LESS News & Events
19 August 2010
Energy Officer (Part time 4 days / 30 hours a week)
23 February 2010
Allotment project to get Off the Ground
Lancaster based Community Interest Company, LESS (Local and Effective Sustainable Solutions) has been successful in its bid for over £200,000 of funding from the Big Lottery Fund's Local Food scheme for a new allotment site and food growing project, 'Off the Ground'. The allotment site, on Ambleside Road, Lancaster, received planning permission last year and is likely to be open by June. There will be a community meeting to discuss the project once a project coordinator has been appointed.
Speaking about the project Simon Gershon, a director of LESS, said:
"As well as providing a new allotment site, Off the Ground will help local schools and community groups with their food growing projects and encourage people to grow food in their own gardens. The allotment site will have a communal tool store and polytunnel. Training on food growing will be available from the project workers. Growing more of our own food has benefits for the environment as well as our health, and we hope this project will make a real difference to the number of people in the district who are able to grow food."
04 February 2010
Halton Celebrates Low Carbon Communities Challenge Win!
The Halton Carbon Positive project created in partnership with Halton Community Association, Lancaster Co-Housing and LESS has won up to £500,000 to deliver a series of low carbon initiatives in the village. The funding will be used to:
- Develop a community owned hydro scheme on the River Lune with the potential to generate enough power for 300 homes and reduce carbon emissions by 500 tonnes of CO2 a year. All profits from the hydro scheme will be reinvested in Halton.
- Create low-carbon offices and workshops through the eco-refurbishment of Luneside Engineering at Halton Mills.
- Install over 100 solar photovoltaic panels on Halton Mill and local business Out of the Woods to generate renewable energy. The profits generated from the Government's clean energy cashback scheme will be ploughed back into further carbon reduction projects such as the Halton Energy Network, which will help households reduce their domestic carbon emissions.
LESS is leading on the Solar PV project and will be working with commmunity organisations in Halton to develop the energy network.Representives from Halton Community Association, Lancaster Co-Housing, LESS and Transition City Lancaster attended the Low Carbon Communities Challenge Launch in London on Monday 07th February.Watch this space for more information about this fantastic project and how you can get involved!
23 January 2010
Halton - Carbon Positive!
Ambitious local scheme shortlisted for Low Carbon Communities Challenge
A project developed in partnership between Halton Community Association, Lancaster Co-Housing and LESS has been shortlisted for a government funded two-year research programme designed to test delivery options for achieving ambitious cuts in carbon emissions at community level. Halton Carbon Postivite is an ambitious proposal to radically reduce the carbon footprint of Halton and to build a sustainable future for the village. The proposal includes a community owned hydro scheme on the River Lune, the eco-refurbishment of Halton Mills to create low-carbon offices and workshops, and the installation of over 100 solar photovoltaic panels on the Mill and local business Out of the Woods to generate renewable energy. The income from both the Hydro and Solar PV schemes will be invested in other low-carbon initiatives across the parish.
The proposal has been shortlisted for the Low Carbon Communities Challenge funding from over 200 applications. On Thursday an assessor from the Building Research Establishment (BRE) visited the village and was shown round the new Centre@Halton, Halton Mill and the Co-Housing site. The final winners will be announced by the end of January, so watch this space!
04 January 2010
Reducing Business Carbon Emissions in Lancaster Survey
LESS is currently working with Keerti Krishnan, a Graduate Consultant from Lancaster University's Environment Centre, to assess how businesses across the district are working to improve energy efficiency and reduce their carbon emissions. The aim of the project is to map current actions, identify local climate ‘champions’ and help develop support for SMEs to tackle climate change.
Keerti has developed an online survey and we would be most grateful if you could spend a few minutes completing it.
You can access the survey via the link below and it will take around 10 minutes to complete:
spreadsheets.google.com/viewform
Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey and please do share it with other interested parties.
17/09/09
One Planet Eco Festival Draws Crowds
Hundreds of people turned out for a week long series of events highlighting sustainable living for the second One Planet Festival in Lancaster.
