History of en-form

 

1998     Idea of Environment Centre first   discussed with Colchester Borough Council

1998     Colchester Borough Council agree to make funds available to set up Environment Centre

Nov 1999    en-form registered as a Limited Company

Jun  2000  Premises at 15 Church Walk occupied

Nov 2000  Charity Status attained

Mar 2001   Centre opened

Feb 2002    Centre Manager appointed

Jun 2003    Funding obtained for Local Food Project

Jul 2003      Colchester Farmers’ Market re-opened at Colchester Arts Centre

Feb 2004      First issue of NE Essex Local Food Directory published

Oct 2004      Harbour Ward Energy Project started

Dec 2004      RePaint Scheme funding received

Feb 2005      Second issue of NE Essex Local Food Directory published

Apr 2005      RePaint Scheme officially launched

Apr 2005      Centre Manager post lapsed

Oct 2005      Harbour Ward Energy Project Report

Apr 2006      Wivenhoe Farmers’ Market started

May 2006      Give or take website launched

May 2006      RePaint scheme expanded to accept paint from local businesses

May 2011      ECORRN launch ReuseEssex website

April 2012    ECORRN closed and functions transferred to en-form.

May 2014       First Colchester Green Open Homes Event throughout May

Green Christmas

 

Every year, Christmas places a heavy burden on the earths resources and our environment. However, it is the major festival in Britain, offering lots of fun to millions. We don’t want to be killjoys but we would like to reduce its environmental impact.

Luckily, with a little thought and a bit of information we can significantly reduce its impact, save money and actually have more fun.

On this page you can find out how to reduce the waste you produce over the festive season and recycle what you do produce, as well as how to save energy (from the increased use of all those new electrical appliances) and money and have a green Christmas!

Here's our top tips for a green Christmas in Colchester.

Christmas Cards

• Why not send an e-card instead of a paper card this year. This is becoming increasingly popular, with senders sometimes donating the money they have saved on cards and postage to a favourite charity. Send a free ecard now
• When Christmas is over don't just throw your old Christmas Cards away - recycle them. Why not help the Woodland Trust or Forest Stewardship Council by recycling all your old Christmas Cards through the recycling bins at branches of Marks and Spencer until 31st January 2014  and Sainsburys until 14th January 2014.
• If this is to much effort for you, just pop them in your kerbside paper collection.
• Don't forget to keep a handful to make your own gift tags for next year.

Christmas Tree

• If you buy a real Christmas Tree make sure you buy it from a sustainable source. For suppliers of UK-grown sustainable Christmas trees check out www.christmastree.org.uk. Try to buy it from a local producer.
• When Christmas is over recycle your real tree by cutting it up and putting it in with your green waste kerbside collection. Alternatively, if you are visiting the zoo see if they want it to use in the animal enclosures. Otherwise, you can recycle it at your local Household Recycling Centre.

Christmas Dinner and all that food and drink

• Buy local, seasonal, winter vegetables (these include sprouts, carrots, cabbage, leeks, onions, parsnips, swede, potatoes and nuts such as walnuts and chestnuts). Visit your local Farmers' Market or Farm shop and pick up some quality local produce to give yourself a treat at Christmas. Find your local market or producer at www.localfoodharvest.org
• For those foods where you can't buy local choose Fairtrade, organic fruit, nuts and chocolate (visit http//:www.fairtrade.org.uk for a list of Fairtrade product in your shops)
• Buy bottles of wine with real corks. Not a single tree is cut down in their production – just a small part of the bark is removed leaving the tree alive. In fact insisting on real cork helps maintain one of the most environmentally friendly industries possible. It provides essential employment for the people who work in the cork forests of the Mediterranean and helps to maintain vital habitats for the endangered wildlife of these forests such as the Iberian lynx, Spanish Imperial eagle and the Barbary deer

Buying Presents

• Don't buy useless presents that the recipients don't want. What about taking them out for a meal, the cinema or buying a season ticket for the local football team or local zoo for a present to remember. Better than another pair of socks.
• Try and buy environmentally friendly and useful gifts. What about a bike instead of some electronic game that is discarded on boxing day. Or something very useful but unusual for your elderly relatives like cavity wall insulation that makes a real difference to there quality of life.
• We are all a little time poor these days so why not give a little time instead of money. Use your imagination but what about offering a foot or head massage, makeovers, dinner or the washing up.

