This isn’t meant to be too serious or a downer or a go at any one.
being carbon neutral or carbon positive (is that a term) doesn’t have to be that hard. There’s a massive amount of opportunity in this sector and who knows if some bright sparks came up with some clever technology ideas I’m sure a few start ups could emerge from the space.
It breaks down into lower your foot print, use renewable energy, maximize efficiencies, off set.
There’s a lot we could do in the space to lower our own footprint. Which would be a start.
We could also pay some of our surplus to off set our carbon use. Probably our only option as we don’t have much potential to create much renewable energy on (this) site.
Examples of where we fall short at the moment are:
Monitors and PCs could be set to go into hybernation monitors set to turn off automatically. Currently, often, pcs and monitors left on permanently.
Printer constantly on stand by. There must be a way to improve that.
Using recycled consumables. Maybe printer paper is our only choice here. I don’t think we are currently buying unbleached recycled paper. We probably should be.
We could do something clever with the lighting like they do in some supermarkets to go threw phases of brightness or xyz.
Improve the insulation and heating in the space. Think that’s on the to do list.
Adversely I’ve heard a few people comment on how nice and cool it is in the space in the summer on baking hot days.
We have just got a contract with an excellent local recycling firm. Check there website out. It’s really good and lowers our footprint. It being a local firm is already a big carbon saving and they are doing (or will be when we start using them more) great work turning our food waste into compost, that they send to local farms.
We could source and start using / recommending a good local wood source. Opportunities for bridge building with other local businesses.
Encourage the use of reclaimed materials. I think a lot of members are already doing this on projects as it helps with cost.
A lot of the equipment in the space is 2nd hand which is brilliant as it has zero carbon footprint for us in terms of its manufacture.
Are there opportunities to work on local projects to raise awareness and problem solve.
Having our open evening in collaboration with “Restart” (?) was awesome. Empowering local people to fix there own stuff instead of throughing it in land was great. Let’s do another.
I think we’re already doing a lot. And a lot of members think about this stuff already. I hope we can do even more. And I hope it’s seen as a great opportunity for applying our vast skills and knowledge, and having some great opportunities for problem solving.
2am rant over.
I’m sure I missed a lot of stuff out. What do other people think?