The climate change festival began with the Sustainability Expo eco fair in the Ashton Hall, LancasterTown Hall, included a week of environmental films at the Dukes, low carbon music and talk events and ended with an open day at the site of new zero carbon homes planned for Halton. Another new event this year was the very popular FreeStyle clothes swap and re-design event.The Sustainability Expo showcased 35 different organisations with ideas for reducing our carbon impact in the home and daily life. Organisers built an interactive eco house exhibit – which as well as being full of good advice and ideas guests to the expo could also sit down on sofas in the house and read books or just rest their legs while enjoying the rest of the event. Quite Simply Food provided a cafe using locally sourced food, Lancaster Brewery ran a bar of local beers, and live pedal-powered music from Bill and Ben.
Low carbon music continued at the Park Hotel on Saturday night – with members of the band pedalling to power the sound system, helped by members of the audience.
Felicity Smith, organiser of the FreeStyle clothes recycling and redesign event said: ‘The Freestyleevent was a great success, especially the restyling angle.‘We had kind donations of clothes before the event which got the swapping off to a good start, and everyone went away with something new to them which we were very pleased about. The runaway hit was the restyling element of the afternoon. Embellishments, alterations, even complete transformations were conjured before our very eyes. Enormous thanks go to Sabrina (IC Fashion),Georgia (Bluebird Beads) and to Fabrix, Exton Haberdashery and Standfast and Barracks for their gorgeous donations which enabled us to enjoy a wonderfully buzzing corner of creativity. What's more, everyone had a lot of fun and we’re all looking forward to doing it again, we hope, in the not too distant future."
The One Planet Festival was entirely organised by a small team of volunteers, and received no grant funding after promised funding was cut when Lancaster City Council axed its Festival Innovation Fund in budget cuts. Some sponsorship came from Alian Energy Solutions Ltd and Community Windpower. Liz Horn, one of the organisers, said: “The One Planet Festival has been a great success in getting the message of reducing our impact on the planet and promoting more sustainable living across a range of music, film, talk, craft and exhibition events. We’d like to thank everyone that came along to our events, our Expo exhibitors and sponsors, and all our very hardworking volunteers, without whom none of this could have happened.’
The One Planet Festival ran from 2nd-9th October 09.Website: www.oneplanetfestival.com
The One Planet Festival was coordinated by LESS Climate Change and Energy Advice project and was supported by the Dukes Theatre, Community Windpower and Alian Energy Solutions.
Lancaster group closes in on £1m prize to save the planet
Hundreds of people turned out for a week long series of events highlighting sustainable living for the second One Planet Festival in Lancaster.
The climate change festival began with the Sustainability Expo eco fair in the Ashton Hall, LancasterTown Hall, included a week of environmental films at the Dukes, low carbon music and talk events and ended with an open day at the site of new zero carbon homes planned for Halton. Another new event this year was the very popular FreeStyle clothes swap and re-design event.The Sustainability Expo showcased 35 different organisations with ideas for reducing our carbon impact in the home and daily life. Organisers built an interactive eco house exhibit – which as well as being full of good advice and ideas guests to the expo could also sit down on sofas in the house and read books or just rest their legs while enjoying the rest of the event. Quite Simply Food provided a cafe using locally sourced food, Lancaster Brewery ran a bar of local beers, and live pedal-powered music from Bill and Ben.
Low carbon music continued at the Park Hotel on Saturday night – with members of the band pedalling to power the sound system, helped by members of the audience.
Felicity Smith, organiser of the FreeStyle clothes recycling and redesign event said: ‘The Freestyleevent was a great success, especially the restyling angle.‘We had kind donations of clothes before the event which got the swapping off to a good start, and everyone went away with something new to them which we were very pleased about. The runaway hit was the restyling element of the afternoon. Embellishments, alterations, even complete transformations were conjured before our very eyes. Enormous thanks go to Sabrina (IC Fashion),Georgia (Bluebird Beads) and to Fabrix, Exton Haberdashery and Standfast and Barracks for their gorgeous donations which enabled us to enjoy a wonderfully buzzing corner of creativity. What's more, everyone had a lot of fun and we’re all looking forward to doing it again, we hope, in the not too distant future."
