Roadblogs 2
London – 28 November
At the London Launch Sarah Teather, Liberal Democrat MP for Brent, urged people in London and the South East to apply. Then Susan Sheehan from Hyde Farm, Balham explained how she planned to inspire her local community to take action through activities such as Draught Proofing days. She’s had her own house draught proofed and one weekend will get her neighbours and friends in to see what she’s done. But she’ll also get in a supply of the materials and tools you need for draught proofing on sale or return so people can take them away and do it themselves. Then they will all go to the local café for a meal because they’ll have been so busy draught proofing that they won’t have had time to cook. So they’ll all have a nice time as well as saving carbon. So plenty of food for thought – and lots of interesting entries in prospect.
Norwich - 30 November
The East of England launch took place in the Zicer Building of the University of East Anglia. This is a particularly energy-efficient building so it was an ideal setting. Dr Ian Gibson, Labour MP for Norwich North, got things off to a rousing start. He suggested the UK should have a target for 100% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. To get there he wanted a big programme of carbon sequestration and lots of renewables. Jonas Grist, Babergh District Council, then explained some of the interesting things that local people had been doing as part of a CRed (Carbon Reduction) programme. One great idea was the Lightbulb Library. We all know we should use low-energy bulbs. But which one do you want to use?
The Lightbulb Library helps you work that out. It’s a suitcase filled with different types of bulb. You take it home, and try out the different bulbs. That way you find the one you want. Then you fill in the order form in the suitcase and soon you have your lightbulbs. The question from the floor were particularly searching. Not surprising considering we were in a building that housed members of the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA. UEA is also the home of CRed, a charity that works with local communities to reduce their carbon footprints (see http://www.cred-uk.org/ ), and working with us on the Big Green Challenge on carbon monitoring and auditing. So we should get a strong set of entries from the East of England.
