Encourage Your Kids to Go Outside More

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Outdoor playGetting outdoors and learning about nature is an essential part of education. These days, however, many children prefer to spend their free-time cooped up inside with a tablet on their lap and the TV playing in the background. While technology can play an excellent role in a kid’s childhood, they also need time in the great outdoors.

If your kid is more interested in YouTube than wildlife and you want to change that, then here is how.

Grow Your Garden 

Bringing the outdoors close to home is the simple first step to getting your little one more in tune with nature. Create areas in the garden that will interest them, such as a pond, a bird-feeder, or maybe even a treehouse! If you do decide on a treehouse, consider hiring a tree surgeon before installing it.

Children mimic their parents, so you should make a goal to go into the garden more, and your kid will be more likely to follow. If you have the room, you could even give them an entire spot to do whatever they want with (within reason).

Take a Weekly Walk 

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Affordable heat help at hand

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SGN Help to Heat advisor

Our Sussex Green Living West Sussex County Times column on 18th February 2021

The Danish word hygge means cosy and charming- an ideal winter word!  However, the winter months can be a worrying time for residents concerned about keeping warm while living in draughty, cold homes knowing their precious heat is simply leaking out and heating the outside air. And with many people working from home or home-schooling, lots of us are facing higher energy bills this year as well.

But help from Sussex Green Living is at hand!

Switching energy supplier or tariff is one of the quickest things we can do to reduce our bills. While we have a bit of time on our hands is a great time to look at energy switching sites like  https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ .

Better still, save money and move to 100% clean renewable energy.  When our Horsham Repair Café is open, we offer a clean energy switching service: https://www.horshamrepaircafe.org.uk/energy-advice/  Everyone we’ve helped has saved between £90 and £366 using this site: https://bigcleanswitch.org/sussexgreen/.

For people on low income there is a scheme called Help to Heat which could help residents and tenants switch to gas central heating by offering a cheaper or free gas connection. Landlords and local authorities can benefit from funding if their tenant applies and is eligible, learn more here https://www.sgn.co.uk/HelptoHeat.

West Sussex Citizens advice have funding available for residents who have concerns about energy bills, suppliers and lots more. The West Sussex helpline is 01243 974063.

Residents can also access LEAP, the Local Energy Advice Service, supported by Horsham District Council. If you’re on a low income, have a health condition made worse by living in a cold home, or are vulnerable in another way, then you could be eligible for free advice and some practical energy saving gadgets. Advice is currently delivered by a friendly telephone call with energy advisers, who can refer you on to other sources of financial help or practical energy saving measures like insulation. You can apply online www.applyforleap.org.uk or via telephone 0800 060 7567

The Government are also currently offering Green Homes Grants. Learn more here https://www.sussexgreenliving.org.uk/green-homes-grants-explained/. People earning less than £30,000 who have a home with low energy efficiency rating (typically E,F or G) can apply online by selecting LAD funding at https://www.warmerhomes.org.uk/

Learn all about this and ask questions at a free AFFORDABLE WARMTH TALK on 24th February 7-8pm using Zoom (from a mobile phone, ipad or computer) https://www.sussexgreenliving.org.uk/events/

We look forward to seeing you there – bring a cuppa to make it hygge occasion!

 

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 Cafe!

“Inspiring sustainable living in Sussex”

 

 

An economy fit for people and planet

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Have you heard about the circular economy or the doughnut economy? It was the focus of the Horsham Climate Cafe presentation on Saturday 6th February 2021. The speaker, an expert in the circular economy, Peter Desmond from Rethink Global and founder of Fairer World Lindfield. Peter is also a fellow Climate Reality Leader – Peter […]

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History and Hope

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We all know what a rubbish year 2020 was and what a bad start to 2021 we have had, but the vaccines are being rolled out and we need to look forward positively into 2021. We wanted to share with you why we feel hopeful with this ‘History and Hope’ article which featured in the […]

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Resilience is key

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When the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161 AD) died, his last word was aequanimitas (equanimity) Fitting: he was an honest man whose reign was prosperous and peaceful. What’s his relevance? What’s so good about equanimity?

