Launch of Home Energy Efficiency Campaign

Last Saturday we kicked of the our Home Energy Efficiency campaign with a quick stall on Upper St. We were giving out free energy saving light bulbs between 12 and 1pm. We got the chance to speak to about 40 local residents about energy efficiency in their homes and hear about the kind of problems they have; from the students how wait up uncomfortably hot on November mornings but they can't turn the heating off to the pensioner who spend all day in the same room to try save gas in case she is hit with huge heating bills.

The council has made some big improvements with the Decent Home programme but many of the residents we spoke were (like over a quarter of people in Islington) living in private rented housing.
The average dwelling in the private sector produces 5.15 tonnes of CO2 per year while Islington council homes that figure is 4.0 tonnes. At the same time almost a quarter of households in private rented housing spend at least one pound in every ten pounds of income on fuel bills.

Our campaign will be targeting these houses to help everyone tackle climate change and energy bills. To find out more, or to help out with the campaign, contact Duncan on 07533 488 935 / duncanfoe [at] gmail.com

Join us at our next meeting!

Our next meeting will take place on WEDNESDAY 20th October 2010


Meeting details
Our meetings start at 8.00pm. Please arrive a little beforehand so we can start on time.

At this month's meeting we will be primiarly to plan the start of our housing campaign before the cold weather kicks in.

If you are new to the group, please contact our coordinator beforehand so we can bring you up to speed about our current campaigns before you arrive.

We meet upstairs in the pool room of the 'Hope and Anchor' pub, 207 Upper Street, N1 1RL. It is a short walk down Upper Street from Highbury and Islington underground station. Buses 4, 19, 30 and 43 stop just up the road [map].

You can contact our co-ordinator Duncan Walker on 07533 488935 or duncanfoe@gmail.com.

So come and find out what we're about, then stay for a drink and a chat!

More about the group How do I join

Water on tap?

Should restaurants and bars serve water on tap instead of bottled water?

Islington Friends of the Earth are launching a new campaign to highlight the perils of bottled water:

• Bottled water is more expensive than tap water
• The bottled water industry generates around 33,200 tonnes of CO2 a year
• 2 gallons of water are used to produce one gallon of bottled water
• Only 15% of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles are recycled
• PET takes up to 450 years to break down in landfill

For more on why bottled water is bad, click here

We have started our campaign by researching which restaurants and bars on Upper Street serve tap water. The good news is that we discovered that most of them do. We visited over 50 venues and nearly 85% said they served tap water. However only one restuarant - Youngs Chinese restuarant - said they served it automatically. In all the others you would have to ask.

For more on the campaign, visit again soon...