Within this section
There's lots of information hints, tips and ideas available from Bollington Carbon Revolution. To help you access them easily, simply by following the links shown below.
£100 Grant scheme
Grants and help for businesses, schools, churches and other organisations
Reducing my
impact
How can I reduce my carbon footprint?
This page contains lots of practical information to help you reduce impact on the environment. If you know of a useful website or information we have included please contact us.
Bollington Carbon Revolution is not responisble for the content of any external sites linked to from this website. Wherever possible we try to link to independent, not for profit sites. Any links to commercial sites do not lead to any commercial revenue for the BCR group.
As well as all the useful websites listed below we have also a number of books you can borrow. Click here for the list. To borrow a book contact Sonia Mysko.
**NEW LINK***An excellent, down to earth book by Camridge Academic David Mckay "Sustainable Energy- without hot air" is a great starting point in assessing your own Carbon footprint objectively, thinking about usage of heat and energy in terms of simple calculations. The book is free online see: http://www.withouthotair.com/
***NEW***£100 Grant scheme from Cheshire East Council (May 2009)
You can now claim up to £100 per measure. If you are an owner-occupier, a landlord, or a tenant with repairing obligations, you can apply. This includes all types of cavity wall insulation, loft insulation up to the current recommended thickness, external solid wall insulation, internal solid wall insulation installation of a condensing boiler (minimum SEDBUK Grade B), ground floor insulation, draught-proofing to windows and doors.
When you have improved your energy profile please tell us about it! How much gas and electric have you saved? How much more comfortable is your house? We will publish your stories on this web site. Please email them.
See the Cheshire East website for more details and application form and information sheet.
Contact us for more information
Other energy saving grants information
The Energy Savings Trust website contains a good overview of other grants available. Warmfront grants are available for the over 60s.
Grants and help for businesses, schools, churches and other organisations
Carbon Trust offer help for small businesses on their website. The Carbon Trust is a government organisation which funds energy management programmes within businesses. The amount of support available is dependant on energy spend, and eligible organisations must have an energy spend in excess of £50,000 per year. They have wide range of free advice materials, including a free online energy benchmarking tool.
ENWORKS This is an environmental business support programme charged with improving business competitiveness and environmental performance throughout the northwest. It is aimed at small and medium sized businesses with a maximum of 250 employees.
Low Carbon Buildings Programme - Grants for the installation of microgeneration technologies are available to public sector buildings (including schools, hospitals, housing associations and local authorities) and charitable bodies. Applications are being accepted now until the end of June 2009.
The Cheshire Sustainability Forum Eco-Audits - The Cheshire Sustainability Forum run an Eco Audit project. This project offers free and confidential environmental reviews to small and medium sized businesses and all types of organisations throughout Cheshire. To date over 600 reviews have been carried out across a diverse range of sites. A number of other local authorities, both in the UK and internationally, have used the scheme in their areas. The project has also won a number of awards, both locally and nationally. For more information about Eco Audit, contact the Eco Audit Co-ordinator on 01244 603125 or email emma.edwards@cheshire.gov.uk
The Green Grants Machine is a comprehensive source of information on grants, loans and awards available to help your business go green and save on energy bills.
Cheshire County Council runs a successful e eco-schools programme.
There are many different sites that can help you calculte your carbon footprint. We've listed the calculator sites we've found the most useful. If you think we've missed one please contact us. To get a meaningful result from these sites you will need some basic information about your household energy consumption to hand. Ideally your latest gas and electrcity bills.
Learn more about our project to calculate Bollington's Carbon footprint, in conjunction with Leeds University.
Act on co2 - the UK government's official calculator
Envirowise Indicator - an interactive web-based tool designed to allow all UK businesses, irrespective of their size or industry sector, to gain a useful indication of their company’s environmental impact and the financial savings that can be made by addressing it.
Energy savings trust - home energy check. Complete the questions and you'll receive a personalised report showing you how much energy and money you can save in your home.
Waste
Macclesfield Borough Council offer a kerbside collection of the bottles, cans, paper, cardboard and garden waste.
