of course we’ll never meet all our food needs by urban foraging, but that’s not the point. It’s a great way of learning about what we can make use of, and reconnecting with traditional recipes and foodstuffs, and this food definitely has zero food miles. Foraging makes you see your neighbourhood as a potential treasure trove - a new pie ingredient might be growing on the next bush.

At the moment the food map is a bit autumn-centric, because we’ve marked what we’ve spied and picked in the last month or two, but we want everyone to share their local knowledge so it becomes a year-round resource. Eventually we could turn it into a booklet or calendar and use it to raise a few pennies for the transition effort.

We’re taking a small risk by allowing anyone and everyone to edit it, but we've suggested a few guidelines on the site and we reckon people will enter into the spirit of it.

TW CHOSEN TO BID FOR £500,000

Greenwich Council has chosen Transition Westcombe as one of five groups to bid for the Government’s £500,000 Low Carbon Communities Challenge.

The money is capital funding which could be spent on energy saving measures such as insulation, draughtproofing, solar thermal panels or double glazing.
We are currently working out the most effective ways to spend the money in terms of reducing carbon emissions. At this stage we are asking all private home-owners, private tenants and private landlords to contact Transition Westcombe if they are interested in receiving 50% match funding for these projects. Please email us now on transitionwestcombe@googlemail.com

Will Transition Westcombe become the first carbon neutral transition town? If Transition Westcombe should win this funding to kick-start capital spending on energy-saving measures then this could be an enormous help in getting the whole of Westcombe Park moving towards becoming carbon neutral.

Come to the open meeting to hear eco-auditing expert Donnachadh McCarthy talking on ‘Energy saving measures in period homes’ at 7.30pm on Friday 27th November, in Mycenae House, Mycenae Road, SE3. There will be a panel to answer questions of Alistair Smit from iGenSolar, James Barratt from French and Sashey (timber sash double glazing), and Pippa Hack from LB Greenwich.

Please forward this email to anyone in the Westcombe Park area who you think may be interested.

Donnachadh McCarthy talking on Home Energy Saving

DONNACHADH MCCARTHY :  ‘ENERGY SAVING IN PERIOD HOUSES’

November 27^th  7.30pm, Mycenae House, Mycenae Road, SE3

 

Special Home Energy Saving Event.

 

A good place to start looking at ways to save energy is in your own home.  On November 27^th at 7.30pm in Mycenae House, Mycenae Road SE3, TV expert eco-auditor Donnachadh McCarthy will be speaking on home energy saving in period houses.  You may have seen him on BBC 2’s ‘Its Not Easy Being Green’, ITV’s ‘How Green is Your Home’ and Sky’s ‘Green Britain Week’.  He is the creator of London’s first carbon-negative home.  At the meeting will also be Alistair Smit from Gen Solar and Pippa Hack from L.B. Greenwich.  If you are interested in solar thermal panels or in extra home insulation then this is your chance to hear and ask questions of experts.  Transition Westcombe is combining with Transition Ashburnham Triangle on the other side of Greenwich Park to get group discounts on solar panels, radiator insulation panels and other energy-saving products.

 

Transition Westcombe Energy Meeting

In preparation for our next event (on November 27th), Transition Westcombe is meeting on Wednesday October 21st, 7:30 pm at Mycenae House on the 1st floor(or from 6:30 in the bar!).

Transition Westcombe is helping to create small groups of friends and neighbours in each street who want to achieve a 10% target reduction in your energy footprint during 2010. You may develop other street projects such as trip sharing to supermarkets or schools, or getting together for bulk buying.
What has happened so far? The first groups have met in Foyle Road / Lyndale Close, and will be spreading the idea by word of mouth and flyers.

What can you do?
1. Come to the next Transition Westcombe meeting to discuss ways of making your 10% reductions and of forming a group. It is at 7.30pm on Wednesday 21st October in Mycenae House. If you want then meet in the bar from 6.30pm as usual for a 3rd Wednesday of the month.
2. Invite some friends and neighbours in your street to coffee and cake, when you can have fun and also discuss the idea of their signing up to energy reductions. The key steps are to measure your gas and electric use and your car and air travel. You can arrange to meet every month or so to discuss progress, and how best to achieve reductions.
3. Sign up to the 10:10 campaign at www.1010uk.org
4. Keep us informed. Email us transitionwestcombe@googlemail.com Transition Westcombe can help with tips, information and advice.
5. Come to a meeting at 7.30 on November 27th in Mycenae House, at which eco-auditor Donnachadh McCarthy will be talking about ways to reduce your home energy bills. More details will be posted on www.transitionwestcombe.blogspot, as well as in the Westcombe News. We would welcome your help to publicise this event, too!

