Meet Transition Dorking & Celebrate National Apple Day

October 14, 2010 15:23 by estherpc

Saturday 16 October

On Dorking High Street front of Barclay’s from 9AM-2PM

Join us on the High Street to find out more about Transition Dorking— we’ll have leaflets and more importantly time to talk. We’re holding a book swap—please bring along one or two books (no boxes of books-please! We don’t have the space) about living simply, gaining skills, or the environment and swap them for others that look interesting.

Are your apple trees producing more fruit than you can handle? Then bring your spare apples to the stall and we’ll juice them using a Vigo screw press—no gas! No electricity!

If you’re interested please bring your clean, chopped if possible, apples (eaters not cookers) to the stall where we will chop and press them. No need to peel or core, just chop them roughly and put them in a bag. You need to bring a clean, dry container for the juice—a 1 litre milk carton would be perfect. Fresh apple juice doesn’t keep very long so be sure to drink the juice the same day. Not sure if your apples are cookers or eaters? Just try biting into one. If it’s too tart to eat, it’s too tart to juice.

Sustainable Energy - without the hot air

March 29, 2010 03:07 by richardm

The freely downloadable book Sustainable Energy - without the hot air, by David JC MacKay, is a ‘straight-talking book about the numbers’ which seeks actions that really make a difference when it comes to sustainable energy. For more information, check out David’s website.

Simply Sustainable homes

September 17, 2008 14:09 by matthewp

You may have read about our upcoming event on how to green your home on the 17th October in Leatherhead (read more here)

A good partner to our presentation is the book 'Simply Sustainable Homes' by Tim Pullen. It's packed with information presented in an easily comprehensible manner. It also usefuly points out where not to waste your money, so could easily pay for itself very rapidly. People say it is 'Quite simply the best book to date on green homes'.

See more or the books we recommend here.

How we can save the planet

May 27, 2008 14:15 by matthewp

Several members of the The Green Mole Forum have joined in the Mole Valley carbon trading scheme - a pilot (dare I say pioneer) project run by the RSA. The idea behind personal carbon allowances is outlined in a book by Mayer Hillman called “How we can save the planet”. It's not too late to join the project - contact us or MVDC if you would like more information.

This book is worth a read for the other points it contains too.

'Climate change is the single biggest problem that humankind has ever had to face. Yet politicians cannot agree a framework for tackling it effectively and meanwhile we continue with lifestyles that are way beyond the planet's limits. Here Mayer Hillman explains the real issues we should focus on: what the government is doing, what role technology can play and, above all, why we must act now to protect our planet for later generations. Challenging, stimulating and practical, How We Can Save the Planet is the essential guide to help you understand how we can safeguard our future.'

Walk Cheerfully, Step Lightly

May 15, 2008 15:52 by anneb

The 2008 edition of Walk Cheerfully, Step Lightly is now available from Anne Brewer (anne@dorking .quaker.eu.org) at £1 per copy. This popular booklet produced by the Quaker Group on Sustainability has a calculator to help you estimate your carbon footprint from travel, household energy use, food, waste and other activities and loads of informative tips to help you reduce your footprint. Here for example is the entry regarding light bulbs:

Low energy light bulbs (CFLs) pay for themselves in energy savings see www.nef.org.uk/energysaving/lowenergylighting.htm. Suitable ones for all uses, including dimmable bulbs, are now available and warm-up times for recommended brands are now very short. Ethical Consumer 107 July 2007 best buy was Omicron (www.omicronuk.com). Also recommended were Kosnic, Biobulb (a full-spectrum daylight bulb) and Megaman. Philips scored best of the readily available brands. Sources – www.bltdirect.co.uk (Omicron, Philips); www.low-energy-lighting.com (Omicron, Megaman, Philips); CAT (Biobulb); www.lightbulbs-direct.com (Biobulb, Megaman, Philips); www.efficientlight.co.uk (Kosnic, Megaman, Philips); www.doctorenergy.co.uk (Biobulb, Kosnic). CFLs contain mercury and should not be land-filled – for recycling see page 21. LEDs may soon replace CFLs – a 3.4 watt LED is equivalent to a 40 watt incandescent lightbulb or a 10 watt CFL – but don’t yet produce light quality to match that from halogen or new generation CFLs. Current advice is they’re OK in side lights, but not for lighting a whole room. They’re more expensive than CFLs, but last even longer. Omicron LEDs were best buy in EC107. Advances in technology should see them becoming brighter and cheaper. They should solve the problem of negative health impact of CFLs on a small number of people.

How to live a low-carbon life

April 11, 2008 10:56 by matthewp

Chris Goodall is is a columnist for the Independent on Sunday, regularly delivers talks and presentations on climate change, and provides consulting advice to businesses and other institutions.

He also also written the fantastic book How to Live a Low-carbon Life. This is a great guide to the carbon cost of the home and of our everyday activities. What's more it provides simple and pragmatic advice on how to reduce it in a cost-effective manner. With real numbers based on real research and sound analysis, this is a book we can all use to make sensible steps to reduce our carbon footprint.

Everyone in the country needs to roughly cut their CO₂ emissions by half, and this book shows how it can be done in plain language.

If you don't feel up to stumping up the few quid for the book, it has a companion website which has a number of interesting articles.

Green Building and Remodeling for Dummies

April 7, 2008 14:05 by matthewp

Are you about to embark on some home improvement works and are concerned about the environmental impact? Or do you just want easy guidance on how to make simple improvements to reduce the impact of your home?

Yes, there is lots of advice scattered about the internet, for example here at the Energy Savings Trust, or even on the Green Mole Forum's links page, but wonderful as the world wide web is, often it's better to have a book as a reference.

The 'Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies', though targetted at an American audience, is a great resource for us making our first tentative steps. You can read some sample chapters here.

How to become a transition town

April 1, 2008 15:22 by andyt

Why you should encourage your town to become a transition town - and how to go about it. See "The Transition Handbook" by Rob Hopkins - Founder of the Transition Movement - pub by Green Books. Informative entertaining and inspirational!

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