News

New scheme boosts fruit and vegetable growing in Cumbria

Cumbrian farmers have dedicated acres of land to growing fruit and vegetables this year, thanks to support from a new initiative, Home Grown Here. The scheme will see a tasty range of fresh produce grown in the county, from peas and potatoes to apples to rhubarb. Fresh from the fields, it will all be enjoyed by Cumbrians and visitors through local retailers, cafés, restaurants, hotels, farm shops and veg box schemes. It’s the brainchild of the Eden-based growers’ co-operative VistaVeg, and is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund as part of the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership’s ambitious emission-reduction [...]

By |2021-08-30T10:54:16+01:00August 25th, 2021|Food, Homepage, News, Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership|

CAfS celebrates achievements of EV partnership

The end of this month marks the end of CAfS' involvement in the electric vehicles project that we've been working on since late 2019 and we thought that it would be a good time to mark a few of the most significant parts of the brilliant progress that has been made over the past 18 months. During our involvement with the project, over thirty installations of chargepoints have been completed, allowing locals who don't have access to off-street parking to countenance switching from a petrol/diesel car for the first time. Because of a successful collaboration with the city council, [...]

By |2023-04-14T14:32:33+01:00July 29th, 2021|Electric vehicles, Homepage, News|

Huge funding boost for PLACE project

We at CAfS are delighted to announce that a project in which we are a partner has received a huge boost of funding this week. The PLACE project is being run by Cumbria Development Education Centre and they have just been awarded a grant of £248,600. The grant comes from the Government’s £40 million second round of the Green Recovery Challenge Fund, a multi-million pound boost for green jobs and nature recovery Ninety nature projects across England have been awarded grants from £68,100 to £1,950,000 to create and retain over 1,000 green jobs, backed by the Government’s £80 million [...]

By |2021-07-29T14:31:29+01:00July 29th, 2021|Homepage, News, Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership|

Ambleside to Zero – the launch!

Ambleside Action for a Future (AAFAF) is gearing up for their public launch of ‘Ambleside to Zero’ on 23rd September 2021 in Ambleside Parish Centre, and we’re proud to be supporting them. AAFAF aims to get the town to zero carbon by 2030 and is working with local residents, business and multiple partners to get there. This will be an all-day drop-in session, with periodic welcome talks to explain the group’s aims and introduce the projects. There will be information-packed displays, AAFAF members and project partners there to talk to, and hopefully some fun gadgets to play with! Everyone [...]

By |2021-07-29T13:45:06+01:00July 29th, 2021|Ambleside to Zero, Homepage, News|

Research to find good businesses who do retrofit work in Cumbria

Over the last year, a growing number of householders across Cumbria have taken up our paid energy advice service and report: the “Home Retrofit Planner”. In order to help householders onward through the retrofit process, we are now collecting information on the building and retrofit industry in Cumbria.  If you’ve had work done to your home to make it more energy efficient, we would love to hear about your experiences of the suppliers and trades you used.   We will use your feedback to help us identify companies that might wish to join our network of suppliers involved in retrofit [...]

By |2021-07-29T12:27:00+01:00July 29th, 2021|Home energy efficiency, Homepage, Insulation, News|

Climate training available for all County Council staff and Members

CAfS are delighted to be working in partnership with Cumbria County Council to deliver climate and carbon literacy training to 550 of their staff and elected members. All elected representatives, senior managers and extended leadership team are able to book a place on either a full day, accredited climate and carbon literacy training course, a 90 minute ‘Climate Science and Solutions for Cumbria’ overview or a 30 minute climate coffee break chat. Places are also available for any interested staff across the organisation. The uptake so far has been fantastic with an inspiring number of council staff eager to [...]

By |2021-06-30T12:03:27+01:00June 30th, 2021|Climate politics, Homepage, News, Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership|

Growing the sustainability network

On June 22nd representatives from the Cumbria Sustainability Network came together for a virtual discussion on how to take their work forward and build a strong community of groups and individuals working across the county to raise awareness of the climate emergency and to take practical action to reduce carbon emissions in their area. Resources are available to support the development of the Cumbria Sustainability Network as part of National Lottery investment in the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership.  The Network is an informal group of community-based organisations whose mission is to promote environmental sustainability.  Members include Ambleside Action for [...]

Announcing Great Big Green week!

Ahead of November’s crucial COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, communities across the UK will join together for the Great Big Green Week, organised by The Climate Coalition. The festival takes place during 18th – 26th September, and aims to be the largest event for climate and nature ever seen in the UK. Everyone’s invited!    COP26 has already been delayed by a year due to the pandemic. It’s being billed as a pivotal moment in the fight against runaway climate change, at the start of what is a critical decade for our planet.   The run-up to this year’s summit is the key period when countries update their [...]

Over 9,000 new chargepoints may be needed for Cumbria by 2030

A new study by Cumbria Action for Sustainability has found that an estimated 70 public chargepoints would need to be installed every month for the next 9 1/2  years in Cumbria to meet expected demand for electric vehicles by residents and tourists. CAfS undertook the complex task of forecasting the potential demand for publicly accessible chargepoints across Cumbria by 2030, as a partner in a project to install community-owned chargepoints across the north of England, led by Charge My Street and funded by Innovate UK. Nigel Jenkins from our EV team created the report, with peer support from several [...]

By |2021-07-06T12:08:54+01:00June 29th, 2021|Electric vehicles, Fossil fuels, Homepage, News|

Partnership to Galvanise Green Investments for Cumbria Launches

A new and innovative green investment plan for Cumbria is being developed by a consortium of local and national partners. The plan will enhance the county’s competitiveness nationally, benefit the county’s economy, boost employment opportunities and help tackle climate change. The investment plan will identify a set of iconic projects across Cumbria in sectors such as energy generation, transport, agriculture and waste management, along with exploring the sources of finance required from institutional investors, banks, public finance and community funding institutions. Key partners involved include Grantham Research Institute of the LSE, the multinational engineering and design company Arup, local [...]

By |2021-06-17T15:09:56+01:00June 17th, 2021|Community energy, Fossil fuels, Homepage, News, Renewable energy|
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