The CA-WN Exchange (Page 2)

Syan Farm visit

Syan Farm visit

What is a Vertical Farm? As the vertical farmers at Syan Farm themselves say: "With space and time running out for open field farming, we’re looking up. We grow beautifully nutritious crops on multiple levels – vertical farming. It saves on space, reduces carbon and gives us total control

Carbon Literacy Training: a personal response

individual impact Featured

Carbon Literacy Training: a personal response

Clare Robertson-Marriott shares her reflections after completing a Carbon Literacy course with CA-WN. Concern for all nature and the planet brought me to climate and nature action. Over the last few years, I have organised various public engagement events to introduce the climate and nature crises. Taking part in the

Think Global. Act Local.

Think Global. Act Local.

by Danny Moody, Chief Executive of the Northamptonshire County Association of Local Councils (Northants CALC), a membership organisation representing all the parish and town councils and parish meetings in Northamptonshire. Climate change is a pressing global issue that requires action at all levels, from international agreements to local initiatives. One

individual impact

popcawn July 2024: Do you speak Carbon?

So, you’re worried about climate change: you know it’s going to affect our future, especially for our children and grandchildren, but you’re not sure how their future could look. You know that we need to reduce our carbon emissions and get to ‘Net Zero’, but you’re

Council Watch July 2024

Council Watch July 2024

Items on the agenda1 for West Northamptonshire Council's July meeting pack included WNC’s Annual Report on how they are performing against their own targets. The ‘Green and Clean’ banner, like all elements of the WNC Corporate Plan, has a set of performance measures. The target shown for

IKEA - can Big be a Force for Good?

IKEA - can Big be a Force for Good?

IKEA is a big beast. Statistics taken from its latest company report show it has 467 stores in 62 markets across the world. It employs 219,000 people. 860 million people visited those 467 stores (many of whom will have travelled in their cars). There are 9,500 products in

CA-WN 18 July Meeting Report

meeting reports

CA-WN 18 July Meeting Report

Our guest speaker for July was Dr Declan Ryan, Associate Professor in Physical Activity & Health at the University of Northampton, who gave a presentation about Northampton's Active Quarter. The meeting was recorded and is available on the CA-WN YouTube channel1 and Declan’s presentation slides are available

Banging the Drum for Combined Authorities

Banging the Drum for Combined Authorities

Our Transport correspondent asks whether the interests of public transport could be better served by more centralisation. No matter your political persuasion, it is undeniable that the Labour Party is now in power, having secured a substantial majority in the election on Thursday 4 July 2024. It is also undeniable

Britain's Housing Crisis

Britain's Housing Crisis

Broken Homes: Britain's Housing Crisis: Faults, Factoids and Fixes by Peter Bill and Jackie Sadek Today’s housing crisis featured in an earlier Bookshelf. I make no apology for another housing-related reading recommendation, this time 200 or so pages of useful historic context, anecdotes and picture-painting stories. Many

Meet the Steering Group - Orianne Neyroud

Meet the Steering Group - Orianne Neyroud

Orianne was one of the founder members of CA-WN in 2019, and has just finished her A Levels. What is your motivation for being involved with the environmental movement and with CA-WN in particular? I first got involved with CA-WN because I was fed up with not doing anything and

CA-WN Monthly Public Meeting 18 July

CA-WN Monthly Public Meeting 18 July

Thursday 18 July 7:45pm - 9:00pm (online) Meeting open to all - newcomers welcome. Our guest speaker this month is Dr Declan Ryan, Associate Professor in Physical Activity & Health at the University of Northampton, who will talk to us about active travel and especially about Northampton'

Summer Salads and Sauces

Summer Salads and Sauces

As a child, I thought “salad” was lettuce, cucumber and tomato. You could have different sorts of lettuce – cos, or butterhead, or Webbs wonder. I think the last was really a type of iceberg lettuce, but my dad grew it in the garden, so it was nothing like today’s

