Best eco wishes Sarah x

Despite lockdown 3.0, we are determined to continue with environmental initiatives that can be carried out safely to keep the momentum going to reach carbon neutrality by 2030.

Here are some projects we're already working on for 2021:

We''ll keep you posted as these projects progress.

If you would like to join us, we'd love to hear from you. Please get in touch at ssdcenvironment@southsomerset.gov.uk.

715 trees will be going out to our successful parishes on Tuesday 26^th of January, where we hope to get some images of the trees so we can create some ‘feel-good’ communications out to our communities.

Make sure you're listed in the new SSDC GREAT GREEN DIRECTORY

The new Great Green Directory is a one-stop-shop where South Somerset consumers can find local trusted sustainable and environmentally friendly businesses to help them make eco and ethical choices when choosing products and services. The directory will be featured on our main SSDC website and our brand new environment website which is coming soon!

If you are a local business with great eco credentials and you'd like to be listed in our new Great Green Directory, we would love to hear from you. Whether you're a building firm or a coffee shop, we want to hear from all types of eco-friendly businesses. If you would like to apply for your business included in the DIrectory please complete our questionnaire here.

Businesses in Somerset can apply for a carbon reduction grant of between £500 and £1,000 to help improve their carbon footprint. The grant is being made available by the five councils in Somerset as part of the Climate Emergency Strategy.

To enable businesses to explore all the possibilities, we have produced a Carbon Audit Toolkit for Businesses which details websites that offer help and advice from a variety of agencies and sources.

Guidelines have been produced about who can apply for a grant, what sort of projects might qualify and what assistance can be applied for. To apply for this grant click here

"Waste is just a resource in the wrong place." "Sustainability is now the only business plan." "The business sector has no option but to be a force for change." These are the words that revolutionary business people are quoting in this World Wildlife Fund and Netflix produced film. It focusses on the role business has in restoring the planet and environment. It is part of the ‘Our Planet’ series which is the most-watched documentary Netflix has ever produced. The film shows the significant role businesses must play in restoring the balance of nature including embracing a circular economy. Whether you're a business or a consumer it's an insightful and hopeful film.

Donate IT equipment to save CO₂ & support lockdown life

It’s estimated every household has around 5 or more old IT tech, mobile phones, game devices etc. gathering dust and wasting finite, high embodied energy, precious earth resources. Reusing these items wherever possible reduces demand for new IT products and the CO2 and environmental impact in making and buying a new product.

If you have an unwanted computer or device, know someone in need of one or interested in helping arrange a Tech Amnesty please contact Simon by email DonateIT@r3cycle.co.uk

Find out more at www.re3cycle.co.uk

Lots of local councils are signing up to the Parish Online digital mapping tool, an essential and engaging tool for viewing and printing maps all the way to storing asset registers and producing neighbourhood plans.

SSDC has purchased a mapping solution called XMAP. Parish Online is from the same company as XMAP (by Geoxphere) linking mapped data together sending information in both directions. Once in place, it will mean SSDC can provide a mapping from our data that can be layered onto Parish Online maps, giving Parish online users and communities a wealth of information at their fingertips.

Around 20 Parishes in Somerset are already on board.

“Parish Online is great for collecting and analysing information about a council area. Councils can create any number of their own data layers, as well as contributing to collaborative ‘National Layers’. On the environmental front, data layers can include things like tree mapping, wildflower areas, badger sets, and protected wildlife, the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) of buildings, houses, or communities served by heat pumps and other renewable energy technologies, and also map renewable power potentials on buildings and land for solar farms and wind turbines. The potential is unlimited, and depends only on the needs of each council”

Book a 25th Jan here and for subsequent demo dates book here

Zero Carbon Britain: Live online courses, Zero Carbon Britain: Live online courses, taking place 27 – 28 January 2021, and 29 – 30 April 2021

CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain project offers the hard data and confidence required for visualising a future where we have risen to the demands of climate science. It helps to reduce fear and misunderstandings and open new, positive, solutions-focused conversations.

For everything you need to know and to book your place click here

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has published its recommendation on the level of the Sixth Carbon Budget in December 2020. It sets the path to the UK’s Net Zero emissions target in 2050, as the first carbon budget to be set into law following that commitment.

The CCC is holding an online series of events looking at how the UK can get to Net Zero and the opportunities and challenges ahead.

Find out more and book your place here

Here is a link to the recording for you to watch at your leisure and please feel free to forward it to other landowners you think may be interested.

