Birmingham
friends of the earth Newsletter, Spring 2019
The Big Green
Conversation Also Inside
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Dudley Road “Improvements�
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Youth Climate Strike
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Plastic Campaign Update
Contents Campaigns Digest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Warehouse News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Buses, Climate Change & Air Quality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Dudley Road “Improvements” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 HS2 is Off the Rails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Clean Air for Our Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 This is an Emergency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Youth Climate Strike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 If They Can Do It. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Plastics Campaign Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 My First Experience Going Zero-Waste Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Fashion and the Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Launch of Greener Birmingham — The Big Green Conversation. . . . . 27 International Women’s Day 2019. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Inspired by Hope for a Better World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 BFoE are Proud to Sponsor Paget Rangers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Diary Dates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Follow us on Twitter @Bham_FOE and Facebook www.facebook.com/birminghamfoe to keep up to date with our latest campaigns news. For more in-depth information on our campaigns take a look at our website www.birminghamfoe.org.uk Cover image by Freepik
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Campaigns Digest
Photo by BFoE
By Libby Harris
Hello, welcome to the spring edition of our newsletter. Over the past few months we have been thinking about the year ahead and what campaigns BFoE should run. After two campaign planning days in February and March, we have decided our focus this year will be on air pollution, climate change, nature and waste: I’m sure other things will crop up throughout the year too! There have been more changes at the Warehouse. Thanks to the hard work of volunteers we have now completed the renovations to top office. A massive THANK YOU to everyone who has given up their time to help with the building work.
We also have some new tenants in The Warehouse, take a look at Karen’s article to find out who they are.
Air Pollution The focus of our air pollution campaigning this year will be working with schools to tackle the high levels of pollution during school hours. At the time of writing we are working alongside Nelson Mandela Primary School to promote Walk to School Week. If you know a school which would like to work with us in tackling this air pollution crisis please get in touch with us. The air pollution team has also been busy putting together our response to Birmingham City 3
Council’s Clean Air Strategy. We will also be keeping an eye on the Clean Air Zone developments.
Climate Change There has been a lot of climate action already this year. There have been three Youth Climate Strikes so far in Birmingham and the Climate Emergency motion will be going through Council in the next couple of months.
Transport
At the time of writing we are still planning our climate change campaign. As well as a priority climate change campaign that will call for Birmingham City Council to take action, there will be a climate change element to all of our campaigns.
At the start of the year Birmingham City Council launched a bus users survey and over 6,000 people responded. Read Martin’s article to find out more.
Nature We have decided to widen the scope of our bee campaign to include all pollinators, and to raise awareness of the decline of insects. At the time of writing we are in the early stages of planning the campaign but I can confirm that we will be holding a nature-themed event in Digbeth Community Garden on 20 July. BFoE is a member of the Greener Birmingham Coalition. This year the
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coalition has launched a campaign called The Big Green Conversation – take a look at Kathy’s article to find out how you can join in. We have been busy engaging with residents and businesses along the Dudley Road to highlight the negative impacts of the road widening proposals. Take a look at David’s article for more info.
Waste This year our Plastic Free Commonwealth Games campaign has evolved to include a food waste aspect. To find out what we have planned take a look at Jodie’s article.
S U P P O R T We are the only organisation in Birmingham that campaigns on Air Quality, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Energy, Transport, Planning, Waste and Recycling.
You can help us to do this in a number of ways: Take part in our campaigns. Join us as a supporter. Make a donation.
How you can get involved We always welcome new people and there are many different ways you can get involved with our campaigns. Whether you have an hour or two to spare or a whole day, please get in touch or come along to any of our weekly Monday meetings (contact and meeting details on the diary page).
Or you could receive our email updates and decide what you want to do when you know us a bit better.
Whichever way you get involved, you are helping to make Birmingham green and sustainable!
