Help to reduce your carbon footprint

A villager from Ashton Hayes, which claims to be the first carbon-neutral village in Britain, will be at Lewes Town Hall on March 3 to tell people about her community's experiences and to encourage Lewes to take up the challenge.

Tracey Todhunter will be one of the speakers at the final event in Lewes Climate Concern's year-long campaign to raise awareness of global warming.

Joining her on the stage will be Lewes MP Norman Baker and environmental journalist Polly Toynbee, who lives in Lewes.

Both have been involved with the local campaign since the beginning.

Also talking about how they have been living the good life will be four families who volunteered to take part in an energy monitoring experiment co-ordinated by Lewes District Council and Lewes Climate Concern.

The Sussex Express has been following the experiences over the past nine months of Chris and Suzanne Rowland, Karen Miles and Chris Axton, Julia and David Clarke and Eileen and Gordon Bull.

Using equipment loaned by the district council's sustainability team, the Rowlands from East Way; Karen Miles and Chris Axton from Rotten Row; the Clarkes from Landport Farm Road and the Bulls from Hill Road, each reckon they have reduced their carbon footprint in a year.

Thinking twice before they boil the kettle for a cuppa; using energy saving light bulbs; recycling; holidaying by train instead of by plane and buying locally-grown produce - these are just a few of the ways these families have brought down their energy use.

Each of the volunteers says saving energy has become a way of life.

For Chris Rowland, it has led to a career change. He now works part time for an organisation which looks at ways of producing renewable energy locally. This means he no longer drives a company car or flies half a dozen times a year to visit construction projects around the UK.

Karen and Chris have commissioned a Brighton company to advise how they can conserve more light and energy in their Victorian house and went to Italy by train for their summer holiday.

The Clarkes, who have a smallholding at Landport, reckon they have reduced their electricity consumption by about five KWh a day, by cooking on the hob instead of the oven, using a fast-boiling eco kettle and waiting until the solar panels on their roof has heated the water before they do the washing.

Eileen and Gordon Bull have designed dozens of ways of reducing their energy consumption and are always on the lookout for more. They have already replaced 25 light bulbs with low energy versions, make sure they turn off appliances and lights when they leave a room. 'The energy monitor certainly keeps us on our toes,' said Gordon.

Key to the campaign have been the council's sustainability and energy officer, Matthew Bird, and assistant head of waste and recycling, Trevor Watson.

They have worked alongside the eco families and have helped Lewes Climate Concern with its campaign to show the Al Gore environmental film An Inconvenient Truth at venues across Lewes district throughout the past year.

Hundreds of people have now seen the film.

Mr Bird said the council has been putting the green message across for years, helping to facilitate local initiatives such as the farmers' market and Lewes organic allotment project; winning awards for its recycling programme.

The team has advised on Parish Plans and has co-ordinated hundreds of volunteers over the years - many from Europe and even as far afield as Japan - to help with community projects.

'A year ago there was still a lot of confusion and scepticism about climate change,' explained Trevor. 'But now there is a real awareness of the threat from global warming, and the need to do something about.'

Mr Bird believes Lewes has now reached the transition process. 'You have a bunch of very focused people there, with a specific timetable,' he said.

'The eco-families project; the lights-out initiative in which hundreds of homes, shops and offices switched off their lights for five minutes in October to commemorate the Great Storm of 1987 and the film screenings have driven the message home.'

Lewes Climate Concern has been working alongside Transition Town Lewes, which has been running its own initiatives over the past year. When, on March 3, Lewes Climate Concern asks the question - 'What Next?' - Transition Town Lewes will be waiting in the wings to take up the baton and follow awareness- raising with action - ensuring that Lewes eventually becomes a carbon-neutral town.

'¢ Admission to the event on March 3 is free. Refreshments will be available and there will be live music from the Society Syncopators jazz band. Doors open at 7.15pm and the meeting begins at 7.45pm.