PECT staff again participated in the Travelchoice Walk to Work Week competition, cruising a total of 150.7 miles for the week long event from 26th - 30th April.
The event encourages employees to walk more as part of their commute and working day, and helps workplaces encourage and promote walking amongst their workforce. It's an excellent way to add some exercise into your day and does wonders for your physical and mental well-being.
Hugh, Rachel and Dave Smith from Scott Wilson motivated the team by walking in from Stamford for the second year in a row. Nyree walked in from Werrington and Karen walked in from Eye. Even our staff that work out of Peterborough and commute in walked to and from train stations, in Patrick's case over 3 miles each way. Even I managed to walk to work, allergy to all things exercise and effort aside.
For our efforts, PECT won two of the competitions categories, Top Coordinator (that's me!) and Best Small Business. Congrats to PECT staff for their effort and as always their enthusiasm in taking part.
Green Festival Launch, this Saturday from 10.00 - 4.00. My 3rd, and I can't wait. Nyree and Stuart have done an amazing job organising this years festival. We have had so many people ring in interest, ask to volunteer, and wanting to participate, it's been amazing. The festival truly does get better and better every year.
The actual launch day is so much hard work, but so much fun. Stuart I imagine will be in Cathedral Square as the sun comes up to organise stalls, awnings, stages and whatnot. The majority of PECT staff will come shuffling round at 8.00am. There are bits to carry, lug, drag and display. People to organise, shift, and direct. After at least 8 hours on our feet, Kim will still be bouncing round, Nyree and Janine will be arm in arm laughing, Hugh will be fatherly and ask us all out for a pint in thanks, Rachel will be exuberant, Karen will still be chatting with anyone and everyone at the Greeniversity stall, and me, with my swollen ankles and burnt nose, will be in awe of the people I work with and their constantly positive attitudes and sense of community and spirit. I'll have a big smile on my face, probably a tear in my eye, filled with respect and love for my PECT comrades, from CEO to volunteer. Aww shucks. See you Saturday!
PECT Walks the Walk and aims to shine again. Last year Janine won the Walk to Work Week Coordinator for encouraging the highest number of staff as a proportion of workforce to take part. This year we are aiming for 136 miles, saving 68kg of Co2. The week starts on 26th April and ends with a bang on 30th April, seeing Hugh Cripps (CEO) and Rachel Huxley (Ops Mgr) walking in from Stamford!
We’re also inviting you all to join us. If you want to meet Kim and Lisa in Woodston, Hugh and Rachel in Stamford, Nyree and Nicola in Werrington, or Sophie in Eye, let me know and I’ll arrange the details.
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All I can say is...WHAT? Well, I suppose I can say more...
I watched part of (football argument and I lost) Crop to Shop - Jimmy's Supermarket Secrets on BBC1 earlier in the week and I'm still stunned. The programme had Jimmy Doherty exploring the global logistic of "fresh" food from around the world to a shop near YOU.
Potatoes, I like a bit of mash, not so keen on the baked, but hey, potatoes are good food. But, did you know that potatoes are grown in Egypt and shipped to the UK. The logistics are incredible. Egyptian farmers buy seed potatoes from Scotland. The grow the potatoes in sand, which has no nutrients. They therefore need to water and fertilise the seed potatoes. Water + desert = huh? Well, there is a finite water source deep deep deep under the desert. They have tapped that for watering the potatoes and fertilising at the same time. Cool, the potatoes grown where none have grown before...Then the potatoes are harvested and packed in peat moss. Peat Moss + desert = huh? Ah, so, they import Peat Moss from Ireland, known for great Peat Moss... Then they ship the lovely winter pots to the UK.
So, although our British potatoes can be stored for months, supermarkets are importing winter potatoes from Egypt. A round trip of over 11,500 miles.
Egypt + potatoes = WHAT?!
Buy + Eat + Grow + Local British Potatoes = Common Sense
I love windup because it doesn't take anything from the environment to turn on and I can count on the item working with a little wrist action.
There is a plethora of products available that use windup energy. Everything from toys to flashlights and radios. The main alternatives are resource high electricity and portable batteries. But, if you're turned on by batteries, there are new measures to help make it easier to dispose of them.
Effective 1st February 2010 regulations covering collecting, recycling and reprocessing portable batteries came into force. Which means, in battery terms, any member of the public can return waste batteries to any shop that sells in excess of 32kg of batteries per year.
If you are a business that uses portable batteries, your supplier will operate a take back scheme.
The disposal of waste industrial batteries and automobile batteries in landfill and by incineration is banned. The battery producer or automotive garage will take back used batteries when you buy a new one and will dispose of them accordingly.
For more information on how to dispose of batteries, contact your local council.
James Barker, member of the Chartered Institute of Waste Board, will be educating people about composting / biodegrading / anaerobic digestion.
Attendees will gain an insight into the various methods of food waste disposal both domestic and commercial and why there is no perfect solution. Progress to date, and what householders can do to reduce landfill. Methane gas from landfill is 25 times more dangerous than C 02. Also the various landfill directives are simply target driven with no advice on suitable methods.
As as a maintenance engineer with specialist knowledge in food machinery lubrication James has worked in numerous food production sites and was appalled to see first hand the landfill disposal of thousands of tons of human and animal food waste. This easy option is no longer viable.
James has just been granted a patent for the reuse of domestic grey water in the home and the system will be on the market by Easter. Their design for a Methane Gas Generator with farm/factory applications is now well advanced, and is intended to reduce waste food disposal energy consumption.(one of the problems with the proposed trial in Peterborough).
If you're interested in joining us, meet in our offices at 12.00 Tuesday, 8th December.
