A week or so ago Selina and I were invited to attend the grand opening of Dobbies garden centre.
We were really quite interested in this as we have been trundling past the place on an almost daily basis on our bus ride to Hampton and had been watching the place grow, quite speedily, out of the ground for a couple of months.
When we arrived we headed straight for the food hall, as you do, and we were treated to a delightful array of delicious looking goodies, we were impressed. So much so that now I have to treat Selina to Dobbies ice cream every time we meet our work targets! What was really impressive was the amount of produce that was being stocked in the food halls and used in the eatery that was local and seasonal. As we all know buying local, seasonal fresh food is a great way of supporting British farmers and making sure you have all the right vitamins. Of course we opted for cake.
Next we went to look at the plants. I’m a keen gardener so wanted to see how the nursery area measured up. I thought the stock of plants that they had was very good, especially for the time of year, and I was pleased to note that the whole area was quite easy to physically negotiate. It can be tiresome when you can’t sort out your Dalias from your Geraniums and Dobbies do have their plants laid out so that they make sense. Speaking of sense does that last sentence make any? Anyway what I was really pleased to see was that the plants were labelled as to their origin so you could buy your strawberry plants from a nursery in Lincolnshire and your Crocosmia from a UK supplier. Superb.
The thing we were both most impressed with was the Eco-living Centre. We work for an environmental charity, we are environmentalists and we are very happy to see that Peterborough, which after all is the home of the UK’s environment capital, has its’ own Eco-shop at last! Yes you can buy insulation and rainwater harvesting systems, composters and water butts but more importantly you can by a clock that’s made from recycled plastic and wooden toys made with sustainable wood.
Now I’m not officially endorsing Dobbies and I am aware that there are those who quite rightly believe that the area needs a leisure centre more than it needs a garden centre but I am saying that this is a great place to shop green and Peterborough definitely needs more green shopping.
P.S. Don’t forget if you have an electric vehicle you can charge it at Dobbies too! Oh and if all this has failed to tempt you it’s worth a visit just to check out the loo’s!!!
Hampton College was buzzing yesterday with over 120 pupils from pre school to 6th formers, who along with their teachers came together to celebrate their Eco achievements over this academic year.
There were models, games, films, songs, badges, vegetables, beetroot cake, booklets, posters and that was just in the schools displays! The pupils got to see what others schools have been doing and share ideas, as well as take part in a range of eco activities provided by local organisations.
A range of awards were presented in the afternoon, some decided in advance and some by our intrepid judges yesterday. Here are the results.
Eco Factor Award
Voted for by the pupils on the day for the most informative and interesting display.
Winners: Nene Valley Primary School, Ken Stimpson Community School
Special Recognition Award
presented to Hampton College in recognition of their outstanding contribution to the sustainability of their school, their contribution to Eco Activities across the city, their work with other schools and their drive commitment and enthusiasm.
Awards judged in advance, the entries in these categories were nominated by their schools and the winners decided by judges from Perkins Engines and Councillor Samantha Dalton.
Eco Leader Award
Winner: Helen Bacon, John Clare Primary School
Highly Commended: Heather Revell, Eye Primary School; Sarah Owen, Gladstone Primary School; Amy Barker, Bishop Creighton Academy
Green Supporter Award
Winner: Beryl Hollingsworth, St Augustine's C of E Junior School
Highly Commended: Bea Holdsworth, Gladstone Primary School
Green Aspiration Award
Winner: Eco Team, St Augustine's C of E Junior School
Highly Commended: Eco Team, Middleton Primary School; Eco Team, Bishop Creighton Academy; Eco Team, Braybrook Primary School
Theme Awards - judged on the day by judges from Perkins Engines, Peterborough Evening Telegraph and the PECT board.
Tuesday 5th July at Hampton College will see 21 schools from across Peterborough come together to share their Eco Projects and celebrate their acheivements.
On the day of the awards the pupils will be putting up displays to show off what they have been doing, taking part in lots of Eco Activities, receiving awards and Blogging right here on the PECT blog.
So visit the PECT blog on and after the 5th to see what the pupils have to say about their projects, the awards day and the different activities they have been taking part in.
If you would like more information about the Awards then contact Jill Foster at PECT.
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This year Bright Green has set up 'Festival Green' exclusively dedicated to recycling and materials salvage at music festivals and other events. Over the summer we will be at festivals ranging from the small and intimate to boutique and rock, including Download, Big Chill, Reading and many others.
Festival Green aims to make recycling and composting an enjoyable experience, encouraging people to put the right thing in the right bin and running incentive schemes, such as competitions for instruments, or bags of recycling for beer tokens. We couldn’t do this without the great help of volunteers, our Green Messengers, who work to promote the re-use, recycle & compost message.
Volunteering is hard work but lots of fun, so you should be prepared to work between 16 and 24 hours over the course of the festival, in exchange for a weekend crew pass, staff camping, showers and catering.
