Environment Expo at Emmanuel URC - 6&7 Sept 2012 - Cambridge

... because we were put in the Garden to till and to keep* it

Emmanuel United Reformed Church, hosted a FREE Environment Expo at our Trumpington Street Church, from 11am to 3.30pm on both Thursday 6th and Friday 7th September 2012 . The focus of this event was sustainability in buildings, particularly saving energy and especially in older buildings such as our beautiful church (for which we have ambitious plans). We invited building professionals, managers and owners of both public and private buildings and home owners to come and discuss these issues.

Opened 6/9/2012 by Councillor Sheila Stuart, Mayor of Cambridge.

**** Green Tomato Energy - a group of engineers with experience of high standard energy-saving retrofit in older properties (see the Green Tomato retrofit video greentomatoenergy.com/build/retrofit)

**** Kershaw Contracting Services Ltd - Industry leading supplier of insulation and renewable energy solutions, and member of the Kershaw Group. Services include installation of cavity wall and loft insulation together with external and internal wall insulation, solar photovoltaic and thermal installation, and heat pumps. Currently offering free home insulation, with costs covered by Government funding for Carbon Emissions Reductions Targets. Kershaw Ltd

**** Sustainable Parish Energy Partnership (SPEP) is a programme run by South Cambridgeshire District Council in partnership with parish councils, to help residents save energy and cut carbon emissions. Projects include thermal imaging, electricity monitor loan schemes, village energy days, renewable energy workshops and village 'sustainable living' directories. There will be information about SPEP projects and how to get involved (if you live in South Cambridgeshire). And the SPEP will also have information about the soon to be launched 'Green Deal', which aims to make it easy and affordable to upgrade your home to make it energy efficient (more).

**** Beechdale Energy Ltd - Renewable Energy consultants, providing advice and installations in a range of technologies including solar pv, solar thermal, air source heat pumps, and low energy lighting. Also domestic wind turbines, and a new range of electric scooters perfect for zero carbon cities. They have their own installation team and in-house electricians, plus assessors, and pride in being able to offer the complete package from a Cambridge base - to both the domestic and commercial customers, with finance for some commercial schemes. Beechdale Group

**** and other consultants and suppliers for energy saving and generating renewable energy.

**** The sustainability study commissioned on our own church, was launched at the Expo. It was conducted by Brian Cox and is available for download here (1.2MB). We also prepared an analysis of speculative energy and carbon savings that could be achieved using current technologies and relate their performance to the PassivHaus standard.

LECTURE: Actions to Improve the Environmental Impact of Older Public Buildings (such as Churches) by Brian Cuthbertson, Head of Environmental Challenge at the Diocese of London slides (2MB)  audio (14MB)

LECTURE: On Friday the 7th Dr Ray Galvin (cv), University of Cambridge / German Government, spoke on Improving Sustainability in Older Homes slides (195kB)  audio (12MB)

Also, Transition Cambridge Energy Group offered advice on 'Managing Your Home Heating' on Thursday evening (link to Transition Cambridge - Managing Home Heating ).

Static displays are available for viewing between 10:30-3pm each day from Tuesday 11th to Friday 14th September 2012.

Why we are doing this: As predicted by 1950, we have now used half of the worlds oil resources. Or, as others put it, we "have reached peak oil". There is less than half left, which is also more costly to extract. Burning fossil fuels, thus adding even more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, will result in dangerous levels of global warming. For this reason the UK government committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.

Such a big reduction is readily feasible, with more efficient heating, transport, insulation, and much less waste.

We have the divine duty to steward the world's resources properly, both for future generations as they are finite, and because the resources are intrinsically valuable. Why should we squander 10.4 kg of oil equivalent each per day, just because we choose to drive vehichles that are absurdly heavy and ill-suited to our purposes, and because we like it warm but could not be bothered to keep the heat in?

There is much poverty in the world and, the more we waste, the less there is for others to use. With waste, prices will be needlessly higher, thus depriving the poor all over, including in our own country.

PassivHaus has demonstrated, on an exacting and huge scale in many countries, that it is easily possible to live comfortably using less that 20 kWh per metre squared of floorspace per year. The average house in the UK uses 160 kWh/m2/yr. This level of waste could translate directly into money saved, and into lower greenhouse gas emissions.


Please feel free to email comments to Emmanuel URC - bottom right (or webby@emmanuel-urc.org.uk ).

Visitors Information: We are located on Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RR, UK - opposite Pembroke College on the corner of Little St Mary's Lane. The Trumpington 'Park and Ride' (readily accessible from the M11) stops right outside our front door - which we would recommend, along with Cambridge public parking, because there is very little street parking nearby. The nearest public parking is the "Grand Arcade Car Park" on Corn Exchange Street. The Citi 4 and Cambourne 4 buses also stop outside, and we are about 25 minutes walk from Cambridge Station (or a taxi ride of perhaps £5).

Café, bookstall, and fair-trade stall were all open throughout the Environment Expo.

keywords: Energy saving; sustainability; climate change; efficiency; householders; retrofit; older buildings; churches; heritage property; insulation; 20kWh/m2/yr; Cambridge; UK

* in the original Aramaic in sense of 'to keep' as in "to steward", or "to look after" - the resources of the world. (Genesis: chapter 2 verse 15)