This is my story. I can be annoying (no really, I can). I have an American accent (squeaky voice that sounds ready to hop on a horse). Especially when I can't figure something out (be bothered). So, I've often asked (annoyed) Ben to help (do it for me) with various things (everything) having to do with design. Now he's off to America (why not me, oh why not me) to live near San Francisco with his lovely girlfriend (she's really too good for him) Stacey. Today is his last day (he's really leaving in January and too lazy to work until then). We had a lovely lunch for him (leftovers from yesterday), Sarah and Nyree made him a card (my poem was the best bit) and got him a little pressie (far too expensive for what he deserves..) and now I'm just left feeling a bit sad (is it 5.00 yet). So Ben, thanks for all of your support (eye rolls) and your patience (drumming fingers) and technical design support (irritated instructions). I'll miss you (If I visit can I stay for free?).
Today is Thanksgiving in America. Why should I care...well, I'm American, and proud of it. Although Thanksgiving's origins are questionable, it is a time of family, friends, and giving thanks (not to mention the food, beer and American Football).
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. There isn't any need for presents or posturing. It is what is.
For the second year running, the PECT gang have humored me and celebrated Thanksgiving in the form an office bring and share lunch. Although we were missing Mark and his famous home made Yorkshire puddings, everyone came, shared and gave thanks. Helen, our weekly yoga instructor, and Jenna, Charlotte and Alice from PCC also graced our table. The food was amazing. Roast chicken (thanks Chris!!!!!), gravy, stuffing, veggie stuffing, cheesy swede mash, roast potatoes, green beans, carrots, and dessert, Jill's mouth watering Pumpkin Cheesecake!
Thanks went around the table, from the simple pleasures, "I'm thankful for sunshine", "I'm thankful for the food!", we had thanks for a brother who will be going to Afghanistan, from a sister "thankful that she has him now and that he comes home safe".
Being thankful isn't difficult. Look at the sunshine, look at your friends, look at your son or daughter. Feel the love and give thanks.
Thank you PECT for supporting our diverse ideas, supporting the work/family ratio, encouraging ideas and appreciating our enthusiasm. Thanks Hugh for going along (most of the time) with our crazy ideas and my poor tea making abilities. Thank you PECT staff for encouraging my bad jokes and pranks that forever go wrong. Thank you to my family and friends, especially the ones in America that I miss every day. Thank you to the people that serve in the military world wide and put their lives on the line for what they believe. And lastly, thank you Kim, for your childlike enthusiasm for everything, including your curiosity on what left on the table would taste the weirdest together, and then giving it a go. Here's to cranberry sauce, fruit salad with yogurt and gravy..yes, gravy.
Am I the only one that feels the pain of inanimate objects? Wait, don't answer that right away...
When I was little, I loved the book "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein. In brief, it's a tale about a young boy and a tree. The tree provides the boy with what he wants. He loves the boy very much and provides him with anything he asks for, until the tree is just a stump that as the boy grows old, he can sit on. And the tree is happy.
The selfless giving of the tree to the boy he loves, to the point there is nothing left but a stump, shows love but also the selfishness of the boy. I read this story to my son, and it is now one of his favorites.
When I was little and my cuddly toys needed to be boxed or given away, I cried. I felt that they would be lonely, feel abandoned. My son is the same. When I explain that other children are less fortunate, and with his birthday just past and Christmas around the corner, we should donate some of his unused toys and cuddly things to charity, he can't bare it. "But they'll miss me mommy, they'll be sad and afraid without me to take care of them".
And so, the same goes for trees. I really hate buying a Christmas tree every year. I hate the waste of it, the poor tree thrown out after the New Year. I even feel badly for the trees in the shop that are lopsided or drooping, thinking they've grown their whole life with the hope of being chosen as a family Christmas Tree, only to have that life wasted because they aren't perfect.
Nyree sent me this link. A little something to make me feel better about the waste and consumership of Christmas and the holiday season. Save a tree. Love a tree. Go on, I know I'm not the only one.
Just came out of a Lunch N Learn....it was a good one.
Did you know that Peterborough is a Sustainable Transport City? Nigel Brigham from Sustrans told us about the results from the Travel Choice survey about sustainable transport use from 2004 to 2008. When Travel Choice started the project, Peterborough was one of three cities to be chosen for data collection.
Although there is a long way to go, of the three cities, Peterborough residents made the most change. This is certainly one of the reasons we are on our way to becoming the UK's Environment Capital.
PECT runs Lunch-n-Learns as a fun and casual way to learn about different activities and sectors of the community. We've had everything from a fellow member of staff giving us Access training, to Cllr Nick Sandford going over the ins and outs of Council decision making. If you'd like to join us, they take place in our office, normally from 1-2 on a Monday or Tuesday.
Upcoming topics:
November 20th
The Easternangles play "Lincoln Road"
November 23rd
Scottish Widows - Talk about pensions
November 30th
Hugh Cripps talks about the history of PECT
December 8th
James Barker, member of the Chartered Institute of Waste Board
December 14th
Our very own Janine & Jill educating us on Recycling
January 26th
Jenna from PCC on "Your Footprint Counts"
If you you'd like to attend, send me an email. It's casual, friendly, laid back learning.....don't forget your pack lunch!
14:40:04
For the second year running, the PECT gang have humored me and celebrated Thanksgiving in the form an office bring and share lunch. Although we were missing Mark and his famous home made Yorkshire puddings, everyone came, shared and gave thanks. Helen, our weekly yoga instructor, and Jenna, Charlotte and Alice from PCC also graced our table. The food was amazing. Roast chicken (thanks Chris!!!!!), gravy, stuffing, veggie stuffing, cheesy swede mash, roast potatoes, green beans, carrots, and dessert, Jill's mouth watering Pumpkin Cheesecake!
