The latest news, stats and facts on key environmental issues. The latest news from Sussex Green Living.

Virtual climate cafe connecting people and planet

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Week 3 of virtual climate cafe

Local people removed from isolation for one hour a week through the virtual Horsham Climate Cafe. Saturday 11th April saw the numbers grow from 7 the first planning week, to 15, with 24 turning-in last week to learn about frugal and free wild cooking from Fiona founder of Earthkind and an eco art competition which Sussex Green Living are running with the South Downs National Park.  With lots of other exciting local and countywide ideas materialising.

The Horsham Climate Cafe normally pops up once a month at the Quaker Meeting House in Horsham, but quickly adapted with lockdown to go online using Zoom free video conferencing. Last week saw people from Horsham, Billingshurst, Lindfield, Worthing, Chichester, Peacehaven, Petworth and Leeds tuning-in! The aim is to remove people for social isolation for an hour a week to discuss ideas for supporting community and planet in this uncertain time. The organisers are very heartened to be receiving such a positive response and great engagement! Read more

Environmental education for lockdown victims!

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​​‘CLEAN-UP AND CREATE’ a Bright New Future’

Educational competition for schools and children working from home!

Sussex Green Living in partnership with the South Downs National Park have just launched an educational competition called ‘CLEAN-UP AND CREATE’ a Bright New Future’. It has been designed to provide a platform for raising awareness about the environment, littering and changes we could make to build a bright new future. The challenge​ is​ for 5 to 16 year olds to design a poster and or a piece of eco art and associated message, enable them to learn, have fun and get creative around the ​w​orld they want. There are 16 x £150 prizes to be won!

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Covid-19 crisis sees positive environmental impacts

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As previously discussed in our Covid19 crisis article, the world has seen a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as a result of imposed self-isolation and lockdown guidelines, so we thought that it would be of interest to our readers for us to look into this change a bit deeper. We will also shed light on the importance of remembering sustainable living principles during this crisis. This is something all of us in the Sussex Green Living community, the Horsham Climate Cafe and Horsham Climate Cafe should remember.

Covid-19’s impact on greenhouse gas emissions

As worldwide air pollution is down, the European Environment Agency (EEA) has, in the last day, reported large decreases in air pollutant concentrations across Europe. As this is such an unusual and worrying time for us all, seeing a positive amongst all the negatives is inspiring.

With Wuhan’s smog depreciating significantly and reports of fish being seen in the waters of Venice for the first time in years, as well as a reduction of nitrogen dioxide across the world, these factors should prove to us all that small differences can create such huge environmental changes. Read more

Money Saving ideas at Horsham Climate Cafe

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Saturday 4th April the Horsham Climate Cafe will pop up as a virtual one hour event for the second week in a row. It will be running using a free Zoom video call every Saturday at 2pm during the Covid19 crisis and until further notice.

This Saturday there will be an opportunity for people to connect and chat informally around concerns, insights with  ideas for using materials around you, saving money and helping the planet. Fiona Hamilton who runs Earthkind a plastic free food refills service which pops up at the Horsham Repair Cafe, will be providing lots of money saving ideas around frugal and zero waste living, see below. She is happy to receive questions ahead of Saturday or on the day. Forward questions to ahead of Saturday.

Helen Whittington will talk about the new Horsham Repair Cafe cleaning and personal product bottle refill service she is offering during lockdown, as seen here https://www.horsham-refill.com. Carrie Cort, founder of Sussex Green Living will talk about a saving money through switching energy providers. Since running the Horsham Repair Cafe she has helped lots of people switch using https://bigcleanswitch.org/sussexgreen/, everyone has saved between £90 and £366 a year.

Enjoy Fiona’s ideas for saving money and living a more sustainable life here: Read more

Virtual meeting every Saturday 2pm offering community support

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Saturday 28th March saw the Horsham Climate Cafe pop up for the first time as a virtual gathering to discuss how people can continue to connect, support our community and share ways to save money through the anxieties and challenges of the COVID-19 lockdown.

In these precarious and uncertain times, we are all having to rethink our lifestyles and our priorities and are finding new and resourceful ways to adapt and form communities. These initiatives all feel very relevant to how we hope to approach the other global catastrophe of our times – the climate crisis. For this reason we feel that it is important that our plans for tackling the two are connected and that we continue to support one another to live environmentally conscious lives in the light of the current situation.

Although the Horsham Repair Cafe is no longer able to meet as a community, the refill service for cleaning products is still running with new social distancing measures in place learn more here https://www.horsham-refill.com.

