Last week Eve and I attended the Cross Keys Homes Annual Residents conference, this is the third that I’ve attended but Eves first and it presented us both with a great opportunity to promote PECT and its’ projects to the residents of Cross Keys.

Eve is the project officer for Energy matters which is funded by Cross Keys to help their tenants out of fuel poverty, as operations director Claire Higgins said “Cross keys want to really help people who are in fuel poverty, this is an area that I’m really concerned about and want to help with as much as I possibly can!” In the UK, fuel poverty is said to occur when in order to heat its home to an adequate standard of warmth a household needs to spend more than 10% of its income on total fuel use, and with ever rising fuel costs Eve’s Energy Matters project is even more vital at this time.

Eve completed over 50 energy surveys with residents at the conference and each off them also received a free Energy Matters pack which includes a bag, low energy light bulb and shower timer. If you are a Cross Keys Homes tenant and over 55 yrs of age contact Eve on 01733 866435 or email eve.atkins @pect.org.uk for your free visit to help you save money on your energy costs. You will be surprised at how much money you can save and Eve has already identified savings of £184,145.00 and taken 31% of people she has visited out of fuel poverty!

Various awards were presented to outstanding tenants during the evening  and as a tenant of Cross Keys myself I’m really proud of level of environmental commitment the organisation has. I was really pleased to see  the award for ‘Green neighbour’ presented to Madge Wilson and Cindy Player from Fulbridge Road, New England. 
They were nominated by resident Janet Riley (a resident from Becketts Close which is round the corner) for all the hard work that they have put into creating a communal garden in Fulbridge Road. Janet advised that the garden looks much nicer now and “it is a pleasure to see it looking so nice”.
Other PECT projects that were promoted on the day were our green skills sharing website, www.greeniversity.org.uk and work that we do with businesses with our green accreditation scheme iie. I was delighted with the pro environment attitude of Cross Keys staff and residents which was demonstrated by the large number of sign up we had to the PECT newsletter and the environment network!

Tags: Karen Lawrence | Energy Efficiency | Greeniversity

Our ‘Warm Homes Peterborough’ project has won a national Green Apple Environment Award, recognising environmental best practice!

Tags: Warm Homes Peterborough | Energy Efficiency | Nadia Grys

Discover business opportunities in renewable energy at the Algal Biofuels Envirocluster Seminar!

Learn about new and exciting opportunities for local manufacturing, engineering and cleantech businesses in a new regional supply chain developing the production process for algae-derived biofuels, including pilot and test facilities being commissioned by Cranfield University.

Marine microalgae are an excellent candidate for the next generation of low carbon biofuels as it is fast-growing, has a high lipid (oil) yield, can be grown in large quantities, and does not use scarce fresh water or agricultural land.

Europe is specifically targeting the East of England to become a major area for growth in renewable energy in the next 10-15 years. This is due to its unique combination of geographical opportunities, skills availability, low urban pressure and natural resources.

Click on the links below for more information on

• The event details
• About microalgae
• What local and national businesses are attending?

Tags: Creating the UK Environment Capital | Energy Efficiency | Green Festival | Nadia Grys

Hereward Solar Solutions are specialists in solar energy and will be providing free advice and demonstrations at the Green Festival this Saturday.

Tags: Green Festival | Green your business | Energy Efficiency | Environmental Education | Nadia Grys

It’s that time of year again when the country comes to a stand still because of the cold. Generally when it comes to snow people either love it or hate it. Either way, the cold weather is ‘snow’ reason to forget about your environmental impact and carbon footprint (ho ho ho)!

We’ve compiled our top tips on being environmentally conscious in the snow!

• If you have to drive then make sure you remove ALL the snow off your car before you set off. The blanket of snow means the engine takes longer to warm up and get up to maximum efficiency. Snow also weighs a deceptive amount and this weight also reduces efficiency.

• Use a good old fashioned ice scraper rather than chemical de-icer to remove ice from your car. It’s pollution free! Even better, cover up your car with a sheet or blanket when it’s not in use!

