OUR EVENTS

On the 14th October we had a fasinating discussion on “Unravelling Fast Fashion”. We had the pleasure of listening and discussing with Carrie Cort, CEO of Sussex Green Living.

Here are some highlights from Carrie’s fascinating session:

• In the 18th Century – the UK was making and cherishing clothes, utilising weaving and natural dyes
• Then the Industrial Revolution happened and from the 1970/80’s onwards, we have seen the growth of the fast fashion industry – make, ship, wear not very much then landfill – majority made from synthetic materials which are hard to recycle and poor quality
• 1980-90 a lot of the production of clothes moved to Asia – start of sweat shops child labour
• A lot of our clothes on average are only worn 7 times
• The fashion industry is the second-largest industrial polluter, accounting for 10% of global pollution, ranking higher than emissions from air travel!
• Fast fashion is polluting our waters with chemical dyes and the introduction to synthetic materials
• Textiles currently consume 20% of the world’s water supply
• It takes 2,700 litres of water – production to delivery for one cotton T-shirt as well as 27 different chemicals
• Where does all our fast fashion waste go? Landfill in Africa (Ghana) where they have textile mountains

Solutions 

• You can stop microfibres in your washing cycles from your clothing by using a Guppy bag or a Cora Ball
• All the more reason to cherish and repair the clothing you already have at the Repair Café’s we have in our local villages – search for when your next one is and use them!
• There are a lot of 2nd hand clothing and upcycling solutions online, Vinted, eBay, Depop

Useful Links to follow up:
Vinted https://www.vinted.co.uk/
Ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/sl/sell?sr=wnstart
Depop https://www.depop.com/gb/
Guppy Bag https://en.guppyfriend.com/products/guppyfriend-washing-bag?variant=39516660826215
Cora Ballhttps://www.rainbowbrands.co.uk/cora-ball

For those interested to learn more about Fast Fashion you can listen to:

Radio 4’s Rare Earth programme also features Patrick Grant in conversation with others about Fast Fashion  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002mc4w

On the 14th August this year, we had a brilliant talk by Phil Green, a local Bee Keeper – The Bees Knees.

Phil shared his great knowledge of honey bees and some fascinating facts, a few key take aways about Honey Bees: 

• Fly as far as 5 miles for food, however, an average distance would be less than a mile.
• Are totally blind to the colour red so you may want to rethink your planting for bees to include more blues.
• There is an abundance of honey bees in London, too many compared to other bee species (as Honey bees are the only ones we humans keep).
• Do not hibernate during winter – they are the only bee to maintain a colony throughout the winter, the colony reduces its size in autumn and relies on stores of honey to last through the winter.  The colony clusters together inside the hive to keep warm using their bodies to generate heat with the bees taking turns to be on the cold outside. The queen will remain at the centre of the cluster. You may see the honey bee on warmer days as it takes ‘cleansing flights’ to relieve themselves of waste.

Phil described the equipment needed, how to manage a bee hive and the time needed, showing examples of the comb, followed by wonderful tasting of his local honey off the comb and many questions answered too.

On 11th June members of our community had the pleasure of a guided tour round our local regenerative organic dairy farm, Cokhaise Farm by Dan Burgett, 2021 Organic Dairy Farmer of the Year where we learnt all about how regenerative farming can improve soil health.

How can I reduce my digital carbon footprint

Here’s an overview of the Green UP! discussion “how can I reduce my digital carbon footprint” with Jen Hiley, a career technologist working in ClimateTech at start-up GoCodeGreen (also a steering group member of Fairer World Lindfield).

Jen gave an overview of 3 key areas:

• The global impact of digital emissions (accounting for 6% of global emissions which is 3x more than aviation)
• An organisational level view (all organisations will soon need to report their Scope 1, 2 & 3 of which digital forms approx. 30%)
• Tips for what us all, as individuals, can do to reduce our own digital footprints.