The Horsham Climate Cafe will take place via Zoom every Saturday at 2pm for about one hour anyone is warmly welcomed to join the virtual space, it is free and requires no software download. Read more

Appeal for homes to help our recycling volunteers

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Pack crisp packets flat condensed in a shoe box

Press release

Sussex Green Living appeals for homes to help keep single use plastic recycling going in Horsham District

Sussex Green Living is appealing for help in the homes with single use plastic recycling during the covid19 crisis. Since 2012 Sussex Green Living with the help of lots of volunteers have been recycling specific single-use plastics. The materials are sent to and recycled by a company called TerraCycle.

Carrie the founder of Sussex Green Living is appealing for help “Over the last year the volume of donations has grown 10 fold, we have a wonderful team of volunteers we call the SGL Wombles who were helping sort every Wednesday afternoon at the Quaker Meeting House”, she continues “We had to make the decision to stop those team sorting sessions last week”.

Two volunteers are going to try to keep the lesser volume now being received, sorted and dispatched to TerraCyle. Helen Whittington, the onsite warden of the Quaker Meeting House will daily clean the handles on the bins in the meeting house garden, this being the main drop off location in the district (although there are six other parish locations and schools who also collect). Joy Carter, endearingly called chief Womble is going to remove the recycling to a remote location (using personal protective gear) and then trying to sort after 72 hours. Read more

Los Cedros Reserve – An update and photos from our friend Nicola Peel

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Los Cedros Reserve – Andean cloud forest of Ecuador – UNDER THREAT

Our friend Nicola Peel has sent us an update and some incredible photos from her visit to the Los Cedros Reserve in the cloud forest of Ecuador which is now threatened by gold, copper and molybdenum mining.

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Hope must come out of Covid19 crisis

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Next Horsham Climate Cafe 4th April will be online

Press release

Horsham Climate Cafe gives inspiration: people take stock and change habits

The speed at which Governments, organisations and institutes around the World are reacting to the Covid19 pandemic gives the organisers of the Horsham Climate Cafe hope. It shows that when faced with an emergency the world can mobilise resources and political will in the midst of the crises.

An unexpected but positive spin-off is that the world has seen a huge dip in global greenhouse gas emissions since the devastating Covid19 virus and fast mobilisation of community collaboration and support.

Carrie Cort, the founder of Sussex Green Living and co-founder of the Horsham Climate Cafe said “The UK often blame China for its huge carbon footprint but a lot of our clothes and goods are made cheaply and imported to the UK.  We spent £44.7 billion on imported Chinese goods in 2018 alone”.  She continues, ‘All this manufacturing of cheap goods and shipping around is a hidden carbon footprint which the UK should take responsibility for.  It also means we’ve become dependent on China for manufactured goods, which leaves us vulnerable in times like this.”

Horsham Climate Cafe is normally at the Quaker Meeting House on the first Saturday of each month, on Saturday 4th April at 2pm it will use Zoom or Skype free video conferencing, enabling people to attend from their homes. Read more

Horsham Climate Cafe

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Our Corona Virus Action Plan-

Horsham Climate Cafe goes online

We hope you will all be delighted to hear – The Horsham Climate Cafe will continue throughout the current social distancing and quarantine measures! We’re now switching to online meetings using Zoom (see joining instructions below!), a FREE and easy to use video chat and video conferencing service. Please feel free to join any of our sessions to continue to be involved, or use this as a great chance to see what we’re about for the first time (all from the comfort of your own home!). Until we can resume our physical meetings, please do pop in on us – we are running EVERY Saturday at 2pm for an hour – we’d love to see you there! In our sessions, we like to talk about pocket and planet-saving ideas for the community (all quarantine friendly ideas, of course!). See below for the exciting schedule for our planned sessions so far…

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Toby Phillips www.tobyphillipsphotography.co.uk

Repair Cafe unites community and sows seeds of change

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© www.tobyphillipsphotography.co.uk

Behaviour change can be a daunting prospect, unless it happens in easy steps, with tangible and immediate benefits. Getting together to fix stuff is an instantly appealing answer to reducing waste, but Horsham District resident Carrie Cort has discovered that setting up a regular repair café has brought dividends and benefits to the community that neither she nor any of those involved could have imagined.