The One Planet Festival was entirely organised by a small team of volunteers, and received no grant funding after promised funding was cut when Lancaster City Council axed its Festival Innovation Fund in budget cuts. Some sponsorship came from Alian Energy Solutions Ltd and Community Windpower. Liz Horn, one of the organisers, said: “The One Planet Festival has been a great success in getting the message of reducing our impact on the planet and promoting more sustainable living across a range of music, film, talk, craft and exhibition events. We’d like to thank everyone that came along to our events, our Expo exhibitors and sponsors, and all our very hardworking volunteers, without whom none of this could have happened.’
The One Planet Festival ran from 2nd-9th October 09.Website: www.oneplanetfestival.com
The One Planet Festival was coordinated by LESS Climate Change and Energy Advice project and was supported by the Dukes Theatre, Community Windpower and Alian Energy Solutions.
Lancaster group closes in on £1m prize to save the planet
Shortlist announced for UK’s biggest ever community environment challenge
15/5/08
Lancaster-based LESS Climate Change and Energy Advice Project has made it onto the 100-strong nationwide shortlist competing for a slice of a million-pound Big Green Challenge prize fund by coming up with innovative ways to tackle climate change in the community.
LESS aims to cut carbon emissions in Caton with its Connect to Your Carbon project, by encouraging people to work out and reduce their individual or household ‘carbon footprint’, the amount of energy they use in their daily lives. The project will offer people three levels to get involved, each providing different kinds of help and support to reduce their carbon footprint, depending on people’s time and level of interest. These include running carbon calculator sessions, making home visits, and setting up carbon reduction action groups to look low carbon living in greater detail. At each level people will receive an estimate of their carbon footprint and a list of key actions to reduce this, especially those related to home energy efficiency and renewable energy.
The group hopes that this pilot project in Caton would then be expanded throughout the Lancaster district.
Selected from hundreds of initial entries received by NESTA, (The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), the shortlist comprises a diverse array of groups including local network organisations, schools, charities and social enterprises.
LESS (Local & Effective Sustainable Solutions) Climate Change and Energy Advice project is a voluntary project, set up last year to help people in Morecambe, Lancaster and surrounding areas live more sustainably, save energy and money, and to help reduce climate change.
The shortlisted groups now have until the beginning June to complete more detailed plans about how their ideas will work and will receive access to a range of experts to help them.
The top 100 groups will be whittled down to ten finalists in July, each of whom will receive up to £20,000, plus advice and support to get their green projects up and running over a year. The groups with the most imaginative and successful approach to cutting carbon emissions at the end of the competition will win a share of the £1m prize up for grabs.
Dawn Groundsell from LESS said: “We are thrilled to have made it through to the next round of the big green challenge. In March we held a climate change meeting in Caton and found that residents were really interested in our idea to reduce the village’s carbon emissions. We hope this make a real difference in the local community and beyond.”
NESTA Chief Executive Jonathan Kestenbaum added: “We’re delighted to announce that LESS has made it through to the next stage of the Big Green Challenge. We launched the prize fund to encourage people to get together and come up with great ways to save the planet, and we’ve had an amazing reaction from groups right across the UK.
“Moving forward we hope to see Caton’s local community getting behind this exciting and innovative project, as they demonstrate how their ideas could really have an impact in the fight to combat climate change.”
To learn more about all the groups on the Big Green Challenge shortlist go to www.biggreenchallenge.org.uk.
LESS is more as local primary school wins environmental award
9/5/08
Dolphinholme C of E Primary School has won a silver ‘Eco School’ environmental award, thanks to help from LESS Climate Change and Energy Advice project.
The ‘Eco School’ award, from ENCAMS, the Keep Britain Tidy Group recognises achievement in working towards a sustainable environment.