It’s May 1998 and I am eleven years old. Ronaldo (the fat one, not the greasy one) is set to be the star of World Cup 1998, before eventually succumbing to host nation France in the final. But it is the legendary yellow jersey of Brazil that has caught my eye, but where am I to find the exorbitant £49.99 to buy one – plus the extra cost of getting ‘Samaldo’ emblazoned on the back? I’d still be saving if I’d relied on pocket money. The only choice then is to root through the cupboards and flog my expensively purchased, now unwanted wares out of mums’ car boot at 6am in a Church car park in Radcliffe. But it was worth it, and I wore that shirt every day in the summer of 1998. As the first thing I ever saved up to buy, it’s a treasured possession, and one I can’t imagine ever parting with.
I went to dozens of car boot sales after this; sold things in ‘Loot’ magazine and, when my offered items became fewer and more valuable, I started using eBay – the online car boot sale. Just because the things I sold were no longer of use to me, didn’t mean they had ceased to be of any value. Similarly, I’ve just paid £0.01 for a guidebook of Venice from the ‘used’ section on Amazon.com. Presumably someone paid £14.99 for the book before heading to Venice. They subsequently went to Venice (or simulated the experience by reading the guidebook cover to cover whilst sat in a canoe with a Cornetto). After this experience, the book was relatively useless to them, so they offered it for sale. I paid a negligible fee and postage and got a book I needed at 20% of the price I would’ve paid in Waterstone’s, and they saved themselves unnecessary clutter. In theory, Lonely Planet need to print one less guidebook to Venice, which saves paper, ink, time, money and so on. In essence, this is collaborative consumption.
eBay and Amazon are household names involved in collaborative consumption, whilst ‘Loot’ magazine and car boot sales pre-date these by decades and centuries alike. Some of you may have heard of the CouchSurfers website? Register you sofa online and people who need somewhere to stay for the night (at minimal cost) will contact you from time to time to arrange sleeping on said couch. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but cheaper and greener than staying in one of Lenny Henry’s hotels...
But what about Relay Rides, where you make your car available to others in need of transport, again for a small fee towards petrol etc?
Or TaskRabbit, where those that are cash rich and time poor can post ‘tasks’ (such as walking the dog, collecting dry-cleaning, posting parcel) online, for ‘runners’ to complete for a mutually agreed fee?
What about Zopa then? If you’re as tired of the banking system as everyone else is, why not loan money from a peer at a competitive rate, making repayments at an agreed APR over an agreed time period?
Parkatmyhouse (alternative to the spiralling costs of NCP multi-storeys)?
Bartercard (services for goods, or vice versa)? Thredup (for those fast-growing nippers)?
And there are oodles of tool-sharing groups out there for budget conscious DIY-ers.
Collaborative consumption is a burgeoning movement. Not only does it have the potential to save people huge amounts of time and money, but it also eradicates our obsession with possession and consumption, hitting the cause of our environmental problems instead of looking for ways to allow us to continue in our fatally flawed economic and societal paradigm.
Hybrid cars, eco-tourism and carbon offsetting may well be pieces of the jigsaw, but they are not the ultimate solution.
I’ll leave you with a little statistic. The average power drill is used for 12 minutes in its life. I have never driven down a row of terraced houses and seen every single resident simultaneously engaged in carpentry or other such craft. Thus, I would wager that one power drill could quite easily be shared between the average UK street. The same is probably true of DVDs, books, slow-cookers, bicycles and so on. Collaborative consumption – coming to a street near you soon.
This'll be at the Green Festival launch on Saturday 28th May in Cathedral Square, Peterborough City Centre.
We're working with Travelchoice for this year's Green Festival to encourage people to walk, cycle, car-share, and use public transport. Visit their website by clicking on the image below to find out more.
If you love the environment and have a little bit of time, here are some suggestions for ways you can support green and ethical campaigns and make a real difference.
If you have five minutes:
Read about the work being done by the WWF in Indonesia to stop illegal logging and hunting and save the orang-utan. 2011 is a big year for the WWF – it’s their 50th birthday and they are also celebrating the International Year of Forests. Visit the ‘what we do’ section of their website to find out more: www.wwf.panda.org
Sign the Soil Association’s ‘not in my banger’ petition. This is the campaign to ensure pigs are kept in good conditions and stop massive pig factories from setting up shop in the UK. All the details can be found on their website: www.soilassociation.org
If you have an hour (or two!):
Farm animal welfare charity Compassion in World Farming is looking for helpers to man their stand at the Peterborough Green Festival launch on Saturday 28th May. The event is being held on Cathedral Square in Peterborough City Centre and Compassion staff are seeking the assistance of volunteers who can chat to members of the public and engaging people with the games and activities on their stall. Anyone interested should contact Lisa Willmot on 01483 521976 or email
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Make a meal using sustainable fish. You may have heard about Hugh’s Fish Fight in the news. This is Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s latest (and in my opinion brilliant) campaign to highlight the problem of unsustainable fishing – driven by our unsustainable appetite for cheap seafood.
A mixture of bonkers bureaucracy and the high demand for certain types of fish, even though they are endangered, means that around half of the fish caught by fishermen in the North Sea are unnecessarily thrown back into the ocean dead.