For donations go to http://localgiving.com/birminghamfoe
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Warehouse News By Karen Leach
It’s been a busy two months! Firstly, recent visitors will notice the Warehouse is looking pretty fine as we have now managed to complete the last major renovation stage: a refurbishment of the ‘Top Office.’ It’s looking lovely, a much better workspace and we owe a big debt of thanks to a lot of volunteers. Just two small rooms to go now – anyone not already ‘all painted out’ is welcome to come and help! Secondly, we’re delighted to say the Warehouse Cafe is back up and running, as a worker co-op. We selected this operator because they proposed not only a quality vegetarian cafe but also a brilliant programme of the sorts of activist events and arts space that this building should be all about, with more of a ‘cafe bar’ feel in the evenings. The new team are now delivering on this promise – please come and check out the cosier atmosphere, the food, the beers and wines, the coffee, the radical bookshop, the stunning vegan baking, the workshops and the 6
talks. It won’t disappoint. Thirdly, another exciting new tenant is Well Rooted Wholefoods CIC – a new vegetarian and vegan wholefood shop in the old reception. Rachael and Susan stock a range of wholefoods, household cleaners, snacks and tinned goods, sourced ethically. They are also keeping Warehouse staff and tenants well supplied with flapjacks and are open Tues-Sat 10am - 5pm. And Sprocket is still here for all things bike-related so we have a nice little ethical retail row along the ground floor. And finally, I’m back in the BFOE staff team on 1 – 2 days a week after a 16 year stint with Warehouse tenant Localise WM. My unofficial job title is “chief fixer, troubleshooter, painter, drain unblocker, gofer and dogsbody”. I’m loving it.
THE WAREHOUSE Birmingham Friends of the Earth's little green community in the big city. - Bright, comfortable meeting spaces - Fixed prices from £10 - 5 minutes walk from Birmingham City Centre - Reduced hire prices for small organisations & voluntary groups - Laptop and projector hire available - Helps support the work of Birmingham Friend's of the Earth - Home of legendary vegetarian restaurant The Warehouse Cafe Find us at 54-57 Allison Street, Birmingham MEETING ROOM ENQUIRIES TO MEET@BIRMINGHAMFOE.ORG.UK
THEWAREHOUSE.COOP
Please look out for our AGM notice on the back page.
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Buses, Climate Change and Air Quality Martin Stride
Research commissioned by Friends of the Earth has estimated that nationally, substantial cuts in car mileage of around 60% are needed by 2030 to stay within the transport sector’s carbon budget and help
to limit the more catastrophic consequences of climate change. Even with a more rapid switch to electric vehicles than the government envisages, reduced car use will still be necessary. It is also necessary to tackle harmful
levels of air pollution such as those suffered in numerous locations across Birmingham. Naturally, a cut in car use can only happen with a big shift to walking, cycling and public transport. Buses will have a crucial role to play in this. Unfortunately, in the West Midlands, as in most other parts of the UK outside London, bus use has been declining since the late 1980s. This trend will have to be reversed somehow, in order to achieve the necessary cuts in car use. Fortunately, Councillor Waseem Zaffar, cabinet member for transport and environment, quickly recognised that increased bus use is key to the effective functioning of the Clean Air Zone and in achieving the city’s wider air quality objectives. Earlier this year, Councillor Zaffar launched the Birmingham Bus Survey to investigate the causes of the long-term decline in bus use in Birmingham. The council received thousands of responses from the public. We also responded, raising the following main issues: ■
W hile many main routes are reliable and frequent with good quality vehicles, others, even some main ones, are poor.
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P oor reliability of buses is often caused by congestion but also occurs outside the peak hours when there is no congestion. here are poor service T frequencies in the evening, on Sundays. W hen a bus is cancelled or diverted, there is no warning of this on the real time information. Contrast this with rail passengers who receive an apology and an explanation. R ecent revisions of the bus network in Birmingham have left many people confused. Some now have a much poorer service. F ares have increased consistently above the rate of inflation for many years. here is poor integration with rail T and tram services and between different bus companies. I t is often not clear how to report problems and it’s difficult to hold the bus companies to account.