Unwanted Presents

• Give all your unwanted presents along with old clothes, toys etc that may have been replaced to local charity shops or Community Group or on giveortake, freegle or sell them on ebay.

Recycle all your Christmas waste

• At Christmas thousands of extra drink cans and bottles are produced. Don't just throw them away. Make sure you recycle all your glass bottles, cans, aluminium foil, paper and cardboard through your kerbside collection scheme or recycling banks. If you use the recycling banks please remember they are normally overflowing during the festive period so it would be helpful if you could spread your visit to the banks over a longer period.
• Recycle your corks and perforated bottle tops (the type used on beer bottles) at en-form.

Stamps

• Save your old Stamps - It won't be long before Christmas cards start arriving through the post. This year tear off the old stamp and give it to charity. Many charities, schools, churches and clubs save old stamps which they sell for money. You can hand them in at many of the towns charity shops.

Save Energy at Christmas

Christmas is a time of particularly high energy consumption. The whole house is heated as extra family members return for the holidays. Lights, televisions and stereos are left on and cooking appliances are used more heavily. Not to mention the energy needed to power all those electric gadgets bought as presents.

Being careful with your energy usage at this time of year can save your household considerable money.  Visit the Energy section to find out how to save energy at home.

• Many gadgets bought for Christmas require batteries, which cost money and need to be disposed of. Try to buy things that don't need batteries but can be run from the mains or are rechargeable. If you have to buy batteries make sure they are rechargeable ones, preferably Nimh – they last a lot longer and save you money into the bargain.
• You could also purchase gifts that use renewable energy, for example solar powered (or wind up) radio's and torches and mobile phone chargers.  

How to have a Green Christmas:

http://www.nigelsecostore.com/acatalog/Green_Christmas.html

http://www.ecocentric.co.uk/acatalog/green-christmas.html

http://www.mahalo.com/how-to-have-a-green-christmas/

http://eartheasy.com/give_sustainchristmas.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8426269.stm

Timebank

 

What is a time bank?

Time banks use time as a currency. You can earn a time credit for each hour you spend doing things to help others. You decide how often and what you do.

What can you do with Time Credits?

Spend them on a whole range of skills and opportunities on offer from other participants.
Save them up for future use.
Donate them to another participant.

Who can earn Time Credits?

Anyone! Age, lack of finance or limited mobility do not prevent you from joining the Time Bank.

These are the kinds of help or services people are giving and receiving

Administration, Basic Repairs, Baking, Dog Walking, Fundraising, Gardening, Ironing, Knitting, Letter Writing, Music Lessons, Reading, Shopping, Teaching Languages, Visiting, Mobile phone and computer skills. Yoga and many more!

What next?

When you join we will open an account for you. Your hours will be recorded and we will send you a regular statement of the time you have given and received. Time credits do not affect any Benefits you may receive. Time Banking is a local information system about who can do what, who is available when and who has special needs. You give a few hours of your time, when you can, doing what you want to. In this way everyone participating can gain help to receive the services they need or want. It also enables everyone to feel able to give. If you are prepared to exchange time there is an abundance of skills available!

Interested?

See the website

Climate Change

 

The Earth's climate naturally changes over long time periods. Over the 4.5 billion years that the planet has existed we have swung between cold and warm periods. Ice ages have come and gone and have lasted for up to 100,000 years. They have been followed by shorter, warmer periods one of which we are in at the moment. The Earth's average temperature is around 4 C hotter than it was during the last ice age some 13,000 years ago.

There is one major difference between previous periods of warmth and this one. In the past they have been due to natural events and have taken thousands of years to evolve, so species have had time to adapt, but this time it is caused by the World's 5.8 billion beings.

CAUSES. Every time we use electricity we are creating C02, which is not only a naturally occurring gas crucial to our survival but also the main contributor to climate change. Our electricity is mostly generated by burning fossil fuels which create C02. Carbon Dioxide and the other greenhouse gases occur naturally and form a blanket round the Earth trapping heat that would otherwise escape into space. The heat rebounds onto the Earth's surface and the temperature rises creating what is commonly called the "greenhouse effect . We have been pumping additional C02 into the atmosphere for 200 years thus intensifying the effect and increasing the Earth's temperature.