Keen pupils, parents and staff set their sights on the award in autumn last year. They have worked hard together with Jane Fletcher, a qualified energy adviser from Lancaster-based LESS Climate Change and Energy Advice Project on a range of environmental projects. Among many achievements the school is committed to an ‘Eco Code’, written by pupils, which is now proudly displayed in the Reception to tell visitors about their planet friendly approach.
The school formed an Action Team of interested pupils, staff and parents and local representatives, which carried out an environmental review of all their current practices to see how they could improve. They then created an Action Plan to cover energy, waste, water, biodiversity of the school grounds and healthy living.
The school is now recycling 100% of its cardboard, glass, plastic and tins, has invested in energy efficient boilers and temperature controls, and installed water saving devices and low energy light bulbs. They have established a growing patch for vegetables and planted native trees provided by the Woodland Trust in the school grounds, where pupils can enjoy new benches made from recycled materials. Pupils led many projects including devising a ‘How green are you’ quiz for parents to help raise awareness.
The school’s environmental co-ordinator, Sharon Perry said, “Having won the Bronze Award from ENCAMS in 2006 we are delighted to have our continuing improvement recognised with this Silver Award. Green-thinking’ can be seen throughout the School where, for example, pupils choose to use both sides of pieces of paper and elect Recycling and Energy Monitors. Our aim for the future is to install a wind turbine to produce renewable energy”.
ENCAMS’s Eco School programme has three levels, bronze, silver and the green flag, the top award for environmental action. The School’s wind turbine plan would put them in line for the top green flag award, which is currently held by Quernmore CE Primary School.
Counting Caton’s Carbon – climate change event to be the start of new carbon reduction group in a Lancashire village
14/03/08
Organisers of a successful climage change event are hoping to start a carbon reduction group in Caton.
Enthusiastic local residents of Caton and Brookhouse attended the event to discuss climate change and what we can do about it at Caton’s Victoria institute on Thursday evening.
The 'Counting Caton’s Carbon’ event was organised by LESS Climate Change and Energy Advice Project.
Local resident and climate change specialist, Gill Fenna, talked about climate change and other low carbon village projects in the country. She said: “We’re seeing many small communities starting to look at what they can do about climate change themselves, and it would be really good to be able to do something about it where I live. We were really pleased with the number of people who came along and lots of people expressed an interest in starting a carbon reduction group here in Caton and I hope this will just be the start of something that can really make a difference.”
Residents were able to talk to professional Home Energy advisors from LESS and talk to renewable technology specialists Alian Energy Solutions.
If you’re interested in more information about attending a carbon reduction group in the Caton area contact Gill Fenna on 01524 771396. For advice on how to save energy in the home, please contact LESS on 01524 66100.
Lancaster Boys’ Club fighting down its energy bills
1/2/08
A Lancaster youth club has saved hundreds of pounds on its electricity bill thanks to an energy audit from local climate change project and energy advice project LESS.
Following soaring utility bills, Lancaster Boys’ Club manager Colin Hewitt decided to take action and sought advice from LESS.
After a thorough examination of Lancaster Boys’ Club’s building and its energy usage, LESS advisers recommended checking the Club’s gas and electricity tariffs closely and making other improvements to reduce the energy use of the building and to improve levels of comfort.
Specially trained advisers looked at which parts of buildings lose the most heat and recommended cost-effective measures. They also provided advice on how to maintain healthy ventilation levels, best-value utility tariffs and on the potential for using renewable energy. The energy audit of the Boys’ Club produced a report which sets out how the building can be heated in a way that is kinder to the bank-balance and the environment.
Tim Hamilton-Cox of LESS, added: “We have been very impressed by the manager’s enthusiasm to make positive changes. Double-glazing and cavity wall insulation would be great investments; and lower cost measures, such as draughtproofing doors and point-of-use water heaters, would also result in significant savings. ‘No-cost’ steps are also possible; free-to-use price comparison websites are useful to find the cheapest energy tariffs. It’s worth considering the habits of a building’s users too; the youngsters could elect energy monitors to encourage others to switch lights and appliances off when not in use.”