So what’s the solution? For some problems, the solutions are clearcut, such as using bus priority measures to make bus services more reliable. However, we believe
Photo by Chbec via PIxabay
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many of the problems will be difficult or impossible to solve without radical and structural change. In Birmingham, one private company, National Express West Midlands, operates over 90% of bus services and is effectively a private monopoly. It is free to chop and change its routes, set the fares and draw up timetables. Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) has little say in this except for routes which are not commercially viable and which it pays bus companies to operate. Not surprisingly, private bus companies are focused on maximising their profits and tend to put the needs of their shareholders before passengers and the environment. This system is clearly broken and is not working in the interests of passengers. To fix it, Friends of the Earth is pressing for the following:
For more information check out our response to the Birmingham Bus Survey at www.birminghamfoe.org.uk/ consultation-responses/
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S ome form of re-regulation is urgently needed. Without this, the necessary improvements will not be possible. As a first step, Transport for West Midlands should take overall control of the West Midlands bus network and introduce a system of franchising. This would operate in a similar manner to that in London, where Transport for London specifies the routes and is in charge of ticketing. This gives a properly planned route network, better value fares and integrated ticketing. This explains why bus use in London has not declined, in contrast to most other parts of the UK.
Dudley Road “Improvements” By David Gaussen
In June 2018, Birmingham City Council cabinet met and worked through an agenda of around 1080 pages covering important items requiring a decision to be made. Amongst these were 2 which were very important for Birmingham’s environment. The first was making a decision to move ahead with a ‘Clean Air Zone’, the second was proposing “improvements”
to Dudley Road that could cost around £28 million. BFOE responded to both consultations giving critical support to the first but expressing deep concern with the second. The plans for Dudley Road were a throwback to 1960s mentality that supported the free movement of car and other vehicle users. The plans are to widen the road to a full dual carriageway and some junctions
A n independent watchdog for bus passengers in the West Midlands funded by TfWM.
The Buses Bill of 2017 enables the mayors of combined authorities such as the West Midlands to introduce a franchised bus system. The Greater Manchester Mayor is already seriously considering this option and may do it by the end of the year. We believe the West Midlands Mayor should follow suit.
Photo David Gaussen (BFoE)
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to 5 lanes width. There were also some half-hearted ideas for cyclists sharing (busy) pavements with pedestrians as well as some segregated cycle lanes. There were no measures to encourage the use of buses or walking or to improve the generally poor environment along the road. Moreover, the increase in vehicles along Dudley Road would lead to more cars entering the central Clean Air Zone. BFOE discussed these proposals at our meetings and agreed to start a campaign against the plans. While taking our petition round we realised that local people and businesses did not seem to be very aware of the plans and were not supportive of the plans. We also emailed Cllr Wassen Zaffar, the Cabinet member for Transport and the environment. BFOE were then invited to a meeting with council officers in March to discuss this. We had naively hoped that the council would use the Birmingham Connected policy as the foundation for the changes but this was rapidly found to be untrue. We found out that the officers were not aware of the 5 very progressive core aims of Birmingham Connected. They did 12
offer some limited improvements for cyclists and mentioned that the traffic lights would be set up to allow priority for approaching buses. We were told that the scheme’s financial viability had partly been shaped in order to attract funding from the DfT which is heavily biased in favour of cars and other vehicles. Feeling disappointed by this meeting, we have written again to Cllr Zaffar, but have received a reply which in essence suggests that there will be a lot of growth in population in this part of Birmingham and that therefore road widening is the only solution. We have previously been very impressed by Cllr Zaffar speaking at a number of transport meetings and heard him strongly arguing the case for better public transport and measures to persuade a switch from our car dominated environment to one where people were encouraged to walk, cycle or use public transport. We still believe there is time for the council to think this through again and will continue campaigning against these environmentally damaging plans.
