Feature How To Be More Green
Sophie Haydock tells us how to reduce our carbon footprint by cutting our emissions in everyday activities
Feature: How To Be More Green
We know Leeds is a great city, but is it a green city too? It certainly has a mass of green open spaces, close-knit community groups campaigning against climate change, and Leeds City Council has signed up to reduce the city’s carbon emissions by 40% by 2020. On top of this, we’ve seen Leeds energetically push to the forefront of the environmental movement in recent years, rivaling London with a host of innovative and radical grass-roots environmental activism: Leeds hosted the first Camp for Climate Action in 2006, activists from Leeds made headlines a couple of years later for stopping a coal train from getting to a carbon-belching coal-fired power station, and Leeds University is the first and only student union in the UK to ban the sale of bottled water in the name of environmental sustainability.
But what else is our city doing to be green? Here’s the lowdown on a few other major developments, initiatives and sustainable ways of living that are making Leeds a great, green place to live.
FOOD
How you get your food and where you buy it from has a big impact on the environment. Purchasing food out of season that’s come from the other side of the world racks up the air miles and carbon emissions. But there are loads of local, cheap and even free ways to get your food in Leeds:
Food Co-ops (like the Hyde Park Food Co-op): like-minded people getting good-quality grub
There are several food co-operatives in Leeds. If you join one in your local area you can get lovely sustainable food at affordable prices. The Hyde Park Food Co-op, for example, is a not-for-profit co-operative whose mission is to make buying responsibly-sourced food easier and less costly. They source organic and locally-grown produce and also make considerations like whether items are fairly-traded or whether packaging is biodegradable. “Doing so in our own community has social benefits,” they say.
Leeds Kirkgate Market: the largest undercover market in the country
The magnificent Leeds Kirkgate Market in the city centre is one of the best things about Leeds. The food market is exceptional in its diverse range of produce – and it makes a refreshing change to be served by someone who has actually been “involved” in the process, whether it’s the butcher or the baker. There are around 800 stalls and the market attracts over 100,000 visitors a week. The market also has an outdoor independent farmers’ market on the first and third Sunday of every month, where you can buy free-range eggs, locally-grown veg and meat from the Yorkshire area. Despite its popularity, the market has faced problems over the last few years. Friends of Leeds Kirkgate Market group was set up for people who love Kirkgate market and want it to survive, retain its character and remain culturally diverse – and not become yet another bland and soulless shopping centre.
www.kirkgatemarket.wordpress.com
Find out more about Friends of Leeds Kirkgate Market here.
Getting Food for Free: the innovative, if slightly unconventional, way of being green
There’s a great culture of ‘skipping’ in Leeds – where good-quality food that has been thrown away is retrieved from bins and skips. We’re not talking someone’s half-eaten cheeseburger, more the waste that is needlessly generated by supermarkets, who throw items away that are past their sell-by date but still within a use-by date (as well as items that have damaged packaging or seasonal products that are no longer of interest to shoppers). When foods like these are thrown away it wastes more money, energy and environmental resources so retrieving them is a good way of being green. The Common Place has innovatively made the most of the adage, “waste not want not” in the past by organising Ready, Steady, Skip! – cooking up the food found in skips as meals for everyone to share.
Food for Free Walks: making the most of what nature has to offer
Getting food for free is also about knowing where to look. Mina Said, a PhD student at Leeds University, has been hosting “Food for Free” walks for over three years, teaching people in Leeds how to identify and prepare edible plants and funghi (she will soon be featured on a BBC gardening programme doing her foraging). The walks cost £15, with a £3 discount for students. It’s the perfect opportunity to learn what the green spaces of Leeds have to offer.
Contact: minamoo@gmail.com
TRANSPORT
Whether you travel by car, train or airplane, the fact is that any form of transport that relies on burning huge quantities of fossil fuel significantly contributes to climate change. In Leeds, roughly one in two households have at least one car: this leaves our roads congested, increases carbon emissions and pollutes the air (50,000 people in the UK are dying prematurely each year from the effects of air pollution, most of it caused by vehicles). There are several initiatives in Leeds providing sustainable alternatives.
TrolleyBus (or Leeds tBus): Leeds’ new form of public transport, with a low carbon footprint
The multi-million pound Leeds TrolleyBus scheme seems to offer a viable alternative to jumping in the car. Construction for the TrolleyBus is expected to start in 2012 and it will run on electrically-powered overhead cables and share the roads with other vehicles (or run on its own segregated routes). It claims to be the lowest carbon option for public transport – with a predicted 16 million passengers each year it will certainly help take cars off the road and cut emissions. Despite this, there is some opposition to the plans from the community, who feel a great deal of environmental damage will be done while constructing the route.
www.ngtmetro.com / www.newgenerationtransport.com
Find out more about the Trolleybus here.
More Cycle Lanes: Leeds is working to become one of Britain’s leading cycling cities
An even better way to be green is to not use public transport at all. Cycling is undoubtedly better for the environment (and for your health). In the last few years, there’s been an 86% increase in the number of journeys into Leeds city centre by bicycle. “Despite this, Leeds still has work to do to become one of Britain’s leading cycling cities,” said Councillor Andrew Carter. The Leeds Core Cycle Network project is being set up to combat the problem of Leeds’ disjointed cycle path network. It will be a system of 17 routes covering 71 miles, developed by Leeds City Council over the next five years. The aim is to encourage more commuters to use cycle to work (currently 1.3% of all trips to work in Leeds are made by bicycle, compared to 3.67% in Nottingham and 14% in York) and to provide more routes for leisure cyclists.
