carbonneutraltourism.co.uk

The story about bio-degradable tent pegs was posted a little while go.  Well on Terry Wogan’s show this morning on BBC Radio 2 bio-degradable tent pegs were mentioned.  Hopefully, this will help to raise the profile and sell some tent pegs.

 A note from Gardeners Rest B&B

Affordable Luxury on the Kent Coast Gardeners Rest B&B is an Award Winning 5 Star Gold Accommodation in an AONB which was voted one of the 50 Best British B&Bs in 2007.

The house was designed and built by the owners Sandra & Ken Upton and is set in 1 acre of colourful garden designed & planted by them.

Lifelong Disciples of recycling and protection of the environment, Sandra & Ken have attempted to balance nature and reduce or offset the carbon foot print of themselves and their guests, by incorporating numerous ecological features into the house and garden.

Food miles are practically nil as almost everything is either home grown or locally sourced, including homemade bread & scones, jams & potato hash browns, free range eggs, Kentish bacon and sausages made by the local butcher. The smoked salmon & kippers travels a little further but is caught and packed in UK!

Ideal for those who like to balance their work life with walking, cycling, sailing, golfing, riding or fishing or just relaxing in the country and taking in the peace & quiet, stunning views and fresh sea air.

There’s lots to do in the local area including visiting National Trust and English Heritage properties.

You can book both rooms for a truly exceptional break with friends or family. Minimum stay 2 nights please. No children under 9. For more details visit www.HolidaysDeal.co.uk

The University of Exeter is starting a post graduate Masters of Science in Climate System Dynamics in recognition of the need for expertise in climate change research and development.

Deepdale Backpackers and Camping, Deepdale Farm, Burnham Deepdale, north Norfolk coast

www.deepdalefarm.co.uk/earthday
Tuesday 22nd April
10am to 4pm
FREE to attend

Deepdale Backpackers and Camping, at Deepdale Farm on the beautiful north Norfolk coast, is an eco friendly backpackers hostel and campsite.

On Earth Day 2008, 22nd April, Deepdale Backpackers and Camping will be hosting a whole range of eco friendly organisations for an Earth Day exhibition about the environment, including environmental technology installers, advisors, pressure groups and other related organisations.

Whether you are looking for solar panels, wood chip boiler, LED lights, ground source heat pump, wind turbine, need some advice about how to green up your home or business, want to know more about organics or just fancy a look around Deepdale’s eco-friendly facilities, you are more than welcome.

It doesn’t matter if you are already interested in the environment, want to become more eco friendly or you’re a sceptic.

Who should visit this exhibition:

• Businesses looking to green up their organisation
• Companies wanting to save money on services
• Architects and builders wanting to learn about more eco friendly building materials and techniques
• Farmers looking to diversify and needing some inspiration
• and of course
• Individuals who would like to make their homes more energy efficient

Plans are still being confirmed, so check back soon for more information.

Exhibitors include (but are not limited to):

Earthly Ideas
Diversification, Environmental and Marketing Advice

Deepdale Backpackers and Camping
Eco friendly hostel and camping accommodation on the beautiful north Norfolk coast

Solarworks
Solarworks Ltd have been installing solar hot water and pool heating systems throughout East Anglia for 25 years. Grants available

Energy Saving Trust Advice Centre Anglia
Free independent energy saving advice for domestic households on energy efficiency, renewable technologies, and sustainable transport

British Wild Flower Plants
Specialist Wild flower nursery supplying over 400 native plants with known provenance including green roof and grey water treatment plants.

CPRE Norfolk
The Campaign to Protect Rural England have led research on Green Buildings in Norfolk - booklets, exhibitions, presentations and tours - come and find out more about the campaign.

Norfolk Wildlife Trust
Working to protect and promote Norfolk’s wildlife, helping people identify what they can do to help wildlife in their areas. They will be a sustainability quiz for people to do, resources to buy and free wildlife advice on offer.

RSPB
The RSPB speaks out for birds and wildlife, tackling the problems that threaten our environment. Nature is amazing - help us keep it that way.

If you would like to exhibit or to find out more information about exhibitors please visit: www.deepdalefarm.co.uk/earthday

A note from our friends at Bright Green.

What happened when Bright Green, an innovative green recruitment organisation brought together leaders from Britain’s top construction firms, sustainability consultancies, schools think-tanks with Kit Rogers, a teacher at Priestlands Secondary School, Hampshire, to discuss sustainability issues in schools?

Kit Rogers is a teacher on the front line.

Passionate about green issues and backed by a troop of eco-warrior students, his school have gone to impressive lengths to instill sustainability into the hearts and minds of students.

‘School is our one opportunity to change the mindset of young people,’ says Kit, ‘I want young people to leave Priestlands with an understanding of sustainability, or I’ve failed.’

The school has already implemented schemes to recycle its waste, grow vegetables and breed pigs for consumption in the school canteen and generate its own solar electricity. One proactive student even started up an offsetting scheme to mitigate the carbon emissions generated by her father’s business travel. The popularity of the scheme has meant that it has expanded into a community project worth more than £10,000 where trees, insulation and even photovoltaics can be sponsored.

But despite some pioneering successes, Kit faces harsh realities in creating a sustainable school. ‘It’s great that the government are funding so many eco-builds, but in reality, most schools are battling with 1950s buildings, teaching priorities and a lack of top-level support,’ says Kit.

With December’s announcement of £110m government investment in 200 eco-schools over the next 3 years, there is a clear support for, and commitment to, the green agenda.

But what about the other 32,800 schools in the UK, such as Priestlands? This was the challenge put to our table of experts. The group began by discussing the perceived barriers associated with the lack of agency and ownership felt within the public sector, observing that teachers and head teachers, in particular, often feel unable to pursue a green agenda due to insufficient control, budget and support.