If you want to take recycling to a bank yourself, the 3 most local to Bollington are:
Pool Bank Car Park (Palmerston Street)
Waste types: All Textiles Mixed Metal Food & Drink Cans Mixed Paper (incl Newspapers, Junkmail, Magazines) Glass Bottles (Green) Glass Bottles (Amber) Glass Bottles (Clear)
Bollington House Waste recycling centre (Albert Road, Bollington)
Car Batteries Domestic Batteries Car Oil Mixed Metal Food & Drink Cans Mixed Scrap Metal Mixed Paper (incl Newspapers, Junkmail, Magazines) All Plastic Bottles.
Tesco (Hibel Road, Macclesfield)
All Textiles Plastic Carrier Bags All Plastic Bottles Books Mixed Paper (incl Newspapers, Junkmail, Magazines) Glass Bottles (Green) Glass Bottles (Amber) Glass Bottles (Clear)
See these three locations plotted on a map on the recyclenow website
Macclesfield Borough Council provide low cost compost bins
Can it be recycled? a comprehensive guide, broken down by category
A to Z of recyclables (Macclesfield Council)
Don't throw it out! give it away using Freecycle (Macclesfield group)
Concerned about nappy waste? A 2008 study by the Environment Agency concluded that using real nappies could save 40% carbon emissions when compared with using disposable nappies. See www.goreal.org.uk for more information on real nappies.
Water
The United Utilities website contains several useful tools to help you start thinking about water saving:
- What is the carbon impact of my water usage?
- Order a free Save-a-Flush (Flushing the loo takes up one third of the water we use every day)
- Will I save money with a meter?
Waterwise which is a government website with lots of useful tips on how to save water
If you use a shower often, try using a water saving shower head
This BBC article give tips on how to save water in your garden.
T-ZERO is a free web-based tool that identifies the optimal low-carbon solutions tailored to specific house types. Define your home and T-ZERO will establish its fuel bill and carbon footprint, then identify optimal insulation, heating, and renewable energy options, based on your budget and refurbishment goals. The T-ZERO Marketplace can put you in touch with local suppliers and installers of the recommended measures, and you can request a quote directly through the site. Users can also upload their experiences of projects, products and services to create a directory of case studies of practical benefit to others. The tool is sponsored by indepedent organisation the Building Research Establishment (BRE).
Electricty
The BCR group have a stock of efergy real time energy monitors. If you would like to borrow one please contact us.
The Green Electrcity Marketplace is a good starting place to help you find a green electrcity supplier. The BCR group recommend you switch to a green energy supplier but do not recommend a particular supplier.
***NEW !*** February 2010 - The government has announced a new feedin tariff scheme for small scale low carbon electricity. The scheme will go live in April. Read more.....
Heating
Bollington case study - new boiler
Insulating your home
Energy savings trust - Home insulation & glazing
National Insulation Association
List of insulation contractors (supplied by the energy savings trust)
Bollington case study - floor insulation
Bollington case study - cavity wall insulation
Improving your home - A Climate Change Guide (Welsh Assembly Government)
Energy
generation
There are several energy generation options you could consider, though we recommend you don't think about generation until you have addressed everything you can with regard to energy saving first.
Find an installer (low carbon buildings programme website)
Yougen is a webiste which aims to make it easy for people who are interested in renewable energy and energy efficiency to work out which is the most appropriate technology for their home, and to find a supplier they can trust to install it. The finding a trusted supplier element of the site relies on people who have already taken energy efficiency measures or installed renewable energy technologies sharing what they’ve learned and (if they did a good job) recommending their supplier. **NEW LINK***
The options you could consider for your home are:
Solar thermal can provide hot water for commercial or residential use.
Solar Photovoltaics are based application of solar cells for energy by converting sunlight directly into electricity.
Solar Panels for Schools - help for primary schools, secondary schools, colleges and universities to apply for half price solar energy systems.