FROM FIXING LAPTOPS TO HELPING THE PLANET

Carrie set up Sussex Green Living in 2012 and the same year attended a West Sussex County Council waste prevention advisor (WPA) training where she met and became good friends with another voluntary WPA Jill Shuker. In 2016 they organised their first textile up-cycling workshop as part of a Horsham festival, hoping it would encourage teenagers to learn how to sew and adapt clothes as a sustainable antidote to fast fashion. ‘It attracted children of all ages’, says Carrie. This workshop and later textile upcycling workshops resulted in a group of creative textile volunteers. Read more

Climate change forum “Food for thought”

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POSTPONED DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS. WE WILL ADD A NEW BLOG WHEN THE DATE HAS BEEN CONFIRMED

Date and time: Friday 13th March 2020 7.00 pm

Venue: Pulborough Village Hall, Swan View, Pulborough, RH20 2BF

This is the second in a series of climate change forum events in Pulborough, the first event in October was an outstanding success and packed out the village hall, learn more here. Come and learn about the problems and solutions of the food industry………

7.00 – 7.10 pm        CHAIRMAN Geoff Barnard, Founder Greening Steyning

7.10 – 7.25 pm        INTRODUCTION: THE FOOD CHAIN Tony Whitbread, President Sussex Wildlife Trust

7.25 – 7.40 pm        SOIL HEALTH Dan Osborn, Chairman CPRE Sussex, the countryside charity

7.40 – 7.55 pm        FARMING Philip Lymbery, Chief Executive Compassion in World Farming Read more

Want to visualise a positive planet in 2040?

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An award-winning film called 2040 is coming to Horsham and Lindfield in March and April, book your tickets now! It is a compelling vision…. come and let yourself be inspired.
Award-winning director Damon Gameau embarks on a journey to explore what the future would look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted them into the mainstream.
2040 is an Australian documentary that takes a solutions-based approach to how we can, using the technology we already have, mitigate the enormous global issues we currently face. The main themes/solutions looked at in the film are around: empowerment of women and girls; marine regeneration; regenerative agriculture; renewable energy; and circular economy. It’s a story of hope, and a powerful tool to encourage people to take action – you can take a peek at some of the amazing things the Australian release has achieved so far in this video.

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Recycle bin

More single-use plastic recycling

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Other ways to recycle more single-use plastic:

In addition to the single use plastics we recycle mainly through TerraCycle, the following plastics can be dropped off for recycling at the major supermarkets: 

– All plastic carrier bags, except biodegradable or compostable bags

– Breakfast cereal liners

– Shrink wrap & ring joiners from multipacks of water, cans etc

– Frozen food bags, e.g. bags for frozen vegetable, chips, etc

– Dry cleaning bags/bags covering new clothing

– Magazine and newspaper wrappers

– Bags for fruit and vegetables

– Bubble wrap

For online shopping deliveries, many supermarkets also allow you to hand your unwanted bags back to the driver for recycling. Read more

Horsham Climate Cafe

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Our Launch!

We were thrilled to launch our Horsham Climate Cafe on Saturday 7th December 2019. As well as locals and school/college pupils, among those attending the cafe’s launch were county and district councillors, Horsham District Council chariman Kate Rowbottom, and parliamentary candidates for the Green Party, Liberal Democrats, Peace Party and the Conservative Party. The Green Party, Liberal Democrat and Peace Party candidates all signed a pledge to take action on climate emergency, as well as inviting the public to Vote for the Planet and Climate Action in the forthcoming election.

Mock up newspaper from 29th Decemeber 2029!

Carrie also presented her ‘mock up’ newspaper dated December 29 2029, the headline reading – ‘Horsham District achieve zero emissions by 2030’ (what a dream that would be!). She said: “It is important to sow seeds of change, show people what the district could look like and inspire them to move in that direction and fast” – check out the full press coverage here. Together, we can help move the community towards a zero carbon Horsham District, and make this headline a reality!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feeling inspired to get involved?

We are always looking for volunteers, so get in touch or come and meet us and see how you can get involved! Join us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or sign up to receive our latest news (it only takes two seconds to add your email address – simply click on black ‘Follow‘ tab on bottom right of this screen!). Feel free to also send us an email using our contact form, or come and say hello at our events like the Horsham Climate Cafe or the Horsham Repair Cefe!

“Inspiring sustainable living in Sussex”

Successful Climate Change Forum

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On Friday 18th October the Wiggenholt Association held a Climate Change Forum in Pulborough. The village hall was bulging at the seams with over 150 people. It was considered a great success and now there are plans for the event to be repeated in other villages.