We are increasing the temperature so quickly that nature can no longer cope. This warming will also have widespread impacts on climate conditions all over the globe, causing more droughts, storms, floods and other weather extremes. Deforestation, particularly of the Rain Forests, has also caused a build up of C02 and there are fewer trees to absorb this. Glaciers are already melting in places as far apart as Switzerland and New Zealand bringing with them avalanches, soil erosion and dramatic changes to river flows. The oceans and seas are warming, causing coral to die and putting many marine creatures at risk. This threatens to submerge many parts of the World including 300 Pacific Islands and wetlands as far afield as Argentina, Bangladesh, Nigeria and the USA. The danger is that if these unusual weather conditions become permanent or extreme numerous plants and animals will simply not recover. Cold kills germs and disease bearing insects such as the mosquito. As the World warms up germs, bacteria and other carriers will multiply.

WHAT CAN YOU DO ?

Everyone can do something to reduce the threat of climate change such as:

1. TRANSPORT - reducing car journeys. For instance cutting out 1 car journey a week will help as will campaigning for better public transport and using it. Check our transport section for more ideas.

2. ENERGY - Reducing energy consumption. Turn the central heating down 1 C. Insulate your house and loft. Use energy efficient appliances ( A is the most efficient G the least). Use low energy light bulbs. Check our energy section for more ideas.

3. WASTE - Re-use and recycle paper, glass, aluminium, tin and clothing. Don't buy disposable products, especially plastic, or anything with a lot of packaging. Check out our waste section for more ideas.

Consider choosing an Electric Company that supplies green tariff electricity.

Chemicals in the Environment

In the last 50 years, since the end of World War 2, the manufacture and use of chemicals has dramatically increased. The resultant pollution of the atmosphere and contamination of soil and water, already widespread in industrialised countries, is on the increase in developing countries. Every ocean and every continent from the tropics to the polar regions is now contaminated.

Many synthetic substances in our environment are highly toxic. Some of these chemicals, known as persistent organic pollutants, remain in the environment for long periods and bioaccumulate (becoming more concentrated as they rise in the food chain). Methyl-mercury ingested by fish, for instance, is found in high concentrations in carnivorous aquatic mammals and is believed to affect humans who eat it. Over 30 years ago Rachel Carter was pointing out in "Silent Spring (1962), that "what we do to animals we do to ourselves .

Today there are at least 300-500 measurable chemicals in people's bodies, that had not been found in anyone's tissue before the 1920s. The known and suspected effects of many chemicals, including direct poisoning, cancers and reproductive damage, have been well documented. However, new scientific evidence indicates that many synthetic chemicals in our environment also pose another threat. Some of these chemicals mimic human hormones and so disrupt normal hormonal function in wildlife and humans. The true extent of this problem is unclear, as only a handful of the tens of thousands of chemicals in our environment and in active commercial use have been tested for their potential as hormone disruptors also called endocrine disruptors).

We do not know enough about the toxins now present in our environment: what they are, where they are, and how they affect living systems

THE RIGHT TO KNOW.

Communities have the right to know about the toxic chemicals entering the environment. This was the principle adopted at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio in 1992. On this principle environmental groups like WWF and Friends of the Earth have based their "Right to Know campaigns which aim to force government and industry to give access to environmental information.

Computerised data bases of toxic chemicals, often called toxic chemical inventories, have been set up to keep track of and record chemical information on polluting factories and the use and emission of toxic substances In many countries this is not done at all and, where it is, it is not often done properly.

The UK currently collects information from some industrial polluters and publishes this material in a Chemical Release Inventory. However, without sophisticated analysis the information in the inventory is of little value for local communities in better understanding the impacts on their local environment arising from pollution. It is also incomplete as information is collected on only a section of pollutants and from only some polluters.

In 1965 Friends of the Earth exposed the nation's top polluters when it launched a computerised A-Z of the dirtiest factories in England and Wales. Anyone with access to a personal computer and connection to the Internet can now find out who is contaminating their local environment and use electronic maps to locate the polluter. The Internet site is " www.foe.co.uk ". This use of the Chemical Release Inventory allows users to explore electronic maps of England and Wales and locate polluting factories as well as finding out exactly which chemicals are being pumped out into the environment and in what quantities.

