Transition Town Tooting

Tag: Furzedown Low Carbon Zone

  • Carbon Conversations Week 3

    ‘Travel and Transport’ was the theme of the evening’s discussion this third week of Carbon Conversations.  Stories of favourite and nightmare journeys were shared – from wonderful night time cycling through Hyde Park to the extreme frustration of delays, queues and missed connections while under pressure to meet a deadline elsewhere.  We talked about what travel represents to each of us , especially within a culture where it has become so accessible and so enjoyed.  Aspirations to travel the world are encouraged almost as a rite of passage and, subsequently, many thousands of conversations coalesce around those experiences.  We looked at our reasons for making journeys and there was a recognition of the challenge that would be felt were the visiting of family and friends abroad to be restricted.
    We talked about the advantages and deficiencies of cycling and the current public transport system – who it works for, or not, – and some of the steps that could be taken to make it more accessible for all and why the obstacles to this happening are so significant.  There was a recognition that solutions in potentially wonderful technologies may be still in their infancy! This theme of taking difficult carbon-reducing decisions was continued in the group game we played: we experienced how lifestyle changing decisions could be made at the individual family level (good, though sometimes not to our liking, inconvenient and expensive) alongside having the opportunity to make strategic policy decisions at a government level (also good, potentially having a great impact but likely to incur huge resistance from many quarters).

    We spent some time reflecting on the dilemma of what feels acceptable behaviour and how we can take responsibility for our carbon footprint .  Our final activity was deciding on a manageable action that we want to take and then looking at the driving and restraining forces that we could see coming into play, and then focusing on reducing the effect of the restraining forces.  Plenty to think about during the week!

  • Pop-up Cinema in Furzedown on Fri 27th January: Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’

    Join the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone screening of Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’ The film explores the global fight against climate change, the role of capitalism and what citizens can do.
    The film has been described as “purposely unsettling…ultimately encouraging”.
    When? Doors at 7:00 for film at 7:30 on Friday 27th January
    Where? The Furzedown Project, 93 Moyser Road SW16 6SJ
    Tickets cost £5 for waged and £2 for students / unemployed – including wine, soft drinks and our famous popcorn
      
    All welcome!
    Please reserve tickets by emailing us at furzedownlowcarbonzone@gmail.com 
    Your ticket entitles you to a 50% discount on the purchase of low-energy LED light bulbs for use in many parts of the home. 
    We’re making this LED offer available via our bulk purchase, to enable you to start saving money and reduce your home’s carbon footprint.

  • Pop-up Cinema in Furzedown Friday 10th July

    Pop-Up Cinema on the Green at the local bowling club in Furzedown, to enjoy a social evening, meet people and raise funds for the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone workshops we’re planning for this winter.  
    Free popcorn!
    At Streatham Park Bowling Club, Pringle Gardens, London SW16 1SH 
    Timings: 7:00pm to 9:30pm 

    We’re showing ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ by Michael Winterbottom with Russell Brand, plus a short film of Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’.  The screen is in a marquee, Spanish street food stall Moyete Man will be serving his delicious dishes, and the bar is open before and after.
    Tickets are selling fast – there’s a handful left so do book now! Tickets cost £5, or £2 for students / unemployed. Reserve by emailing us or book online at eventbrite

    London | Lambeth | Streatham
    Streatham Park Bowling Club, Pringle Gardens, London SW16 1SH – See more at: http://www.projectdirt.com/apps/event/37051/#sthash.sJPmG3wS.dpuf

