Sustainable Shelford had a stall at the Shelford Feast which took place on Sunday 11th July.

We had a display about recent activities and future events and initiatives. There were details of how you can borrow an Energy Monitor to check the energy usage in your home.

There was also a demonstration of how much energy it takes to power various appliances using a bike. Pictures of our stall are below :

We recently had a planning meeting. Here is a picture of us outside the Square & Compasses :

Sustainable Shelford’s most recent visitor was Simon Bunn, a sustainable drainage engineer from Cambridge City Council, and he gave us a really interesting talk about Water.

Firstly, water conservation. Why bother? he asked. Because the East of England is an area of “serious water stress”. We have less water available per person than in France, Italy or Spain. Does that surprise you? It did me. Abstracting water (from rivers or aquifers) harms the environment if we take too much. And supplying water uses a lot of energy (10% of our carbon emissions per year).

So he gave us some practical tips:

• Fit a water meter. There’s nothing like seeing how much water costs for changing your behaviour!
• Fill the kettle only as much as you need (saves electricity too).
• Always use a full load in the washing machine.
• Keep a jug of water in the fridge for drinking – that way you don’t keep running the tap to get it cool every time you want a drink.
• Don’t flush the loo every time (“If it’s yellow, let it mellow” was what he said – I’ll let you work that out...).
• FIX a dripping tap – one drip can use 30 litres of water per day.
• Fit a dual flush cistern, or put a Hippo bag in your cistern (contact us if you are in the Shelfords and you want one).
• Fit a showerhead with an aerator, and not a power shower. A power shower is as water-expensive as a bath.
• In the garden

1. plant appropriately;
2. mulch;
3. don’t fret about a brown lawn – it will soon recover when it rains;
4. don’t use sprinklers – they water indiscriminately;
5. get a water butt.

• Use a bucket and sponge to wash the car.

In some respects all this is familiar territory. Less so was the second half of the talk: Too Much Water. This relates to what appears to be our changing pattern of weather, which looks set to get worse with climate change. Basically, long dry spells followed by intense bouts of rain. Does it sound familiar? It happened a couple of weeks ago. Our existing drainage infrastructure is not designed to cope with intense bouts of rain. Too much surface water – on roads, from roofs – can cause floods. It is most sensible to store water where it falls, if possible by allowing it to soak into the ground.

Take front gardens. The law now says that, if you wish to cover more than 5sq m of your front garden with an impermeable surface (such as concrete), you need planning permission. But why bother? – there are plenty of permeable materials, such as block paving or gravel. Surely it’s in our interest for rainwater to drain away safely. We’ve all seen those horrible scenes of flooding on the television. We don’t want to be next.

He also introduced us to a new idea – the rain garden. This is a garden which is specially designed to take run-off from roofs and hard surfaces and to use it to sustain a garden. Given that we, in Shelford, are often crying out for rain, it sounds a great idea.

Or what about rainwater harvesting? This is obviously an ambitious proposition, probably costing £2-3,000 to set up, but perhaps something to consider with a new build or a big extension. You can use the stored water for flushing the toilet, for the washing machine, or washing the car (with a sponge and bucket, of course!). If you ARE interested, there’s a good website - http://www.ukrha.org/

Since the talk I’ve found myself noticing some of the huge pools of water that accumulate in our village streets, however briefly, when it rains hard and reflecting that, yes, things are changing, and we need to change too.

One of the pleasures of being within the orbit of Cambridge University is that we are brought into contact with so many people with something worthwhile to say. Tony Juniper is one such, and on March 26 he gave a talk for Sustainable Shelford.

Tony is one of our leading environmentalists, having been prominent in the field for the last 30 years. The Environment Agency has described him as one of the “all time eco heroes”. He was part of Friends of the Earth from 1990 to 2008. The group’s campaigning under his directorship led to the targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions which were finally enshrined in the Climate Change Act of 2008. He currently works as a Sustainability Adviser, and is a Senior Associate with the Cambridge University Programme for Sustainability Leadership. So it was a great privilege to welcome him to Shelford.

He came to present the facts on Climate Change. It is not comfortable listening: since the Industrial Revolution our carbon emissions have been rising and rising. The current industrialization of China and other countries is pushing levels ever skywards. The constantly growing human population is also a huge problem. It is quite clear that, to continue living as we are is not sustainable. As I sat and watched the slides, I could not help being overcome with the awfulness of what we are doing to the planet, and with fear for our future. Yet Tony is not a pessimist. On the contrary, he believes that we can turn things round, and campaigns tirelessly to do so. This belief was conveyed to the audience, and by the end of the talk, everyone seemed energized and ready with lots of questions.

Afterwards, we enjoyed refreshments and a chance to talk and discuss plans. We hope that what we have learned will help us in our efforts to make life in Shelford more sustainable.