In the United States there has been far more progress in making environmental information available to the public. For instance the annual compilation of a Toxic Release Inventory has been a powerful motive force behind companies' performance in reducing polluting emissions. League tables of the most polluting companies are published along with maps of where they are and lists of the pollutants they have released. Anxious to get out of the polluting top ten and to reduce the risk of being attacked by local communities and so maintain their community licence to operate firms have taken steps to reduce pollution. Since the Community Rights to Know Act reported reductions in toxic emissions are about 43% for the whole country. This has kept millions of iSounds of chemicals out of our lives. It has helped people to stay healthy and live longer, to spur innovation to help businesses work smarter and cleaner and become more, rather than less, profitable.

Socially Responsible Investments (SRI) performance

Ethical investment is becoming increasingly important in pension fund management due to a huge rise in public awareness and demand. More than 75% of UK adults believe that their pension scheme should operate an ethical policy (EIRIS and NOP Solutions).

Investors are worried about the world they live in - risks, congestion, climate changes, food scares. Companies that address these challenges are likely to be well managed, and therefore avoid known and future risks, thus reaping future rewards.

With this core understanding, the investment community has been searching for the mechanisms to measure good, ethical and environmental management performance and corresponding business indicators. The weight of evidence is quite strong and new pieces of research strengthen this link.

The money committed to UK ethical investment (unit and investment trusts) has doubled since 1996 and is currently in excess of two billion pounds, and at over 1 % of total in investment trusts (EIRIS in Green Features, Sep/Oct 98), this represents significant opportunities for growth.

Campaigning groups and others are also considerably more aware of the role of institutional investors and are increasingly targeting them. In effect, "green chips are fast becoming as significant as "blue chips (Lean, G 25/11 Green stocks beat the Footsie).

There is also mounting evidence to suggest that there is a link between good environmental performance and enhanced company profitability. Furthermore, "a good environmental record is increasingly seen as a sign of a well- managed company (Michael Meacher, Former Environment Minister). Companies can therefore not afford to ignore the issue of ethical and environmental investment.

Overall they perform very well against the normal market. This shows that being responsible, ethical businesses need not harm performance. The Methodist Church has outperformed the MSCI index since its launch. The managers of the fund believe their SRI policy aids performance, rather than hindering it.

Retail SRI and ethical funds have generally performed well against pension funds internationally. Among SRI indices, the Dominr 400 Index (US multicriteria ethical index) in operation for over 10 years, has shown good performance levels overall.

In UK NPI Social Index' and Dow Jones Sustainability Index' were launched approximately two years ago and have performed well, but it is perhaps too early to judge their success. A new addition, the FTSE4G00d Series will seek to continue this trend.

The academic studies to date, the majority from the U S have given average to positive findings regarding SRI.

Some ethical funds are:-

• Friends Provident (Friends Ivory and Sime at www.fis.com)
• Henderson Global Investors
• Jupiter Global Green (www.iu~iteronline.co.uk)
• Norwich Union (www.morlevfm.com)

The sort of areas they invest in are involved in renewable energy, telecoms & communications, pollution cleaning technologies; transport groups; Waste management and recycling companies.

Ethically Traded Goods

 

What is Ethical Trade?

Ethical Trade is an important and effective means of bringing benefits to workers in the south/developing world so they can invest more in their own communities. It is having a real effect on large companies in the United Kingdom, encouraging them to look at all their trading activities.

The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) consists of companies, NGOs and trade Unions "working to improve conditions of employment in the supply chains of goods sold in High street shops in Britain. It exists mainly as a result of customer pressure who wanted retailers to act responsibly to farms at farm or factory level.

The ETI code is based on international standards and, briefly, includes:

• no forced work or slave labour
• no child labour to be used
• no excessive working hours
• no harsh or inhumane treatment
• no discrimination
• freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively
• safe and hygienic working conditions
• living wages to be paid

Fair Trade has a different focus. It is an alternative approach to conventional international trade, being a partnership which aims to assist development in under developed or poverty stricken countries. The aim is to make development more sustainable for excluded and disadvantaged producers in the "South - Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean. These producers have no access to mainstream markets, so Fair Trade seeks to change the unfair structures of world trade to help create a fairer society. Poverty alleviation is the main objective.

These Countries need the opportunity to trade and receive fair payment for their work, not to be ripped off or rely on declining charity handouts for their future development and children's education.

The level of the problem is huge with 1.2 billion people in extreme poverty. At the UN Millennium Summit last year 147 world leaders committed to halving extreme poverty by 2015. The latest study by the UN shows that this is unlikely to happen. A World Bank study shows that aid to Africa from OECD countries fell from $32 a head in 1990 to $19 a head in 1998.