HS2 is off the rails
High Cost, Scandalously 2 Expensive By Jake Yeates
High Speed 2 is a plan for high speed trains to connect London with Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds. It will cost £80 billion (more than £1330 for every man, woman and child living in England, Wales and Scotland). There are numerous arguments against the extortionately expensive plans. It has been known, even by the HS2 company, that very few passengers will shift from cars or planes to HS2. In fact, HS2 will only be viable if millions of rail journeys switch to high-speed trains, which emit vast amounts more carbon than current trains. Even the Department for Transport accepts that the carbon emissions from the construction of materials for HS2 will be huge. You may be aware of the comedian John Bishop. Well, HS2 Ltd wanted to build their track straight through his house, so they (taxpayers) paid
Photo by MichaelGaida via Pixabay
him £6.8 million so that the house could be demolished! Not only do taxpayers have to buy people’s houses, which will be demolished, but the nearby houses will be unsellable. Almost farcically, HS2 will not connect passengers to where they want to go. HS2 will not go to Birmingham New Street (the central hub), but to the new station at Curzon Street. This will require passengers to find their way the 0.7 miles from Curzon Street to central Birmingham. While in London, it will not connect to Eurostar or Crossrail as it will go into Euston.
Maybe a good strap line for it is ‘HS2: truly a train designed for Brexit!’ 13
Clean Air For Our Children
By Stuart Minal
On the blustery day of the 16th of March, myself and 4 other BFOE volunteers attended the UNICEF UK Action day at Victoria Square. UNICEF are a children’s welfare charity, campaigning for children in danger worldwide, and this day
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of action, which also took place simultaneously in Manchester and London, was designed to highlight the dangerously high levels of air pollution that our children are breathing, day in, day out. UNICEF had a huge 10ft banner decorated with children’s art work
that showed how strongly they feel about the importance of clean air in their city. We also brought our own Friends of the Earth banner (slightly smaller!). The event was very well organised and Victoria Square was a great choice for photo opportunities and to get the message across. There was a lot of footfall there, as it was a Saturday morning, and people stopped and listened to our choreographed chants and the amusing and informative spectacle of this huge banner being held by at times a dozen people in high winds – quite a challenge!
Not only do we have a duty to clean up the air for future generations, but the smallest living generation now is at the greatest risk from dirty air. ‘The British Lung Foundation’ and ‘Asthma UK’ both point out that children have faster breathing rates and their lungs are still developing, risking asthma, lung conditions and cystic fibrosis.
The BFOE crew also held (or flew!) our banner with pride and it was a great opportunity for us to link up and support a great charity and to highlight in a high visibility situation our ongoing major campaign on air pollution. UNICEF have been campaigning for clean air for our children, www.unicef.org.uk/rightsrespecting-schools/outright/, to ensure child-friendly measures are put in place across the UK, to ensure children breathe in clean air where they learn and play. There is more information at www.unicef.org.uk/clean-airchild-health-air-pollution/ Photo (opposite) by Unicef/ Andreeva’ Photo (right) by ADD via Pixabay
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This is an emergency
By Roxanne Green
It should no longer be up for debate that climate change is a global emergency, and this is the last generation that can deliver the change necessary to keep global emissions below 1.5 degrees. The issue has found its way back into public consciousness and we are seeing a new wave of youth-led protests calling for action. One of the key demands from activists is for their local councils to pass a motion declaring a climate emergency and committing to making the area carbon neutral by 2030 at the latest.
Passing a motion isn’t the same as implementing radical change, so if the motion passes as we hope the really interesting question will be what happens next and what actions are taken as a result. With some exceptions, many recent council decisions have not been as progressive as we would like, and it will require leadership and vision to do what justice demands. Birmingham is the second biggest city in the country and the largest local authority; the decisions our council makes really matter and we should be setting a high bar.
