St Tees Eco-church progress
We're delighted that the Lancaster University Wind Turbine community fund has granted us £5000 towards the cost of installing solar panels on the roof of the new centre. We’re putting on more than 60 panels, which means that about 2/3 of what we generate will be sold to the National Grid for use elsewhere.
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What can we do?
Richard Dawson writes: One thing which we started doing a couple of years ago was buying antibacterial hand soap and shower gel in 5L bulk online as I was fed up with the amount of plastic bottle and complex waste (pump tops and valve caps) it gave.
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The big containers use a lot less plastic for the volume and are simple to reuse or recycle. I know there are even more ideal ways to refill but this does go some way to help.
Kathy adds that you can order 5L hand soap and washing up liquid from Single Step in Lancaster and also refill your 500ml bottles there.
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Incredible rewilding projects are being established around the world to reintroduce natural ecosystems that have been lost due to human activity - like industrialised farming. Check out this example from Argentina...
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Morecambe Bay Woodlands
Good to know - the Butterfly Conservation charity has been awarded almost £250,000 as part of the government’s Green Recovery Challenge Fund. It will support the Morecambe Bay Woodlands project and will promote the recovery of threatened butterfly and moth species including High Brown Fritillary, Pearl-bordered Fritillary and Duke of Burgundy as well as the rare White-spotted Sable moth.
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The programme will promote sustainable habitat management through coppicing, reconnecting open areas, removing non-native invasive plants, and tree planting, as well as restoring cattle-grazed wood pasture habitat.
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Kathy Barton writes: There is a tale of a monk who said to a visitor 'let us know if there’s anything you want and we’ll teach you how to live without it'. (Joy in Enough newsletter January 2021)
How do we encourage our children and ourselves to be happy and content with limits on our consumption. What do you and your family think about sustainable consumption - the joys and disappointments!? Get in touch using the button below.
My personal reflection includes a happy childhood as almost everyone I knew was in the same boat. I had one second hand bicycle, a new dress at Easter and one at Christmas, homemade of course. My dolls had homemade clothes from remnants as was my bed quilt. We had sweets and crisps only on our weekly summer holiday camping trip.
Flash forward to adulthood, I flew on many holidays abroad. The children ate biscuits and crisps whenever they wanted. We thought recycling was all we had to do.
Currently I think twice about processed food and plastic containers, even if they are recyclable. I am fortunate to be able to eat seasonable veg we grow at Claver Hill without chemicals. I actually enjoy eating vegetarian 90% of the time. However after attempting Veganuary, I admit, I prefer my homemade yoghurt made from organic milk delivered in glass bottles, to the processed oat, coconut, or soya yogurt sold in plastic containers. Choices are never easy.
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North Lancashire's Food Futures
Paint a Picture of our Future
Anyone living in North Lancashire is invited to use their creativity to visualise what our future could look like. This activity is designed for children and young adults living in North Lancashire, but everyone else is also welcome to get involved. Click here for more information
Shaping our Food Futures
What are your dreams for a healthy, resilient and fair food system? FoodFutures is developing a 10 year local food strategy for sustainable food work in the district. We recognise that there are many possible food futures and so, to help shape this, we are asking residents living, growing and eating in North Lancashire to complete this survey. We would love to hear from you! Click here for the survey
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Spring cleaning the planet
Andrew Talks writes: As a life group we were studying the idea of heaven using the excellent resources from the Bible Project. This gave us the idea that we could do a bit to bring heaven to earth by carrying out a Lent litter pick or Spring Clean. Many of us had also been watching the amazing Perfect Planet series on BBC and felt we wanted to do something in our local area. Using litter pickers that one of the group had at work, all of the Life group are now collecting rubbish near where they live from Scale Hall to Bowerham. Many people have been very happy to see us collect litter and we feel good about it too! Why not join in the BIG SPRING CLEAN!
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