Transition Town Tooting

Category: Other stuff

A place to gather things that have no category!

  • ‘The future is dappled in the present’: green sky thinking now

    This post is a round-up of eight imaginative projects and developments that are happening now, in Tooting and beyond. 
    It’s a selection of what we’ve spotted in the past month.

    My title comes from Paul Allen of Zero Carbon Britain at the Centre for Alternative Technology, one of the contributors to Playing for Time (see below). Paul’s natural-world image means that the opportunities for making a sustainable future are all around us…if we look.

    We hope there is something here to catch your interest and inspire on the Bank Holiday. 
    (Plus, in three posts from last week: there’s our plastic bottle greenhouse to build in the garden 1200-1600 this Thursday and Friday, and then Restart and the first Tooting Field Day later in April.)

    1  Playing for Time
    Lucy Neal, who founded TTT in 2008, has been spending the past two years writing Playing for Time, her book about making art as if the world mattered.
    Playing for Time joins the dots between key drivers of change in energy, finance, climate change, food and community resilience – and offers ‘recipes for action’ for readers to try.

    It’s a wonderful collection of how artists round the globe are at the same time imagining the future and working in the real world on what matters to us all.  

    The book is not only for artists, and one of the points of the book is to encourage us to look out and across our silos of specialism. 
    Dip into the 400 pages…you’ll be hooked!

    It’s Lucy’s book, and it’s also a collaboration with sixty other contributors…so it’s a great representation of the spirit of joint action, connecting with others and local solutions that we can share as ‘Transition’ values. And yes, there is quite a lot about Tooting in the book!

    Playing for Time was published last week, and TTT blog readers can order the book from the publishers now, and get £5.00 off the price.
    To order, enter this discount code: ONPFT2015 at Oberon Books.
    Offer valid until 31 Dec 2015…but no need to wait until then.

    2  Energy from the kinetic force of footsteps (or footballers) 
    “My idea was a floor tile that would convert the kinetic energy from a footstep into electricity” says engineer Robert Kemball-Cook about his invention that provides off-grid power anywhere. It’s expensive now – but “We are establishing a whole industry that never existed before.”  
    Read about Pavegen here

    3  Flexible pv panels
     Another engineer, Perry Carroll took ten years to develop a new kind of photovoltaic panel. “Solar is moving from being a hard, inflexible and one-colour product to being soft lightweight, flexible, and maybe multicoloured..” Read about The Solar Cloth Company here

    4  Strikketoget The Knitting Train

    On a four-hour train journey in Norway last week, I was invited to come to the knitting carriage: learn the skills as a beginner, or practice with new patterns; all materials provided; all ages getting together.
    The tagline: Lære noe nytt. Ta toget. Learn something new. Take the train.

    What could be offered to learn and enjoy on our trains?


    5  The Green Viking helps with composting toilets
    That train journey led to a ski trip. There were composting toilets in every cabin. Waste bark has been re-purposed and repackaged by an enterprise in Sweden, to provide that magic Green Viking extra.

    In Bangladesh, the wonderfully-named ‘Value at the End of the Sanitation Value-Chain’ project takes the process to the next step, and finds gold at the end of the compost rainbow. 

    How can we be more creative about composting in Tooting?

    6  Solspeilet The Sun Mirror
    The ski trip in Norway finished in Rjukan, where the Sun Mirror project conceived by artist Martin Andersen reflects sunlight into the town in its deep valley, which has no direct sun for half the year. Such a ‘simple’ idea.  

    What would we make in Tooting that could have an impact on social and personal wellbeing?

    7  Institutional fund divestment from coal, gas and oil
    You probably know about the global campaigns to get investors to divest from carbon-intensive industries… see 350.org’s Go Fossil Free .
    Last year the Rockefeller Brothers Fund decided to start a process of divestment from coal, gas and oil, saying “it is our moral duty to divest from fossil fuels”. (Yes, John D Rockefeller founded the oil empire that became ExxonMobil).

