Radio Free Brighton

Eco Show

Every week­day morn­ing between 8am and 9am, tune in for your latest Eco news!

For lots of inform­a­tion con­cern­ing Eco-issues, check out these websites;

http://38degrees.org.uk/

http://www.1010global.org/uk

If you have an idea for a guest or theme for a show, please drop us a line and let us know.

Pro­posed changes to Feed in Tariff

30−11−11: The Centre for Altern­at­ive Tech­no­logy expressed con­cern at gov­ern­ment pro­pos­als to cut Feed-in Tar­iffs (FiTs) in half. The new reduced rate of 21p/ kWh will affect all photo­vol­taic install­a­tions below 4kW after 12th December 2011.

At the cur­rent FiT rate of 43.3p/kWh, an aver­age 2.9kW sys­tem will gen­er­ate an estim­ated £1,190 a year. Fol­low­ing the intro­duc­tion of the pro­posed 21p rate, the same sys­tem will gen­er­ate £640, extend­ing the pay­back period of an £11,500 install­a­tion from 10 to 18 years. Other changes include link­ing FiTs to the energy effi­ciency of hous­ing – new FiT install­a­tions will only be con­sidered on hous­ing with an energy effi­ciency rat­ing of C or above.   CAT experts believe that the speed and unpre­dict­ab­il­ity of the cuts send out a dam­aging mes­sage for the growth of the green economy.

Inform­a­tion Officer Tobi Kell­ner said: “There is a his­tory of schemes run­ning out of funds (the Low Car­bon Build­ings Pro­gramme), being delayed for years (the Renew­able Heat Incent­ive) or being very sud­denly and dra­mat­ic­ally cut (FiTs). This dam­ages the growth of any green industry in the UK. Com­mit­ment to new sus­tain­able tech­no­lo­gies means sig­ni­fic­ant invest­ments, espe­cially for small or medium- sized com­pan­ies. Busi­nesses can’t afford to have the rug pulled out from under them. Fur­ther­more, mak­ing energy effi­ciency a con­di­tion for receiv­ing FiTs only makes sense if there are viable incent­ives for energy effi­ciency meas­ures which are suit­able for the large pro­por­tion of UK house­holds who live in older buildings.”

Cur­rently any house­hold can install solar pan­els and bene­fit from FiTs; the new meas­ures could exclude up to two thirds of Britain’s hous­ing. “Link­ing FiTs to energy effi­ciency is a good idea but the gov­ern­ment must also back that up by mak­ing energy effi­ciency meas­ures fin­an­cially viable for the major­ity of UK house­holds,” says Tobi Kellner.

For inter­views con­tact the press office: 01654 705953

Centre for Altern­at­ive Tech­no­logy, Machynlleth, SY20 9AZ

 

 

Why do we throw away over half of what we grow

(before we even have a chance to buy it)?

media@cat.org.uk

Con­tact the CAT media office: 01654 705957 / 705953

 

It’s been estim­ated that 60% of all food wasted is wasted before it reaches consumers.
This con­fer­ence explores why it’s hap­pen­ing and what to do about it.
Forum and Feast Con­fer­ence / Sat­urday, 05 Novem­ber 2011, 09:30am — 11:00pm / Centre for Altern­at­ive Tech­no­logy, Machynlleth, SY20 9AZ
For inter­views and more inform­a­tion call the press office: 01654 705953
More inform­a­tion is avail­able here includ­ing a full list of speak­ers, work­shops, time table and acco­mod­a­tion details.
The forum, an enga­ging pro­gram of panel dis­cus­sions, work­shops, com­pli­ment­ary lunch, film screen­ings and exhib­i­tion, will be fol­lowed by an excep­tional even­ing Feast; a three course sump­tu­ous sup­per made form food that oth­er­wise would’ve been wasted, served at a candle lit table, accom­pan­ied by live music and ori­ginal entertainment
Speak­ers include:
Andy Leach, The People’s Supermarket
Dr Andy Rees, Head of Waste Strategy Branch at the Welsh Assembly Government
Pro­fessor Mar­tin Cara­her, City University
Dr Adrian Mor­ley, BRASS Research Associate
Emma Marsh, Com­munity Part­ner­ship Man­ager at WRAP
For inter­views and more inform­a­tion call the press office: 01654 705953

 

Sat­urday 15th Octo­ber, 10am-4.30pm
Brighton & Hove Eco Energy Fair
Brighthelm Centre
Admis­sion £3/£2
Under 18s Free
This year’s Eco Energy Fair will be held at the Brighthelm Centre.
There will be stall­hold­ers exhib­it­ing their products and ser­vices, a pro­gramme of short talks, videos to watch, books to buy, and a whole host of energy sav­ing tips. The event is designed to raise aware­ness of the issues sur­round­ing energy use and to help the people of Brighton & Hove bet­ter man­age their energy needs, sav­ing money as well as the envir­on­ment.For more inform­a­tion, visit: www.ecoenergyfairbrighton.org.uk

Tues­day 18th Octo­ber. The Food Part­ner­ship, ‘Har­vest Schools’ pro­ject meet­ing.
The Brighton & Hove Food Part­ner­ship has been awar­ded fund­ing by the Ern­est Cook Trust for a new ‘Har­vest Schools’ pro­ject. The pro­ject aims to improve food grow­ing pro­jects at primary schools in Brighton & Hove by offering:

  • termly work­shops
  • net­work­ing opportunities
  • in-depth, prac­tical sup­port from exper­i­enced gardeners
  • sub­sid­ised mater­i­als and equip­ment for projects

 This sup­port will focus on mak­ing the grow­ing pro­jects more sus­tain­able for the future, through proven meth­ods such as teach­ing per­en­nial plant­ing, seed sav­ing and drought-resistant planting.