    Pop-Up Cinema on the green at the local bowling club in Furzedown. The screen is in a marquee, bar is open all night and Spanish street food stall Moyete Man will be serving his delicious dishes. Tickets are selling already so remember to book. We’re raising funds for the workshops we’re planning for this winter.
    Details below –
    Pop-Up Cinema showing ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ by Michael Winterbottom with Russell Brand, plus short film of Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’
    Book your Tickets: £5 or £2 for students / unemployed
    Reserve by emailing us: furzedownlowcarbonzone@gmail.com or online:
    eventbrite.co.uk/e/flcz-pop-up-cinema-tickets-17344991336
    Screen in Marquee on the lawn
    Bar open before and after
    Free popcorn
    – See more at: http://www.projectdirt.com/apps/event/37051/#sthash.sJPmG3wS.dpuf
    Pop-Up Cinema on the green at the local bowling club in Furzedown. The screen is in a marquee, bar is open all night and Spanish street food stall Moyete Man will be serving his delicious dishes. Tickets are selling already so remember to book. We’re raising funds for the workshops we’re planning for this winter.
    Details below –
    Pop-Up Cinema showing ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ by Michael Winterbottom with Russell Brand, plus short film of Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’
    Book your Tickets: £5 or £2 for students / unemployed
    Reserve by emailing us: furzedownlowcarbonzone@gmail.com or online:
    eventbrite.co.uk/e/flcz-pop-up-cinema-tickets-17344991336
    Screen in Marquee on the lawn
    Bar open before and after
    Free popcorn
    – See more at: http://www.projectdirt.com/apps/event/37051/#sthash.sJPmG3wS.dpuf
    Pop-Up Cinema on the green at the local bowling club in Furzedown. The screen is in a marquee, bar is open all night and Spanish street food stall Moyete Man will be serving his delicious dishes. Tickets are selling already so remember to book. We’re raising funds for the workshops we’re planning for this winter.
    Details below –
    Pop-Up Cinema showing ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ by Michael Winterbottom with Russell Brand, plus short film of Naomi Klein’s ‘This Changes Everything’
    Book your Tickets: £5 or £2 for students / unemployed
    Reserve by emailing us: furzedownlowcarbonzone@gmail.com or online:
    eventbrite.co.uk/e/flcz-pop-up-cinema-tickets-17344991336
    Screen in Marquee on the lawn
    Bar open before and after
    Free popcorn
    – See more at: http://www.projectdirt.com/apps/event/37051/#sthash.sJPmG3wS.dpuf

  • 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!

  • Growing, jenga, community energy and wellbeing at St George’s Community Open Day, 15th Nov.

    Thanks so much to St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust for the invitation to have a stand at the Open Day last Saturday – our third year running.
    And thanks to all who came to talk, share ideas, participate in the games for all ages, and sign up to our email lists to keep in contact. 

    We chose three areas of what we do locally to share with visitors:

    • The Tooting Community Garden

    • Sustainable living and wellbeing games

    • Our sister project, the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone

    Some high points included:
     
    Playing with the planet: 
    plotting the sources of common foods on the world map

    Giant jenga, with green living tips

    There were twelve volunteers on the varied activities through the day, and there was a lot of preparation…

    Sometimes action takes over

    …the most valuable aspect of the day was having the time to talk to visitors about plans and ideas.


    Making drinks carton wallets
    Rhubarb on the St George’s Allotment

    Doing the day together as a team was also special.

    TTT and the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone have some great events happening in the next month – see our Events Calendar on the top right of this blog homepage.  

    All welcome!

      

    Plus: we are discussing future projects with St George’s. 
    We’ll share news soon..

  • Furzedown Low Carbon Zone: Film Night 22nd Oct

    All welcome to a Film Night hosted by our sister project, Furzedown Low Carbon Zone.

    Date: Wednesday October 22nd
    Venue: The Furzedown Project, 93 Moyser Road, SW16 6SJ
    Timings: Doors open at 7:30pm, and the showing starts at 8:00
    Booking: Please book a ticket on our booking page here. Tickets are £5.00. Under-16s and over-60s are free (please book in all the same)

    We’ll finish by 9:30, but conversation can always move to the pub! 
    Film is better with tea, coffee and cake – and if you came to the Tooting Foodival you know we make some great cakes.

    We’re showing ‘Disruption’:
    a brand new film about climate change and community 
    organisation in the face of apparent poltical apathy 


    The film also covers the background to the New York City Climate March last month.

    As well as fundraising for our activities, we’ll be sharing the proceeds of the evening with Furzedown FACE, a group that supports the local community. 


    The ‘FLCZ’ has been active for three years now
    Furzedown Low Carbon Zone is a community association dedicated to reducing the carbon emissions of Furzedown and surrounding areas. You may have seen us at Furzedown Big Day Out, at Tooting Foodival or on the Climate March.