Britain Talks Climate is an evidence-based toolkit designed to support any organisation that wants to engage the British public on climate change by building narratives that resonate with a diverse range of values and everyday concerns is critical for the long-term goal of deepening public engagement – and keeping it there.

It provides an evidence-based, shared and strategic understanding of the British public and – against a backdrop of growing concern about polarisation – identifies ways to engage across the whole of society.

Through social research, practical guides, and consultancy services, the charity helps organisations communicate about climate change in ways that resonate with the values of their audiences and builds a social mandate for climate action.

You can see the recording here, along with the online tool-kit.

It is essential that this issue is not lost in the ‘fog of war’ over Covid and party politics. It is not enough to resume ‘business as usual’ in the face of growing evidence that we must tackle global heating; addressing what and how much we consume is an urgent priority for individuals, corporations and governments, in our response to the crisis of consumerism that threatens the planet.

Click here to find out more and sign up

We're delighted to hear that the Langport Transport Group (LTG), a subsidiary group of Transition Langport , has been successful with its application for the feasibility study funding to the Department for Transport under the Restoring Your Railway Fund. LTG applied for funding for a feasibility study to look at the possibility of a railway station being reopened in the Langport and Somerton area. All the original railway stations in the area had been closed in the Beeching cuts of the early 1960s. LTG has been awarded £50,000 towards the feasibility study.

Developed by Mike Berners-Lee author of How Bad are Bananas - The Carbon Footprint of everything, you can see how your lifestyle is measured in carbon and take challenges to bring it down.

Britain's birds are counting on you to count them in over three days from 29th - 31 January.

Help the RSPB create a census of our wild birds so they can see how they're doing. To do your bit click here.

It's already been a very long and difficult winter and spring can't come soon enough. Rather than hold out for March 20th for the first day of spring, why not celebrate Imbolc Day on February 1st?

This is the pagan first day of spring and marks the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. It can fall between the 2nd & 7th of February when calculated as the midpoint between the astronomical Winter Solstice and the astronomical Spring Equinox. This year it falls on February 1st. We're up for anything that shortens winter thanks!

World Wetlands Day

Wetlands are essential habitats globally with 40% of all species relying on freshwater wetlands, despite them only covering less than 1% of the world’s surface.

The Somerset Levels and Moors are the UK’s largest wetland area at over 650 km², known across the world for their spectacular birdlife and significant archaeological remains. It has the largest lowland population of breeding wading birds and is a great place to hear bittern, see starling murmurations and watch otters. The Avalon Marshes is home to the world’s oldest known wooden trackway and ancient lake villages.

Reimagining the Levels was set up by a group of people who all live on the Somerset Levels and care passionately about its future. The devastating effects of the floods in 2013/14 to individuals, communities, the economy and the environment demonstrated the pressing need for a more joined-up approach that looks at the causes and solutions to flooding across the entire catchment. The world’s changing climate poses a critical challenge to the people and landscape of the Somerset Levels. Brexit too will have dramatic and far reaching implications but we believe that these changes could provide the ideal opportunity for a new vision for rural land use and its economy in terms of food production, farming support, environmental protection and rural development. They have published a comprehensive report which details their vision. Read here

Leaky loos and dripping taps? Is your home waterfit? Click on the link below and take the survey to find out. Wasted water has a carbon cost as it uses a lot of energy to clean and pump water for our use. Water is a precious resource ore so every year as we experience more and more droughts.

Wessex Water is also offering free water saving devices which can be ordered on completion of the survey and will be delivered directly to your home.

Click here to sign up and take the survey #saveeverydrop

You can watch via BBC i-Player and see more info here

Wanting to reconnect with nature after burning out with work, film-maker and naturalist Craig Foster starts freediving daily in the undersea kelp forests off Cape Town. One day, he comes across an odd jumble of shells on the sea floor. It transpires to be a common octopus, hiding in plain sight. Viewers of the BBC’s Blue Planet 2 may recognise the footage. The octopus and its protective “shell suit” featured in the “Green Seas” episode, explained by David Attenborough as never-before-seen behaviour.

Foster collaborated on shooting the sequence with his friend, Blue Planet 2 cameraman Roger Horrocks. The pair have spent many years documenting South Africa’s kelp forests (more recently, as part of the non-profit Sea Change Project) and are listed as joint directors of photography on My Octopus Teacher. But that back story is omitted in favour of a close crop on Foster’s personal relationship with the octopus, and what he learns on his daily visits to her world.

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