• Using salt/grit can be messy and contaminate the ground. So where possible just shovel snow instead.

• When the weather outside is frightful, turning the heating up seems delightful! But it isn’t. Just one extra degree increases fuel consumption by 8%! Try snuggling up with a cosy blanket first. If a blanket is impractical then it’s ok to wear your hat and scarf inside too.

• Invest in insulation. It has a relatively quick payback period and there are a number of schemes that offer discounts depending on where you live or your income.

• If you can’t afford to take time off work but are going to struggle to get in, the snow gives you the perfect excuse to raise the idea of working from home with your boss!

• Snow day at school/work? Staying inside all day with the lights on and playing video games or watching TV consumes a lot of electricity.  Why not go outside and enjoy the snow! It’s free! But if it’s Free and not Freezing you want, try a board game inside instead.

• If you really don’t fancy going outside, use this time for a good clear out. Old clothes? Bag them up for a charity shop! Last years unwanted Christmas presents still in their box? Donate them to a raffle! Tins in the cupboard that you don’t really fancy? Donate them to Age UK’s charity appeal!

• Soy or beeswax candles are the most environmentally friendly candles to have hanging around in case there are power cuts.

And once you've done all that make a nice Fair Trade Hot Chocolate and put your feet up!

Tags: Energy Efficiency | Healthy Living | Laura Bayliss

I’m pleased to announce the winners of the Energy Saving Week Challenge are The Skip Company from Swan Court in Hampton and File Flatners from Second Drove in Fengate!

The Skip Company made a fantastic 30% reduction in their energy usage by turning off lights in empty rooms, making a tea round instead of individual cups, and leaving blinds open to let in natural light.

For their amazing efforts they won an eco hamper full of Fair Trade, Organic and healthy nibbles and drinks. Oh, and some bubbly!

They said having an Energy Monitor in place was a real eye-opener, enabling them to see how much energy was used by everyday appliances such as the kettle and the microwave.

A bottle of champagne has also been presented to John Munton of File Flatners for inspiring his team to do so much. They tried every conceivable idea to reduce energy consumption including switching off PC’s and turning down the thermostat.

Any business can make savings by becoming more energy aware. With energy prices on the up again it’s definitely the time to be looking at ways of saving. To further assist the businesses involved in the project we’ll be running a workshop in reading and reducing energy bills in January.

Of course there are plenty of other ways businesses can save money and become more environmentally friendly. We’re currently also working on initiatives with waste, water and transport. In December we have two great events coming up:

8th December – Eco-Driving Simulator to help businesses reduce fuel consumption by 15%.

15th December – Paperless Office Day, including a tour and demonstration at the paper digitising company File Flatners.

If you are, or know of, a business based in Hampton or Fengate that would be interested please get in touch.

Don’t forget – many small actions lead to big changes!

Tags: Energy Efficiency | Laura Bayliss

Here at Peterborough Environment City Trust we’ve been helping more than 40 local businesses based in Fengate and Hampton become more aware of their energy consumption.

One way we’ve done this is by providing a number of them with energy monitors on loan from Peterborough City Council. The businesses had the monitors for a fortnight and spent the first week carrying on as normal to gain an average weekly consumption figure.

The following week they were challenged to reduce the amount of energy their business consumed as much as possible by following such simple tips as:

Turn the thermostat down by one degree

Turn off lights when you’re not in a room

Shut down office equipment when it’s not in use

On average the businesses managed to save a fantastic 15% of their energy!

By continuing these brilliant efforts these businesses can continue to save energy and money all year round. This benefits the business and reduces the emissions which contribute to climate change.

A big thanks and well done to all who took part, we’ll be announcing the competition winners in the next few days!

If you know of a business based in either Fengate or Hampton that would like to improve their environmental credentials please contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
 

Tags: Energy Efficiency | Laura Bayliss

In the words of Elton John ‘...electricity, Sparks inside of me, And I'm free, I'm free’
Well imagine how exciting it would be if electricity could be free too! In North Carolina, it appears researchers have this belief and also, have every intention of proving it.
They are said to have found a method of indicating how water based ‘artificial leaf’ can generate electricity.