    Oslo City is selling the coal investments in its pension portfolio next month…which other cities will follow their lead? 
    Last week the Guardian Media group pledged to divest its £800m fund from fossil fuels. 
    And on April 1 it was reported that Jeremy Clarkson has experienced a conversion: he’s signed up with the Guardian to be a ‘poster person for the carbon-haters’.

    Three weeks ago the Governor of the Bank of England defended a Bank study which investigates the risk of an economic crash if action on climate change renders oil and gas assets worthless (because reserves will have to be kept in the ground to reduce atmospheric temperature increases). Corporate insurers might take a huge hit…will that send a signal to investors?

    Sophia McNab and ShareAction have invited anyone interested to join a meeting at BP’s AGM on April 16th, “to show investors that we want action on climate change”. Sophia led TTT’s session on personal pensions last December and you can contact her here to join in or get information about ShareAction’s ‘AGM Army’. 

    Back to Tooting, where we all have the potential to act, urgently and locally: 

    8  Re-used materials in a garden project
    Two colleagues from Tooting Outdoors are building garden raised beds with Year Four children at a local primary school.

    One child’s vision for the garden
    This outdoor learning project is partly about making an empty space fruitful and delivering a useful outcome. It’s mostly about involving the children in the whole process from imagining what a school garden could be for, to measuring the site and building the beds using tools safely. 
    Think of the carbon we are saving!
    All the materials are re-used / re-purposed, whether the topsoil in the beds or the timbers (100 year-old roof trusses from a house renovation in Tooting Broadway). There was a big time cost: de-nailing the timber took hours; but the ‘carbon cost’ was almost zero. The wood has paid its carbon dues.

    What ‘waste’ can you see in Tooting that could have a valuable second and low-carbon life. 
    How could we set up a service to support that?


    Thanks for reading
    We’re sharing these to encourage us all to imagine what’s possible, and to experiment with positive ideas and creative new ways of working – personal, social, environmental, and economic.   
    These diverse examples aren’t described in detail….all welcome to join a TTT meeting if you have some ideas you’d like to share to explore local sustainability in more depth.  – Charles

  • ‘Make Time for Making’ – Up cycling beads

    This is a reminder that Weds 8th is the April Meet & Make!

    Meet & Make is a monthly invitation to ”make time for making” in our busy lives.

    On offer this month, at no cost, is the chance to sit and relax with the restorative craft of hand sewing, using beads. You can create adornments for clothes, like a patch that can be sewn on. They are also a sweet way to personalise a thank you note or greeting card with a keepsake.

    I couldn’t resist making a bee to represent the Bees Of Streatham Cemetery as my first go:

    It’s straight forward to create a design and once you have done a row or two you will be hooked!

    Another option is to use beads to create designs straight onto clothes, something like this:

    This idea for this featured craft came from Helen who has been inspired by 70s style beading adornment.

    Tools, materials and inspiration to make something special by hand are provide free of charge.

    The following equipment will be provided but if you have extras it would be useful to bring them along.

    *Embroidery rings
    *Seed beads
    *Clothes to adorn

    April also brings a new addition to Meet & Make – the Sewing Surgery.

    You can bring any sewing project along to Sprout for advice on how to start, the next steps or even just the time and space to work on it and get it done.
    Like replacing the worn out collar on a jacket for instance:

    Meet & Make is at Sprout: 74 Moyser Road, Furzedown, SW16 6SQ, every second Wednesday from 6:30-8:30.

    All free, spare change donations for Sprout are welcomed on the night. Contact Jeni on jeniannewalker@gmail.com for info

  • The Anti-Upgrading Exhibition – at the Lightbox

    ‘Our enormously productive economy demands we make consumption a way of life’.

    This is a quote from 1955 on the wall of an exhibition now showing at the Lightbox Gallery in Woking.

