Carbon Conversations - new series

A new round of Carbon Conversations courses will be starting in January so now is the time to get your name on the list so that we can plan when and where the groups will be held.

Carbon Conversations are based on a psychological understanding of how people change and help people to make significant reductions in their carbon footprint. Each group of 6 - 10 people meet for 6 sessions usually in member’s homes. The course is for all those who are concerned about climate change and wish to reduce their carbon footprint regardless of their current carbon footprint

What do the groups offer?
- sessions on low-carbon futures, home energy, travel and transport, food and water,
consumption and waste and making plans
- space for people to explore what climate change means for themselves, their families and their aspirations
- permission to share their hopes, doubts and anxieties
- time to work through the conflicts between intention, social pressure and
identity.
- reliable, well-researched information and practical guidance on what will
make a difference
- support in creating a personal plan for change
- materials including interactive games and a comprehensive handbook covering climate change basics, low-carbon living and the four key areas of the footprint – home energy, travel, food and other consumption.

Joining or starting a group
The groups are ideal for friends, neighbours and community groups so if you can gather a group of 6 – 10 people we’ll provide the facilitators.

Alternatively, contact training@transitionnorwich.org giving your name and postcode and we’ll contact you when a suitable group is available.

New Carbon Conversations Groups

What is your carbon footprint?

That is the first question we try to answer in a Carbon Conversations group. Already Transition Norwich have run 11 successful groups in Norwich and Diss which have helped participants reduce their carbon footprints and make plans to reduce them significantly over the next five years. Even those already leading fairly low energy lifestyles have been astonished by some of the amazing revelations, enlightening discussions and inspiring exercises in the course.

For those wanting to start a Transition Circle or other kind of energy reduction group in their neighbourhood, workplace or organisation a series of six Carbon Conversations provides an excellent foundation. We now have several trained facilitators and apart from regular groups in central Norwich we can offer courses in your area. All you need to do is find 6-10 friends or colleagues who would like to participate, find a space and time to meet and we’ll find the facilitators. Christine Way

For further details contact: training@transitionnorwich.org or 01603 614460

Carbon Conversations - new sessions - 8 March

This inspiring, practical 6-session course on low-carbon living will be facilitated by Christine Way and Anne Dismorr. The course engages people both emotionally and practically, helping them overcome the barriers often associated with making large carbon reductions. Members explore the basic climate change problem, their responses to it, their ideas for a low-carbon future and the four key areas of the footprint – home energy, travel, food and other consumption. Most members make reductions of 1 tonne CO2 during the course and develop plans to halve their footprints over a longer period. Cost £20.Time: 10.30 - 12.30 Venue: Either City Centre or Mill Hill area.Time: 10.30 - 12.30

Contact: training@transitionnorwich.org or 01603 664479 for further information

New! Carbon Reduction at County Hall and UEA - 1 February

Carbon Conversations Tuesday February 1st marks the start of the next inspiring and practical course on carbon reduction - Carbon Conversations - due to take place at County Hall, Norwich. Eight green and keen County Council staff members have signed themselves up to the sessions which will be facilitated by Esme Holtom and Elena Judd who did the course themselves and were trained to facilitate by Cambridge Carbon Footprint.

Transition Circle UEA Having just completed our final session on Carbon Conversations at UEA we decided that we didn't want to go cold turkey. So we are starting a Transition Circle UEA with our first meeting next month looking at low carbon Transport and Travel.

Other people linked to UEA, who haven't done the Carbon Conversations course, but are still trying to reduce their personal carbon footprint are welcome to join us. Just let Kerry know (kezereky_the_first@hotmail.com)

If you would like to hold a Carbon Conversations course in your neighbourhood or workplace and can organise a group of 6-12 people, do get in touch with Christine at transition@phonecoop.coop and she will find facilitators for the six-week sessions.