    Two earlier FLCZ projects were carried out with many local partners including South Thames College, Eardley School, Furzedown enterprises and Transition Town Tooting. Do watch the project videos:

    1 ‘The Greener Jobs Alliance’ – watch it here

    2 ‘Better Choices for a Better Tomorrow’ – watch it here

    We’re proud that our first project won the Green Gown Awards ‘Best Newcomer’ category  in 2012 from The Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges.


    If you’d like to find out about FLCZ activities, including our current focus on setting up a community renewable energy scheme, please contact us here.
    We look forward to seeing you.

  • A follow-up to the People’s Climate March

    A huge event worldwide – maybe the biggest of its kind, ever.

    Here’s a map from 350.org, one of the 
    campaign partners:

    The march in New York City:

    What’s happened afterwards (so far)?
    This article gives a good view from the UN:  ‘Five ways Ban Ki-moon’s summit has changed international climate politics forever’ http://gu.com/p/4xp6f

    Please join us to carry out relevant, rewarding and practical local activities together, here in Tooting.  
    Do get in contact with your ideas.

  • People’s Climate March, London Sept 21 2014

    Why take part in the Climate March?

    With strong arms, one inspired person can achieve a lot!

    By joining Transition Town Tooting, the Tooting Community Garden, and Furzedown Low Carbon Zone, and Transition Wandsworth together all under one banner – we can share the work and achieve even more.


    Why take part…?
    Young people can express themselves, we can all be inspired…
    We can get talking to others by showing off our banner (thanks loads for making it, Alice).


    Today’s march was worthwhile for the sense of connection within a common cause, the conversations, the contacts made.

    And some extra learning? Have longer bamboo poles next time..

    All welcome to join us in Transition Tooting or the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone to get involved with practical community projects on food, growing, energy, air quality, sustainable living and more.
    Together we’re all contributing creativity and some local solutions to the global challenges we all face, whatever group we belong to.

    There’s a good new film: ‘Disruption’, reminding us why climate change is so significant: watch it here online for free.
    And you can hear Naomi Klein (details here) talk about her new book ‘This Changes Everything: Capitalism against the Climate’ on October 6th in central London.

     
    Please join in!

     

  • FLCZ at Furzedown Fun Day

    Nice picture of the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone stall at the Furzedown Festival on Saturday.

    FLCZ Chair Giles Read (who took the photo, thanks Giles) said: “what a brilliant event The Furzedown Festival was.  The interest in the FLCZ stall exceeded all expectations, from people interested in investing to those wanting information on solar panels or just enjoying cycling for a song!” 

    Competition Cakes

    On that score it really is interesting to “cycle for a song” to see how much pedal power it requires, in my case 5 minutes cycling to put a “Man On The Moon” courtesy of REM.  However it’s actually much harder to power the 100W light bulb.  Some of the children trying out the bike were fascinated at the connection between their effort and the generation of electricity. Thanks again to Eleanor for the loan of her cycle power machine which has been a great addition over the last two weekends.

  • Green sky thinking – here in Tooting

    On Tuesday evening 3rd June the Furzedown Low Carbon Zone is having its monthly planning meeting  at the Furzedown Pub, in the back room from 1900 to 2030.
    The group has carried out diverse local projects for the past three years with many partners. On Tuesday we’ll share updates on current plans and make new ones: our priority now is to develop a community renewable energy project locally.
    For more info, email us at furzedownlowcarbonzone@gmail.com
    All welcome – and we’d love to talk to you at the Furzedown Festival Big Day Out on 21st June http://furzedown.net/

    At Sprout Arts on Wednesday 4th June, from 1900 to 2100, there’s the first of a fascinating series of events with local architect Ayca Cutts.
    ‘Green Thinking: Designing to Survive’ is the title of Wednesday evening’s participative workshop. For more details on Ayca’s whole series at Sprout, click here.
    We are looking forward to this – and it’s a great fit with our Tooting Carbon Conversations series (click on this link for more info on our curent and past meetings)