One man who knows is Paul Hannam, who gave a fascinating talk at our Horsham Climate Cafe on Saturday 2nd January.   Paul is an expert on people’s emotional intelligence.  Last autumn he spoke at our Horsham Climate Cafe about the ‘A New Story if humans want to survive and evolve as a species​’, hear his podcast from this event here. As we move into a new year of pandemic meltdown and economic crisis Paul thinks that the key quality to get us through is resilience.  Like the Stoic philosophers Paul defines resilience as a combination of mental toughness, adaptability and equanimity. Read more

Will Covid Be a Catalyst for Greener Aviation?

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It is a year since a “new pneumonia” was causing concern in Wuhan: the virus that would come to dominate our lives and make the world finally sit up and take notice of humans’ impact on the planet. It is easy to forget that it was devastating wildfires in Australia and Brazil that were dominating […]

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Should we pay to breathe?

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WE PAY FOR FOOD AND WATER WHY NOT FOR AIR? Every one of us depends on oxygen without ever questioning where it comes from. Almost half the oxygen we breathe comes from the oceans and the other half from plant life. Whilst millions of tiny trees are being planted, old intact ancient forests full of […]

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How We Can Enjoy the 12 Rs of Christmas

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West Sussex County Times our weekly column – 10.12.20 by Karen Park, Horsham Eco Churches

Here’s a chance to think about how we can enjoy a greener, more sustainable Christmas!

 

Read the full article below.

 

 

 

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West Sussex County Council Pension Divestment Campaign

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The West Sussex Local Government Pension Fund is currently responsible for the pension benefits – and future benefits – of thousands of employees (WSCC employees, Local District Council employees, school teachers employed in West Sussex etc).

In 2019 it was known that the pension fund invested approximately £200 million in Fossil Fuel companies (we do not know the exact figure for 2020, although we do know that the share prices for BP, Shell etc have dropped significantly).

The divestment campaign was started in spring 2016 by Worthing Climate Action (WCAN), and asked the WSCC Pension Fund to divest all their funds from fossil fuel companies. In Nov 2017, following a petition, WCAN gave a detailed presentation to the WSCC Pension Committee, and presented strong arguments for divestment.

Various actions took place during 2018 and 2019 which culminated on 15th Feb 2020 with “The Valentine’s Day Divestment Demo” at the Chichester Council Offices (combined with Youth Strike day). This was supported by various environmental groups from around the county.

In early 2020 the CEO of Worthing Borough council wrote to Jeremy Hunt (Chair of WSCC Pensions Committee) asking them to divest. Read more

Have a Planet Friendly Friday!

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Black Friday it came from America…..Along with school proms, trick or treat and a host of other ideas. Black Friday, when we must all cooperate to help keep up the profits of large retail corporations, whose own philosophy seems closer to free market dog-eat-dog economics than communitarianism.  Even the most hardened addicts of the shopping habit  must agree that the charms of Black Friday are starting to jade. The wrong lines discounted. Massive ranges of stuff you don’t really want. Vapid special promotions of things you feel they couldn’t give away if it weren’t for all the hype and glitz.

Followers of Sussex Green Living, being a progressive, well-informed lot, will ask: what’s the environmental cost of all this? We’ve found quite an interesting little piece by Lucy Harley McKeown of Yahoo News that makes for sobering reading. We urge you to read the link; but we’ve filleted out a couple of take-aways, just to give you a flavour:

….Black Friday purchases via Amazon alone could result in at least 18,854 tonnes of additional CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere.  Delivery service Hermes is predicted to produce the most CO2 from Black Friday deliveries; 58,313 tonnes of CO2, while DPD is also expected to rack up around 42,000 tonnes. Read more