Biomass- Correctly managed, biomass is a sustainable fuel that can deliver a significant reduction in net carbon emissions when compared with fossil fuels. Biomss can come from virgin wood, from forestry, arboricultural activities or from wood processing Energy crops: high yield crops grown specifically for energy applications Agricultural residues: residues from agriculture harvesting or processing Food waste, from food and drink manufacture, preparation and processing, and post-consumer waste Industrial waste and co-products from manufacturing and industrial processes.(Read more)
If you are thinking of using biomass to heat your home you may find this Carbon Trust publication useful..
Wind
The BCR group don't generally recommend wind power as an option for Bollington residents as experience has proved wind turbines cited in this area have offered a very poor return.
This guide on "where to locate a small turbine" is a good starting point if you still wish to look into wind power. There is a domestic wind speed prediction tool on the energy savings trust website, where you can enter your postcode To find out whether your home may be suitable for a domestic scale wind turbine.
Ground source heat pumps (GSHP) transfer heat from the ground into a building to provide space heating and, in some cases, to pre-heat domestic hot water. For every unit of electricity used to pump the heat, 3-4 units of heat are produced. Air source heat pumps (ASHP) absorb heat from the outside to heat buildings. It is even possible for air source heat pumps to extract useful heat from air at temperatures as low as minus 15°C. For every unit of electricity used to power the pump, 3-4 units of heat are produced, making it an efficient way of heating a building.
More information:
Macclesfield Borough Council factsheets on renewable energy
Centre for Alternative Technology factsheets
South Yorkshire Energy Centre factsheets
The Check Renewables siteis is a renewable energy toolkit for Cheshire and Shropshire. This toolkit allows homeowners to find out which renewable energy technologies can be incorporated into your home.
Also read about our project to generate electricty from the River Dean in Bollington.
Shopping
A third of the food we buy gets thrown away, the lovefoodhatewaste website provides loads of great ideas for saving food.
Friends of the Earth say there are great benefits from shopping locally, including: Local shops are more likely to provide local food that hasn't been flown halfway across the world; Local shops offer a much more personal service than big supermarkets; Local shops keep money circulating in the local area so they support other local businesses; Local shops and street markets often offer better value than big supermarkets for fresh fruit and vegetables; Local shops are more energy efficient than huge superstores - it would take more than 60 greengrocers to match the carbon dioxide emissions from just one average superstore; A diverse range of local shops provides more choice than one big supermarket.
There are a few organic food box delivery services which cover Bollington. Foodlife offer a service which includes delivery of other items such as fish, meat, and dairy.
The best way to reduce your food miles is to grow your own, and the BBC website offers lots of tips on how you get a bumper harvest. You could also have fresh local milk delivered directly to your door. For a local service visit 'find a milkman'.
Remember to support any local farmers markets in the area, which you can find out about by visiting www.LocalFoodAdvisor.com or www.FoodLoversBritain.com. There are a limited number of allotments in Bollington and a very long waiting list. To add yourself to the waiting list contact r.johnson.bollington.tc@btconnect.com at Bollington Town Council We have formed a group looking at setting up a community garden, where we can cultivate land together to grow food. If you are interested in joining this group, or have a piece of land you think might be suitable for us to grow food on, please contact Rob Palmer.
Why buy eggs when you can grow your own! Chickens make wonderful pets and are much easier to look after than cats and dogs, and are a real hit with children. Find out more.
The Marine Conservation Society's FISHONLINE website can help you identify which fish are from well managed sources and/or caught using methods that minimise damage to marine wildlife and habitats.
Travel
Think about whether you can use public transport rather than your car. The Cheshire County Council transport website can help you plan your journey.
BCR member Rob Palmer has provided a case study of how he switched from driving to cycling to work. Nicola Percival has provided a case study about her LPG car and Steve Whiteley about his hybrid car.
Some other useful links:
Campaign for Better Transport NEW!
Greenfuel website
Act on co2- how can I save fuel?
Compare new car co2 emissions
LPG conversion process
The Green car website
For businesses:
Guide to travel planning (Department for Transport)
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