Carbon Footprint
Community-wide Carbon Footprint
The Proposal is to carbon footprint Castle Ward, a 2000-house community. Please complete a quick and easy survey about your energy consumption at www.cutyourcarbon.org.uk. If you live within Castle Ward be sure to join our group on the "Cut Your Carbon" website, so your results can be added to our community carbon footprint. If you'd like to get into more detailed monitoring using sophisticated tools that are connected to every plug in your house sign up to the Green Energy Options Trial.
Towards the end of May a large group of volunteers will be visiting all of the houses in the Ward with a door to door survey. We aim to collect data on over 30% of the houses. This work has been supported by the Mayor of Bedford Frank Branston, who has sent a letter to the local academic institutions, recommending that they support our research. We're currently developing relationships with key research partners that will help make this study of regional and national relevance.
The footprinting research at Castle Ward is particularly valuable because Castle has all the components of a larger town, with schools, churches, shops, small industrial units, parks and residential properties.
Methodology - The methodology, boundaries and conversion factors to be used are those set out in the DEFRA “act on co2” calculator, one of the most accurate and credible calculators developed to date
We’ll be pioneering an EEDA online tool enabling the DEFRA method to be used on a community level for the first time. On top of this we'll be collecting detailed electricity and gas information on 105 houses as part of smart metering pilot scheme.
Academic support - Prof Roy Alexandra from Ashton Hayes has presented in Bedford and offered his support. (Ashton Hayes is one of the only communities on the planet that is entering into their second and third year of community carbon footprinting
Partnerships - We’re seeking support from a rich diversity of local businesses, academic institutions, residents, churches and schools
Press - Local news paper Times & Citizen have agreed to undertake a parallel carbon audit and write multiple features about their and our experiences
For more information about this project please email zerocarboncastle@hotmail.co.uk