Jen’s top 5 digital carbon reduction tips are:

• Delete old emails and photos / videos clogging up your devices (they are consuming power to store)
• Send emails to only those who need to see it and send links to files instead of attachments
• Mobile phone batteries last longer when charged between 20-80%, do not charge overnight and make sure you unplug your charges when not in use
• Close mobile apps / browser tabs when you are not using as they will be consuming energy in the background
• Download content via WiFi to consume on the go v.s streaming

For more digital carbon reduction tips see below:

Keep devices longer

• Buy devices that are repairable, refurbished or remanufactured
• If you do by new, repair devices and do not change every 2 – 3 years

Reduce the energy consumption of devices

• Shut down devices when not using them – WiFi and Bluetooth
• Avoid using large screens / two screens unless your task justifies it
• Disable location services when not using
• Do not use wireless charges (they consume 50% more energy)

Reduce emails

• Unsubscribe from unwanted or no longer needed newsletters
• Set aside an hour or two a month to go through your email inbox and delete anything you no longer need (a typical year of incoming emails adds 136 kg of emissions to a person’s carbon footprint equivalent of driving 200 miles in an average car)

Clean up files and apps

• Think twice before downloading or uploading files or new apps
• Stop keeping and storing data that you know you will never use again
• Reduce the file size of your documents, images, video and other media assets
• Review and clean your files and apps regularly (the probability of reusing data diminishes over time. Only 5% of data is actively reused after 90 days of storage. Data that are stored online take space on servers that require energy to be active 24/7. The same applies to applications downloaded on smartphones. The average retention of apps downloaded on phones falls to 5%after 90 days.)

Act more sustainably in online meetings

• Reduce unnecessary online meetings
• Stream your video or audio in standard definition
• Use video when in a call only as needed (introduction, when speaking or small meetings)

The importance of making sure you download all music / video content on WiFi to watch on the go is key to reducing your footprint (Miley Cyrus’s “Flowers” last years most streamed song on spotify accounts for emissions of 77,000 tCO2e. That is equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of 15,000 cars.)

Finally, this would not be a comprehensive tech overview if I did not mention AI. AI is going to transform our lives in unimageable ways and we all need to use it responsibly. So, the next time you think “I’ll just go on chatGPT and see what I look like as a Viking”, check out these stats… currently the average conversation with chatGPT consumes 1/2 a litre of water, produces the same amount of CO2 emissions as 260 flights from New York to London every month and generative AI already accounts for 1% of the worlds electricity supply.

Energy Help Desk

Shining the light on ‘Resilience’ to our community

Once again it was a great night at the Stand Up Inn as Fairer World Lindfield Climate Group launched its new website and brought people together to talk about “Resilience in the face of climate change”.

James and Jen led the evening looking at how we are going to respond to our climate crisis in a positive way and the importance of bringing a community together to gain support.  Contributions from the floor started with Greener Hassocks & Ditchling who have recently started up a Climate Café Listening Circle.  Trained by the Climate Psychology Alliance this is a safe and welcoming space to have the opportunity to share thoughts and feelings about the climate crisis.  Researcher Alex gave us some thought provoking ideas about how we can find coping mechanisms to be more resilient.  Chris of Fairtrade Lindfield spoke from the perspective of global farmers in developing countries and the staple food they provide for us.  The increase of hotter and wetter weather is making it more difficult to farm and investment through organisations such as Fairtrade enable them to be more resilient.  A great selection of Fairtrade chocolate was enjoyed by all attending!

Peter explained that the Circular Economy is the way forward and is essential for our world to remain sustainable.  The linear model of “take-make-waste” is no longer viable, we need to build a circular model that is restorative and regenerative by design and stays in the system longer.  Peter demonstrated a Fairphone where once the battery has died you can replace it yourself for future use.  11 year old Esme came along as a keen climate supporter and Youth MP for Mid Sussex.  Esme was keen to share her thoughts on how destructive fast fashion is to our planet. She would like to see young people informed more about the waste of resources and slave labour.  The education theme continued with teacher Hannah from Great Walstead school who is a great advocate for climate change and Fairtrade with her pupils.  Raising awareness about this subject and encouraging them to think about what they can do leads to some great discussions and changes in behaviour.   Jen also talked about how her start-up, GoCodeGreen, is providing free access to their sustainable IT learning pathways for women software developers across Africa, increasing education resilience in Least Developed Countries in partnership with the International Telecommunications Unions Parter2Connect Digital Coalition. 

We finished with Colin letting us know about the great project in West Sussex, UK Harvest who once a month arrive at Ascension Church in Ashenground Haywards Heath. The purpose of which is to rescue food from mainly farms that would normally go to waste as it’s not deemed suitable for supermarkets.  Anyone can come and fill a bag for £3.50. 

There was a real buzz at the end of the evening where everyone stayed on to talk, share, support and gain a real sense of positivity, knowing that together we can become more resilient in the face of climate change.

