Hackney City Farm was a finalist in NESTA’s Big Green Challenge, a competition for £1 million in prize money for community initiatives that reduced carbon emissions. As part of this project we set out to improve our environmental performance in various areas: gas and electricity consumption, water use, waste disposal, fossil fuels for transport, food, procurement.
We started off by regularly monitoring our electricity, gas, water and transport as well as recording benchmarks on waste disposal. In the end, we were not among the winners of the prize fund, but many of the environmental projects which we are carrying out are still based around the six areas we identified during 2009.
Monitoring:
The beginning of any programe of improvement is establishing a baseline so we took measurements from meters, weighed rubbish bins, and noted miles traveled and petrol costs and then calculated carbon emissions with the help of consultants ECH2O. We installed new water meters and electric submeters.
But its not just enough to measure at the start of a project, it is important to monitor outputs constantly in order to establish patterns of use and to test out whether certain measures have an impact. We realised that our desire to cut gas use by reducing the hours the boiler was on actually increased carbon emissions because people compensated for the lower heat levels by using the more carbon-intensive electric fires.
Green Ambassadors:
We also held regular discussions with a committed group of local people on changes they could make in each of those areas in their own personal lives. We held six meetings over the course of six months.
As well as attending the meetings on reducing their environmental impact, the Green Ambassadors had access to some of the eco-skills courses run on the farm. Many of them went on to start environmental projects of their own, many quitting existing jobs to more fully engage with the environmental agenda.
The following year we recruited Green Ambassadors through Tennants and Residents Associations and as a result have worked with people on nearby estates. In addition to workshops, the Green Ambassadors also organised activities in their own community, whether that was on their estate, their college or in the case of an existing farm volunteer, in the farmyard.