    A toilet brush is the unlikely centre-piece of the exhibition.  Its description reads ‘This is a well designed toilet brush from Addis bought in the late ‘80’s when our house was built, and still as good as new! It still performs perfectly…. it has probably been used over 30,000 times…. (This brush has been very thoroughly cleaned!)
    The exhibition ‘Waste Not…’ runs (free) until 8thApril at the gallery (30 mins on the train from Clapham Junction or Wimbledon).  It is an exhibition of old appliances and other objects that are still used – or at least have been kept in the hope of being used!  
    It shows the objects themselves and short films of their owners talking about them.  It’s all about maintaining things – it is the anti-upgrading exhibition! 

    On 28th March, the South London Makerspace and Restart Project held a fixing and mending workshop at the gallery where they showed members of the local community how to fix their electrical and electronic items, sharpen old saws and tools and mend self-assembly furniture with new parts printed on a 3-D printer!

    If you are interested in getting involved locally with mending, fixing or making – or just have something you’d like to fix – come along to our Tooting Restart Project workshops  at Mushkil Aasaan, 220 – 222 Upper Tooting Road, SW17 7EW (next to Nandos)
    Sat 25th April – 2.30 – 5.30
    Sat 11th July – 2.30 – 5.30
    Sat 26th September – 2.30 – 5.30

  • #TootingFuture Comments

    Good to see that there has been some debate and reflection after last week’s Electing The Future event. 

    Low Impact’s Dave Darby in this thoughtful piece reflects on the elephant in the room – the incongruity of constant economic growth on a physically finite planet, an erroneous assumption that he feels the main political parties continue to make.

    Meanwhile LibDem candidate Phil Ling has blogged re his experience listing his party’s five green laws to safeguard the environment.

    On twitter @tomvwoodcock found the hustings inspiring, while Green Candidate Esther Obiri-Darko @GreenTooting commented on TTT showing real community activism. Labour’s Fleur Anderson (@CllrFleur) and Conservative Dan Watkins (@DanWatkins) also weighed in with their observations.

    What do you want for a #Tootingfuture?  Join the debate on twitter, tell us what you think via @tttooting.

  • #TootingFuture Great Conversations

    A successful Electing the Future event was held tonight at the USSR club. Loads of interesting discussion about Tooting past, present and future with local voices including some of the parliamentary candidates standing in Tooting.  Thanks to Dan Watkins, Phil Ling & Esther Obiri-Darko for attending and Fleur Anderson for standing in for an absent Sadiq Khan.

    Esther, Fleur, Dan & Phil with Lucy on the mic

    What a lot of great ideas around improving community, green spaces, better streets, controlling traffic & pollution, access to housing and independent retail environments to name but a few. Could we imagine Balham Boulevard or taking control of the Tooting Common Cafe or even just “More Green Beauty” in Tooting and around?

    A full write up will appear on the blog in due course. A #Tootingfuture is just that bit more easy to imagine.

  • Electing The Future 18th March

    With the general election just around the corner, TTT is bringing local people of all ages together, along with local businesses, parliamentary candidates, scientists and artists for an open conversation about the future of our area.
    Electing the Future takes place next Wednesday 18th March at the United Services Club in the Balham High Rd and parliamentary candidates already confirmed include:

    Dan Watkins (Conservative),
    Esther Obiri Darko (Green),
    Phil Ling (Liberal Democrat),
    while the Labour Party & UKIP also promise a representative.

    Parliamentary candidates confirmed so far are:

    • Dan Watkins (Conservative)
    • Esther Obiri Darko (Green)
    • At least one representative from Labour – names tba
    • Phil Ling (Liberal Democrat)
    • A representative of UKIP

    – See more at: http://tooting-news.dailyprss.co.uk/tabs/blog/2015/02/electing-the-future—a-tooting-conversation#sthash.gQnOE7ap.dpuf

    What do you want these representatives to have on their radar?

    Tackling air pollution & traffic, 20mph where we live, space for cycling, protecting green spaces, the effect of crossrail, conserving some of our wonderful old buildings, increased energy efficiency, community gardens, a more resilient connected community???  Something else???  Positive sustainable changes in how we live must be possible, right?

    All are welcome to take part in what promises to be a lively debate. Book your free tickets at Eventbrite

  • Make Something, Meet People

    This month’s Meet & Make is a sew fest! We have makes suitable for sewbies and sewsperts.