REPORTS: Carbon Conversations

I am now mid-way through my very local 'carbon conversations' meetings. It's very local because it's being held in a house about 400 yards from where I live, although a couple of the other 6 participants come from more rural Norfolk.

The course is designed for participants to ask themselves questions, in a convivial atmosphere, about their own lifestyles and beliefs, and about policy issues which have a bearing on carbon output. So far we have looked at 'low carbon futures', energy in the home, and travel and transport. The meetings are enlivened by some practical board games we play, to illustrate how our footprints are broken down, and how things might change too. Of particular practical significance is the possibility of free loans of energy monitors, and very useful tips for cheap ways of reducing household energy bills and emissions. It's well put together and the workbook, which comes with it all, has yet more practical advice on what we can actually do. (Chris Hull)

Carbon conversations are happening in different locations in Norwich, including UEA. For further information contact Christine Way at http://www.blogger.com/training@transitionnorwich.org or call 01603 614460

Carbon Conversations - 8 November

An inspiring, practical 6 session course on low-carbon living. Designed by Cambridge Carbon Footprint, it engages people both emotionally and practically and was recently featured in the Guardian as one of the 20 best Climate Change solutions. Most members reduce their CO2 emissions by 1 tonne during the course and develop plans to halve their footprints over a longer period. £20.

Monday 8^th November 10.30 -12.30 Anne Dismorr and Christine Way in the Golden Triangle or

Monday 1st November 19.15-21.30 on Ipswich Road, to be held fortnightly. If anyone wants info Tel Lois Hill 01603 623816 or 01603 630297.

Wednesday 27^th October 19:30 - 21:30 with Christine Way and Peter Ellington at Inner Space (It is not too late to join this group)

Contact: Christine Way at http://www.blogger.com/training@transitionnorwich.org or call 01603 614460

Carbon Conversations - 13 and 14 October

With the success of the Carbon Conversations earlier in the year we now have 10 facilitators trained in Norwich so we are able to offer our third round of courses this term. Carbon Conversations is an inspiring, practical 6-session course on low-carbon living. It was recently featured in the Guardian as one of the 20 best climate change solutions.

• based on the psychology of change
• emotionally engaging
• technically rigorous
• up to date, attractive handbook, games and materials

The course engages people both emotionally and practically, helping them overcome the barriers often associated with making large carbon reductions. Members explore the basic climate change problem, their responses to it, their ideas for a low-carbon future and the four key areas of the footprint – home energy, travel, food and other consumption. Most members make reductions of 1 tonne CO2 during the course and develop plans to halve their footprints over a longer period (Christine Way).

Courses will be starting on Tues 13 Octand Wed 14 Oct in the evenings in central Norwich. At County Hall on Tue 19 Oct, at UEA on Wed 20 (for students), in Unthank/Earlham Rd area Mon 25 Oct. Course Fee: £20 If you would like to join one of these courses please contact T. 01603 614460 or email training@transitionnorwich.org

Other courses will be starting throughout Norfolk so please get in touch if you wish to be kept informed of the programme

Transition Circles - Monday 7 and Wednesday 9 June

Strangers’ Circle – The Resilience Sequence -Monday 7 June
Our May meeting at Elena’s and Alan’s was a celebration of two birthdays, a wedding anniversary, and the arrival of our first food order as a co-op. The food was great, the company was great and the way those lentils, rice and chickpeas were skilfully and quickly weighed, measured and sorted into reused plastic bags and tubs, it was as if we’d been doing it for years. You can read more by clicking here.

