Suggested action
Register the Blackdown hills transition group Committee members as an Eco Team and encourage others to set up local Eco Teams
Report
Billed as attractive to those who want to “inspire and engage friends, family and community to tackle climate change” the invitation is to join 30,000 people signed up to Eco Teams and take positive steps in helping yourself and others towards a greener way of life.
The training was held at Sidmouth college and hosted by “Global Action Plan” a national charity who have the aim of training 20,000 people to be Eco Team Leaders by the end of 2010. They have been in existence since 1990 and are endorsed by the United Nations
Fellow students on the day included members of the Sidmouth “Vision Group” a couple from Ottery St Mary and Kate from the Tavistock Transition Group. We were joined for part of the day by representatives from East Devon Council recycling staff and Hugh a local journalist sympathetic to green issues.
The day concentrated on how to recruit a team, with information and advice e.g. of the first meeting agenda and aims, how to make contacts and the benefits to local communities of Eco Teams particularly of bringing people together.
The basic idea is that a team of up to 8 people meet regularly to discuss conservation issues every 2 to 6 weeks concentrating on the four areas of :
Water
Energy
Travel
Rubbish and Shopping
Initially teams benchmark their own lifestyle against national averages in order to measure progress towards having a lighter footprint and the impact of changes made.
Global Action plan have set up a very comprehensive website ( www.ecoteams.org.uk) with lots of information and advice. Additionally a key element of the website is the dashboard where team members enter their measurements and then view a personalised report.
Jim Rogan
26th April 2010
