On Monday November 18th we held our third Climate Cafe at East Barnwell Community Centre. With temperatures dropping over the weekend and winter drawing in, our conversations and activities focused on energy savings which were especially relevant.
Climate Cafes are a welcoming space for the community to come together and share thoughts, ideas and questions, over some hot food and drinks and some fun activities. Delicious vegetable soup, hot bread and cakes from Cambridge Sustainable Food were served up from the kitchen, while the hot teas and hot chocolates kept flowing. The Climate Bunting made previously was up and on show, and some free children’s nature books and winter vegetable recipe cards were available to take.
We had old trousers, fabric scraps and a sewing machine out for making draught excluders – handy for placing along the bottom of doors or windows to prevent draughts and heat loss, improving comfort and energy savings. The process was so simple and quick! Just cut off a trouser leg, close one end with stitching, stuff it full with fabric scraps from old clothes, bubble wrap, or polystyrene scraps, and close the one remaining end. It’s easy to see how this could also be done without stitching using elastic bands or string to close the end of a trouser leg.
Visitors and volunteers were encouraged to have conversations about climate, nature, sustainability and energy, with conversation starters such as: What do you love about the environment? Why do you care about nature? Why is climate change important to you? It was encouraging to meet so many people who care about the environment, and to have conversations that were hopeful about the future and about energy.
After our climate, nature and sustainability discussions over a hearty bowl of soup and hot drinks, Jo from National Energy Action led us in Energy Bingo. We had tremendous fun as Jo called out numbers and energy saving tips like
- Number 3, cup of tea. Boiling only the water you need in the kettle is the key and can save you £11 a year.
- Number 10. Low energy light bulbs last 10 times longer than ordinary bulbs and can save between £30 / £70 a year.
- Number 27, tariff heaven. Ring your supplier or check your bill to see if they have a cheaper tariff!
Everyone learned something new from these bingo calls which were full of useful advice for saving energy. The winner of the first full row snagged a wearable blanket, and the second full row got a bag full of energy efficiency goodies, which included:
- radiator foils to reflect heat from the back of the radiator into a room,
- window draught excluder tape to get rid of nasty draughts from windows,
- and some other handy items to improve heat retention.
The grand prize went to the first full bingo card, and was a choice of either a slow cooker or an air fryer, which can save you energy compared to an oven. The winner was quite over the moon with their win!
After the excitement of bingo, Mitchell from Cambridge Carbon Footprint brought along a thermal imaging camera to showcase their thermal imaging camera loan scheme, and we had a poke around the Community Centre to identify hot spots such as radiators and hot water pipes, and cold spots where drafts were coming in through the windows. The scheme aims to help community members identify problems with draughts, insulation and damp in their own homes, so that fixes can be targeted to improve energy efficiency and save on energy bills and carbon emissions.
We are looking for people to help organise our future Climate Cafes and get involved with our sustainability and environmental activities. We would love to hear from you if you’re interested. Please contact Caitlin at greenspaces@abbeypeople.org.uk to find out more about our projects.
The Abbey Climate Cafes are registered with the Climate Café network who share an ethos of community led, inclusive, welcome spaces for people to simply come together with a cup of tea or coffee, to chat and act for our climate.
We would also like to give special thanks to the National Lottery players for their support through the National Lottery Climate Action funding the River Cam CAN (Climate Action through Nature) project.
This 2-year project is involving communities near the River Cam in working on solutions that will benefit them and help to make the city more sustainable and resilient. The main project location is the city’s most disadvantaged ward, Abbey. Communities will transform neglected areas including those around ecologically important chalk-streams, ancient willow trees along 10km of the Cam’s riverbanks, a community urban farm and a roadside verge outside a school. A series of community climate action events and activities are also being delivered, including more Climate Cafes and Repair Cafes.
The main project partners are Cambridge Past, Present & Future, Abbey People, CoFarm, Cambridge City Council, Climate Outreach and Water Sensitive Cambridge but the project will work with a much wider range of organisations.