The research has been published on-line inside the Journal of Materials Chemistry by Doctor. Orlin Belev, an Invista Professor associated with Chemical and Bio-molecular Engineering, and proves to be a rather interesting read. With results promoting the ability to make solar cells which closely mimic nature, the possibility for lowering cost and impact on the environment is huge in comparison to the current silicon based solar cells.

Doctor Belev says ‘The bondable units are composed of water-based gel infused together with light-sensitive molecules (like plant chlorophyll) coupled with electrodes coated by carbon components, such as carbon nanotubes or graphite.’

He then goes on to explain that,
‘Graphene is the standard structural element of some carbon allotropes including graphite, carbon nanotubes and fullerenes. Graphene is a 1-atom think planar sheet of carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeycomb crystal lattice. The title comes from graphine ene; graphite itself consists of numerous grapheme sheets piled together.’

Now if you found all of that as confusing as I did, luckily, I’ve made a simple analysis of the above:
Basically, the sun’s rays make the light-sensitive molecules “excited”, producing electricity, which is similar to the sun’s rays making plant molecules “excited”, causing them to synthesize sugars in order to grow.
(...and if you don’t understand that, I’m not sure I can be much more help!)

Doctor Velev and his research team are working in hopes of being able to “learn how to mimic the materials through which nature harnesses solar energy.”

Naturally derived products such as chlorophyll can be integrated into such artificial light-sensitive molecules due to their water-gel matrix introducing the possibility for much scope in other areas of artificial efficiency offering an alternative for the present-day solid state technologies.

We may however, be seeing these changes sooner than anticipated,
"An artificial leaf that mimics the process of photosynthesis could be key to developing a clean and renewable source of hydrogen fuel." Is the title recently published by university researchers in an issue of ‘Advanced Materials’
The science behind the process is practically the same, just working for a slightly different result.

“Scientists at Jiaotong University in Shanghai have presented a design strategy they hope will enable them to produce an artificial leaf that can replicate the process seen in nature; where sunlight is used to convert carbon dioxide and water into chemical energy. Dioxide and water into chemical energy. The ‘Artificial Inorganic Leaf’ (AIL) could be used to capture solar energy and use it to split water into oxygen and hydrogen- its component elements. “

The brilliance of this scientific result is the overall effect it will have on the environment should it become a successful and effective process. The hydrogen element of the equation could then be used to react with atmospheric oxygen to produce water vapor as the only emission; promoting it as a brilliant fuel source for fuel cell vehicles.

Should this go ahead and become successful, the possibilities for eco-friendly change are endless and the measures taken to reduce our carbon footprint along with making impressive progress scientifically will be more than exciting.

The mimicry of photosynthesis is however, a complicated process and has never before been replicated by man, exposing the intensity of the challenge so we’ll just have to wait and see!

Tags: Caroline Sheffield | Energy Efficiency

It’s the summer holidays and that can only mean one thing, yes it’s time for the annual fun day at Woodfield Park .

Mick Steele from the Welland Residents Association invited us to attend this annual event and, as we had enjoyed this event so much last year, we are really looking forward to pitching the PECT gazebo and spreading the eco message to the residents who attend in their thousands, well nearly, mmm.

Last year Patrick and I gave away hundreds of free Warm Homes energy packs and we found our 500th survey participant for the Seeding Sustainable Communities project that I was working on at the time. This event was a great marker for us, it led to lots of conversation based around comments such as ‘this time last year’ and it was really great to sum up all the things we have achieved over the past year. Patrick has completed hundreds of surveys and is well into the second year of his project where he helps people find their way out of fuel poverty buy offering friendly and effective energy saving advice and I was promoting the Greeniversity, Peterborough’s green skill and green experience website.
Also joining us during the year was Sophie and her Green Team who have just completed their 2,000th free eco audit. At the event Scott and Chris from the Green Team spent the day helping people to identify ways they could cut their carbon. They even persuaded me that I should make the effort and get on my bike!