A declaration will give us a tool to hold our elected representatives to account, and a framework within which to analyse decisions. You can play a part in this by contacting your councillor and asking them to support a strong motion. Once it has passed, check in on how the plan is proceeding against the action plan. The inspirational school strikes for climate have shown that we cannot wait for our leaders to act; we all have a responsibility to work together to disrupt the status quo and demand action is taken.
Across the country, from Cornwall to Edinburgh, local authorities are passing climate emergency motions. The exact wording varies from area to area, but most commit the council to set up a working group that engages a cross-section of the community and must report within a short timescale how the target will be implemented. So could Birmingham be next? Rumours abound that a cross-party motion will be brought to the council by June, and we hope this will be as bold as the challenge demands. Photo (opposite) by Roxanne Green (BFoE). Photo (above) by girlart39 via Pixabay.
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Youth Climate Strike 15th March 2019 By Kathy d’Apice
On the morning of the 15th March 2019, rallying cries from 500 young people could be heard across Birmingham city centre.
“What do we want? Climate Action! When do we want it? Now!!” The march was part of a global movement founded by the campaign ‘School Strike 4 Climate’. Their aim is to get local and national governments to take the threat of climate change seriously. In Birmingham, our mission was to get the City Council to declare a ‘climate emergency’. The atmosphere on the day was energised! Vibrant signs and banners decorated Victoria Square whilst speeches from students, councillors and campaign organisations highlighted the frustration that young people feel towards inadequate environmental policies as well as expressing hope for significant change! In 18
particular, Julien Pritchard, Green Party Councillor for Druids Heath & Monyhull, spoke about his pride in the Birmingham students involved in the strike and encouraged the council to take effective action against climate change. As a young person, I attended the march as I believe that it is vital to take part in environmental demonstrations. I think that there is a collective belief among young people that the older generation has failed us. A lack of legislation and education has resulted in the extinction of species, permanent loss of habitats and global warming which will lead to imminent catastrophic rises in sea level. In my opinion, leaders that continue to ignore the threat of climate change are not leaders that I wish to have. Take my university, for example (University of Birmingham): it is an educational institute that prides itself on being a forward thinker in the field of sustainable research, however, it continues to invest
Photo by Kathy d’Apice (BFoE)
£5.9 million in fossil fuel companies. This is not right and as a result, a group was formed to challenge them to divest by submitting an open letter to the Vice Chancellor signed by over 1200 students. Young people are beginning to make real changes! The Youth Climate Strike on the 15th March has ultimately proved that young people are not in denial
and not ignorant of climate change. Across the world, an estimated 1.4 million young people took part in planned strikes and there are many more to come.
It is often claimed that children can be stubborn and this is definitely the case when their very futures are at stake!
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If they can do it … By Jake Yeates
The transition to renewable energy As we are all aware, the supposedly “developed” countries continue to use (unsustainable, finite) fossil fuels. Some people become extremely wealthy from the proceeds of destroying the planet – and millions of others lose their homes, habitats and lives as a result. These wealthy countries have all the power at their disposal to make a full transition to 100% renewable energy.
The evidence is clear: Costa Rica (where one quarter of the population lives in poverty) sources 98% of its electricity from renewable energy (hydro, wind and geothermal). The Costa Rican energy institute is state-owned and plans to achieve 100% renewability for the whole of this year. Costa Rica is a “developing country,” but it is far ahead of the UK in terms of sustainability. There is a movement there for replacing all petroleumpowered cars with electric cars. If they can do it …
If you could think of a country which may be least likely to consider transitioning to renewable, I suggest that Afghanistan may be one you thought of; after all, in 2021 it produced 2000 barrels of oil daily. However, by 2015, oil production in Afghanistan had ceased. It now makes highly efficient use of its abundant renewable sources. 11500 new-build homes, schools and markets are being constructed with a mixture of hydro, solar and wind power. If they can do it … Photo (opposite) by Oimheidi via Pixabay
85% of the power generated in the tiny island of Albania already comes from renewable sources. In mainland Europe the average is only 30%.