The Food Part­ner­ship is hold­ing the first meet­ing for the ‘Har­vest schools’ pro­ject at Gold­stone Primary school on Tues­day 18 Octo­ber 4–5.30pm. This meet­ing will give every­one a chance to reflect on how their school gar­dens fared over the sum­mer, and share tips about how to make sure school gar­dens sur­vive those sum­mer months when water­ing regimes may crumble a bit! We’ll also get to hear more about the garden at Gold­stone Primary, which gets lots of sup­port from par­ents. Future meet­ings will revolve around dif­fer­ent school gar­dens and will be themed to cover dif­fer­ent top­ics iden­ti­fied by the group.

For more inform­a­tion or to sign-up for the next meet­ing con­tact:
Jess Crocker, Har­vest Man­ager, or Ann Bald­ridge, Devel­op­ment Officer, Brighton and Hove Food Part­ner­ship, Tel: 01237 431 700

Thursday 20th Octo­ber, 6pm-11pm
Global Per­spect­ives on Food Sov­er­eignty: How we can reclaim our food sys­tem
Friends’ Meet­ing House, Ship St, Brighton

Speak­ers: Colin Tudge (UK), Hel­len Yego (Kenya), Sarath Fernando (Sri Lanka), Roberto Caballero (Cuba)

Local food.  Music: Luke Con­can­non (‘Nizlopi’)

Book­ings: jocelynjones49@gmail.com, £6 and £5.

Sat­urday, 22nd Octo­ber, 12.00 noon

Protest against sub­sidies (ROCs) for bio­fuel and bio­mass power stations
Depart­ment of Energy & Cli­mate Change, 3 White­hall Place, SW1A 2AW
Nearest tubes: Embank­ment & Char­ing Cross

Sat 29th Oct: White Night Bike Train
Cycle into the City Centre and around key White Night sites
  • Depart Sus­sex Uni­ver­sity Falmer House at 7pm & 9pm
  • Depart from Moulse­coomb Lib­ray at 7.15pm & 9.15pm
  • Hourly rides between The Level & The Old Steine via North Laine & Cul­tural Quarter
  • Return rides to Moulse­coomb & Sus­sex Uni­ver­sity tba

Sat 5th Nov:

Brighton Energy Co-op will launch its share offer on 2 Novem­ber, at the Friend’s Meet­ing House at 7pm. Do come along – this will be your chance to join this pion­eer­ing ini­ti­at­ive for community-owned green power in Brighton.

If you choose to join the co-op you’ll receive a return on your invest­ment, as well as the chance to co-own sig­ni­fic­ant solar install­a­tions. BEC is a demo­crat­ic­ally owned, local organ­isa­tion that helps increase local involve­ment in energy issues. And by gen­er­at­ing our own elec­tri­city we also aim to increase energy self-sufficiency & security.

It’s a great oppor­tun­ity for the every­one to share the bene­fits of renew­able energy.

For more inform­a­tion go to: http://www.brightonenergy.org.uk/

Sat 5th Nov: Bon­fire Bike Train
Mass cycle ride to Lewes for Bon­fire Night
  • Depart from The Level at 5pm or  6pm
  • Depart from Sus­sex Uni­ver­sity at 5.30pm or 6.30pm
  • Return Ride Mid­night & 1am from Lewes Prison
Bike Train is a pro­ject of Lewes Road for Clean Air - work­ing for sus­tain­able trans­port along the Lewes Road corridor
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Past guests:

Some eco goods you might like

More inform­a­tion about our rela­tion­ship with Amazon.

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www.retailtherapy.uk.com

If you like your home to be filled with everth­ing organic, nat­ural, and eco-friendly, then head to RT Home!

Truly fairtrade, nat­ural shop­ping in the heart of Brighton!

101 Gloucester Road
North Laine
Brighton
01273 691720

Gor­geous gifts & com­pli­ment­ary gift wrap­ping. Loc­ally made unique pieces. Mas­sage oils & music. Nat­ural organic body­care. Only Brighton stock­ists for I Am Nat­ural, Tree Har­vest, Green People, Honey It’s Herbal. Incense — Nag Champa & Satya fla­vours. Hand­made recycled wooden fur­niture. Pure essen­tial oils. Crys­tals & tumble­stones. Tarot cards. Fair­ies & Angels.
Any value gift vouchers.

www.retailtherapy.uk.com

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Listen to some of our Green related shows on our Mixcloud;


Monday 3rd October

Youth Fight for Jobs Jar­row March Local Launch

7:30pm Phoenix Com­munity Centre

Thursday 20th October

6 — 11 p.m. Global Per­spect­ives on Food Sov­er­eignty: How we can reclaim our food system

Friends’ Meet­ing House, Ship St, Brighton

Speak­ers: Colin Tudge (UK), Hel­len Yego (Kenya), Sarath Fernando (Sri Lanka), Roberto Caballero (Cuba)

Local food.  Music: Luke Con­can­non (‘Nizlopi’)

Book­ings: jocelynjones49@gmail.com, £6 and £5.