Presentations were given by the following guest speakers chaired by Jane Mote, media expert and ex BBC broadcaster.

  • CLIMATE CHANGE BACKGROUND Geoff Barnard, Coordinator Greening Steyning
  • COUNTRYSIDE Kia Trainor, Director CPRE Sussex
  • FARMING Peter Knight, Estate Manager Arun to Adur Farm Cluster
  • ENVIRONMENT Tony Whitbread, President Sussex Wildlife Trust
  • COMMUNITIES Carrie Cort, Al Gore Climate Reality Leader & Founder, Sussex Green Living

If you are interesting in organising this event in your town or village please contact us. In the meantime below you can see some of the shocking stats provided by the speakers and below that their top tips on climate action.

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Ludicrous contradiction in Evening Standard

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Letter to the editor of the Evening Standard…..

After reading yesterdays paper I was shocked by the contradictions. On one page I read how “Quarter of London’s parks and playgrounds break the limits on filthy air with dangerous concentrations of nitrogen dioxide. The EU safe limit in accordance with the World Health Organisation is an average of 40 µg/m3 per year yet Victoria Embankment Gardens are 59.8 µg/m3′ ”

Then a couple of pages later Andrew Leadson states “XR are protesting in the wrong city and how the UK must be a beacon of hope for other nations”. She then goes on to say “We are sorting out our own back yards and the UK is already taking urgent action on climate change” Read more

Stunning single use plastic stats!

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We are really excited to share our latest stats and facts showing the impacts of our single-use plastic recycling scheme, which was launched in 2012 in partnership with TerraCycle. In the early days Carrie the founder of Sussex Green Living and her young son Adam sorted and dispatched the recycling, now we have about 20 volunteers aged 8 – 90. Our main public drop off locations are at the William Penn School in Coolham and the Horsham Quaker Meeting House. We also have community micro-drop off locations in: Leechpool School in Horsham, Rudgwick Youth Club, Thakham Village Hall, Storrington Community Market (once a week), Slinfold and Henfield. There are thousands of people collecting for us from all over the county. Over the eight years we have run this special recycling scheme we have diverted millions of pieces of single-use plastic from landfill and incinerator. Most of our single use plastic recycling raises money for the William Penn School.

Prior to the stats shown below we collected TerraCycle waste resources for the benefit of WAKOOS a nursery for children in Billingshurst and Horsham Matters, these statistic are not shown below. Read more

Climate Change Public Forum in Pulborough

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Climate Change – A discussion and debate about this burning subject.

Speakers are drawn from CPRE Sussex, the Arun to Adur Farm Clusters, The Sussex Wildlife Trust and Sussex Green Living.

Date: Friday 18th October

Time: 7pm

Venue: Pulborough Village Hall, Swan View, Pulborough RH20 2BF

Free with tea and sandwiches in the interval

The talks will be by the following guest speakers chaired by Jane Mote, media expert and ex BBC broadcaster. Read more

Are your clothes really causing climate change?

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Now how is it that clothes are causing climate change? …..Where in the world are your clothes made?  Take a look through your drawers and cupboard to find out! In the 1980s lots of clothes manufacturers decided they wanted to copy some of the big expensive brands, however to ensure they sold more and more cheaply and faster they moved their manufacturing bases to Asia. Most of the world’s clothes now are made in China, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka where the price of labour is much cheaper.

Container ships produce more greenhouse gas emissions than some small countries. According to The Essential Daily Briefing: “It has been estimated that just one of these container ships, the length of around six football pitches, can produce the same amount of pollution as 50 million cars (22/04/2018)

Like many commodities, clothes are transported by cargo ships which equals a rather serious carbon footprint and directly contributes to climate change.  Read more

Pre-loved clothes sale in Horsham

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Did you know the second most polluting industry is the fast fashion industry? Learn more about the problems in this blog ‘Are your clothes really causing climate change? We are delighted to announce a local solution….in partnership with our friends at One World Living and our great volunteers, we are running a pre-loved clothes sale otherwise known as a kilo sale! It is on Saturday 9th November 12-4pm at Greenway Academy, Greenway, Horsham, RH12 2JS, at the end of Green GB Week. We will be selling quality pre-loved clothes for a bargin £10 per kilo (normally kilo sales charge £15 a kilo).

