The Greener Gloucestershire Festival

The Greener Gloucestershire Festival is happening at the University of Gloucestershire, Park Campus, Cheltenham this weekend from 12pm – 5pm!

Come along and join the celebration of all things sustainable in Gloucestershire – from local community initiatives and projects to local beer and face painting.

The festival aims to find out more about putting sustainable living into practice, with advice, information and support from many local experts, as well as interactive talks and discussions on topics such as G.M., carbon reductions, faith and sustainability and communications skills for effective sustainability.

The first event of its kind is organised by the Greener Gloucestershire Team at UoG Students’ Union, hopes to bring Gloucestershire communities together with staff and students to celebrate the amazing work in sustainability done by volunteers, organisations and businesses working to keep Gloucestershire a healthy, green and beautiful place to live. There will be something to meet the needs and interests of everyone, young and old – green and blue! The festival will be host to workshops, music, real ale and cider and the a chance for bakers and makers to exhibit at the impressive Cheltenham Connect Village Show

Stall holders from across the county will be selling their local produce and sharing their green initiatives and campaigns. This looks to be an eclectic event with delicious food, local cider and ale, and music from local bands including UkesAnon and Talis.

Greener Gloucestershire is a partnership between Gloucestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (GFirst LEP) and the University of Gloucestershire Students’ Union, and aims to enhance the student experience while they live and study in the county. The project was funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) backed National Union of Students (NUS) Students’ Green Fund.

Greener Gloucestershire project manager Rachel Purdon is looking forward to the inaugural festival: "We're delighted to be hosting the inaugural Greener Gloucestershire Festival on Park Campus. It is a perfect opportunity to come along and ask some questions about what sustainability really means, and have your say on what you want the future of Gloucestershire to look like – as well as trying some delicious

food and drink.

“Everyone is welcome to come along - whether you're interested in gardening or electric cars, saving bees or football – we’d love to see you there.”

Groups who will be present at the festival include Global Footsteps, Vision 21, Transition Towns, Allotment Society, Zero Carbon Britain RSPB, UOG Beekeeping Society, Sustainable Direction Ltd, Gloucester Bike Project and many more!

The Greener Gloucestershire Festival will be held from noon until 5pm at the Park campus, The Park, Cheltenham, GL50 2RH. To find out more, please visit www.greenergloucestershire.co.uk/festival

Greener Gloucestershire an independent group not affiliated to the Green Party. We support them because we share their green vision for a better future. We are glad to host news, press releases, events and announcements from any group, organisation, charity, or business that share our aims and beliefs. 

Making sense of emissions

Every year, our local airport, Staverton, publishes its green policy - http://www.gloucestershireairport.co.uk/AboutUs/Environmental.aspx and the latest review is here

http://vmcommin/documents/g2090/Public%20reports%20pack%2010th-Dec-2013%2018.00%20Cabinet.pdf?T=10

We noticed in a report in the Gloucestershire Echo that there was consideration of ‘recalibrating’ the cap on emissions from Staverton. It’s worth noting that the emissions cap is pretty much a voluntary arrangement, and that they are free and able to move the goalposts should the airport so desire.

Curious as to what was going on, and wondering if we needed to take action on this, I started poking round. I read the green policy, and then went on to look at how emissions are assessed.  Defra methodology can be read about here - https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/224437/pb13988-emission-factor-methodology-130719.pdf

Calculating emissions is not an exact science. What this means is that the method we use at any given time to calculate said emissions is a best guess, so we cannot be totally confident that what we think we are putting out has been accurately gauged in the first place. There is also an element of averaging involved – it is not a precise measure. The methods of calculation are being fine-tuned all the time.

I made contact with the council in Cheltenham, to try and find out a bit more about what’s going on here. What I learned is this: There was no formal method for calculating CO2 available when the airport’s green policy was first developed, so a method was devised by an independent consultant. The methodology is shown in the green policy and if you’re curious, do go and have a read. It’s quite manageable for the non-expert (eg, me!). National guidance has since been issued that adds consideration for planes flying at high altitude. I was told the effect of this would be that if 100 tonnes of CO2 was previously reported, this would now be reported as 190 tonnes under the new system. Not all planes from Staverton fly at the relevant altitudes, so there are more calculations to do before any decisions are made.

The airport has operated within the 4.000 tonne CO2 target it’s been set. In 2012/13 it showed a 16.6% reduction on the previous year due mostly to another small change in the national guidance. Some of the improvement can be attributed to more efficient aircraft. That impression of an improvement may be misleading though, given the direction new guidelines have taken.

The new method of calculating emissions means that the same activity will result in a much higher figure in the future. It is my understanding that the emissions ceiling may be recalibrated in response to this. Or to put it another way, having worked out that flying creates more CO2 than previously thought, the response is not to reduce the number of flights out of Staverton or to insist on more efficient planes, but to just move the goalposts so that ‘business as usual’ continues.

I’m not sure what the point is of trying to ascertain our actual emissions, if the response will be just to change the rules so that what we were doing continues unaffected.