Car Share: Leeds is one of the most popular cities for car sharers.
And if you really must use your car, then at least consider joining a car share club. Lift sharing, ride-sharing or carpooling, whatever you call it – it makes a lot of sense when you learn that there are 38 million empty seats on the UK’s roads every day. There are loads of car-sharing clubs in Leeds: over 3,000 people have signed up to Leeds City Council’s carshareleeds.com and it’s estimated that over 3,000,000 miles are saved every year through car sharing schemes in and around Leeds.
SOCIAL PROJECTS: BUILDING FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
There are several projects in Leeds dedicated to building for a sustainable future – whether it’s physically building eco-friendly new homes or leisure venues, or building community movements that strive for a more sustainable and self-sufficient Leeds.
LILAC Housing Co-operative: sustainable homes made with straw
LILAC is a pioneering co-operative in Leeds (it stands for Low Impact Living Affordable Community). They are building a community of 20 affordable, sustainable houses on an acre of land in West Yorkshire, in part as a response to the urgent need for new homes to be more sustainable. The houses will be cement free (7% of global carbon emissions are generated from cement production alone), insulated with straw bales, use natural and locally-sourced building materials and will be carbon neutral. What’s more, they will lock carbon away during the construction process, rather than emitting more of the stuff.
Find out more about LILAC here.
Leeds Arena: a long-awaited venue built with sustainability in mind
Leeds has been campaigning for an arena in the city centre for years: and the new multi-million pound Leeds Arena, due to be built behind the Merrion Centre by the end of 2012, is set to put Leeds on the map – so it’s a relief to know that sustainability is a key issue in the building of the venue which will seat up to 13,500 people. The arena aspires to set a new benchmark for sustainability – priorities include minimising energy use and carbon emissions; using sustainable modes of transport and working in an “environmentally considerate” way. The project has also committed to produce 10% of its energy through a mixture of on-site renewable and low-carbon energy sources.
TINWOLF: North-West Leeds branch of the Transition Towns movement
TINWOLF (or Transition Inner North-West Of Leeds Forum) is the North-West Leeds branch of the Transition Towns movement. A transition town is one where the community is implementing changes, instigating debate and responding to the challenges and opportunities of environmental issues like peak oil and climate change. Leeds is the biggest city in the UK currently involved in the Transition Town process.
http://transition-city-leeds.wikispaces.com/North+West+Inner
LIGHTER CARBON FOOTPRINTS
Earth Hour: turning off the lights for the sake of the environment
Last month, thousands of people in Yorkshire switched off their lights for WWF’s Earth Hour (some people may question whether switching off the lights for one hour does any good when for the other 8,765 hours of the year they’re blazing away without much thought). But, if we’re not being cynical, we should celebrate the fact that residents, businesses and community groups helped blackout Yorkshire. For an hour there was darkness at the Civic Hall, Merrion House and the outside of Kirkgate Market, as well as in the Victoria Quarter.
Recycling: Leeds is working towards being a zero waste city
Recycling is a route to being green. But it’s not easy if you don’t have access to recycling facilities – such is the case in the Beckhills area of Meanwood, where there are currently no recycling collections (due to difficulties accessing many of the properties). Now Leeds City Council are planning to install three communal recycling sites in the area. They want every property in the city to have access to recycling facilities by the end of the year – which will help Leeds achieve its ultimate goal of becoming a zero waste city. Over 30% of waste in Leeds was recycled last year compared to 10.6% in 2001. The council want to increase that to 41% of waste by the end of this year and over 50% by 2020.
GREEN FUN
And who says being green is boring?! Leeds has a great range of options for people who would rather spend their leisure time NOT spending money, trawling the shops or partaking in overrated carbon-intensive activities.
Leeds Urban Playground
The stated mission of Leeds Urban Playground is to “produce more moments where our hearts beat without reaching into our wallets”, says one of the organisers, Dan Hassan. The group has already organised some really imaginative fun free events in the city centre, like International Tree Climbing Day, Pillow Fight Day and Garden Games Day. Upcoming events include Capture the Flag and, potentially, street football, building forts out of duvets and sock wrestling!
Leeds Urban Playground can be found on Facebook here.
Leeds Green Drinks
You don’t have to bring a bottle of your own home brew to attend Green Drinks Leeds. It’s a monthly social networking event for anyone in the Leeds area interested in green issues and the environment. It takes place at Sela Bar and is a great opportunity to “make new contacts, catch up with friends or just hangout with people who share your values, whatever your perspective – business, community or government, academic, student or activist”.
Find out more about Sela bar here.
Make Pla(y)ce
“Bored of Your City?” is the question asked by the Make Pla(y)ce group. “If the answer is ‘Yes!’ then (re)explore it with us!” Make Pla(y)ce has set up 10 playful, outdoor workshops so Leeds inhabitants can interact better with their city – there’s workshops on smell, exploration, sound nature and more. They are taking place each week on Wednesdays between 6pm and 8pm until June 2010, starting at Leeds City Art Gallery.
Posted on Saturday 1st January 2000
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