The next regular meeting will be in person on Thursday 9th May 2024
Please contact me for details on how to join.
Here are some notes from our April meeting. If you’d like more information on any of the topics, please contact me or comment on the post below.
- Next face-to-face meeting
Several people offered to host meetings this year. There will probably be the 16:30 start. Our May 9th meeting will be at Paul’s PassivHaus near Ilsington. Numbers are limited, so let me know if you want to book a place and if you would like a car lift or can offer one (let me know where you are traveling from). Places will be allocated on a first come-first-served basis.
- Transport advice and links
We discussed whether we should promote links to commercial websites that give verifiable ghg emission information for their service or product. The example we looked at was The Trainline. On balance, we concluded that this would not be appropriate within the CFT, but we may include such links on ACT’s Transport webpage, your views are welcome.
Please provide suggestion for sources that allow CFT users to calculate travel distances for public transport (open the help panel to see the links currently provided). Some of the links on the CFT appear not to work! Public transport covers plane, train, boat/ferry, bus/coach and any others you can think of.
For general advice on transport, see our Resourse Pack to Town/Parish Councils on that topic.
- Embodied emissions in the built environment
The UK Green Building Council is calling on the government to regulate embodied carbon. This was one of the comments we’d submitted in our response to the Teignbridge Local Plan (LP) consultation. The LP is due to be examined later this year.
- Residential Battery Guide updated
We’ve updated the introductory message in our Home Batteries guide to reflect recent findings and comments. See the link towards the bottom of the ACT Energy & Built Environment webpage.
- Case studies
Added a couple of case studies. Both are for PassivHaus, new build and living in one. You can access this from the same place as the Residential Battery. Let me know if you’d like to add any.
- Parish wide advice and retrofit in Cornwall
Forgot to mention this initiative in Soke Climsland. This is similar to the Devon wide retrofit scheme, it includes a simple video. I’d be interested in hearing your views on this approach.
- AOBs
It appears that some major planning applications in Teignbridge are being approved without appropriate provision of green corridors. ACT’s Wildlife Wardens would normally comment on these, so I’ll check why this apparently did not happen in Dawlish.
As part of remembering Professor Higgs’ work following his passing here is a link to a broad sweep of the Standard Model and those who played a significant part in developing our understanding of the fundamentals of nature itself. You may need a diagram of the elementary particles to refer to while reading!
ACT is collating a reading list on climate/ecology for the Newton Abbot library. Two books were mentioned: Lessons in Chemistry and How Bad Are Bananas. If you have any you want to recommend, please send them to Jules.
Written by Fuad
Energy group coordinator