EEDA - East of England Development Agency

Low carbon love - communities go speed dating

1 October 2008

Communities in the East of England can go on a free speed dating session with low-carbon experts, including Dave Hampton — the carbon coach, to learn how to cut their carbon emissions at The Moller Centre, Cambridge on Saturday 11 October.

The free ‘carbon dating’ session will be one of a range of activities on offer at the Cut your Carbon Academy run by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA).  Delegates, who must register in advance for the free event at www.cutyourcarbon.org.uk, will also have the opportunity to attend workshops led by the Energy Saving Trust, Anglian Water and the Community Carbon Reduction programme (CRed) covering topics on saving energy, water efficiency and carbon footprinting.  Keynote speeches will be provided by Dave Hampton, ‘carbon coach’ to VIPs and celebrities and Adam Dyster, the region’s Young Climate Change Champion.

EEDA’s Cut your Carbon campaign manager, Alex Menhams commented: “While the world seems to be reacting slowly to the dangers of climate change, there are a growing number of people who are finding smart ways to cut their costs and carbon emissions. If you would like to know more about being a part of the solution, come along on 11 October and we can help you to get your friends, neighbours and colleagues to play their part too. If your group comes up with a good way of cutting carbon emissions, you can enter the second round of the Cut your Carbon competition which has £500,000 to fund projects of between £5,000 and £200,000.

“Delegates will have the opportunity to meet communities that entered successful projects in the first funding round, and find out what they did to get their communities to work together to cut their carbon emissions. Attendees can also meet the community support officers who provide support for communities, and get answers to their questions on community action and suitable projects.”

The event is part of EEDA’s three year Cut your Carbon campaign and funding competition which aims to bring groups together to cut their carbon emissions.  The Cut your Carbon Academy 2008 will also mark the launch of the second round of the funding competition in which communities can apply for up to £200,000 for carbon-cutting projects.  The first round of the competition closed in June this year and successful projects included solar street lights in Holt, Norfolk, a carbon ‘weight-loss’ club called Watt Watchers in Hertfordshire, and a number of projects to generate or save heat or electricity.

Anyone interested in finding out more should visit the campaign website, www.cutyourcarbon.org.uk where community groups can contact a community support officer to get help.

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