Do you love growing fruit? Do you have connections to orchards or market gardens in and around Bristol? Did you work at Long Ashton Research Station? Bring photographs, fruit-related objects and materials, and stories about fruit growing to our outdoor photographic and recording area. Share your experiences of growing fruit for commercial benefit, and for pleasure, in allotments, gardens, and community projects.

Contact: Shannon Smith

hocohello@gmail.com

0117 373 1587

www.community-orchard.org.uk

Inside and Out tour of St Werburgh’s self build homes. Talks and discussions to inform and inspire. Hosted by Ecomotive.

When:
Saturday, May 11th, 10am-1pm

Where:
The Yard
Bristol, England

This is a free event. 50 places only.

To reserve your place please go to www.selfbuildtour.eventbrite.com

To celebrate the UK’s first National Self Build Week, which is running from 4-12 May 2013, Ecomotive invites you to come and peek behind the scenes of the Award Winning Ashley Vale self build site. Discover how the community here achieved it and how you might achieve it too.

This is a rare opportunity to see inside more than one home, so you can feast your eyes on the different living spaces, gardens and energy systems of some of the self builders and talk to them in person about how they turned their dreams into reality.

Mayor George Ferguson has recently stated his commitment to self build in Bristol so we anticipate there will be opportunities to get involved yourself over the next few years. This tour offers you the chance to find out about different types of self build project, and to get you thinking about how you might design and build your own home that reflects your values and meets your needs.

Total 50 places. Free. Donations welcome. Refreshments provided.

Visit www.selfbuildtour.eventbrite.com (link) to reserve your place!

Click on this link to listen to Ecomotive’s very own Jackson Moulding on BBC Radio Bristol (30th April 2013). An inspiring and engaging interview. Find out all about National Self Build week and his personal journey as a self builder in Ashley Vale.

We are looking at your experiences and those of disabled people in everyday life. We are interested to see whether experiences of assessing risk, meeting barriers and obstacles, and being (inter)dependent on others gives us all any insights or knowledge that could be useful when thinking about how we can all live more sustainably.

When and what
Come to a workshop, in Bristol, Sat 1 June, where you can find out more about the research and decide details of how you’d like to be involved. You can also explore using the cameras and any art materials you’d like to use. (We will show you how to use them, and explain the sorts of things we’d like you to photograph and record. You can keep copies of all the photos you take.)

After that we’d like you to pair up with a disabled participant (who will have support if needed) to plan and take two walks together. You can choose where you walk, they can be short and as local as you like. We will provide you with a camera, audio recorder and other materials you need to record your conversations and your walks.

In the Autumn, we would like to come back together in the group to discuss how things went for you in your walking pairs, and to talk about the photos you’ve taken and things you’ve recorded. We will also invite you to contribute to the project’s website through the blog and twitter feed.

Sharing research
We will write a report on what we find out and make sure that people who are thinking about sustainability know what we find. These include the City Council, the Environment Agency and other people who make policies and plan for sustainability. We will also upload things to the project website, where lots of other people can see what we’ve found out.

For more information, any questions and to volunteer, please contact:

Alison Parfitt 01242 584982 alisonparfitt@phonecoop.coop
Dr Sue Porter, University of Bristol, 01173310993 sue.porter@bristol.ac.uk

If you are interested in this project but unable to volunteer as a participant, we would still love to hear about your walking experiences. We have a website http://walkinginterconnections.com and invite you to leave your comments on our Guest Posts page.

First, the really exciting news:

Bristol Drugs Project collaboration bid

As of literally five minutes ago, we’ve been included in a bid by the Bristol Drugs Project to deliver a year of DIY solar and off-grid training workshops to their service users. If successful we’d receive a budget of over £30k to help those battling drugs and recovering from addiction to develop their skills and confidence, with money specifically requested to run follow-up workshops for participants wanting to become workshop leaders themselves.

Even more excitingly, the panels from the DIY solar workshops will be used to build another Solar Tree, this time in the centre of Bristol!

We will find out in July whether the bid has been successful, and if we are, the programme will begin in spring 2014. Can’t wait.

Ecotricity partnership

We’ve just struck a deal with Ecotricity to encourage more people to switch to a green energy supply, and support us as they do it. Switch to Ecotricity today using this link and you will earn us up to £60 in the process.

If you’re already hooked up – spread the word. In fact: do that anyway!

