Earth Hour is a global WWF (formerly known as World Wildlife Fund) climate change initiative which brings attention to the effects of climate change by asking people to switch of lights at homes and businesses for an hour at 8.30pm (20:30), local time, usually on the last Saturday of March. This Year it falls on 30th March.
From the Sydney Opera House and the Empire State Building to Buckingham Palace and Edinburgh Castle, communities like yours have switched off their lights in a symbolic show of support. Last year over 10 million people across the UK took part to send a clear message: We’re fighting for our world.
How Earth Hour helps?
Many of us feel powerless in the face of overwhelming threats to the planet. But when we all come together for Earth Hour, we create a strong voice that can change things for the better.
The power of our combined voices has already helped to:
Influence climate policy in Russia, Argentina, Ecuador and Wales.
Successfully push for planet-friendly laws, such as a ban on plastic in the Galapagos Islands.
Inspire the world’s first Earth Hour protected forest in Uganda.
And 90% of people who take part in Earth Hour say it inspires them to do more to protect the planet
What you can do?
It would be great if everyone can kindly turn off their lights, Computers and any electronic items they use on Saturday the 30th of March from 8:30 to 9:30 PM.
WWF have partnered with Ariel to donate £1 for just pledging to make a change. So please go ahead and Make a Pledge for this amazing cause.
Reading Community Energy Society (RCES) is launching a new community share offer this week, inviting local people and organisations to invest in renewable energy for the greater Reading area.
RCES is a community benefit society owned by its members and already runs 12 solar energy systems which have been generating clean, green energy for the past two years. In that time, their systems have saved 145 tonnes of CO2 emissions and they have awarded 3 community grants to support wider sustainability initiatives.
The Society are aiming to raise £363,000 so they can install new solar panels on ten buildings in the greater Reading area. The new solar panels will be installed on buildings including University facilities, 2 council buildings and a school. The project is off to a flying start having already installed panels on Woodford Park Leisure Centre in collaboration with Woodley Town Council and a recycling facility owned and operated by Select Environmental Services.
Tony Hoskins, Chair of RCES said: “Encouraged by the success of our first group of solar projects, the Directors have worked extremely hard to bring together this new opportunity. As a community benefit society, we aim to build low carbon renewable energy generation to help tackle climate change, to raise funds for community projects and to give local people a chance to get involved and make a real contribution to work of the organisation.
By launching this second share offer and building more roof-top solar energy systems, we are opening the opportunity to even more people in an around Reading to get involved and join our existing membership. We hope local residents will take the time to visit our web-site, read the Share Offer document and consider joining us and investing in the new projects.”
Investments are invited from £200 – £20,000 and the Share Offer is expected to launch in the last week of February and will run until 29th March 2019.
Clothing is a necessity and for many a way of expressing ourselves and boosting confidence, yet the process of making them is extremely wasteful and polluting. The production of these textiles itself, whether they’re synthetic or natural, is also causing harm. Kay Politowicz, Professor of Textile Design at the University of the Arts in London, says “The increasing consumption of textiles for clothing is causing the biggest textiles impact on the environment” . The fashion industry depends on oil and gas and consumes enormous amounts of water, contributing to vast mountains of waste.
The life cycle of clothes we wear and buy is something most of us take for granted – right from the supply chain as to who makes them, where and how and where they end up after use.
“Plastic from a variety of products – carpet, clothing, packaging – are showing up in our tap and bottled water and even our beer. ”
Say no to fast fashion
Here are some points to highlight the impact of fast fashion which is surely not Ethical
100 billion garments are produced every year globally
The average number of ‘wears’ per garment a person owns is just 4
The fashion industry is the fifth most polluting in the world
100 million tonnes of non-renewables are used every year in the fashion industry globally
65% of clothes use polyester – and this contains micro plastics, which are shed when clothes are washed
Half a million tonnes – equivalent to 50 billion plastic bottles – of plastic microfibers from washing garments ends up in the ocean every year on average, which in turn enters the food chain
Extending the life of a garment by 3 months can reduce its carbon footprint by 5-10%
Charity shops reduce the UK carbon footprint by 3.7 million tonnes a year
Impact of clothing industry
Lot of companies and charities are working to try and combat this
1) If doing a wardrobe clear out, use Traid who offer a free home collection service. Similarly you can donate to charity shops or use the recycle services from retailers, such as John Lewis and M&S.
5) Greenpeace’s high-profile campaign “Dirty Laundry,” which has called on some of the largest clothing brands to commit to eliminating hazardous chemicals in their supply chains, has spurred Adidas to begin talks with rivals Nike and Puma (among others) to establish an industry-wide initiative to develop an integrated chemical management program.
6) Clothing labels like M&S, Levis and P&G are encouraging customers to wash at lower temperatures.
7) The recent Fashion Futures project at Britain’s Forum for the Future envisioned what fashion will be like in the year 2025, in conjunction with their call for a more sustainable fashion industry
The quarterly RCCP Board meeting took place on Jan 25th. The board spent time discussing the process for developing Reading’s 3rd Climate Change Strategy to run 2020-2025. It was agreed there was a need to develop RCAN to enhance outreach into Reading community, through engagement events each strategy theme. There will be a public engagement event in June to support this. New grant submissions were reviewed for the annual £10k Reading Climate Action Project Support Fund, and more detail was requested. Chris Beales – Chair, updated all on board and staff changes: Poppy Harris, Environmental and Community coordinator at The Oracle Shopping Centre was welcomed as a business representative. Dan Fernbank from Reading University is stepping down after 5 years but will continue to be involved as a Director of Reading Community Energy. Prof. Tim Dixon will now represent the University going forward. Katie Brett has been recruited as the Support Officer to RCCP. Ideas were shared on completing gaps in the board – with representatives from the health and community sector.
