Encouraging story

Here is a copy of the email Tony Emerson wrote this month (January 2011) to people taking part in ecocell groups

Dear all

In this rather bleak mid-winter many of us may have to work hard to keep finding the faith and the inspiration to keep us going: to remember our aim of demonstrating what we can do through personal and family action, and thereby to be more confident in contributing to parochial and political action.

In 2008 we availed of a scheme set up by the Mayor of London which included a full energy audit of our house. The audit concluded that our rickety old 1899 house was far from optimal for energy conservation and estimated that it would give rise to 9 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission per year.

Because we had already taken many energy management steps by then, our figure was down to just over 5 tonnes.

Three plus years later, and a programme of activities that included topping up of loft insulation, single and double glazing (as windows needed replacement), a wood stove (and learning how to best use it), lots of work on windows and doors, new heavier curtains (as curtains needed replacement), changing to a green elec supplier, wall insulation, continued monitoring of timings and temperature of the central heating - and of course the ecocell 2 programme -

Last year our figure was just under 2.4 tonnes. (Three people by 798 kg each!).

That's without the solar power, planned in our next phase. There is certainly more we can do, and last year was an exceptionally mild year.

But if we can do it in our often chaotic household, then who cannot?

We can make a difference - so share our stories, with each other and with the wider world.

God bless

Tony