If they can do it, why can’t we?
Plastics campaign update By Jodie Etheridge
It has been a busy few months working on our plastics campaign. We have been campaigning for the Commonwealth Games, which are coming to Birmingham in 2022, to be plastic-free. At our annual campaign planning day in early March, the group voted to continue with this as the focus for this year’s plastics campaign. We decided to focus on calling for a ban on single-use plastic food and drinks 20
There are some encouraging signs. China (population 1.4 billion) is the world’s greatest user of renewable energy technologies. It aims to source 1/5 of its electricity from non-fossil sources by 2030. It will double its wind and quadruple its solar power sources by 2020. If they can do it …
containers at the games with a call for biodegradable alternatives. We also highlighted the importance of encouraging minimal food wastage at the games and the logic of also trying to push for a food waste collection in addition to eco-friendly containers for food and drinks. We are really excited about this campaign, particularly because of its potential to make Birmingham demonstrate eco-friendly best
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practice at such a large scale event and leave a legacy of improved eco-friendly practice going forward. At our campaign planning day we discussed the importance of this potential and agreed that we view this the priority aim of the campaign. At the time of writing, the campaign is still in its early planning stages but we are working hard on it. We are honing the details of the campaign in order to promote it and to gain support from councillors and MPs. Another strand is researching the council’s plan of action against plastic waste and how our campaign fits in with this in order to lobby effectively. Part of our lobbying will be getting a petition together, which we will be
taking out over the summer as well as making available onlineplease sign and share! As always a massive thank you everyone who has been working hard on this campaign. We couldn’t do it without you!
My first experience going zero-waste shopping
Onwards and upwards!
If you would like to get involved with the campaign or even if you would just like to receive regular updates on how the campaign is progressing please email jodie@birminghamfoe.org.uk
Photo by Sunny James (BFoE)
By Sunny James
Have you heard of zero-waste supermarkets? A growing number of these establishments are providing practical solutions to the problem of packaging waste. Supermarket food packaging is largely unrecyclable, meaning the majority of it ends up in landfills or incinerators. This issue is compounded by the fact that many supermarkets over-package
products. Perhaps you are one of many people who’ve wondered why shops will put plastic wraps fresh fruit and vegetables when they already have naturally protective skins? Thoughts like these are what prompted me to look into zerowaste supermarkets in my area, and recently I finally decided to visit one. The Clean Kilo in Digbeth
Photo by BFoE
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sells a wide range of groceries including locally grown vegetables, fruit, bread, cereals, grains, nuts and seeds, all without any plastic packaging. I went in and asked how it works: customers can either bring in their own containers or take some from the shelves and pay for them at the end. Many of the products are sold by weight, so containers are weighed before you start and this weight is subtracted from the total at checkout. The idea is that customers re-use their containers every time they shop, removing the need for the food to be packaged in store. I started simple for my first trip, filling four jars with chickpeas, quinoa, lentils and black beans. However, I was surprised at what else was available; you could pick up all sorts of herbs and spices, vegan chocolates and even liquids like orange juice and
wine. I found browsing products in this environment to be a lot more straightforward as there aren’t multiple brands all vying for your attention with loud packaging. The clear dispensers allow you to see exactly what you’re getting without any confusion. Once I was done filling up it was simple, the smart tills worked the price of the amounts in my jars and I paid. When I got home and started cooking I realised another advantage to this approach: it cuts down on food waste. Since you can measure out what you’re buying in store it means you only need to buy exactly as much as you need. Once you know the measurements for each of your meals you can purchase the perfect amount so none of it goes to waste. I definitely recommend giving zerowaste shopping a try and seeing if you fall in love like I have.