They need fair prices for goods to make up this shortfall. Starbucks is just one of the most recent companies to encourage fair trade supplies with 4,000 shops now selling fair trade coffee.

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (EMS)

 

WHAT IS AN EMS ?

This is a way of controlling a company's activities from an environmental point of view from the beginning to the end, where the materials that make the product originate from and in some cases where that product ends up when used.

One way in which to ensure that all environmental concerns in a business at all levels.

WHY SHOULD A BUSINESS GO FOR A ONE ?

• Leading edge on similiar companies - no sudden need to comply with new green' legislation
• Develop new technology
• Increased and better communications with suppliers, distributers and customers
• Good public relations

INCREASED FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

• Subsidises from carbon tax etc
• Lower costs - less packaging, lower amounts of raw materials and components, lower transport costs
• No pressure from environmental organisations
• Less pollutants produced - less staff sicknesses, lower insurance premiums and less disruption to production

WHAT ARE THE MAIN EMS?

• EMAS - Eco Management and Audit Scheme- Launched in 1995
• BS* 7750 - IST environmental monitoring standard - Published in 1992
• 1SO** 14001 - This is the main standard used and is the one that took the place of BS 7750 - It was introduced in 1997

There are other supporting ISO standards intended to add support to ISO 14001

There are also two other less well known environmental standards:

1) Index of Corporate Environmental Engagement - used by the organisation Business in the Environment to compare how the top FTSE 100 companies manage their environmental affairs

2) CONTOUR - launched in 1997, it provides a bench mark tool for companies to assess how they are doing when it comes to the environment and health and safety with the emphasis on practice rather than policy.

* British Standard

* * International Standards Organisation

Global Warming

Climate Change - Introduction Sheet

The prospect of global climate change is a matter of genuine public concern The amount of carbon dioxide (C02) in the atmosphere is increasing and the temperature of the earth's surface is rising Although there is a lot of uncertainty about the magnitude and consequences of these developments, the balance of informed opinion is that mankind is having a discernible effect on the climate and scientists believe there is a link between the amount of C02 in the atmosphere and increased temperature.

Faced with this uncertainty, adopting a precautionary approach to climate change is the only sensible way forward in these circumstances This is why the Kyoto agreement has set itself a goal to reduce the developed world's emissions of greenhouse gases by 10%, from a 1990 baseline, by the year 2010.

As the industrial revolution created more demands for energy, coal replaced wood as the most important fuel At the beginning of the last century, oil became significant as a fuel and now gas is the fastest growing source of hydrocarbon energy Switching from coal to gas as the primary fuel for generating electricity can result in a 50% reduction in C02 emissions per unit of electricity generated.

Recent technological advances have made renewable energy more economically accessible. The annual growth rate for wind and solar photovoltaics generated electricity is around 20-30% Other sources of renewable energy are being actively pursued throughout the world and will contribute to broaden the energy mix

However, hydrocarbons are expected to remain as the dominant source of energy for the foreseeable future.

Not surprisingly perhaps, history shows that energy efficiency in industry improves with time Today combined cycle and combined heat and power electricity generation, improved insulation and design of buildings and a new generation of vehicles will continue this trend of improving energy efficiency Recent developments in fuel cell technology point the way to further improvements in efficiency and reduced emissions, particularly if hydrogen is used as a fuel

Recent evidence shows reservoirs are powerful sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Hydroelectric power has long been thought a relatively pollution free source of energy, but evidence is emerging that reservoirs are powerful sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

Recent research suggests that up to half of Brazil's hydroelectric reservoirs have a global warming capacity similar to that of a fossil-fuel fired power plant

Although the problem is thought to be most significant in tropical areas, the World Commission on Dams recently warned that greenhouse gas emissions have been found at all 30 reservoirs from which measurements have been taken

This research is prompting calls for reservoir emissions to be included in national emissions inventories, a notion until recently dismissed. Including this source could likely have major effects for some countries, such as French Guyana, Ghana, Norway and the US

Rotting vegetation, particularly a problem in tropical areas - releases significant amounts of carbon dioxide and methane Methane is a hydrocarbon and its main impact is as a greenhouse gas with 21 times greater global warming potential than carbon dioxide