Green Links

Energy

Energy Management
Good Energy 
Energy Saving Trust
The Green Deal Guide
National Energy Foundation

Renewable Energy Production
Green Energy Team

Food

Grow your own
Landshare 
Online matching service that allows you to find or offer land to growers. If you have a big garden you can offer it on this website for instance.
Grow Your Own (Magazine)
Colchester Allotment Association

Community Projects
Big Garden Project
Colchester Carrot

Local Produce
GFB

Vegetarian
Vegetarian Society
Vegan Society

Wholesale Foods
Suma Foods

New Economics

New Economics Foundation

Sharing Skills
Exchanging skills with other members of your community has taken many forms over the years, from LETS schemes and Timebanks to web based services. In Colchester we have both a timebank and, internationally the web based service Just For The Love of It. Like all community sharing services however, they rely on having lots of members and the members using them both to offer their skills and to request skills. The Colchester LETS scheme folded in 2002. Details of schemes are given below:

Just for the Love of It
This is a web based Community service that lets you share skills, tools, land and buildings.
LETS UK
Time Bank Colchester
Timebanking UK

Finance
Colchester Credit Union
ZOPA UK
KIVA Loans

Sustainability

en-form – The Colchester Environment Centre
Essex University Green Task Force
Transition Town Colchester
Transition Town Wivenhoe

Transport

Colchester Travel Plan

Climate Care
Off-set your emissions by planting trees

Car
The Environmental Transport Association
UK's only breakdown organisation that campaigns for a greener transport policy
Vehicle Certification Agency
Vehicle fuel consumption guide and database
Wombat Car Club
The Colchester based Car club
Essex Liftshare
Free local online car share matching service

 

Cycling
CTC
UK cyclist's membership organisation, including cycling insurance
Colchester Cycle Champions
Cycle Colchester
Colchester Cycling Campaign
Sustrans
Information on the National Cycle Network

Public Transport
Colchester Bus Users Support Group
Transport 2000
Campaigns for Sustainable transport in the UK

Walking
Walk Colchester

Waste – Reduce, Reuse and Recycling

Reduce
Love Food Hate Waste
Stop unwanted Junk Mail

Reuse
Ebay
The famous online auction site that lets you sell everything legal.
Freegle
Freecycle
Give or Take Essex
Like ebay but free. Lets you post unwanted items you want to give away or request items you want.
ReUse Essex
Online directory with search facility listing organisations throughout Essex that collect and redistribute unwanted items, primarily by Charity and Community Groups but also includes some commercial organisations.
Bookcrossing

Recycle
A-Z Guide to Dispose of Waste 
Directory of how to reduce, reuse or recycle specific items in Essex.
Recycle More (VALPAK)
Recycle Now (WRAP)
Information on what can be recycled together with a postcode search of what you can recycle in your area through kerbside collection and recycling bank facilities.
Colchester Borough Council
Details of the recycling facilities available in Colchester.
Use It Again
Waste Busters (Essex County Council)

Water

Water Companies
Anglian Water
Essex and Suffolk Water
Affinity Water (formerly Veolia Water East)

Water Use
Blueprint for Water
7 groups who have set out a blueprint for the UK's Water Supply
Centre for Alternative Technology
has an extensive guide to water harvesting
Environment Agency
Water efficiency advice and to report cases of pollution
Rainwater Harvesting Association
Links to member companies
Waterwise
Campaigns for sustainable water use. Has a useful list of water saving devices

9 Things To Do to Encourage Birds to your garden

 

1. Put up a Bird table (in a clear space far enough away from cover where a cat might hide) or feeders.

2. Provide a wide variety of food including seeds, nuts, fruit and suet blocks.

3. Provide water for drinking and bathing. Consider putting up a bird bath.

4. Plant trees and shrubs which bear attractive berries in the autumn, such as Elder, Rowan, Holly, Ivy, Fire Thorn, Cotoneaster, Hawthorn, Privet and Spindle which will provide food for many species of birds.

5. Plant trees and shrubs which attract insects and are good for refuge and nesting for birds.

6. Put up nesting boxes.

7. Do not use slug pellets as these are harmful to all animals including your pets.

8. Do not use pesticides as these kill the insects the birds feed on.

9. Start a compost heap which will become alive with invertebrates of many types. It will also stay frost free in winter providing a food source for birds.

Marine Conservation

 

Our seas are priceless. Up to half of the UK’s wildlife is found in the ocean and new and wonderful discoveries are being made all the time. The seas around our shores are home to an amazing variety of animals, including dolphins, turtles, seals and sea horses as well as the mighty orca- the killer whale. We even have deep-sea coral reefs- rich and diverse like those found in the tropics.

