Cumbria CVS Green – No1 March 2024
March 11, 2024
Welcome to our first Cumbria CVS Green post!
We’ll be bringing you links to useful resources, information and news, updates on our own climate commitment, blog posts from colleagues about what they’re doing (in a work capacity and privately) to minimise environmental impact and more.
If you have any suggestions about what you’d like to see in our regular updates, let us know! Contact us by emailing info@cumbriacvs.org.uk
You can find our what we’re doing to minimise our environmental impact and find details of organisations supporting positive environmental action in Cumbria on our Climate Commitment page here
In our first blog post, Cumbria CVS Communications Manager, Peter Grenville, talks allotments…
The plot thickens
I live in an apartment in a town. Go me, eh? Swanky Mr city-dwelling, cappuccino-slurping urbanite.
Apartments already have a head-start on many houses, through the simple fact that more of your ‘external’ walls are against other apartments. In our case, all bar one wall adjoin habited areas, so heat-loss through floors, wall and roofs is limited. As it is a fairly recent conversion of a listed building (there I go again with my hipster stereotypes) the insultation levels are good too and our energy use is pretty low. Win for the environment? Tick.
(This article from Seven Capital has some interesting stats from Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on this topic, if you’re interested.)
I’m somewhat obsessive about my recycling too. Visits to the communal recycling bins often result in micro-rants along the lines of “I can’t BELIEVE they didn’t wash their yoghurt pot properly, now they’ve contaminated the whole bin and it will be REJECTED and go in to LANDFILL!”, which elicit a tolerant/forced smile from the long-suffering Mrs G. Also crisp packets aren’t foil and try squashing your goddamn 2ltr coke bottles, you monsters. Sorry. These outburst just happen sometimes. Recycle responsibly.
Not content with simply being a smug comms guy in a cosy apartment whose recycling skills are an example to others, late last year we finally reached the top of the waiting list for an allotment.
We took on a very overgrow plot, but it was shaded by trees, tricky to access and featured a comically tall home-made shed, inhabited by a large family of freakishly big spiders.
The chance then came up to take on a recently vacated plot with various fruit trees and bushes, a decent shed, and some bonus tools left behind by the previous incumbent. It hadn’t been touched for a few months so was going a little wild, but offered so much more potential than the first one. We said YES loudly.
Straight up confession here: I’m lucky if I can tell you what any plant actually is. Common answers to questions like “Which one is the Calendula?” include “…that one?” accompanied by some vague sweep-of-the-hand pointing or “the one with the leaves and stuff.”
Still, pointed at an area and told to dig it over and I’m there. Clear a space and install some compost bins? Yeah! Love a bit of tidying-up. Trim the apple tree? If it involves using sharp tools responsibly, whilst providing a vague sense of living dangerously, count me in.
So whilst Mrs G has started planting stuff that we might actually get to eat at some unspecified future date, I’m tasked with fixing the shed door sufficiently so that a small pachyderm couldn’t just wander in, clearing a space and laying a base for one of those pop-up mini-greenhouse things (always read the instructions), and trying not to injure myself.
Does it also involve going for a cappuccino and slice of cake in a nearby park afterwards? Obviously, yes.
I’ve recently found myself illicitly searching online for wheelbarrows (damn, that one is galvanised and has a no-puncture tyre construction. Sexy!) and taking an interest in bark chippings. I’ve removed an uber-prickly gooseberry bush, but only after I inadvertently crouched down with my back to it and discovered how effectively the spikes penetrate both trousers and underpants. I’ve staggered along the long walk to our plot carrying my own weight in compost, and admired/coveted some of the brilliant Heath-Robison-esque shed constructions on other plots. How is that one even standing up?
We haven’t had a single thing we can eat yet, and must have spent a small fortune on buying plants, tools and other bits and bobs on the basis that we’ll wind up like Tom & Barbara in The Good Life, consuming our delicious no-food-miles* produce and eschewing the pre-packed planet-unfriendly supermarket stuff. I’ll let you know how we get on.
You can grow smashed avocados, right..?
(* This article on UK Parliament on the value of allotments suggests that around 12 per cent of the nation’s fuel consumption is spent on processing, packaging and distributing food!)
Training and Events
Going Green – Online conference
Thursday 21 March 2024. This conference is for anyone interested in making their charity more environmentally friendly.
It has been designed with both larger and smaller charities in mind and will include useful information for those just starting out on their green journey as well as those looking for more advanced ideas on improving their sustainability.
The conference will be especially relevant to:
- Charity leaders and senior decision-makers
- Those in charge of charity operations (HR, Operations Directors, etc.)
- Those in charge of charity reporting (finance, accounting, impact)
- Charity trustees
News and Information
W&F Green Enterprise Hub
The hub offers:
- Tailored support: to take the headache out of the process and connect you with our expert partners.
- One-to-one energy saving consultancy services: to reduce carbon emissions from buildings, transport and food.
- Events and training: to inspire, inform and connect you with other businesses on the same sustainability journey.
- Grants: get up to £10,000 to help make the move to low carbon technologies more affordable.
- Resources and case studies: showcasing some of the businesses we have already helped through the GE Hub.
Reducing the carbon footprint of community events
Community events from street parties and village fêtes to regular play groups, youth clubs and social get-togethers create connections, help people feel part of a community, and provide much needed support.
But they can also create all kinds of waste. In the article from The National Lottery Community Fund you can find tips to cut the carbon footprint of your events and minimise waste.
