Help Make Wimbledon More Sustainable
A chance to discuss what can be done to live a more sustainable life is being offered at a new Green Coffee morning.
Local environmental group, Transition Town Wimbledon, have organised the coffee morning at the Piaf restaurant in Wimbledon Hill Road from 9.30am-11am on Tuesday December 7.
They are hoping it will be an opportunity for like-minded people to meet up, have a coffee and discuss issues of environmental interest. If it's a success, they will keep meeting once a month.
Transition Town Wimbledon (TTW) was formed after local people got together in 2009 to discuss how the area could become more sustainable.
Transition Towns started in Totnes, Devon. in 2006 when a group of local people got together to make their town more resilient and better able to cope with rising energy prices and climate change. There are now hundreds of Transition towns and villages across the UK and thousands more initiatives starting the process of Transition.
The Transition Town model follows 12 steps. TTW has already set up a steering group (Step 1) and is now on Steps 2 and 3. These are:
2. Awareness raising - This stage identifies key allies, builds crucial networks and prepares the community in general for the launch of the Transition initiative - films, talks, articles, presentations in exciting groups are great resources!
3. Laying the foundations - This stage is about networking with existing groups and activists, making clear to them that the Transition Town initiative is designed to incorporate their previous efforts and future inputs by looking at the future in a new way.
TTW has raised awareness by showing films on
sustainability, discussing the issues with hundreds of people
and building a network of people in Wimbledon wanting to
take action. TTW has developed strong relationships with
existing environmental and community groups, as well as
Merton Council.
It has set up a Food Group to look at
localising the food chain and an Energy Group to focus on
ways of reducing energy use in the home.
TTW has also started working with Ricards Lodge School,
to set up a school garden and help students become more
aware of the choices they make.
In one school Art Club
project, students made a beautiful banner for TTW using
recycled materials. Further TTW working groups are
anticipated in transport, waste, re-skilling and other areas
where changes would build.