Having investigated home energy and transport last year, the regular circles get into gear with Food (Strangers') and Stuff (Circle West). Meanwhile TN2, our carbon reduction “think tank” is preparing their individual skills list and narratives. We’ll be posting up our case studies on the TN2 googlegroup during the next month. This picture is from Erik Buitenhuis's narrative, getting an early start on low-carbon travel! Check out Erik's One Planet Living post on the TN blog (Dec 27) where you'll also find a post on the hot topic of the month, woodburners by John Heaser http://transitionnorwich.blogspot.com/
At our next TN2 meeting we’re going to be looking at how best to seed 6-12 new groups in the coming year ( we have just secured £1000 funding from Norwich City Council to help us get going) and at the various other low-carbon programmes on offer. We’ll be discussing everything from the 10:10 campaign and Eco-Teams to the Scottish food initiatives, the Fife Diet and the 50:50 challenge, as well as hearing reports from Christine Way on Carbon Conversations from Cambridge and Tully Wakeman on Transition Together developed in Totnes. (date tba - keep an eye out for the calendar or join the downshift debate on our lively googlegroup). All full-on carbon-cutters welcome.
CIRCLE WEST Transition Circle West is open to anyone living in the west of Norwich who is interested in raising their awareness and cutting their carbon. Our monthly meetings start with sharing food and then go onto the theme for the night and how we can support each other to reduce our consumption and therefore our carbon footprint. The idea is to form neighbourhood groups - as each group attracts new members and grows too large to fit in a living room it will split into two - so the Transition ethos will spread like cell division. In meetings so far we have collected and measured our use of household energy and created a baseline that we will measure again next year to see how we have reduced our energy consumption. Part of what the group does is share stories and experiences of how each of us lives, what is working, what is difficult, real lives making real changes.
At Transition Circle West's last meeting we compared our use of gas and electricity based on our bills with the national average and the average consumption per household in Norwich. Seeing our relative use on a graph enabled us to see where we each are now and, in a great discussion, where we could reduce our consumption. The whole evening brought awareness to our different "norms" and how we can shift them. We will be recording all this over time in our TCW scrapbook.
Our next meeting is going to look at Stuff. Everyone is invited to bring a bit of STUFF they think is useful or valuable but that they no longer want (Helen Wells).
TRANSITION CIRCLE GET-TOGETHER Several people lamented how it was all nice and productive to focus on the agenda items during Transition meetings, but it resulted in us not knowing each other very well, and so we decided to hold a purely social get together on 15 December at the Alexandra Cafe. About 8 people came and although the temperature was a bit excessive for many of us who have turned down our heating at home as much as we can stand, it was a great success and we decided to continue having them. The next one will be on the 15th again in January from 7pm in the Alexandra again. We decided on the 15th so that those who couldn't make it because it was on a Tuesday in December hopefully will be able to come on Friday 15 January. We haven't discussed yet whether we want to keep going to the Alexandra or will rotate pubs as we rotate days of the week, or maybe meet at people's houses instead. If you can't make it but want to make a suggestion for the February date or venue
http://lgmacweb.env.uea.ac.uk/green_ocean/positions/Buitenhuis/feedback.html
do get in touch. (Erik Buitenhuis)
The Transition Circles meet regularly in people’s houses (see calendar for full details). If you would like to join a neighbourhood circle or start one up do get in touch with any of the following people. TN2 and Stranger’s Circle - contact Tully at tully@transitionnorwich.org. Transition Circle West (NR2) - contact Helen Wells heavenwells@mac.com . Transition Central - contact Christine at transition@innerspace.co.uk.
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