Over the past months at the Strangers’ meetings we have examined our home energy use, food, transport and stuff and discussed and taken steps to reduce our personal carbon footprints. We decided to look at Resilience in our next six meetings (beginning with a discussion about this key transition concept) and Tully spoke about the feasta report in respect to current non-resilient systems. Charlotte then briefly mapped out a joint project for our low-carbon cookbook. And lastly we decided to host a Transition Circles Midsummer picnic on 21st June at Mangreen in celebration of our low-carbon year in TN2. There'll be a carbon cutting quiz and Naomi will be Quizmaster! Everyone is welcome. (Mark Watson)

Carbon Conversations – Energy & Transport - Wednesday 9 June
“To measure is to know,” remarked Erik as we debated at the end of one of our sessions about the efficacy of numbers. Some of us intuitive carbon-cutters find facts and figures dry or disempowering, but whichever way you swing it unless you count the KW or the car miles you don’t grasp the reality of the situation. The trick is to bring our real lives and feelings to bear into the discussion. To bring attention to the practical moves we need to make to get to that four-tonne target, the course includes playing games – a kind of reverse Monopoly - that show how middle and high income families can downshift, accompanied by innovative government policies.

This time we went home with a single-use energy monitor (to check oven and washing machine) and a DVD of Crude Impact (2005). While the world is grappling with an oil spill it can’t contain in the Mexican Gulf, British banks underwriting tar sands extraction in Canada, pristine Peruvian rainforest being plundered by Conoco, Shell continuing its desecration of the most densely populated area of Nigeria, it’s good to remind yourself of the price other people are paying for our oil addicted lifestyle. Puts all those resistances in a sober light. (Charlotte Du Cann)

If you would like to know more about Transition Circles, join one or start one in your neighbourhood please contact Tully Wakeman on tully@transitionnorwich.org. If you want to join a Carbon Conversation contact Christine Way on transition@phonecoop.coop

Transition Circles - Wednesday 26 May and Monday 7 June

Circle West discuss waste and “stuff” and how to begin a Transition Circle Hethersett; The Strangers’ dry run their first wholefood coop order; a new cycle of Carbon Conversations begins in Norwich and Diss and Elena Judd finds the perfect book for those of us who can’t let the plane take the strain any longer. Keep the date Friday June 21 free, as we’re planning a Transition Circles party to celebrate a whole year of low-carbon living.

Strangers’ Circle – Monday 7 June
At our Strangers' Circle in April we started our get-together as always with a feast of home-cooked food: Angie's onion pakoras, William's egg salad with new lettuce from the Mangreen polytunnel, Elena's carrot and cumin soup, Mark's spelt rolls, my cherry-plum and rhubarb compotes . . . . and in-house nettle soup. Our low-carbon supper set us up so we could get down to draw up our first order as a Transition wholefood co-op - a real community exercise! We had all kinds of debates on the merits of poppy seeds, whether we should choose raisins or sultanas, what colour lentils. Some things we were unanimous about - extra virgin olive oil, fairtrade brown basmati rice, local bread flour . . . Tully did the figures on his laptop, Elena held sway over the catalogue, Mark made tea, Naomi and I negotiated kilos of gluten-free pasta. Oh, and we laughed a lot.

This week we’re meeting to divvy up the goods! As well as celebrating the birthdays and anniversaries in our group with low-carbon cakes and ale. Now we have to work out where to put everything - invent storehouses in ingenious corners of our houses.

Carbon Conversations – 9 June
If you had said to me that I’d be finding out exactly how many KW the washing machine takes on a 40 degree cycle, or considering sharing a car with my neighbours a year ago I would have laughed. Me an anorak! But then TN2 happened and I vowed to reduce my carbon to four tons. And now I’ve started Carbon Conversations, a structured approach to carbon cutting, and I’m looking at those unglamourous statistics even more.

The first of six sessions was an introduction to the main ideas behind the course - which is to focus directly on what changes individuals and communities can make. Following a workbook we had lively two-hander and group debates about low-carbon challenges, the responsibility for climate change and our beliefs about humanity and the earth’s resources.