Our next event is a visit to Cockhaise organic farm on Saturday 7^th September.  Please get in touch via fairerworldlindfield@gmail.com

Green UP! What is a green corridor? event

Fairer World Lindfield welcomed an enthusiastic crowd to The Stand Up Inn for their Green UP! event in February, to discuss “What is a Green Corridor?”. Not only were there inspiring speakers, but time was given for discussion and sharing. Alex Briggs spoke about the www.wealdtowaves.co.uk initiative to create a green corridor running from the coast, linking large swathes of green spaces in Sussex and Mark Infield, spoke about the Ashdown Forest’s inclusion in this corridor, Dan Burnett spoke about the green corridors they have created on Cockhaise Organic Diary Farm and Jennie spoke about her long-term work at the Eastern Road Nature Reserve.

Ideas were discussed about how we can all help to establish local corridors. This could be by leaving small gaps in fences for hedgehogs, allowing plants to climb up and over fences or walls, creating ponds, planting native hedgerows, not mowing the corners of gardens or more public places. The corridors created facilitate the movement of wildlife between and through our gardens and through Lindfield’s open green spaces like the Common, Wilderness Field and our nature reserves. Perhaps these green corridors will provide ‘stepping stones’ into neighbouring villages and will link with other green corridor initiatives to the Ashdown Forest and beyond. We can all be part of the Gardens & Greenspaces project with the Weald to Waves project.
Mark Infield left us with a quote from the Lawton Review (2010) “..we need more, bigger, better and joined” green spaces. And we can all contribute to this!

Green UP’s inaugural event on the topic of “How green is greenwashing”, was held on Tuesday 14th Nov in the Stand Up Inn and was a fantastically well attended affair. With over 40 people crammed in to the Stand Up, we had an hour and a half of informative and engaging discussions centered on the topic of greenwashing.

We discussed what greenwashing actually means, who does it and why. This brought on a lively discussion of people inputting what this means in their line of work and it was brought to life with some interesting facts.

Next, we discussed the varied types of greenwashing, from packaging, to unsubstantiated claims through to blatant lies, we uncovered that this is happening more than we all really thought.

We then discussed the legalities of the topic and how legislation is now being introduced which will mean that by 2025, all organisations will have to report their Scope 1 (direct emissions that are owned or controlled by a company), 2 & 3 (indirect emissions which are a consequence of the activities of the company but occur from sources not owned or controlled by it) carbon emissions through the impending Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.

Finally, we discussed what watchdog organisations exists and who to ‘seek out’ if you feel that an organisation is not being transparent. All fantastic discussions and everyone stayed on to mingle over a drink to meet like-minded people – so a great success from our perspective!

We intend to host Green UP! sessions on a regular basis on a variety of informative topics, if you would like to come to the next one, save the date Feb 20^th, 19:00 – 20:30 @ The Stand Up Inn. Topic TBC however we are hoping to have our local councillors in attendance so watch this space and mark your calendars.

Want to know more, please email fairerworldlindfield@gmail.com and we hope to see you at the next Green UP! event.

Last November we hosted an Energy Help Desk at The Stand Up Inn. We had over 60 people pop in for mulled wine/tea/cake and glean information from our community of experts and Lindfield residents on subjects such as: solar panels, draught proofing and insulation, heat pumps, energy efficiency, recycling and waste prevention, grants, recycling and creating a garden pond as well as starting a wormery. We also had support from The Stand Up’s Andi Frost who sells eco-friendly products through Fill Good online store www.fillgoodstore.co.uk.

The Green Extravaganza event

In April FWL hosted a fantastic event in the King Edward Hall, called “The Green Extravaganza”. The concept was to bring local folks together to showcase their efforts to help our environment. Visitors could peruse tables on organic gardening, composting, soil, eco-friendly household products and cosmetics, solar panels, e-bike conversions, setting up a wormery, upcycling, rainwater harvesting, air source heat pumps, nature photography, eco floral art, garden ponds, swapping plant pots, and recycling. Several organisations were also represented including: Greener Lindfield, Lindfield Horticultural Society, Lindfield Repair Café, Ounce, the Growing Network, Sussex Wildlife Trust, Fair Trade and the Hurst Hedgehog Haven. Free to all, with complimentary refreshments, we provided a warm inviting setting for anyone to come along and learn more.