Find Transition Westcombe online:
www.transitionwestcombe.blogspot.com which you already know and
www.projectdirt.com/group/transitionwestcombe

November 27th meeting on home energy saving

Donnachadh McCarthy to speak on home energy saving

Transition Westcombe will be holding a meeting on Friday November 27th at 7.30pm in Mycenae House, and the speaker will be Donnachadh McCarthy. His topic will be 'High priority energy-saving measures in a Conservation Area and how individuals, businesses and our local council can act to achieve them.” This is a chance to find out from an expert how to improve your home’s energy efficiency, especially if you are part of the 10:10 initiative.

Donnachadh McCarthy is an environmental journalist with his work published in The Guardian, Sunday Times, Independent, Time Out etc.
He is the author of "Saving the Planet without Costing The Earth" and "Easy Eco-auditing". He appeared as the expert eco-auditor on BBC 2's Its Not Easy Being Green, ITVs How Green is Your Home and Sky's Green Britain Week. His home in Camberwell was London's first retro carbon-negative home, with solar electric, solar hot water, wind-turbine (useless!), wood-burning stove and rain-harvester.
He also runs the consultancy 3 Acorns Eco-audits, which has one a number of national environmental awards and he is the founder of www.nationalcarbonfootprintday.org , a free carbon footprint reminder and personal meter-reading data storage service.

October progress report

Transition Westcombe Meeting
10:10 Initiative to save energy on
Wednesday 21st October, 7.30pm Mycenae House

Each person in the U.K. is on average responsible for the production of 14 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. Two thirds of that amount are things we can do something about ourselves. The 10:10 initiative is a voluntary attempt by individuals and groups at a 10% reduction during 2010. This means finding a saving of about 1.5 tonnes each per year. Figures are from Chris Goodall’s article in the Guardian of 1st September 2009.

Transition Westcombe is helping to create small groups of friends and neighbours in each street who want to achieve a 10% target reduction in your energy footprint during 2010. You may develop other street projects such as trip sharing to supermarkets or schools, or getting together for bulk buying.
What has happened so far? The first groups have met in Foyle Road / Lyndale Close, and will be spreading the idea by word of mouth and flyers.

What can you do?
1. Come to the next Transition Westcombe meeting to discuss ways of making your 10% reductions and of forming a group. It is at 7.30pm on Wednesday 21st October in Mycenae House. If you want then meet in the bar from 6.30pm as usual for a 3rd Wednesday of the month.
2. Invite some friends and neighbours in your street to coffee and cake, when you can have fun and also discuss the idea of their signing up to energy reductions. The key steps are to measure your gas and electric use and your car and air travel. You can arrange to meet every month or so to discuss progress, and how best to achieve reductions.
3. Sign up to the 10:10 campaign at www.1010uk.org
4. Keep us informed. Email us transitionwestcombe@googlemail.com Transition Westcombe can help with tips, information and advice.
5. Come to a meeting at 7.30 on November 27th in Mycenae House, at which eco-auditor Donnachadh McCarthy will be talking about ways to reduce your home energy bills. More details will be posted on www.transitionwestcombe.blogspot, as well as in the Westcombe News.

By sector, the average potential reductions to be made are by using less gas (2 tonnes) and electricity (1 tonne), cutting your car use (1.5 tonnes) or air travel (1.2 tonnes), by various food savings (1.5 tonnes), using less water (0.3 tonnes) and using less paper (0.3 tonnes)

Some examples of the average annual impact of these reductions are:
Major improvement in your home’s insulation: 0.4 tonnes saving
New boiler if yours is more than 10 years old 0.3 tonnes saving
Reducing your thermostat temperature by 1 degree: 0.2 tonnes saving
Not using a tumble drier: 0.1 tonnes saving
Cutting your car’s annual mileage in half 0.7 tonnes saving
Cutting one return shorthaul flight to Mediterranean 1.2 tonnes saving
Cutting one return longhaul flight to Sydney 14.3 tonnes saving
Change to a largely vegetarian diet 0.5 tonnes saving
Cycling instead of public transport 0.3 tonnes saving

Edward and Irena Hill