Notes from the first meeting of the Sustainable Development Group held on 19 May at 10.00 in the Quaker Meeting House.
11 people attended
There were apologies from 6 others who were unable to attend this time but would like to be kept informed.
There was much wide ranging discussion about the aims of the group and its priorities. We decided that our aims were:
- To enhance our own understanding of climate change issues and sustainability
- To influence our colleagues in SU3A
- To influence those we come into contact with
The main themes of discussion were as follows:
1 Community/Climate (Local Share Offers) Bonds
There are a number of organisations working towards this including Sheffield Community Renewables which is working closely with Sheffield City Council and the Sheffield Museums Trust to develop a hydro power scheme at Kelham Island. It is hoped that much of this will be funded through a local share offer scheme.
http://sheffieldcommunityrenewables.org.uk/index.php
Action: Rose to send Paul details of the organisers of SCR
2 Water Power at New Mills
Action: Paul to find out whether we could visit New Mills hydro.
3 Rosalie talked about the Green Alliance website
Green Alliance is an independent organisation working to make environmental solutions a priority in British politics. One of its aims is to raise awareness amongst older people with its “greener and wiser” older people’s manifesto.
http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/
and
http://www.green-alliance.org.uk/grea1.aspx?id=2954&terms=older+people
4 South Yorkshire Energy Centre
It was pointed out that the Environment 2 group are visiting SYEC soon and that maybe the visit could be opened out to others.
Action: June to check with Ralph Hebden
5 “What to Wear?”
Shelagh introduced the subject of “What to Wear?” How do we know that the things we buy have not been manufactured by exploiting people. Two organisations were discussed and their details can be accessed at:
http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/
http://www.nosweat.org.uk/
There is another website:
http://www.nosweatuk.com/about_us.php
this states that “No Sweat UK started as a solution to a problem. The problem? Quite simply, being able to purchase clothing that is 100% sweatshop free. Since 2004, No Sweat UK has been totally committed to providing sweatshop free clothing at affordable prices”.
Action: We could all have a go at living by the “do I need it?” mantra rather than “do I want it?”
6 “ Do One Thing”
We discussed what we could do to influence other SU3A members to become involved in thinking and living in a more sustainable way. One idea was the modest aim to encourage members to “do one thing”. We thought that we could put forward one or two ideas on the SU3A web site and change these ideas regularly.
We could also establish a Sustainability Group website on which we provide more information and ideas that might encourage others to become involved.
Action: Rose/Greta to discuss with Clare Chiba how to take these two ideas forward
7 “Eat less meat”
This could be one of our initiatives on the SU3A website and perhaps we could put together a vegetarian recipe book for SU3A which contains easy, tasty ideas for replacing one or two meat meals each week.
8 Farmer’s Markets and Veggie boxes
We discussed the accessibility and authenticity of Farmer’s Markets and Veggie boxes. Rosalie recommended Riverford for veggie boxes
http://www.riverfordhomefarm.co.uk/
They also have an interesting area on the website which talks about environmental issues.
Other organic food shops mentioned were Beanies at Crookesmoor and Zeds at Nether Edge.
8 Grow your own.
This was discussed at some length and the main ideas were:
- Grow fruit and vegetables in the garden as well as or instead of flowers.
- Some people may be finding their garden too big and welcome sharing the work and the produce.
- SU3A may be able to find an allotment plot or other piece of ground to work as a SU3A community garden
- We could start a new group for active sustainable gardening where knowledge and tips could be shared and put into practice
9 Bus Transport
Transport in general was discussed and in particular the problem with bus travel, particularly the problem of travelling across the city from one main road to another. Making bus travel more convenient and cheaper is more difficult for us to influence because the buses are deregulated and the aim of bus companies is profit. This may be an issue for discussion next time.
An obvious idea, which probably is already widely practiced in SU3A, was to encourage car share for trips and visits.
!0 Carbon Footprint measurement
There are a number of web sites to enable this. Greta recommended the government site:
http://actonco2.direct.gov.uk/index.html
where you can measure your own footprint and read ideas for reducing it.
11 The Gardener’s Question Time Event
This is to be held on September 10th at the Quaker Meeting House.
Action: June to provide more details
Date of next meeting: June 16th 2.30 pm, Quaker Meeting House.
Action: Greta to contact Steve Byers and others to think about possible locations
PS I came across this website for David McKay’s book called “Sustainable Energy -Without the Hot Air” which is downloadable free. It really is worth a look. I found it very informative and readable. There is also a 10 page synopsis which will give you a taste of the book.
http://www.withouthotair.com/
Greta
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