    All materials, expertise and equipment is provided for free (we do collect small, donations for the venue) so you can just turn up, have a chat, sew some seams and perhaps go home with some new  hairbands, or a pair of slippers.
     
    Date: 11th March 2015
    Time: 6:30 – 8:30 (do join in later if you are working late or whatever)
    Sprout Community Arts 76 Moyser Road
     
    For more info please contact Jeni: jeniannewalker@gmail.com 07944693015

  • Time to Act on Climate Change – 7th March

    A group of a dozen of us from Tooting went to the Time to Act march on Saturday in London. 

    Why march? To express yourself, to be counted, to meet friends and strangers, to witness change in the making, to represent others, simply to be there. 





     
    Making and feeling the weight of your message in your hands – it’s unusual, active, and personal. Totally unlike holding a phone. 




    The sun was hot; the wind blew the banners so they tugged like sails.

     
    At one point in the march, between The Savoy and 
    Charing Cross, everyone sat down on the warm tarmac of the Strand. 


    For me that was a good moment – not quite touching the wild earth, but certainly feeling in touch with London, and valuing it as a physical place that shelters us. 

     
    None of us wants to be preached to, and I liked these diverse messages –  direct and also complex; creative and calling up so many associations.

    Why march, why do what we do locally in Tooting?
    Naomi Klein from the introduction to ‘This Changes Everything‘:
    “We know that if we continue on our current path of allowing emissions to rise year after year, climate change will change everything about our world. 
    And we don’t have to do anything to bring about this future.  
    All we have to do is nothing“
    – Charles 

  • Electing the Future event, 18th March

    http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/electing-the-future-tickets-15810561816

    If you had one wish for the future of your area, what would it be?

    With the general election around the corner, we’re bringing local people, businesses, young people, parliamentary candidates and councillors, scientists and artists together for a lively debate on the future of the area.

    Electing the Future will take place at:
    The United Services Club, 268 Balham High Road, SW17 7AJ
    on Wed 18th March 2015, 7pm-10pm

    You’re invited to take part in this lively debate or sit back and listen.  We’ll be exploring what active citizenship really means, and we’ll encourage conversations to envisage sustainable change together.

    Commenting on the event, David Thorne, co-chair of Transition Town Tooting said,

    “There’s an election in May, but with people more disengaged then ever from mainstream politics, Transition Town Tooting will seek to host a different kind of conversation about the future, which steers away from tired old party political platitudes.”

    Following on, Belinda Sosinowicz, co-chair, Transition Town Tooting said:

    “We’re seeing a lot of change around Tooting – some positive, some challenging. There are facilities at risk, services that are stretched, and new investments changing our local landscape. People care deeply about these changes. We aim to hear the voices of engaged local people and work out sustainable alternatives for the future together to build a more resilient community. That’s why we’re staging this event.”

    A panel of local voices, including parliamentary candidates, will take part in the discussions and respond to concerns, questions and suggested solutions.

    Tickets are free, but spaces are limited, so please do book at the Electing the Future Eventbrite page. We look forward to you joining us.

    Help us spread the word, download the flyer here and share with your friends.

  • Furzedown Low Carbon Zone AGM, Friday 27th Feb

    All welcome to the FLCZ annual general meeting
    Friday 27th February 2015, 7:00pm to 9:00 pm


    The AGM is at the Furzedown Project, 93 Moyser Road, SW16 6SJ
    Join us to help make exciting plans for 2015 and beyond.
    For info, please contact us at furzedownlowcarbonzone@gmail.com

    Also concerned with making low-carbon living a reality now:

    Ecobuild is running next week FOR FREE for 3 days at the Excel Centre – 3rd-5th March. It’s a remarkable event!
    If you have not attended before, it partly a gigantic trade show, and partly a superb series of seminars and lectures with experts.

    For example – here’s the link to Green Energy talks on the Tuesday. There is so much going on, organised into key themes….some technical, some community-oriented, some very creative – or all three.
    Taking part is free – details on the Ecobuild site. See you there!