Transition Cambridge at 15

Transition Cambridge is now 15 years old. Here is an extract from our AGM, listing the various activities we have been doing over the past year.

 

Energy Group

Nicola presented for the Energy Group. 

Topics from the year included: Keeping cool; Any questions (retrofit/heating queries ); Working with contractors; Grid level storage EPCs (what do the ratings take into account?) Performance metrics/Heat pump readiness; Councillor Nick Gay on county energy projects; Recycling and plastics; District Heating

The topics listed in bold resulted in new or updated advice pages 

Also, Nicola showed some comments from members. Some meetings were particularly interesting including district heating, Cambridge initiatives (from Nick Gay), EPCs. One commented on the useful advice pages and said they often refer people to them. Another said that discussions in the group had been very helpful in getting a heat pump install, both in gathering confidence to do it and in finding a suitable installer.

Repair cafes

Kate presented the repair cafes which are a collaboration with Cambridge Carbon Footprint (CCF) and many other local groups. There have been over 40 events over the past year in Cambridgeshire!

The next repair café in Cambridge coincides with International Repair Day on 21st October.

CCF subscribe to Fixometer, an application run on the web by Restart. This allows all the associated repair groups to announce their events, record details of the repairs undertaken and their success rate. This is important information for analysis of repairability and campaigning. It also calculates the overall carbon emissions saved, based on typical product embodied emissions. This year, including data from 20 events our success rate was about 64%, 1.4 tonnes was redirected from landfill and we saved about 11.4 tonnes CO2e overall.

A screenshot from the Fixometer for a single event

This is also invaluable for reporting project impact, as other outcomes are less easy to measure. For example, repair cafés help to develop skills and build community links as well as reducing waste and GHG emissions.

Empty Common Community Garden

Charlotte could not attend so Meg presented for ECCG instead. The hut is now complete with solar panels and battery for lighting, screen projector etc. It is large enough for 10-12 people. More groups are using it. It needs a booking scheme but for the time being just contact Charlotte.


As always, all are welcome to come and enjoy the garden at any time. If you would like to help it is best to begin by joining the regular working party on Sunday mornings.

The shed - a Shed of the Year finalist

Permaculture Group.

ECCG is an exemplar of permaculture principles and it is the venue for a new permaculture group, for people who would like to learn about it or who are already practitioners. It meets on the first Sunday each month. Complete beginners should come at 1.30pm, otherwise come at 2pm.

There are tentative plans for an official permaculture course to begin in the spring.

Resilience Web

The resilience web has grown – as well as Cambridge, Cambridge University and Anglia Ruskin University webs there are now two new ones at York and Durham.

As well as the online directory they now run events. There is a new seminar series (every two weeks) called ‘Together We Can’, organised by the Resilience Web, Cambridge Doughnut and Transition Cambridge. So far there has been one seminar on housing, with food, water, air, transportation and health to follow.

Water Sensitive Cambridge

This is a new project led by Clara and Meg, and it is part of a much larger project called River Cam CAN organised by a consortium including Cambridge Past Present and Future and others. Water Sensitive Cambridge has a focus on ‘fixing the water cycle’, in particular natural management techniques for rainwater runoff and flood management. Rain water should be directed into the ground rather than treated as waste and taken away in the sewers. This would reduce sewage runoff and conserve water for nature. There are plans for a project at Fallowfield, involving (small) attenuation ponds to slow down the water flow and reduce problems with flash flooding.

Problems with flash flooding/poor drainage in Cambridge

Events, stalls and Gatherings

During the year we had several social events at ECCG, and an event partnered with Six Inches of Soil. We had stalls at some local events such as Sustainable You at Eddington.

We also ran a special talk by visiting Professor Janet Stephenson from New Zealand, part of her book tour ‘Culture and Sustainability’.

Core administration and project people now meet monthly to co-ordinate activities.


Others

Garden of Resilience and noticeboard

The Garden of Resilience raised beds by the Guildhall are looking good. We have a notice board there too which is very valuable city centre advertising space – for free. We allow other groups to use part of the board space as well as advertising out own projects and events. This is all thanks to Charlotte (ECCG) and Declan (Cambridge City Council).

The raised beds outside Daily Bread continue to attract attention. They are cared for by Meg and Emily.


The Environmental Discussion and Reading Group meets monthly and has discussed a range of books this year as pictured below.

Books discussed this year by the reading group

Antoinette was unable to attend the AGM but there have been several Toy Swaps during the year.

Clean Wheels continues to run, aiming to make transport in Cambridge more sustainable.

Jacky represents us within Cambridge Sustainable Food, and we continue to be connected with the wider Transition Network (e.g. via grants, contributing to events such as the “local mapping” event, and attending gatherings such as the London gathering this summer).

We are active in communicating what we do e.g. through our newsletter which goes out to nearly 1000 people, our blog, our website which receives 5000 to 15000 hits per month, and via Facebook and X (Twitter).