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As delivery partners in the Westmorland and Furness Green Enterprise Hub, CAfS have been able to support small and medium enterprises with tailored carbon reduction and sustainability support. “Our mission is to empower organisations to reduce their carbon footprint, drive innovation, and unlock the benefits of a cleaner, greener future.” One of the businesses we’ve been working with is Alpacally Ever After, a social enterprise that rehomes alpacas and llamas from all over the country and give them a wonderful new home with the very best of care, while bringing people in touch with the landscape and the natural world [...]

Our recent Solar Made Easy event in Grange Over Sands saw over 100 people from 70 households in attendance. The receptive and knowledgeable audience posed a raft of technical and testing questions to the installers Create Energy and Glow Solar who are two of five installation companies vetted by CAfS and working with us on the Solar Made Easy project. Many of the households have already progressed to obtaining quotes. The solar map commissioned by CAfS identifies over 4,500 rooves across the seven towns and villages on the Cartmel Peninsula that are suitable for solar panel installations, with the [...]

CAfS are gearing up for their "Fight for Our Future” appeal, to raise awareness of the effects of climate change on Cumbria’s young people and promote urgent action to protect their futures. CAfS aims to raise £20,000  to support this work, and between the 18th and 25th of April, any donations made will be doubled thanks to the Big Give’s Green Match Fund.  With the effects of climate change becoming more acutely felt, through extreme weather events, such as severe flooding, heatwaves and air pollution, recent studies have highlighted the disproportionate impact of climate change on young people. One [...]

It’s just 3 days until Easter and if you’re looking to celebrate sustainably you may be wondering about the footprint of your Easter egg and how you can do your bit for the climate.  Alongside issues such as child labour and workers’ rights, climate issues such as palm oil, excess packaging and whether to go vegan are all to be considered when making any chocolate purchase. Ethical Consumer have a useful guide to navigating your Easter egg choices here: Easter Eggs | Ethical Consumer  If you are in the habit of sending cards at Easter, why not check out our E-cards: [...]

Over the last year, the UK has experienced drought, widespread flooding and frequent storms. This has been mirrored across the globe where extreme weather events are becoming the norm. Here in Cumbria, we are working hard to reduce carbon emissions as quickly as possible, working with individuals, businesses and communities on everything from domestic and community energy to retrofit, green business support and sustainable agricultural practices.   Earth Day this year falls on Monday April 22nd - and we are talking to local schools, and youth groups, to encourage activities and conversations to raise awareness of climate action.  Earth [...]

Last week we welcomed three students for the Centre for Leadership Performance's 'Dream Placement' work experience week.  The dream placement programme is designed to support our county's talented young people in gaining experience in industry and business, and to help them make informed choices about their future careers. We enjoyed taking part in the initial training, interview and selection process and were looking forward to welcoming the students into CAfS! Our three students, Samia, Sophie and Olivia, joined us at various points across the week. Activities ranged from project work with our partners at CDEC to tree planting, looking at [...]

January proved to be a very busy month for the Energy team here at CAfS thanks to our Cold to Cosy Homes Project and the extension into retrofit advice. They made 117 home visits - which is equal to 176 hours of free energy advice to Cumbrian Households and have received 347 online referrals since the new year. They have also spent some time developing their skills and increasing their capacity, this has included workplace training with the Samaritans and their “conversations with vulnerable people” . We have also had two members of the team complete their retrofit qualification Level [...]

Due to a successful first phase, we can support four more farming families in Cumbria to benefit from a fully funded Home Retrofit Planner for your farmhouse – a comprehensive energy audit for your home. In this call out we are looking for farmhouses on “working farms” located anywhere in Cumbria. Farmhouses are often older properties that can be draughty, hard to heat, suffering from damp or water ingress, losing heat though walls, doors, windows and roofs. These beautiful traditional properties need an understanding of heritage skills, appropriate materials to fix and maintain. We know that for farmers, your farmhouse, [...]

Valentine’s Day may traditionally be the day we show love and appreciation for our partners, but how we choose to do that can have an enormous impact on our planet.   Did you know that out of season cut flowers have one of the largest carbon footprints per pound spent at the till? Red roses definitely aren’t a seasonal bloom in February in Cumbria and as a result many of the roses in the shops this week will have been imported from as far away as Kenya and Latin America, picking up the hefty carbon price tag of 2.4kg carbon per [...]