Lightyear Foundation training

We’re looking forward to training a team of volunteers from the Lightyear Foundation in three weeks before they head out to Ghana to run practical science workshops for school children. They came back after their trip last year recognising the need for electricity in many of the communities they visited, and so went hunting for training in DIY solar. The rest is – or will be – history!

April & May workshops

Pictures from our April DIY solar and (first ever!) off-grid training sessions are up on the site here.

There are currently three places available for our next DIY solar workshop on 18th May (book here) and six places available for our next off-grid training session on 19th May (book here). Both take place in Bristol. Please do spread the word.

And the rest…

We’ve got a new blog piece (link) all about the importance of consumption and a fantastic report on future energy solutions that you all need to know about…
In the news: low income households hit by ‘triple injustice from carbon reduction policies (link); US cities join push to sell off fossil fuels (link) (paste into google to get round firewall); Carbon bubble could trigger new financial crisis (link); nPower & big six grilled by MPs on tax avoidance (link).
Fuel Poverty Action are holding a benefit gig (link) on 7th May at Catch Bar in London – head down to support an important campaign.
Some useful petition links if you’ve got a spare second; tell nPower to pay their corporation tax (link), email your MP to demand a greener Energy Bill (link), stop the gas & electricity rip-off – demand fair prices from the Big Six (link)

So – lots happening and lots to do!
Thanks for keeping in touch,

Max, Dan & Laura

demandenergyequality.org
@demandeneq

https://www.facebook.com/demandenergyequality

Switch to Ecotricity & earn us £60!

A special deal for local traders in the area has been negotiated for Stokes Croft Traders and Business Group (SCT&BG) to secure an enhanced recycling scheme for all the local businesses, in particular helping cafes and restaurants keep unavoidable food waste out of landfill and manage it responsibly. This includes Stokes Croft, Cheltenham Road, Picton Street and other areas nearby.

The service was designed by local sustainability expert Martin Fodor.

The scheme was launched for businesses to sign up at the SCT&BG meeting on April 9th.

Participants will then secure a visit from the partners CollectEco, who will discuss arrangements and offer a welcome bonus service to each member joining.

The new service has been trialled by local trader Café Kino. Roxy Brennan from the café says “We are a workers co-operative, vegan cafe, committed to being part of the community and improving the world around us by using ethical businesses and products and recycling as much as possible. Working with CollectEco has been great – they’ve been very helpful, Steve is always available to contact and since piloting their food waste scheme we’ve managed to vastly reduce our general waste. We’d love other businesses in the area to use the scheme too and help to make Stokes Croft a greener and cleaner area.”

The first new business to join the sign up to the scheme will be award-winning sustainable restaurant Poco. Jennifer Best says “ Poco is looking forward to joining the new service. We’re running for the Observer Food Monthly Award for Best Ethical Restaurant – managing our waste and our sustainable behaviour is part of our bid.” Voting starts this month http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/foodmonthly

The service is being provided by CollectEco – Director Steve Sliney says: “We’re delighted to be working with the traders’ group to offer an enhanced service that allows such a high level of recycling including food waste for cafes and restaurants and other materials.”

The company ensures at least 90% of waste is reused or recycled, with compostable waste being treated in a system that creates methane for energy and a soil product through anaerobic digestion. Any non-recycled waste is converted to energy.

The scheme was created for the traders group by Martin Fodor, who saw the need after inquiries by a local café wishing to manage their wastes responsibly.

Martin says “It was clear that there’s plenty of scope to reduce waste and recycle almost everything produced by traders, but no one was working with them to solve this together.

I visited businesses to assess their needs, devised the practical solution that addressed their issues, and have been delighted to work with the traders’ group to provide a viable service that’s good for the businesses, cuts waste, and helps improve the local environment.”

Martin has been supported by Business West’s Go Green project; a service funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Bristol City Council, which aims to help Bristol based businesses improve resource efficiency and save energy and money

The Bristol Green Capital Partnership has also backed his work to extend the project across the city as part of its drive to make Bristol the European Green Capital.

The new service is being promoted to members of the Stokes Croft Traders and Business Group now and will be extended to a wider area of the city once it is running regularly.

Notes for the editor

*The area of the service currently covers Stokes Croft, Cheltenham Road, Picton Street and other areas nearby.

