Cumbria CVS Green blog no 17 – July 2025
July 11, 2025
Welcome back to Cumbria CVS Green!
In our seventeenth blog post, we have something a bit different from colleague Rebecca Guy, Third Sector Referral Coordinator, who shares with us a poem inspired by a lunch break cycle ride to collect surplus supermarket food.
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
Catch up on our other blog posts here
Lunch Break Green poetry
In this blog, I want to share what living a more ‘green’ life can look and feel like. So, as I squirm in my seat, I’m posting a poem that I wrote after cycling down to the Salvation Army in Penrith, on my lunch break, to collect food waste.
The organisation offers surplus supermarket food for free every Tuesday and Friday from 11am-3pm, and you can give a donation to support them. This event is separate to the food bank that they operate, and anyone can go along with their own bag to collect food that would otherwise have gone into a bin. We’ve had an incredible amount of fresh fruit and veg alongside various baked goods, and collecting this on a bike really feels like living a more sustainable life to me.
It doesn’t have to be fancy, time-consuming, expensive or stressful; it’s just about finding a way to incorporate your ‘green’ values into your every day life.
Lunch Break
“Biking into town to collect food waste
It might be free but that doesn’t affect the taste
Up and up Fell Lane I’m taken back six years
To a cycle tour that brings up happy tears
Along Beacon Edge to finish my lunch break
I’ve probably squashed all the veg and sponge cake
I feel my legs burn as I climb the home straight
My lungs working hard so I don’t get back late
I go through the door and my dog says hi
A moment of pause; I won’t let this pass me by
I brew hand-picked flowers to make my own tea
At my desk on time, feeling wild and free.”
Training and Events
Electric Vehicles
Mon 14 July, Online. This free webinar will introduce electric vehicles (EV), benefits and considerations.
More events!
Find details of events by the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership and the wide range of Zero Carbon Cumbria projects funded by the National Lottery.
Click here to view forthcoming events
News and Information
Giving local people a voice about climate change
The Cumbria Climate Assembly is urging leaders and businesses to “put people at the heart of climate decision-making”. The Assembly, made up of 40 people from across Cumbria chosen by lottery, has issued its final report, with 17 recommendations for change.
See the video showing how Assembly members from Westmorland and Furness worked together to reach their conclusions.
What the Carlisle climate stripes are telling us
The recently updated “climate stripes” for Carlisle are a visual created by Professor Ed Hawkins from the University of Reading that charts rising average temperatures from the mid 19th century to 2024. These simple yet powerful stripes reveal a clear trend: that global – and local – temperatures are rapidly increasing.
From invisible data to a bold infographic, the stripes make climate change personal for our communities. Want to see what the warming looks like year by year—and what it means for Cumbria’s future?
Utility Aid
Futureproof Cumbria are working in partnership with Utility Aid, the UK’s leading energy broker for the charity and not-for-profit sector. As well as helping you to secure greener contracts with your electric, gas, and water, you can access their Invoice Validation Service, which could enable you to recoup hundreds of pounds from past bills if they find you’ve overpaid.
Utility Aid supports all business types, not just charities, which means that you can benefit from these great services too. By choosing Utility Aid, you’ll also support Futureproof Cumbria as they receive a partnership payment if you go ahead and purchase energy through them!
Plastic Free July 2025
Plastic Free July is a global movement that encourages millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so that we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities.
This year’s Plastic Free July campaign focuses on small changes each of us can make to reduce plastic waste under the slogan “Small steps, big difference”.
Top five books for climate campaigners
Charity Digital share their top books for charity campaigners to help tackle the climate crisis.
Cumbria Climate Assembly
Cumbria Climate Assembly is a Citizen’s Assembly that has been running since March, and has recently published its recommendations.
What’s a Citizen’s Assembly? Here’s the official explanation….
A Citizens Assembly is a way of involving members of the public in helping the making of important decisions. It brings together a group of 40 randomly chosen people, who reflect the demographic make-up of residents of the whole of Cumbria. Assembly members talk about an issue, share ideas and together come up with a set of recommendations. They are helped by experienced facilitators who make sure everyone has a fair say and that the task is achieved. During the sessions, the facilitators will help make people feel relaxed, safe, and able to take part.
A lot of people feel they don’t get a real say in decisions that affect their lives. But, when people are given the time, space, and reliable sources of information, through the use of Assemblies, experience shows that members of the public will develop well-informed recommendations. This is what we aim to do here in Cumbria.
There’s more information on the Climate Assembly here
We’ve been involved in the discussions regarding how people can have more influence over climate related decisions, including how they might influence voluntary and community sector organisations to do more to combat climate change.
And if you want to jump straight to their recommendations, here’s the link: Cumbria Climate Assembly Recommendations