To give you an idea of what you will get for one kilo….. a pair of man’s denim jeans will be about 1.5 and 2 kg and woman’s clothing 1 kg will be about 1 pair of denim jeans or about 6 T-shirts. Thanks to the PTA at Greenway Academy there will be drinks and homemade cakes for sale, so come for the afternoon. There will be a separate areas for children, ladies and men’s clothes.

Proceeds from this sale will help us deliver FREE climate education in local schools, learn more here,  also deprived children and families Romania and Uganda. Plus helping the planet and your pocket! Read more

Launching the Horsham Climate Cafe

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On Saturday 7th December 2019 in partnership with the Horsham Quakers we are launching the Horsham Climate Café with a tea party, young and old welcome!

It will take place on the first Saturday of every month 2pm until 4pm in the Quaker Meeting House, Worthing Road, Horsham, HR12 1SL (oppersite Sainsburys car park) after the morning’s Horsham Repair Café (10-1pm).

At the Climate Cafe people can meet informally and talk about climate change, eat delicious homemade cake, have a hot drink and join in the conversations about problems and solutions. You can come once or every month. Lets share ideas and actions people can take to reduce their impact, maybe taking away a ‘Pledge to the planet’ action each month! Download an action plan here – adult version and family version. Clean energy switching service available, just bring your last energy bill or use our site Big Clean Switch. Read more

Horsham community step up to the Climate Crisis

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PRESS RELEASE

With climate change in the news daily, heatwaves, the hottest July date ever recorded, wettest August and now the Amazon ablaze, who would blame people to despair. Help is at hand to Horsham District residents, on the first Saturday of every month at the Horsham Repair Café. Not only do the volunteers offer repairs, refills and recycling advice but they give clean energy advice and switching and climate change solutions.

Governments have been talking about climate change since the early 90s, it is only now in 2019 that we are seeing fast escalating action, with more than half the UK’s principal local authorities having declared a climate emergency in the last eight months. The Horsham Repair Café run by Sussex Green Living with the help of the Horsham Quakers and lots of volunteers are stepping up to this climate crisis.  Read more

Help with climate emergency work and maybe win £25k

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Community groups whose work benefits residents of the Horsham District have been invited to sign up to benefit from the new Horsham District Community Lottery. So Sussex Green Living and one of our outreach initiatives the Horsham Repair Cafe have signed up!

Ticket sales are now open, 60p from every £1 ticket will go to charities, voluntary organisations and other good causes whose work benefits Horsham District communities. Players of the lottery can win a £25,000 jackpot, plus smaller prizes.

1 in 50 – Every ticket has a 1 in 50 chance of winning a prize every week!

£25,000 prize if you match all 6 numbers in the correct order!

Who are we and what do we do for the Horsham community?

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More Yard Bombing or we call it Ocean Bombing!

Environmental art and message ocean bomb Horsham District

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Horsham Carfax Bandstand

Horsham District was bombarded with environmental art and activity on Saturday 6th July. Volunteers from the Horsham Repair Café and Sussex Green Living, an environmental awareness and educational network, provided a dazzling array of ‘environmentally friendly’ stalls at their second Share, Care and Repair Fair, this year within Horsham Market. It was part of the Horsham District Year of Culture 2019 and Horsham Festival.

In the run up to this unique Fair nineteen locations – shops, salons, sports centre, Horsham library and the Carfax bandstand, had surprize eco ocean art installed with environmental messages, plus a display at the Fair. This Community Eco Ocean Art project, sponsored by Biffa, was the brainchild of the founder of Sussex Green Living Carrie Cort. Carrie said “People are so worried about plastic pollution and the plight of the planet, I thought this would be fun for anyone of any age to get creative around communicating the problems and solutions”. She continued “Their art had to be made of unwanted materials or acrylic wool. Acrylic wool is a problem because it is synthetic, plastics, which means it will take decades to completely break down”.

Pam Tedder one of the Horsham Repair Café volunteers co-ordinated the yarn or ocean bombing of the Carfax bandstand.  Read more

Time to Act as Sussex Leads the way on Climate pledges

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West Sussex County Council Climate Pledge

The Countryside Charity, CPRE Sussex is calling for people to respond to an opportunity to help their local Councils work out how to deal with the Climate Emergency.

Sussex councils are leading the way on Climate pledges in the South East according to information compiled by the South East Climate Alliance (SECA).

More councils have declared a ‘Climate Emergency’ in Sussex than in any other county in the Region. Twelve of the sixteen Local Authorities in East and West Sussex have already acted to declared an emergency or have passed a motion to do so, learn more here. Read more