Fashion and the Environment By Molly Luke
In the past couple of months there has been a big media buzz around the devastating environmental and human rights implications of cheap, mass produced ‘fast fashion’, and the fashion industry in general. It is a huge problem that has been bubbling away quietly while climate change, plastic waste and airpollution have been at the fore. The truth about ‘fast fashion’ made UK headlines after the Commons Environmental Audit Committee began examining the impact of mass produced cheap clothes. The Enviro Audit Committee said that the UK consumes 26.7kg on new clothing per capita, which is the highest consumption rate in Europe. At this scale, the fashion industry has a massive environmental impact; 235m items of clothing were sent to landfill in 2017, 1.2bn tonnes of carbon emissions were produced by the global fashion industry in 2015, and 3,781 litres of water are used within
the full lifetime of a pair of Levi’s 501 jeans. (Enviro Audit Committee, as cited by BBC News, 2018). On top of this, the apparel industry (which predominantly employs women as garment workers) is rife with serious labour abuses such a low pay, denial of maternity benefits, sexual harassment, forced overtime work and very poor health and safety policies and monitoring. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t like clothes or didn’t enjoy treating myself to a new outfit now and again. I have long avoided a couple of high street chains whose poor labour standards and ambiguous supply chain information are more well known, but I have also been guilty of grabbing a bargain or buying something new and only wearing it a handful of times. If I really did my research, there are probably countless high street chains that should be on my blacklist too.
Photo by tookapic via Pixabay
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At the moment, truly sustainable fashion is a luxury item that most simply can’t afford. With supply chain transparency and low carbon credentials comes a hefty price tag that isn’t realistic, particularly on a low wage or with a large family to clothe. I hope that the work of the Enviro Audit Committee is just the beginning and that high street retailers will soon be required to meet much tougher regulations. Until then, I think the most important thing we can do - surprise surprise - is consume less and waste as little as possible. On an individual level, extending the life cycle of our clothes is undoubtedly the way forward, and this includes thinking carefully about what happens to them when
we no longer have a use for them. Swapping and sharing clothes with friends, selling clothes online, altering and mending clothes, dying clothes when the colours fade, and donating clothes to charity shops or groups gathering donations for refugees are all great ways of extending the life cycle of your wardrobe. (With these last couple of options, please make sure that your charity shop of choice isn’t already overloaded, as surplus items end up in landfill, and check websites like helprefugees.org to find out exactly which items they really need). Wherever possible, we need to swap, share, recycle and mend. You may be doing all of this already, and this is a public note-toself if so.
Launch of Greener Birmingham
The Big Green Conversation By Kathy d’Apice
On Thursday 4th of April, the Greener Birmingham coalition launched the ‘The Big Green Conversation’ as part of Birmingham’s Green Year of Action. The Big Green Conversation is a way for the people of Birmingham to actively help to decide what kind of city they want to live in. By holding Big Green Conversation events, talking to local councillors and filling out the online Big Green Conversation survey, citizens’ voices will be heard at future city planning meetings. The coalition’s aim is to produce a People’s Charter for the Environment based on feedback from the survey responses which will then be presented at a People’s Summit in November 2019. The launch event for this campaign was a great success.
The evening kicked off with an introduction from Georgia Stokes, former Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country. She highlighted the importance of the Big Green Conversation and introduced keynote speaker, Councillor Ian Ward. He spoke about the need to reduce private car use in the city as a way to prevent the 900 deaths per year from air pollution. As a ‘car lover’ himself, he said that the council had to start targeting those that are using cars as their sole mode of transport. He said that talks are currently in place to allow buses to proceed through traffic lights before cars as a way to boost the use of public transport as well as plans for extended cycle routes throughout the city. Local environmental organisations who are part of the Greener Birmingham Coalition were then
Photo by JamesDeMers via Pixabay
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welcomed to talk about what they are doing in the local area to improve the city. Tracey Foster (DEFRA), Margaret Sheward (Friends of Moseley Bog and Joy’s Wood), Ewan Hamnet (Champion for Physical Activity in Birmingham), Charlotte Allen (Refill) and Michael Addison (Eco Birmingham) all spoke about how their organisation’s projects are fitting into the Year of Green Action. Rosa Day (winner of the Fifer Award for Young Environmentalist) gave an interesting talk about her solution to beat plastic pollution. Her idea involves talking to supermarkets to gain their
permission to display images showing the detrimental impact that plastic has on wildlife next to plastic wrapped products. This will incentivise customers to purchase plastic free products instead! The launch closed with a short speech from Councillor Waseem Zaffar who gave some concluding comments on how working together we can make “Birmingham’s golden decade a green decade”. It was great to see so many positive people at the launch and it gives real hope for us making a significant environmental change within the city.