"I prefer to face reality," said one of the group afterwards. "When I know, I can have hope." It’s true you need to look at facts, otherwise you remain conveniently in the dark (especially when it comes to car mileage). Reality, even when it's tough, is something you can share with people and laugh about, illusions are solitary and frightening because you spend your life in hiding, fending off the truth of the matter. We went home happily with Jeremy Leggett’s Half Gone and a DVD of An Inconvenient Truth in our hands. And of course, homework . . . haven’t done that for about 30 years! (Charlotte Du Cann/Strangers' Circle)

Carbon Conversations continues this month and will discuss Home Energy and Transport

The Man in Seat 61 by Mark Smith
I've long known about the website The Man in Seat 61, which provides lots of information about travelling through Europe by train. I've looked at it a couple of times, and gone away, defeated by the sheer amount of information and the way the site is laid out. I'm sure other people get along just fine with it, but it was always a bit much for me.

Then, wandering around Poringland Library, I spotted The Man in Seat 61 - the book! What a wonderful find! It's clear, precise and full of inspiring ideas as well as information. I had no idea it is possible to travel from London to Greece in 48 hours by train and ferry.

It tells you exactly where, how and how much. There's phone numbers and websites for buying tickets; scenic route recommendations; language guides and information on what to take.

The book is a couple of years old now, and if you're planning a journey, it's probably worth supplementing the book with a peek at the website. (Elena Judd/Strangers’ Circle)

If you would like to know more about Transition Circles, join one or start one in your neighbourhood please contact Tully Wakeman on tully@transitionnorwich.org
If you want to join a Carbon Conversation contact Christine Way on transition@phonecoop.coop

Above: Charlotte (Strangers' Circle) and Kerry (Circle West) meeting at the Bicycle Shop Cafe; Man in Seat 61; Christine introducing the Carbon Conversations.

Carbon Conversations - Second Round - Wednesday 28 April

We have almost finished our first two Carbon Conversations courses and group members are already making energy savings in their homes and travel arrangements. In the last two sessions we talked about food and stuff and we are now creating our 5 year plans to reduce our carbon emissions to half our current level or less than four tonnes. As facilitators Tully and I have been impressed with the effectiveness of the programme and the enthusiastic discussions arising from the exercises and games. I have been surprised by the changes in my own behaviour and reduction in my energy use triggered by monitoring energy in my home and Inner Space.

Secretly, I’ve developed such a close relationship with my energy monitor that I’ve even been known to take it to bed with me but please don’t tell anyone! The course provides an ideal structure for starting a Transition Circle in your neighbourhood, street, workplace, village or community group and as we are hoping to roll this programme out across Norwich priority for the course starting on Tuesday 20th April will be given to those wishing to start their own group. We shall also be facilitating a daytime group in Diss during the summer term. In May we are planning to run the first facilitators training for those who have already completed the course which will mean that more courses will start in the summer.

If you are interested in Carbon Conversations please email training@transitionnorwich.org

Transition Norwich Carbon Club

If you are interested in monitoring your home energy use I can recommend signing up to I-measure at http://www.imeasure.org.uk/ where you can enter your meter readings and it will calculate your CO2 emissions for the week/month/year. I have also started a Carbon Club on the site called 'Transition Norwich' which you can join and where you can see how others in the group are doing. If you want to monitor your flights and travel as well you may prefer to use http://www.thecarbonaccount.com/ so I suggest trying both and deciding for yourself which site you prefer. (Christine Way/Core Group, TN2)

Carbon Conversations

As I write this I'm half-way through the Carbon Conversations course. It's a really inspiring course that I thoroughly recommend. I was starting to feel 'stuck' about climate change. I'd already changed everything that I thought I could do, and I couldn't see a way forward. So when I heard about a course in Norwich that I could afford, that addressed just that, I was delighted and signed up straight away.

The course skilfully combines a gentle approach to our feelings and beliefs about climate change with a very robust handling of the science and maths involved in calculating our personal impact. There's no shying away from confronting the realities of our own carbon footprint - but no pressure to own up, and no sense of competition. We've all confessed fears, shame and guilt; and celebrated successes, played games and laughed, and shared the contentment that comes from knowing we're working hard at something that matters.