Outrage and Optimism revisited and The Way Out Is In

Outrage and Optimism revisited and The Way Out Is In

The podcast series Outrage and Optimism has already been placed on the shelf in May last year but perhaps it needs the dust blowing off and re-engaging with it. That’s certainly what I have done. Well, to tell the truth, I have not visited it very often until now

Food (In)Security Index

Food (In)Security Index

A little bit of a rant but mainly questions, questions, questions. Prompted by an article in Private Eye1 about food security, I took a bit of a delve into the Government’s pages on the new Food Security Index (FSI)2. One of the things to note is that the

Great UK WaterBlitz

Great UK WaterBlitz

We’ve all heard about the poor condition of our rivers and streams due to issues with sewage and agricultural pollution. Environment Agency figures on storm overflow spills in 2023 show that spills were up by up 54% compared to 20221. Swimmers and surfers are protesting that rivers and seas

CA-WN 20 June 2024 meeting report

meeting reports

CA-WN 20 June 2024 meeting report

🗳️On Thursday evening at the Northampton Guildhall our friends at the Umbrella Fair 1000 Voices campaign have organised a hustings to allow local residents to question election candidates, which CA-WN is co-sponsoring. More information here https://www.umbrellafair.org/1000voices or on our What's On listing. This is

Meet the Steering Group - Ella Sage

Meet the Steering Group - Ella Sage

Ella is the newest member of CA-WN's steering group and also our Outreach Officer. This is the first in a series of pieces from CA-WN's Steering Group members. What is your motivation for being involved with the environmental movement and with CA-WN in particular? I became

CA-WN 30 May 2024 meeting report

meeting reports

CA-WN 30 May 2024 meeting report

The guest speaker for this meeting was Damon Fox from Northampton Town Football Club (NTFC). We heard from him about the many projects and initiatives undertaken by the club to improve sustainability and for their local community. The meeting was recorded and is available on the CA-WN YouTube channel1. Damon

Cobblers Tackle Food Waste

Cobblers Tackle Food Waste

Damon Fox, Business Development Manager and sustainability lead at the Northampton Town Community Trust, shares the club's latest green initiative. He was also guest speaker at our May public meeting (https://exchange.ca-wn.org/ca-wn-30-may-2024-meeting-report). We are very excited to be launching the second instalment of our Sustainability

Bees - culture and survival

Bees - culture and survival

This edition of the long-running radio 4 programme Start The Week was recommended by Peter Nalder of South Court Environmental. Here's what he had to say: 'What Bees Need' Listen to this on the radio if you can, online or on-repeat if available: It’s the

Maidwell-being

Fiona Howes, resident of Maidwell and member of Maidwell-being, tells us about the group and their activities. Maidwell-being is about finding ways to help each other within our community, share skills, improve our environment, save money and build friendships. Although started by a small group, we are hoping that as

Our Housing Disaster: and what we can do about it

Our Housing Disaster: and what we can do about it

This little book, smaller than A5 and just 180 pages, by Julian Richer, entrepreneur and philanthropist, examines how our housing got to such a disastrous situation and suggests what we can do about. This is an essential and quick read for anyone wishing to understand the causes of today’s

New Local Plan for West Northamptonshire

New Local Plan for West Northamptonshire

West Northamptonshire Council is preparing a new Local Plan to guide the future development of our region. This post reveals how local planners made it possible to allow huge scale developments in the open countryside near Towcester. Harry Mellor – a resident of Easton Neston, the Parish next to Towcester – suggests

Hummus - or Humous?

Hummus - or Humous?

Forty or so years ago, when Findus Frozen Pancakes were a staple for the mythical average family, because they were quick if you were in a rush, who could have imagined that hummus would regularly find its way into the British shopping basket? A quick snack, great for dipping carrots

Café Hope interview with Paul Powlesland

Café Hope interview with Paul Powlesland

In the week when the determined campaigners of the Wellingborough Walks Action Group (WWAG) take their case to a judicial review in the High Court, it seems appropriate to feature as our selected podcast an interview with Paul Powlesland. Paul's name may be familiar to you as the