The second Fuelling Manchester social took place on Thursday 13th May 2010 for those involved in community energy projects in the Manchester area. Individuals from Manchester Carbon Co-op, URBED, MERCi, Peak District Energy Co-op, Sustainable Change, Greater Manchester Tree Station and the Energy Savings Trust all attended the social at Odd Bar in the Northern Quarter.
Latest news
Kindling's Helen Woodcock gave a ten-minute talk at the May 2010 Making Local Food Work Conference entitled: Making Local Food Work for Manchester, introducing the work of The Kindling Trust and explaining the purpose of projects like FeedingManchester.
Helen also joined a discussion panel answering questions from the audience, alongside Rob Squires of Groundwork's Target: Wellbeing and the ever passionate: Kath Dalmeny of Sustain.
Saturday 27th March 2010 saw the Moss Side launch event of the Carbon Co-op, a new low-carbon social enterprise based in South Manchester. Founded by local residents, the Carbon Co-op aims to bring together friends, neighbours and communities in a bulk buying co-operative, purchasing low carbon technologies, from energy monitors to solar panels, at discount.
The new social enterprise aims to bring green jobs and help Manchester meet its ambitious carbon reduction targets.
Growing Manchester is a new programme to support community growing projects in the city to become more sustainable in the long term and covers a wide range of issues such as maintaining soil fertility, your legal responsibilities, micro-trading and involving more people. The Programme offers a unique package of support including:
Kindling has secured Heritage Lottery support of around £40,000 to support its food heritage project: Forgotten Fields.
The project focuses on the heritage of food production and availability in Manchester from 1750’s to present day. It concentrates on six communities from across Greater Manchester that have expressed a need to explore a particular food heritage.
Kindling has secured financial support to explore opportunities to increase 'low-carbon' food in Manchester via school meals, complimenting the city's Climate Change Action Plan, Manchester; A Certain Future.
Kindling has been working with South Manchester Carbon Co-op in preparation to pilot this unique initiative on two streets in Rusholme, South Manchester. Our role has been to develop the carbon co-op manual - giving top energy-saving tips; money-saving offers on things like insulation, car sharing schemes, energy saving appliances; and examples of the amazing things that other communities have done to reduce their carbon emissions and energy bills.
Is it people who can plan ahead? Is it the sunny, well drained site? Is is the ongoing grant? Is it a sympathetic neighbourhood? Is it the local café who's willing to buy your surplus veg? Each project is unique; each has its strengths and challenges; each has to overcome different barriers; each has different aspirations and goals.
As part of the FeedingManchester events we have collectively been working on a definition of sustainable food. This is to ensure that any future action to green Manchester addresses our unsustainable food system, as well as being the foundation for the growing sustainable food movement in Greater Manchester.
Kindling & the Carbon Co-op have organised a social evening for people involved in community energy projects in the Manchester area for Friday 19th February 2010.
"We thought it would be beneficial to organise a get together for all those of us involved in community renewable projects, be that: water turbine co-operatives; bio-mass and woodland management enterprises; waste-to-energy projects, solar energy collectives or those involved in community-focused action on insulation and energy efficiency".