We were particularly lucky that the deputy mayor Bella Saltmarsh joined us at the PECT stand, Bella has been particularly supportive of PECTs projects on her patch and we are really grateful for all her efforts. We were also grateful to the Mayor who helped us to set up the stall then stayed around for a while helping to attract attention to the PECT stand.

The event itself was fabulous. Patrick loved the huge boot sale and I got both my dogs a new teddy each. I was able to buy a big yellow sunflower for my garden and the bees pleasure and some of the most delicious peaches I’ve ever had from the fresh produce stall. I didn’t fancy wall climbing, Patrick wanted to do bungie jumping but said that he had a medical condition that prevented him from doing anything dangerous – likely story!

  Along with all those that attendedr we really did have a great time When works this good who needs Saturdays off?   

Tags: Greeniversity | Green backyard | Energy Efficiency | Warm Homes Peterborough | Patrick McLintock | Karen Lawrence

Friday night tonight. I like the way Friday night has a habit of following Friday day. It makes it so much easier to remember and plan ahead. It’s a classic British night is Friday. Knocking off work early; pint of cider on the way home; bound by the tension of Big Brother’s impending eviction – will it be John-James or will it be Nathan? You decide... And of course, Friday night is ‘chip shop’ night. 

There’s nothing left in the fridge – the big shop is due this weekend – and nobody can really be bothered cooking anyway. Even barbecues are a pain in the proverbial on a Friday. So batter up that cod, whiz the chips in the fryer, splodge down the mushies, add a few spits of vinegar - and enough salt to convince your other half that you got caught in an unexpected July blizzard between the shop and the kitchen – and you’ve got yourself a Friday night meal. B-e-a-uuuuuutiful. I look forward to chip shop Friday more than I do Christmas. 

But this week, alas, the best evening of the week will pass me by. Or rather I will pass it by. The greasy whiffs will fill my nostrils as I walk as slowly as possible past ‘Oh My Cod’ and flake through my front door to tuck in to my depressingly green meal – salad. That’s right, it’s diet time.

Motivated solely by a long weekend away at a festival next week, I am putting myself through g-astronomical pain to slim down in time for the headline acts. Nobody wants to be bouncing along to Florence and the Machine, or miss Vampire Weekend because of an unscheduled sweat-induced t-shirt change. And it is of course necessary to consider one’s appearance in lieu of spending a weekend with a bounty of buxom beauties.

So chips are gone. I’ve waved goodbye to curries and bid a fond farewell to biscuits/sweets/ice cream/cookies/flapjack and a whole manner of pastry-wrapped and deep-fry encrusted delights. 

The new menu consists of yoghurt and banana for breakie, some kind of pasta type ensemble for luncheon, and a whole host of these ‘veg-e-tables’ for tea. And to be fair, it’s ok, for three reasons.

It’s cheaper; fru-it and veg-e-tables cost nothing. It’s quicker fru-it and veg-e-tables are usually okay to eat raw. It’s greener; literally greener obviously, but also because the only time I’ve used the cooker this week has been to bubble up some pasta, bringing us back to cheaper and quicker again. I also have this peculiar feeling about myself. Vexed, and thinking I’d made myself ill by going cold turkey from saturated fats, I visited the doc. 

“I’m feeling it doc... Give me the news. What is it? Liver? Kidney? Not the ol’ ticker? I’m so young; so much to give, so much to do, so much to see – like Shrek 4.”

“Pull yoursel’ together man. You’ve a clean bill of ‘ealth. Them veg’tables ‘ave done you t’world of good.”

I’m not sure what he meant, but he didn’t give me any medicine so I figured all was rosy.

Anyway, it’s getting close to lunchtime, and if I lean my head out of the window I can just about pick up the smell of ‘Steak Bakes’ wafting down from Cathedral Square. If I cling to that, and the oily pong of potato bubbling in fat on my way home, I should pull through. Just.

Tags: Do your bit for the environment | Groovy and green | Creating the UK Environment Capital | Sustainable Communities | food | Energy Efficiency | Sam Jones