Author: Julia Patrick

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Take action for sustainable fashion

Fast Fashion is harming the planet

The fashion industry accounts for:

  • 20% of industrial water pollution
  • up to 35% of ocean micro plastics
  • 4% of global fresh water use
  • 4-8% of global carbon emissions

Three out of five items of clothing end up in incinerators or landfills within a year of being produced. Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned.

We can all buy less, repair more and buy second-hand. And we can call for change across the fashion industry.

Write to your favourite Oxford shops to demand better

As part of Great Big Green Week, Low Carbon Oxford North have compiled a directory of Oxford shops that score poorly on sustainability and ethical ratings (based on rating website Good On You), together with contact details and a template email and social media message.

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Sustainable Fashion #4 – Shopping sustainably

You may have patched up your old jeans, found some amazing vintage clothes, and donated unwanted items to charity. What if you need some new clothes and fancy a real-life (or online) shopping trip? Is it possible to shop sustainably for new clothes in Oxford?

The short answer is – it’s difficult, and there is no substitute for buying less. However, by being informed and considering our choices carefully, we can definitely mitigate the impact of our clothes shopping. In particular, we should aim to:

  • buy from responsible brands;
  • buy items that are recyclable or returnable;
  • buy lower impact fabrics.
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Improving your home to use less energy – recording, slides and summary of event

Jointly hosted by Low Carbon Oxford North and Low Carbon West Oxford on 19 May, our final ‘Spring Workshop’ from Communities for Zero Carbon Oxford looked at ‘Improving your home to use less energy’.

We were delighted to be joined by a wonderful group of expert contributors as well as ‘real people’ who had carried out extensive retrofits to their homes:

  • Brenda Boardman (Oxford University’s ECI, LCON trustee, and Woman’s Hour ‘2020 Power List for Our Planet’ Innovator)
  • Saskya Huggins (Low Carbon Hub)
  • Gary Irvine, former Home Energy Assessor
  • home owners Damian Ryan and Will Schreiber

You can access a recording of the event and slides on Low Carbon West Oxford’s website, along with links to the slides and videos of the other events in the series.

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Talking food and climate – recording, tips and resources from our recent workshop

Last week we explored the impact of our food choices in our ‘Talking food and climate’ event, our third ‘Spring Workshop’ from Communities for Zero Carbon Oxford (hosted by Low Carbon West Oxford). We were joined by another great team of experts, Anaïs Bozetine, Replenish Project Coordinator; Susan Hutchinson, LCWO; Ruth Lyster, School Cook at West Oxford Community Primary; and Nina Osswald, Good Food Oxford.

A recording and slides from the event are available on the Low Carbon West Oxford website.

Below is a summary of some of the information and advice from the event.

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Talking waste and climate – tips and resources from our recent workshop

Our second ‘Spring Workshop’ from Communities for Zero Carbon Oxford (hosted by Low Carbon West Oxford) took place this week, ‘Talking climate and waste’. It was great to explore different aspects of consumption and waste with a fantastic team of experts, including Anaïs Bozetine from Replenish, Jenny Figueiredo, formerly at WRAP, and Mark Watson, Waste Strategy Projects Officer at Oxfordshire County Council.

A recording of the event and slides are available on the Low Carbon West Oxford website.

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Sustainable fashion – time for more action!

Many of you will remember our Sustainable Fashion webinar last summer, with Kim Polgreen (Sustainability Educator) and Stephen Cawley (former Head of Sustainability at John Lewis). 

We’re launching an information campaign on Sustainable Fashion

There was so much interest in both the live event and subsequent video that we’ve decided to launch an information campaign: we want to continue our discussion of the environmental impacts of the clothing sector – and what we can do about it.

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LCON is looking for new trustees

Are you worried about the climate crisis and looking for ways to contribute locally and make a difference? 

We’re looking for new trustees, including one person to act as treasurer. Being a trustee is an opportunity to get involved in LCON’s projects in whatever ways suit your interests and other commitments (find out about LCON’s activities here).

LCON is keen for people of all ages and backgrounds to get involved: you don’t need masses of experience or knowledge about climate change. Trustees meet once a month (currently online).  We have an experienced bookkeeper to deal with our modest financial transactions, and a brilliant co-ordinator who provides project management and keeps everything moving. 

If you think you might be interested or would like to find out more, please contact our chair Rebecca by email to arrange an informal chat  (chair@lcon.org.uk). 

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Spring workshops from Communities for Zero Carbon Oxford

We’re excited to announce a series of online workshops, in collaboration with other community and environmental groups across Oxford – “Communities for Zero Carbon Oxford”. The workshops are all designed to help us as individuals and communities take action to combat the climate crisis. Topics include tree care, waste, food and home energy/ retrofit, details below:

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It’s our 10 year anniversary! Watch our short film about LCON

Moved by the failure of the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, in 2010 a group of North Oxford residents got together to find ways of taking local action to combat climate change. To mark our first ten years, and to help more people find out who we are and what we do, we have made a short film. We describe the activities we have carried out over the years, reflect on where we need to go next, and share our hopes for a future Oxford. Watch the film on our YouTube channel – and if you like it, please share! 

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Cutteslowe school children plant 100 tree seeds

Children at Cutteslowe Primary School show off their newly planted tree seeds.

It’s National Tree Week, the UK’s largest tree planting celebration, marking the start of the winter planting season. There are various opportunities across Oxford and Oxfordshire to get involved: Oxford Friends of the Earth are planting 400 trees in Botley on 5 and 6 December; Rose Hill and Iffley Low Carbon will be planting the first phase of their orchard in late January or early February; and Banbury Trees has received 950 saplings from the ‘I Dig Trees’ scheme which will be planted at a local park.

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