I don’t have space to explain the ins and outs of the issue here, but essentially we need to diversify our fish eating habits and we need to change policy so that it works for fish, fishermen and consumers. Do your bit by buying sustainably caught fish and trying a type of fish that is plentiful. Recipes and ideas can be found here: www.fishfight.net/fish-recipes
If you have an afternoon or an evening:
Book a ticket for local charity Froglife’s ‘evening at toad hall’ fundraiser on 2nd April. (Visit www.froglife.org or call 01733 558844 for all the details). They’ve been speaking to the One Show’s Mike Dilger to persuade him to attend and there will be lots of fun and games, and all for a fantastic cause!
Attend our next Forest for Peterborough planting event on 22nd February. Join us anytime between 9am and 3.30pm at Thorpe Meadows (near the boathouse pub) in Peterborough. It’s free to attend and is suitable for all ages. Wear warm clothes and wellies, and bring your own spade if you have one! For more information visit www.pect.org.uk/forest or call us 01733 567159.
Here at PECT we like to encourage everyone to be as green as they can and when we say everyone, we mean everyone, including your household pets!
Now we don’t expect your four-legged friends to suddenly decide they’re going to walk rather than take the bus and turn the heating down a couple of notches by themselves, but there are steps you can take to make your cats and/ or dogs as environmentally friendly as they can be.
www.ecoutlet.co.uk is a website set up to sell eco-friendly products such as stuff for your garden, and home as well as eco-friendly bags and miscellaneous items like bracelets and belts. They also have a page aimed at providing you with the opportunity to help your furry friends out with some environmentally friendly pet accessories.
Let’s start with our feline friends.
You’re cats will be clawing their way into Ecoutlet’s Catnip Mice. These triangular shaped cat toys are stuffed with organic catnip and are made with fabric from second hand stores, using pieces of old curtain and table cloth. The mice are purrfect for your cat to play with and come in a variety of colours and patterns. Also, take a look at the Felt Rattle Ball and Organic Loofah Cat Toy, remember Christmas is coming up, so treat your cat too!
Bath time!
Now if your dog is anything like mine they are a nuisance when they need a bath, but it’s got to be done so why not go the extra step and help appease your dog with Neem Oil Pet Shampoo. This special shampoo is made with organic ingredients and will soothe skin irritations and flea bites and more. The website states that “You will also be delighted with the look, feel and smell of your pets’ coat - particularly with regular use.” The shampoo is also safe to use with flea treatments.
Walkies with Recyclead.
Not only can your dog be eco-friendly, but they can also look eco-friendly with Ecoutlet’s Recyclead. This lead is made from recycled bicycle inner tubes which are washed and cleaned before they are put together. The Recyclead is sturdy and durable and is a fantastic way to save on landfill waste.
If only they’d do it themselves..
Finally, I would like to tell you about Biobags, which are dog waste bags that are 100% biodegradable. These bags are an eco-friendly alternative to plastic bags as the break down in 40 days and are also 100% compostable. You get 50 bags each time your order and they are based on corn starch and vegetable oil. Definitely helping with your pets eco-pawprint!
Hi, I’m Eve the new Household Energy Advisor and I’ve found some free energy and water saving gadgets you might want to get your hands on!
To claim your free power down plug and water widget until 31/12/2010 enter ‘Gadget’ as the code at http://www.freegreengadgets.co.uk .
At Anglian Water you can claim a free ‘shower saver’ and ‘save a flush’ gadget at http://tiny.cc/gbxry
You can also book in a free home visit available through their ‘Love Every Drop’ project. Every home in Peterborough is entitled to a free visit by a qualified plumber, who will check for leaks and provide you with a free box of goodies containing four more water saving gadgets! Visit them at http://tiny.cc/5tkfa
Alternatively, you can email me for more details at
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Work with others to come up with brilliant ideas...
Learn what really influences people’s behaviour
Win money to make a difference in your neighbourhood
Help make Peterborough the Environment Capital
Do you or your community group have an idea that could make green behaviour easier in your neighbourhood? Or perhaps you’d love to do something, but aren’t yet sure what ideas would work?
We’re holding an innovation workshop to spark ideas that could make green behaviour easier in your neighbourhood. We’ll help the most promising ideas get off the ground by supplying small amounts of money and practical support.
This isn’t a consultation! We’re looking for people who have the time and enthusiasm to put some of their ideas into practice in a three month trial in Peterborough.
The workshop will take place over two days, Monday 25th and Wednesday 27th October at a venue in central Peterborough. To win money and support for your project, you (or a representative from your community group) will need to be able to come to both.
During the workshop we'll be presenting some of the latest thinking on why people behave the way they do, and help you combine those insights with your local knowledge to come up with brilliant ideas.
We know giving up time is a big ask. We promise that the workshop will be stimulating and inspiring. You will receive credit for the ideas you help develop, and although your favourite idea might not selected for further development, at the very least you will get a free lunch!
There are limited spaces available so you must sign up in order to come to the workshop. To do this, or find out more details, email
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with a little bit of information about you or your community group, or telephone 020 7451 6935. Get in touch!
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We know giving up time is a big ask. We promise that the workshop will be stimulating and inspiring. You will receive credit for the ideas you help develop, and although your favourite idea might not selected for further development, at the very least you will get a free lunch!