The scheme is for cafes, restaurants and others with compostable waste, plus a comprehensive recycling scheme that’s open to all other traders in the area. Almost all materials can be collected by arrangement. Advice on waste reduction and reports of what traders achieve together is also part of the scheme, enabling this area to reduce waste costs and landfill tax, make environmental improvements to streets, and publicise what the scheme achieves. It also cuts unnecessary vehicle movements in the area and reduces bins cluttering pavements, so improving the amenity for the community.

Café Kino contact: Roxy Brennan, eat@cafe-kino.com, 0117 9249200 .

Poco contact: Jennifer Best, jenbest@eatpoco.com, 0117 923 2233 or email

Poco won the Sustainable Restaurant Association Environmental award this year.

CollectEco contact: Steve Sliney, 07748 585 861 or 0117 941 5887 .

Stokes Croft Traders’ and Business Group is coordinated by Destination Bristol

Contact Eva Stuetzenberger: eva.stuetzenberger@destinationbristol.co.uk, 0117 929 0484

Business West’s Go Green scheme contact Nina Skubala, nina.skubala@businesswest.co.uk, 07500 668659

The Go Green Improving your resource efficiency service is funded by Bristol City Council and the European Regional Development Fund.

Bristol Green Capital Partnership contact Darren Hall, darren.hall@bristolgreencapital.org, 0117 9222170 or 07585307354

Martin Fodor: 07905 340972

Bristol has been placed first or second in each of 12 categories in which we were asked to submit information for the initial stage of the bid, putting us in a stronger position than ever before.

However, we know that there is more that Bristol can do to be a greener place and we believe the award will help accelerate us on that journey.

Next, we must convince a European jury that Bristol deserves to win the Award. We will make a presentation in May in Brussels and the announcement of the winner will be made on June 14.

For more information and how to support the bid please go here. Let’s make it happen in 2015!

The Energy Bill currently before Parliament is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to clean up our power sector and create low carbon jobs. This is being opposed by George Osborne, and his allies, who want to extract gas by fracking, turn the UK into a “gas hub” and block the transition to a sustainable future.

Osborne has so far managed to keep a 2030 goal for carbon free electricity out of the Energy Bill. However, MPs from each end of the political spectrum – Conservative Tim Yeo and Labour’s Barry Gardiner – have tabled a series of ‘green jobs’ amendments to put the target back into the bill.

A mass lobby from members of the Transition network, and other citizens who want a future for themselves and their children, can help drive these changes through Parliament. You can do this very simply via a Greenpeace link:

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/battle-britain-has-begun-20130212

and join the business leaders, UK companies, investors and civil society groups, who want to see carbon-free electricity by 2030. Do it now, and get your friends and colleagues to campaign for a future!

Transition Chepstow have been invited to help convene a Transition presence at Green Gathering again this year.

It takes place in Chepstow, between August 1^st and 4^th.

We’re hoping to find three or four other initiatives (preferably local!) who could help co-create the Transition input.

We have a marquee available which we can use for displays, talks, workshops, entertainment etc.

Any group that are interested can contact me via info@transitionchepstow.org.uk

We will aim to get complementary tickets for those taking part.

Many thanks, Marcus Perrin

Collective strategy writting

The strategy is being develop as a wiki. That wiki can be accessed here: https://sites.google.com/site/benwiki4/

Its a little bit temperamental and there have been issues with accessing it. You need to have a gmail account to edit it and its often easier to log in to that account first before signning into the wiki page. If your having any trouble accessing the wiki please email us at Bristol.energy.network@gmail.com and we’ll try and find a way through!

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Next steps:

Eight volunteers are currently frantically trying to get a document which is revised to take into account the workshop outputs but that task is taking longer than anticipated! We have taken the decision to hold off on circulating the document as people asked for clear tasks to get stuck into and the wiki is currently anything but clear.

We anticipate circulating a Word version of the draft strategy on Tuesday 30th.

3rd Strategy workshop – Addressing pathways, roles, actions

Monday 20th May, 7 – 9pm, Venue tbc. This is the final session pre Big Green Week to get together and close off this stage.

Monitoring and evaluation workshop? Jo Hamilton from Oxford Environmental Change institute has offered to run a workshop for Bristol groups in late June or early July. This could be a useful exercise for developing an understanding of who is doing what and what gaps could be filled as we develop coherent pathways for the strategy following Big Green Week. We are interested to hear your thoughts on this.

