Abingdon Carbon Cuttersformed during 2007 and became a community action group in May 2008. The aims of the group are to help reduce the carbon footprint of Abingdon in response to climate change, and to promote a sustainable and resilient lifestyle for our town.
From the outset we have organised open meetings on topics consistent with our aims on the third Wednesday of the month. These frequently have a ‘How to…’ theme with the emphasis on skills or implementation of projects aimed at reducing one’s carbon footprint. Recent meetings have featured rainwater harvesting, gardening for wildlife, organising a local car club, building an eco-house, insulating your home. This is a typical mix. In the past, we have shown films such as ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and ‘The Power of Community’. Such events have been important in building up our contacts list to 200+. Apple pressing and or soup making always seem to be a feature of our public events; we were successful in gaining grants to purchase crushing, pressing and sterilising equipment which is now available to CAGs across the county. On a larger scale, we organised an Eco Fair in Abingdon Guildhall last October which attracted over well over 300 and involved over 30 exhibitors. The format for the fair mirrored our particular areas of activity.
Over the past three years a number of action groups have been developing:
- The Food Group promotes the use of local, sustainable food sources through activities such as apple pressing and soup making, especially for the three-monthly Saturday town local excellence market that we helped initiate; running cookery classes for parents at a local children’s centre; vegetable gardening classes, etc.
- The Energy Group has evolved into ‘Abingdon Hydro’, an organisation working to install micro hydro-electric generation at Abingdon Weir.
- We are mulling how best to promote solar energy usage schemes locally.
- Members of the Education Group work with local schools to support their efforts as Eco schools or as they look to become more sustainable through, for example, developing gardens to grow vegetables for school kitchen use.
To sustain and organise our programme of activities, a core planning group meet monthly. Two of our core group are trained facilitators for the Carbon Conversations programme and have run two sequences of 6 sessions so far. Coming up, we have sessions on compost and wormery making, an evening celebrating what is going on in schools and, in October, a major Apple Day event centred on the South Abingdon Children’s Centre. We regularly support local swap shops and are keen to develop our Green Drinks session, on the first Thursday of every month.
Our aims
Cutting carbon through reducing both the use of, and our reliance on, oil and coal, as sources of energy and materials, is a central feature of the group’s focus. Our aim is to work to reduce the carbon footprint of the town in response to climate change and to prepare for the challenge of ‘peak oil’. We are taking a community-wide approach through which we hope to:
- promote a range of activities, including but not limited to public education, to affect personal, home and business behaviour, incorporating transport issues;
- encourage and achieve reduction, reuse and recycling initiatives;
- work with local councils and other civic bodies to promote local trade initiatives and to reduce waste.
- enable Abingdon to achieve ‘Transition Town Status’.
We hope through these activities to enhance the resilience of the community in a stimulating and enjoyable way.
If you are interested to join us or want to find out more we would very much value your ideas and your skills. We meet at 7.30 on the third Wednesday of every month at:
St Ethelwold’s House, 30 East St Helen Street, Abingdon
Go to our blog at http://carboncutters.blogspot.com/to read more about what we have been thinking and doing, and for details of upcoming events. Let us know what you find useful and what you don't!
Looking for a Greener Future?
Abingdon Carbon Cutters is a host for Carbon Conversations. This entails six friendly sessions - in conversation - about climate change and carbon reduction. The six sessions are: Looking for a low carbon future; Energy in the home; Travel and transport; Food and water; Consumption and waste and moving on.
If you are interested in another course contact or want to hear more? Please contact: Christine Whild 01865 391270 christinewhild@aolcom or Nicky Warden 07703 260932 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
For further information:
