Low-carbon Headington

Low Carbon Headington, 2 June 2008:
"Homes" Group notes

The main areas of discussion of the Homes Group were:

Information

There was a general consensus that people lacked high quality and tailored information on what they can do to reduce emissions in their home. People want to know:

what they can do and in what order
which of the “expensive investments” are the best financially and environmentally in the UK
what grants are available and from where

It was felt that the LCH website could act as a pointer to this type of information. Potential sources of information to direct people to were put forward:

It would also be helpful to have a central repository of information and advice at the library

Expert help

It was also suggested that a better way to share such information is in person from experts. Various ideas were put forward on how this might work including:

Developing a list of trusted local eco-trades-people
It was felt that it might be difficult to offer free energy audits from energy experts but that we might be able to have an energy surgery periodically in which an expert is available at a given location to answer questions
ECO homes visits (it was specifically requested that details of the open ECO house that had been announced at the start of the meeting were put on the website).
Share our own experiences at pub nights e.g. “I installed a solar water heater – this is what I learnt”.
Publicise local public lectures covering relevant topics e.g. at the ECI

Purchasing Power

It was suggested that we may be able to leverage some discounts on low energy products for the home by purchasing together. Options include:

As low carbon Headington
By working with other low carbon communities, potentially through a national group (Mark Lynas may have mentioned the possibility of this at the first meeting)
Buying through the council
Start a Headington light bulb library for people to find the right efficient bulb for them before purchasing

Getting people focussed and involved

Different ways to get other people engaged were also discussed. The main suggestion was to promote the use of the ECI website www.imeasure.org.uk which encourages people to measure the household emissions on an ongoing basis and allows them to compare their performance against other users of the website. We could potentially set up a LCH group on the website (if it allows that) so we can compare with each other.

Other suggestions for promoting LCH were:

Place an insert in the OX3 guide which is being distributed in the next couple of months
Ask for an insert in the next council distribution in Headington
Get some local press coverage
Promote through the local residents’ associations

email contact david_j_wellington@yahoo.co.uk