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...

Getting Serious part II

We presented over 100 Get Serious postcards to the leader of Islington, Cllr Terry Stacy, at the October Council Meeting. Islington Council are already doing a great deal to combat climate change, but there is more that needs to be done. We would like them to pledge to cut CO2 emissions by 40% by 2020, and produce a plan saying how they will do it.

We will be continuing the campaign over the next few months.

Getting Serious about Climate Change

Last year Friends of the Earth scored a massive success with the Climate Change Law which commits the government to year on year cuts in CO2 emissions. Now the real work begins - actually making those cuts. Our new campaign, Get Serious about CO2, is all about getting local authorities to take action.

Nationally councils can have a big influence on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. They have an annual spend of £10billion, they employ 2 million staff and they provide 3.5 million homes.

Action on climate change will create green jobs, slash energy bills and boost Islington’s economy. Inaction will lead to increased flooding and droughts, rising food prices and continued economic instability across the UK and the rest of the world. It would leave billions of the world’s poorest homeless within our lifetime.

Islington Council is already a bit of a pioneer when it comes to tackling greenhouse gases. They have set up the Climate Change Partnership, working with other organisations committed to cutting CO2, and they have recently joined the 10:10 pledge - to cut CO2 emissions by 10% by the end of 2010.

However, our campaign is calling for them go further and make cuts of 40% by 2020. It's a big ask but we know it is possible. That's why we have been out on the streets asking people to sign up to our Get Serious Campaign.

Islington FOE at the Angel Canal Festival

Islington Friends of the Earth were enjoying the sunshine and persuading passersby to sign up to the Get Serious Campaign at the Angel Canal Festival in September

Outdoor Heaters removed from Upper Street Bars

At our prompting, Islington Council has taken planning enforcement action against several Upper Street bars and restaurants who had screwed high power electric heaters to the front wall. Upper Street falls inside a conservation area and these heaters didn't have planning permission (and most likely wouldn't get it).

Five bars have removed their heaters. However one (102 Upper Street) claims that the heaters have been up for 4 years and were able to prove this to the council.

Of course, all outdoor heaters should be banned in the UK. But bar owners will do anything to keep their customers warm. Anyone know of other outside visible heaters on buildings in conservation areas?

Photo gallery of all the bars and their heaters

Greggs introduce the unrecyclable bag

Greggs, the high end foods retailer specialising in high salt and high sugar content has introduced a new composite bag made of plastic and paper. It combines all the features of both materials. If you get caught in the rain leaving the shop, you can be sure that although one half of the bag with fall apart in your hand, the other half of the bag will stay intact for hundreds of year, at which time the loaf will be just outside its 'best before date' thanks to the use of modern preservatives.

To the untrained eye and probably to most local authority recycling officers, this bag looks pretty much unrecyclable but Greggs have their best brains looking at this conundrum.