Respond to the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 and Ox-Cam Arc consultation

Respond to the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 and Ox-Cam Arc consultation

Two important consultations are taking place right now that will significantly affect Oxfordshire’s ability to respond to the climate crisis. It is important that as many people as possible respond to the consultations and put the case for climate.

The first, for the Oxfordshire Plan 2050, closes on Friday 8 October 2021. We are pleased to support the consultation responses by Oxford Friends of the Earth and the Coalition for Healthy Streets and Active Travel. You can use their responses to inform your own and we urge you to do so.

The second, for the Ox-Cam Arc, closes on Tuesday 12 October 2021. Friends of the Earth have suggestions on how to respond to this too (it’s the same page as for the Oxfordshire Plan, scroll down to the bottom).

Coming up: Sustainable Fashion schools photo shoot among the dinosaurs

This autumn we are delighted to be working with Kim Polgreen, LCON member and sustainable fashion enthusiast, and teachers and students from three north Oxford schools, on a project to highlight the thrills available from creating your own fashion by shopping second hand: a second hand fashion photo shoot to raise awareness of sustainable fashion.
 
Kim is an Oxford-based freelance sustainability educator, running events for young people to enthuse them about a sustainable future. She is Youth Educator in Residence at Wytham Woods, Oxford University’s research woodland, and runs an annual summer school for teenagers at the University’s Environmental Change Institute.

The schools involved are The Cherwell School, Oxford High School and St Clare’s College and we are really grateful to the teachers who are so generously giving their time and enthusiasm to make this project happen. We are also so grateful to Janet at the Oxfam shop in Summertown who is letting us have access to piles of donated clothes, and to staff at Oxfam head office who are supporting us with resources and encouragement. And we are thrilled that the Oxford University’s Museum of Natural History has agreed to let us do our fashion shoot amongst their dinosaurs – highlighting extinction!

The shoot takes place on 6 November, the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice, also coinciding with COP26. Once the photos are taken the students will reconvene to create posters on sustainable fashion using their photos, and feed back what they have learned to their schools. LCON will help publicise the posters and messages more widely.

We hope the project will be exciting and fun, and engage a wide range of people in a growing movement to bend the trend from fast to sustainable fashion.

The results are in! Find out how residents responded to our bus survey

The survey

During August and early September, LCON undertook a survey of local residents to assess the adequacy of local bus services in our area.  The aim was to provide information that we could share with Oxfordshire County Council, who are making an application (a Bus Service Improvement Plan) at the end of October for government funding for additional bus services. We also wanted to find out more generally whether or not current bus services are meeting the needs of residents, and how they affect the use of cars.

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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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What can north Oxford do about the climate crisis? Discussion and AGM, 28 September 2021

What can north Oxford do about the climate crisis? Discussion and AGM, 28 September 2021

Come and help us plan the coming year

We look forward to welcoming you to LCON’s public meeting on the evening of 28 September (18.45 – 21.00). As well as holding our formal Annual General Meeting, we want to talk with you about our priorities for the coming twelve months. It’s a chance to express your views on how you think we can be as effective as possible, and to explore how you can get involved. With the climate crisis intensifying, the stakes couldn’t be higher: everyone is needed. Whatever your skills and interests, whether you’ve got a lot of time to offer or hardly any, please come along and take part.

We will be meeting in person at the Woodstock Road Baptist Church (corner of Woodstock and Beechcroft Roads). You can also join via Zoom if you prefer. It will help us to plan the evening if you book via Eventbrite: you will be asked to choose Zoom or in-person. All those who book via Eventbrite will receive the Zoom link.

Doors will open at 18.45 for hot drinks and biscuits, and a prompt 19.00 start for the AGM. We will continue at about 19.30 with a presentation of our plans for the coming year and small-group discussions about how we can make our plans as successful as possible and how you can get involved. The meeting will end at 21.00. We are not providing food this year but there will be unlimited hot water and plenty of biscuits!

Everyone concerned about climate change is welcome to the whole evening, but at the AGM only LCON members can vote.

Annual General Meeting

This is the formal notice of LCON’s Annual General Meeting. Everyone is very welcome to attend the whole evening, but voting at the AGM is limited to LCON members. 

The AGM agenda and papers can be found above or at this link. The agenda includes links to the documents, including the annual report and accounts (combined in one document). There will be limited copies of the report and accounts at the meeting, and we can send a copy to anyone who would like one (email us to request this).

This year we have a special resolution involving a constitutional change. This is in response to changes in the City Council ward boundaries, which affect the definition of our area.

If any members cannot attend the AGM, they can appoint a proxy to vote on their behalf. The proxy can be any member, including the chair. If you wish to do this, please fill in the proxy form and return it to Rebecca Nestor by 7pm on 26 September. 

Interested in becoming a trustee?

We still have a few vacancies for new trustees, so if you are interested, please get in touch to find out more. The AGM is not the only opportunity to join the board, as we can co-opt trustees at any time during the year. We are particularly hoping to broaden the diversity of the board and especially encourage people of colour, younger people and men to consider the role. You don’t need specialist knowledge, though this is always welcome: we want people who live in our community and care about climate change. To find out what is involved and for an informal chat, please contact our chair Rebecca Nestor (chair@lcon.org.uk), or feel free to approach any of the trustees on the evening of the AGM. 

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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