The course gives lots of ideas of positive actions to take, and encourages us to share what has worked for each of us. I asked other's opinions on the 'double glazing film' that can be applied to single glazed windows, and several people recommended it. I spent yesterday putting it up, and today my room feels a lot warmer!

The next courses starting in April and priority will be given to those wishing to start their own group. Also in April we hope to run the first facilitator's training for those who have already completed the course which will mean that more courses will start in the summer. If you are interested in CarbonConversations please email training@transitionnorwich.org

Energy Monitors for Hire

Working in the library the other day I spotted that they had two Owl Electricity Monitors to borrow. I checked on the computer system and found that there are monitors available for free from every Norfolk library.

I've tried one and discovered it was really easy to use. It's useful to know exactly how much electricity the oven uses: almost exactly the same amount as the kettle and toaster both turned on at once, but as I usually have the oven on for much longer than the toaster, the oven uses much more energy in total.

Mark and Charlotte have talked about using a monitor and they've been able to make some real changes to their electricity use as a result.

The information that comes with the Owls says that most people reduce their energy use by around 25% when they start using a monitor- with similar cuts in both bills and CO2 emissions. I really recommend borrowing one of these to see if you can cut your energy use; you save £30 on the cost of buying one, and support the council in a great green initiative. (Elena Judd/TN2)

Transition Norwich Carbon Club
If you are interested in monitoring your home energy use I can recommendsigning up to I-measure at http://www.imeasure.org.uk where you can enter yourmeter readings and it will calculate your CO2 emissions for theweek/month/year. I have also started a Carbon Club on the site called'Transition Norwich' which you can join and where you can see how othersin the group are doing. If you want to monitor your flights and travelas well you may prefer to use http://www.thecarbonaccount.com so I suggest trying both and deciding for yourself which site you prefer. (Christine Way/Core Group)

Carbon Conversations

January saw the start of two Carbon Conversations courses at Inner Space with a wide range of members from those who knew little about low carbon living to those who were already on the journey. In the first session we considered what a low carbon future might look like and our feelings associated with that. Ideas, books, dvd’s and energy monitors were shared and members left with a sense of enthusiasm and tasks to complete before the next meeting. The Low-Carbon House game played in the second session triggered such concentration and thoughtful discussion that everyone, including me, went away with new ideas for jobs to tackle around their homes.

I was pleasantly surprised to find both these groups oversubscribed and people from around the county contacting me about groups in their own area. At the moment only Tully and I are running groups but we hope to have more facilitators as people complete the course. We are now compiling a waiting list so if you are interested in doing the course or having one in your area please email: training@transitionnorwich.org with your name, phone number and where you live. (Christine Way/Core Group)

Carbon Conversations - 12 and 21 January

Carbon Conversations is an inspiring, practical 6-session course on low-carbon living developed by Cambridge Carbon Footprint. It was recently featured in the Guardian as one of the 20 best climate change solutions. The course engages people both emotionally and practically, helping them overcome the barriers often associated with making large carbon reductions. Members explore the basic climate change problem, their responses to it, their ideas for a low-carbon future and the four key areas of the footprint – home energy, travel, food and other consumption. Most members make reductions of 1 tonne CO2 during the course and develop plans to halve their footprints over a longer period. After the course we hope that members will consider becoming facilitators so that more and more people become involved in supporting each other in developing the resilience needed to face the challenges ahead.

Two courses of 6 fortnightly sessions are being offered at Inner Space for £23 each including the excellent handbook.
Tuesday evenings 7.30-9.30 starting 12th January
Thursday mornings 10.00 -12.00 starting 21st January. Further courses will begin in April.

For more information and bookings contact Christine: 01603 614460 transition@phonecoop.coop

For further details about Carbon Conversations visit: www.cambridgecarbonfootprint.org