‘It struck me how the challenges of driving sustainability are essentially the same in schools as in any organisation,’ observed Claudine Blamey, Head of Sustainability at British Land. ‘To drive change, we need individuals to relentlessly persuade and gain buy-in throughout the organisation.’

Building design was initially pinpointed as a key element to sustainability. In Cheshire, sustainability was integrated into the design of Kingsmead Primary School from day one. The use of natural materials, passive ventilation, daylight optimisation and rainwater harvesting systems contributed to the sustainability of this award winning design. However, all of the experts conceded that we have a long way to go if we are to hit the government’s target of all new school buildings being carbon neutral by 2016.

Our group of experts agreed more needs to be done with both new-builds and in particular, existing schools, to improve their environmental impact. Even when high technology is integrated into design, teachers and students need to be educated carefully to ensure the technical aspects of the design are fully taken advantage of.

But the conversation swiftly turned to a broader concept of sustainability, relating not only to carbon neutrality, but to notions of sustainable communities and the role of education in sustainability.

‘We’re assuming we actually need schools in their current form,’ said Marcus Orlovsky, founder of Bryanston Square, a pioneering learning environment ‘Do-tank,’ which aims to radically rethink our approach to education. ‘Schools are occupied thirty-nine hours per week, from eight until four. Some young people leave school uninspired and unqualified for the world. Aren’t we missing something?’

Writhlington School, Somerset, was cited as an excellent example of this kind of radical thinking in action.  The school’s business and enterprise specialism allows young people to run their own businesses, as well as fulfilling the requirements of the national curriculum. But perhaps we need to go further and consider whether schools- and buildings in general- can be more efficiently used by doubling up their use for business and the community.

Whether radical or incremental change is called for in the greening our schooling system, the consensus amongst the group was that innovation and leadership are needed as much in education as they are in business.

‘We need to rethink how we create change in the public sector,’ said Professor Bill Scott from the University of Bath. ‘The bottom line in schools is about learning. To make fundamental change in schools we need to make the connection between sustainability and its impact on the education of our children.’

The sustainability agenda needs leaders such as Kit Rogers and his band of eco-warrior students to push change in all organisations. We also need urgent top-down proactivity and leadership from construction and design firms and from the government to fully realize the ‘greening’ our schools and education system

Sarah Lloyd-Hughes

Green Recruiter
www.brightgreentalent.com

Bright Green identifies and places environmental leaders - both emerging and experienced - in organisations throughout the world for a greener, more sustainable future.

17th – 20th July 2008 Southwold, Suffolk

The line up for the 2008 Latitude Festival includes  Franz Ferdinand, Sigur Ros, Interpol, Death Cab For Cutie, Amadou et Mariam, Elbow, The Breeders, MIA During 2007 major acts included Jarvis Cocker, Damien Rice and the Gotan Project.

Similar to other festivals the Latitude Festival is encouraging guests to reduce their carbon footprint by sharing ‘lifts’ to the Festival via the service provided by Liftshare.

Photos by Jon Appleyard rawrphotography@gmail.com

Svalbard Global Seed Vault has now opened.  Located on the island of Spitsbergen  the ‘vault’ is constructed 120m inside a mountain.

The mission is to collect seeds from around the world and from other seeds banks  to ensure that they are never lost to mankind.   The vault currently stores approximately 1.5 million seeds but it has a capacity to store up to 4.5 million seeds.  Photos Mari Thefre / Global Crop Diversity Trust.

The British Wind Energy Association has some interesting information on their website.

San Francisco, 12th – 13th June 2008
Red 7 Media have launched the Green Event Summit EXPO which is the the first national conference in the USA which brings together executives from the event and trade show sector.  One of the objectives is to learn about creating eco-friendly events.

A note from Green Mobile:

Would your business like to save thousands of pounds on all its telecoms bills and plant hundreds of trees (at the same time) for free? The UK’s only environmental telephone company, Green Mobile has issued a ‘Tree Challenge’ to all businesses with an environmental/CSR commitment:

“We will beat your current BT business landline and mobile bills by 10% or plant 10 trees on your behalf” says Adrian Potter, MD of Green Mobile

Take the challenge and find out how good (or not) your current telecoms deals are in 2008. Green Mobile offers market-beating landline and mobile rates (below) but they also donate 4% of business customers’ on-going phone bills to the Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity, in order to plant trees. Indeed, the Woodland Trust is recommending this offer to their business partners and any interested organisations.

Join up and it works out that one tree is planted for every £125 your company spends on its phone bill (plus 3 trees are planted for each new mobile phone contract) – you’ll also get a yearly ‘total trees planted’ certificate. However, going ‘green’ does not mean costing you more. Green Mobile believe they will win their challenge because they offer:

• 20% off BT’s standard business landline rental and select service charges
• 1p per minute for local and nation landline calls
• Mobile shared minute packages from £45 per month
• Cashback or new/refurbished handsets
• £2 per month contract free mobile phone option

There are no catches or gimmicks. For peace of mind your company is not put under contract for landline rental or call charges. Your phone number, BT set-up or services all remain the same e.g. BT engineers still fix your lines. Green Mobile line rental charges and call rates will not go up after a couple of months. To save you more money you also get:

• Unlimited free calls between Green Mobile landlines
• Unlimited free calls between Green Mobile mobiles
• Unlimited free calls from shared minute mobile packages to Green Mobile landlines

It’s easy to take the challenge. Simply go to www.greenmobile.co.uk and fill out the short Green Price Challenge form, or call their friendly and knowledgeable staff on 0845 233 0000 to request your copy. What have you got to lose? If they can’t beat your telephone bill, they’ll plant 10 trees on your behalf. If they can, join and you will save money and also plant trees!