Past Events
Waste
Carbon Conversations
Courses start on 27 February & 6 March 2012
Carbon Conversations is an inspiring, practical 6-session course on low-carbon living. It was recently featured in the Guardian as one of the 20 best solutions to climate change.
Free Talk @ Eastgate Theatre: Alastair McIntosh – The Pornography of Consumerism
9th February 2012 7.30pm
International speaker, Alastair McIntosh returns to the Eastgate to deliver another thought-provoking and stimulating presentation. Academic, environmentalist, activist and founder member of the Gal Gael Trust in Glasgow, the author of “Soil and Soul” and “Hell and High Water” and regular contributor to Thought for Today on Radio Scotland, Alastiar will explore consumerism and other related topics.
Carbon Conversations – Pilot Project
Next course starts on 23rd January 2012
Beyond the facts – what does Climate Change and Peak Oil mean to us?
Climate change is something which will affect all of us, and something we’re all responsible for. It’s vital we learn more about these issues together: what is it; what does it mean for us; and what can we do?
Carbon Conversations
Carbon Conversations is an inspiring, practical 6-session course on low-carbon living. It was recently featured in the Guardian as one of the 20 best solutions to climate change.
Members explore the basic climate change problem, their responses to it, their ideas for a low-carbon future and the four key areas of the footprint:
– home energy
– travel
– food
– other consumption
Tweedgreen has decided to pilot the Carbon Conversations programme in Peebles, to see how it works within our own community. We have set up a pilot project, consisting of two initial courses in September 2011 and January 2012.
Pilot Carbon Conversation Courses start on 15 September 2011 and 9 January 2012
The course is free but we would welcome a small (non-obligatory) donation towards the costs of the materials (up to £15).
To sign-up, drop us an email at [email protected]
What are Carbon Conversations?
Carbon Conversations is an inspiring set of group discussions about and around climate change. Small groups meet for 6 short facilitated discussions, meeting every 2 or 3 weeks, working through activities and games; sharing thoughts, ideas and reflections. It was recently featured in the Guardian as one of the 20 best solutions to climate change.
The discussions:
– are based on the psychology of change
– are emotionally engaging
– are technically rigorous
– use an up to date, attractive handbook, games and materials
The course aims to motivate and support individuals to make progress with cutting their carbon footprints, and to help people talk constructively about these issues together. Going further than just the ‘facts’, the programme is unique for its attention to how making change in our lives is intimately bound up with issues of identity, society and values. Giving groups the space to discuss the more personal side of carbon-cutting, the meetings are designed to develop our insight, as individuals, into our own ways forward with environmental change.
Why not be one of the first to try out the pilot Carbon Conversations programme in Peebles? Your involvement will give you insights into greener living and will also help Tweedgreen determine whether this is an effective tool for educating people about behaviour change in our Tweeddale community.
Learn more:
Carbon Conversations in Cambridge
http://youtu.be/ng94lciphLY
The Approach: Guardian video
http://gu.com/p/296n7
Don’t Waste October 2010
Reduction of waste, production and disposal, business and domestic, is a crucial part of any sustainability plan for Tweeddale. Tweedgreen will be launching a waste awareness month in October – ‘Don’t Waste October’.
One of our initiatives building up to October is a focus on small business waste. We are partnering with Green Business Partnership (Zero Waste Scotland) and Tweed Valley Tourism Consortium to offer waste and energy audits for 10 or more small businesses in Tweeddale over July and August. We hope to enrol a wide range of businesses (farms, shops, restaurants, barbers, pubs!) to pioneer this scheme. It will be very instructive and improve efficiency and reduce costs for raw materials, water, waste and energy for all those businesses concerned.
Anna Scott from Green Business Partnership says: “We would be very happy to conduct reviews for the 10 businesses that you mentioned to identify opportunities for improvement. An experienced adviser will analyse the companies’ costs and levels of raw material use, waste production, water and energy use and will identify simple steps to reduce impact on the environment and at the same time make cost savings.
Following the review, we produce a comprehensive report clearly outlining opportunities that are specific to the business and quantify the potential cost and environmental savings from these recommendations. Most businesses that receive assistance through the programme make significant cost savings which impact directly on their profitability”. If you would like to sign up a small business for this scheme please contact the Tweedgreen office. Or if you have any other ideas for ‘waste initiatives’ for Don’t Waste October – let us know.