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The Background: 
Following the election of our first mayor George Ferguson and a lively debate at the BEN November open meeting individuals participating in the BEN Google group put together an initial justification for a strategy. That document can be found here.  We’ve received feedback on this from the council, CSE and others, met with interested people and spent many a dark hour discussing it.

Since March there have been two open workshops to develop Bristol’s first community energy strategy. The first workshop was fast and furious, designed to collect ideas and content. The notes from the first workshop were refined and built into the wiki. An open collective writing session and introudction to the wiki was held in early April and a second open workshop in mid April reviewed progress at collective writing. Summaries of the workshops can be found below.

Summary of 1st workshop: 

- Simon Kenton from Community Action Groups, Oxfordshire outlined their approach

- The aim of strategy and process was introduced,

- Working in five tables, themes of the strategy were developed

Summary of 2nd workshop: 

- Broad agreement on the 5 themes, i.e. everyone thought these represented the sector well

- Partial agreement on the objectives for each theme

- Not much agreement on the detailed wording

Importantly most people agreed that it was a strategy primarily for the groups and people involved in the sector (a manifesto for community energy sector in Bristol), and perhaps secondly as a document to show to local Govt, national Govt, funders, businesses, etc.

Notes from both workshops can be found on the resources section of this site, click here

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Strategy Launch events and Big Green Week

At present we are planning two launch events both within Big Green Week (15th– 23rd June):

1. At the first event the Mayor George Ferguson has been asked to launch the strategy alongside the Bristol Solar City initiative on Friday 21st June, 10 am in the ‘Solar Pavilion*’ on College Green. Big Green Week detials here

2. The second event is a chance for us to celebrate what we’ve achieved and relax with a drink. Friday 21st June, 6 – 8.30pm at Zero Degrees Big Green Week details here

The first event is outward facing, seeking to attract council, business and media attention, whilst the second is designed for us the communities to share what we have done and engage others. Details can be found on the Big Green Week website and further information will be posted on this website shortly.

*The Solar pavilion will run for 3 days from Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd of June. The idea is to bring together energy related business and community activity in one place. At present we are seeking ideas for activities, workshops and talks that could take place there. If you have a suggestion please drop us an email Bristol.energy.network@gmail.com

Energised communities: research in practice

The 3rd Big Green Week event is focused on the current university of Bristol research project into Maintaining Momentum in Community Energy. Their– practitioner seminar is on the Friday 21st 11.30 – 6.00 immediately preceding the Zero Degrees event. The seminar will explore how communities impact on the way we use energy and includes speakers from a range of universities across the country.

Further information can be found here: http://bristolenergynetwork.org/mm/bgwseminar and here http://biggreenweek.com/session/energised-communities-research-in-practi…

7-9pm but arrive from 6.30 for refreshments and a chance to catch up!

The 2nd workshop will be a chance to review the progress made at writing the strategy document. No doubt there will be some issues of dissagreement that will need to be hammered out. In fact, we hope there will be debate – lively and constructive and ultimately resulting in a better strategy. The hope is, depending on how long that takes, that we’ll also have time to start looking at the means of reaching the vision, or in other words… what pathways will we be seeking to take in the coming years?

Agenda:

1. Review, discuss, refine collective writing done to date…

2. Come to a consensus on vision statement, core values and key themes

2. Begin to explore pathways to achieving the 2020 vision, following the five key themes identified in workshop 1: Community first, Energy efficiency, Renewable energy, Understanding energy and Behaviour and Local economy.

Background:

Why a citywide community energy strategy?
The establishment of Bristol’s first elected mayor, rising fuel prices, the need to accelerate grassroots action to Sustainability and the acute need for creative experimentation of technologies, social practices and behaviour are but a number of reasons why now is the time to join together to create a community energy strategy for Bristol.

A strategy by the community energy sector on the best future for the city will drive initiatives and establish yet more ‘Bristol firsts’ in community energy and energy efficiency.

Collective writting session: Thursday 4th April @ bordeaux Quay, 7-9 pm – following Green monthly mingle (5-7pm) An opportunity to explore the wiki and get to grips with whats been written so far in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Also a chance to discuss the vision and contents of the strategy. All welcome

The wiki can be accessed here (link).

Please do drop us an email if your having any trouble reading or accessing it! Bristol.energy.network@gmail.com

You can book for the free event here (link).