PowerSwitch

I've just bought ZED Life - How To Build A Low Carbon Society Today by well known green architect Bill Dunster of ZED Factory fame. It's published by RIBA Publishing, ISBN 978-1-85946-999-6 at £30.

I'll let you know what its like when I've finished reading it. On previous form, though, that could take a couple of years.

The CAT Zero Carbon Britain report - Making It Happen - is available as a free download from the Zero Carbon Britain website.

Both books sound interesting. I am looking at the download now.

Me too, but I wasn't interested. After the 1st 10 pages of mutual backscratching, he gave us the unimaginative limits of politics versus climate.

How about we ban all physical travel to meetings? You know like those climate gurus swanning around the world for a taxpayer expensed love in? There will be plenty video conferencing solutions possible. To get round the foaming anti-centralists all you need to do is ban expenses for marketing, travel, + wages for time away from your day job. From the litter pickers [who get no perks anyway] all the way up to the £400000pa clown running the Redcross in London. If you want to talk to people, switch on your computer at your place of work. That should offer the useless eaters in gov something to legislate.

My wife. working in education, was once in a UK local gov meeting where they offered bottled water from Tasmania...

Whilst in the jungles of Gabon, on my ill-advised eco holiday, I was served bottled water imported from France.

Not quite so bad, but I am travelling from Newbury to Machynlleth in West Wales for their Zero Carbon Britain course at CAT in May. I'll be going by train and then taxi from the station to Centre for Alternative Technology but it is still travelling all the way to about as far west as I can go in Wales. They do usually offer Welsh Rainwater in jugs from their own water collection and treatment system though.

I have always been struck by the irony of the situation where one of the country's premier sustainability centres is in about as unsustainable position for a visitor attraction as you can get. It was a cheap bit of land in the early 1970s when CAT was set up, I suppose, and they perhaps didn't realise just how many people would want to visit and take courses there.

I will be going again in July to run the Earth Building course for them. Hopefully, I will be able to go by train this time instead of taking a 20mpg Discovery with a 3.5t GVW trailer on the back with a tonne or more of clay soil in it.

kenneal - lagger wrote:I have always been struck by the irony of the situation where one of the country's premier sustainability centres is in about as unsustainable position for a visitor attraction as you can get. It was a cheap bit of land in the early 1970s when CAT was set up, I suppose, and they perhaps didn't realise just how many people would want to visit and take courses there.

Of course that's one of the main reasons why CSE was established!
https://www.cse.org.uk

CAT specialises in education, short courses and post grad, and the Zero Carbon Britain Reports rather than research projects.

I once had to fly to Dublin to do a Carbon audit

To be fair, a posse of PAs and myself did first spend an afternoon hunting for cheap train/ferry combos but in the end £9 from RyanAir won the day...

RenewableCandy wrote:... in the end £9 from RyanAir won the day...

Did that include luggage and using the stairs off the plane?

kenneal - lagger wrote:CAT specialises in education, short courses and post grad, and the Zero Carbon Britain Reports rather than research projects.

Indeed, I contributed to the first ZCB report and am a trustee at CSE. CSE spun out of CAT as the 'implementation' arm of CAT - specially getting to the people, realising the change CAT was visioning. Today there's no connection between the two organisations.

Here are some example of CSE's work: https://www.cse.org.uk/our-work

kenneal - lagger wrote:

RenewableCandy wrote:... in the end £9 from RyanAir won the day...

Did that include luggage and using the stairs off the plane?

I actually thought of that song while I was writing

It included Hand Luggage, which turned out to be the only 'extra' I needed. (Back in the day, you could drop me from a Great Height without doing any serious damage...)