Colin Hewitt said: “The Boys’ Club is taking responsibility for its energy usage. We are keen to act on the advice in the energy audit to make the building cheaper to run and also to make it more comfortable for staff and visitors. I asked Tim to help myself and Board Members implement as many of the recommendations as possible. I have asked him to look in to grants to help with the cost of the improvements”.
Forest of Bowland awards LESS £5000
10/9/07
Forest of Bowland A.O.N.B have awarded LESS a grant of £5000 to work with communities within the Forest of Bowland catchment area. LESS will be working with communities on sustainability issues. This grant will enable LESS to work with Dolphinholme School to help them achieve Silver Eco-School status, and contribute to Bentham's Energy day on Saturday Sept 29th. For more dates and venues on where you can meet the LESS team click here.
LESS offers you well-qualified advice
LESS advisers, Jane Fletcher, Dawn Groundsell and Tim Hamilton-Cox have gained a City and Guilds qualification in Energy Awareness awarded by the NEA (National Energy Awareness) organisation. This nationally recognised qualification recognises competence in, amongst other things, advising clients on:
● the efficient and safe use of heating and hot water systems and appliances
● how to record gas and electricity consumption and work out costs
● the potential for thermal insulation and draughtproofing in a range of dwellings
● grant aid available for domestic energy efficiency measures
● how to avoid condensation and how to take remedial action where condensation dampness exists
LESS is awarded a grant in recognition of its work
Arnside and Silverdale A.O.N.B have awarded LESS a grant of £6000 in recognition of the work that it is doing with people in the district on sustainability issues. This grant enables LESS to visit Arnside and Silverdale and surrounding areas with its market stall to offer free, impartial advice to people. Visits to Milnthorpe are also planned. For dates and further information on where you meet the LESS team click here.
Lancaster group closes in on £1m prize to save the planet
Shortlist announced for UK’s biggest ever community environment challenge
LESS aims to cut carbon emissions in Caton with its Connect to Your Carbon project, by encouraging people to work out and reduce their individual or household ‘carbon footprint’, the amount of energy they use in their daily lives. The project will offer people three levels to get involved, each providing different kinds of help and support to reduce their carbon footprint, depending on people’s time and level of interest. These include running carbon calculator sessions, making home visits, and setting up carbon reduction action groups to look low carbon living in greater detail. At each level people will receive an estimate of their carbon footprint and a list of key actions to reduce this, especially those related to home energy efficiency and renewable energy.
The group hopes that this pilot project in Caton would then be expanded throughout the Lancaster district.
Selected from hundreds of initial entries received by NESTA, (The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), the shortlist comprises a diverse array of groups including local network organisations, schools, charities and social enterprises.
LESS (Local & Effective Sustainable Solutions) Climate Change and Energy Advice project is a voluntary project, set up last year to help people in Morecambe, Lancaster and surrounding areas live more sustainably, save energy and money, and to help reduce climate change.
The shortlisted groups now have until the beginning June to complete more detailed plans about how their ideas will work and will receive access to a range of experts to help them.
The top 100 groups will be whittled down to ten finalists in July, each of whom will receive up to £20,000, plus advice and support to get their green projects up and running over a year. The groups with the most imaginative and successful approach to cutting carbon emissions at the end of the competition will win a share of the £1m prize up for grabs.
Dawn Groundsell from LESS said: “We are thrilled to have made it through to the next round of the big green challenge. In March we held a climate change meeting in Caton and found that residents were really interested in our idea to reduce the village’s carbon emissions. We hope this make a real difference in the local community and beyond.”
Commenting on the group’s shortlisting, NESTA Chief Executive Jonathan Kestenbaum added:
“We’re delighted to announce that LESS has made it through to the next stage of the Big Green Challenge. We launched the prize fund to encourage people to get together and come up with great ways to save the planet, and we’ve had an amazing reaction from groups right across the UK.
“Moving forward we hope to see Caton’s local community getting behind this exciting and innovative project, as they demonstrate how their ideas could really have an impact in the fight to combat climate change.”
To learn more about all the groups on the Big Green Challenge shortlist go to www.biggreenchallenge.org.uk.