A combination of rising sea levels and rising global temperatures are threatening thousands of hectares of Britain’s shoreline and vital wildlife habitats. As climate scientists predict that sea level rise will accelerate it is estimated that 10,000 plants and nature reserves will be at risk of inundation. The projected impacts of climate change include :-

• Diversion of ocean currents. This may be particularly important for the UK as the warm Gulf Stream maintains a milder climate than would be expected at our latitude. Shifts in currents could alter geographic distribution of fish populations by varying temperature, salinity and nutrient availability.
• Increased frequency and intensity of storm events. This may damage coastal habitats and coral reefs.
• Shifts in composition and geographic distribution of ecosystems. These have potential impacts on biodiversity and fisheries.
• Melt-down of Polar ice caps. This will have subsequent impact on salinity levels and ocean temperatures- potentially reducing the temperature at the northerly and southerly latitudes.
• Sea level rise. This will result from the melt-down of ice caps and is considered to be the most significant and destructive impact of global warming.

The North sea is one of the world’s major fishing grounds, supporting a variety of commercial fish stocks. Pelagic fish taken are mackerel and herring, and demersal species such as cod, haddock, saithe and whiting are fished extensively. Bottom living fish, especially plaice and sole are also exploited. Some species are not taken directly for human consumption, such as Norway pout, sandeels and sprats, most of which are made into fishmeal for use in intensive livestock farming. Rapid technological advances made in recent years have allowed the efficiency of fishing fleets to increase, and numbers of boats employed in fishing have increased in recent decades. Many species such as herring, cod, skate and haddock have been so heavily fished that their populations have fallen to critical levels. If the natural balance is greatly upset by commercial fishing there will be far reaching consequences on marine ecosystems. The possible links between sandeel fisheries and the breeding failure of seabirds, especially arctic terns and kittiwakes are well documented.

Both natural and synthetic chemical compounds contaminate the marine environment. Chemicals enter it via several pathways :-

• Point-source discharges e.g. from sewage treatment works and oil rigs.
• Diffuse discharges e.g. from agriculture and shipping.
• Atmospheric deposition e.g. from waste incineration plants.

Chemicals are used by most industries at some stage in the production process and are often present in the finished product. The major contributors to chemical pollution in the marine environment are :

• Agriculture- conventional farming practices rely heavily on the use of agro-chemicals to prevent damage by pests and weeds. Widespread use of pesticides and herbicides inevitably leads to the contamination of streams and rivers which discharge to the marine environment.
• Chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing. - Much of the UK’s large chemicals industry is situated at the coast. By-products and waste from production are usually discharged to the sea directly or via sewage treatment works. In 1987 12 billion litres of industrial waste drained through public sewers every day.
• Offshore oil and gas.- Offshore oil and gas production requires the use of hundreds of different chemicals , including lubricants, corrosion inhibitors, demulsifiers, biocides and surfactants. These are discharged to the marine environment in produced water and drill cuttings and directly from the rigs in washings.
• Transport. - most seagoing vessels , from cargo ships to yachts, use some form of antifoulant paint on the hull to prevent colonisation by marine organisms. Many antifoulants are designed to leach chemicals into sea water.

Chemical pollution can affect marine life at every trophic level. The impact on species’ biology are very complex and poorly understood, though some end effects are well documented, particularly on the reproductive system :

• Intersex is where an individual has both male and female intermediary characteristics. This has been found in high levels in some tiny crustacea in coastal waters. In UK industrialised estuaries males of bottom-dwelling fish such as flounder have synthesised the female egg yolk protein vitellogenin and developed egg cells in otherwise normal testes.
• Imposex is where an individual of a species has the sexual characteristics of the opposite sex superimposed on its own. This has been highly evident in the dogwhelk, where females have developed male genitalia as a result of exposure to the antifoulant tributyltin (TBT).
• Hermaphroditism is where an individual has both male and female reproductive organs. In 1998 4% of polar bears on two Arctic islands were found to be hermaphroditic- high PCB levels were found in their fat.

WHAT CAN BE DONE ?

More Marine Protection Areas should be set up with more effective protection for the UK’s marine wildlife, habitats and the people who depend on the sea for their living. A Marine Protected Area is similar to a nature reserve on land. It’s an area where human activities take place in harmony with nature. It provides food, shelter, breeding and nursery grounds for marine wildlife. It offers greater protection for species including dolphins, corals, sea horses and habitats such as grass meadows. It can also offer better protection from the impacts of oil pollution (3 of the world’s biggest oil spills occurred around British coasts), shipping and drilling for oil and gas.

A Fishing-Free Zone would greatly benefit our fish stocks. If fish are left undisturbed they regenerate themselves very quickly and efficiently. Fishing-Free Zones are relatively easy to enforce as by using satellite tracking we can throw a virtual “fence” around any area.

For further information please see the following web sites:-

• Marine Conservation Society
• WWF UK: www.wwf-uk.org/news or www.wwf-uk.org/orca.