Category: One Planet Living
How do we prevent a climate COP out?
Whether you’ve heard about COP26 (Conference of the Parties) or not yet, this is one party you shouldn’t miss. The world leaders are due to meet in Glasgow this November to discuss how to address the climate crisis and get the world on track to limiting heating of our planet to below 1.5 degrees C. […]
St Nicks’ supporter story: Tiphaine
Meet St Nicks’ supporter Tiphaine, who has shared her experiences of adopting a greener lifestyle with our Sustainability Officer Ivana. Would you like to share yours? Please get in touch. Please introduce yourself in a few sentences. My name is Tiphaine, I am French and arrived in York five and a half years ago […]
Please think twice before getting a wood stove
Watching flames dance over logs or other dry wood is incredibly mesmerising and relaxing, especially if you know that it travelled just a few hundred yards from a well-managed forest (or a scrapheap). The Environment Centre stove is certainly one of its most popular features, even though it’s inadequate (more on that later). Yet, we […]
What is sustainable living?
We often say that St Nicks’ aim is to promote and enable sustainable living. What we don’t often say is what we mean by that. A recent discussion amongst staff has highlighted the fact that it’s so much easier to agree on what isn’t sustainable, than what is. At the moment, most of us in […]
Fancy Ta(l)king Action?
3 reasons why YOUR actions matter: join us on Tue 12th January 2020 for Ta(l)king Action It’s good to see the government somewhat stepping up its ambition to tackle climate change and stimulate a green recovery from the Covid pandemic. We could argue over how revolutionary the 10 Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution […]
Been feeling the heat? Insulate!
It’s been an interesting summer, in more ways than one, seesawing between some of the hottest days on record and below average temperatures. MetOffice happened (or chose?) to issue its 2019 State of the Climate report on the hottest day of July. This confirmed the overall warming trend and the role of climate change in […]
Can £5,000 get you a warmer, better home?
Only around 36% of York homes are classed as well-insulated, according to research by Friends of the Earth. This means that most of us in York (and across the UK) live in houses that are expensive to heat, generate unnecessary carbon emissions and are potentially bad for our health. The recent government’s recent announcement of […]
What is zero carbon?
I hate to admit that when I first heard the term, I was confused. Carbon is the main building block of life so how could you go to zero? However, I quickly learned that it’s a shorthand for net zero carbon emissions. That may sound straightforward enough but how do you get to zero when […]
Making space for nature
We had planned a Ta(l)king Action workshop on wildlife gardening for 21st March 2020 but, sadly, had to cancel it due to the coronavirus pandemic. As a substitute, here are some tips shared by several of the would-be participants. We hope you find them useful and look forward to hearing about your efforts to make […]
“Housewarming Party” time, or why and how to insulate your floor
Written by St Nicks Outreach Officer and founding member of York Community Energy Ivana Jakubkova who organised a DIY floor insulation workshop, aka a “Housewarming Party”, in April 2019. If you want to know more about the process or have technical queries contact Andy Walker from SURE Insulation who ran the workshop and who has edited this […]