International Women’s Day 2019 By Sarah Shaw
Are women destroying the planet? Yes, if many of the ‘plastic-free periods’ campaigns are to be believed. The websites for these organisations are peppered with the kind of arresting statistics that can make the female reader feel guilty at best and shamed at worst. Each sanitary towel contains the equivalent of 4 plastic carrier bags! More than 4 million sanitary products are flushed down the toilet every day!! Most conventional sanitary products take hundreds of years to biodegrade!!! Women: the blood of the environment is on your hands. And yet what these statistics disguise is that feminine hygiene products make up less than 1% of a woman’s personal landfill load over the course of her reproductive lifetime. To put things in perspective, over 65% of plastic food packaging in the UK goes to landfill or is incinerated – so as a percentage of domestic waste, sanitary products are far from the prime offender.
To be clear: I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with choosing to use menstrual cups, reusable sanitary pads or organic cotton hygiene products. Clearly these products do much to help the environment. My objection is to the way in which plastic-free periods campaigns place the emphasis on products associated specifically with women, and then present plastic-free alternatives as the morally superior choice. My concern is that this may perpetuate a culture in which women are encouraged to feel guilty and ashamed about their personal decisions. Let’s not forget that often these ‘choices’ say little about a woman’s personal preferences, and more about her economic circumstances. What many of these plastic-free periods initiatives overlook is that more environmentally-friendly products tend to presume a middleclass lifestyle. For example, while the manufacturers of products such as menstrual cups are keen
Photo by Freepik
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this statistic as a depressing indication of continued gender imbalance, rather than deploy it as a motivational tool for women to assume responsibility for getting everyone’s environmental house in order? The idea that women are best equipped to safeguard
Photo by BFoE
to stress that these items will pay for themselves after 6 to 8 months, the reality is that many women will struggle to afford the initial outlay – to say nothing of the fact that for those living in shared accommodation it may be difficult to find an opportunity to sterilise their cup in privacy. Reusable sanitary pads also come with an increased amount of labour compared to disposables: when you’re already struggling to keep up with the laundry on top of full-time employment and childcare, then factoring in several separate loads of soiled pads may be a thing too far.
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Moreover, focussing on the environmental footprint of a product that is used exclusively by women feeds into a wider cultural trend in which the fate of the planet is presented as somehow tied up in women’s actions. An increasing number of environmental initiatives and blogs, many of which are owned and managed by women, present caring about the environment as something that women are uniquely fitted to do. Alright, so women make 85% of the consumer decisions that affect the household’s carbon footprint? Then why don’t we challenge
the environmental health of the planet seems like little more than a reworking of the Victorian ideal that it should fall to women to uphold the moral health of the nation. On International Women’s Day 2019 we must ask ourselves: shouldn’t we have come farther than this?
Inspired by hope for a better world By Toqueer Ahmed Quyyam Outreach Campaigner, Birmingham Friends of the Earth
One of the wonders of the natural world for me is that it has always inspired me to believe in a better world, whether it’s beautiful high mountains to tall trees in local parks, to the beautiful wildlife of every kind. So I was really looking forward to working with Friends of the Earth. My first day there was very exciting; it felt like destiny, I felt at home and to my surprise finding I was in the newsletter last year
with the plastic campaign, felt like my whole life has brought me to this defining moment! What can an ordinary person like me do I thought, maybe I can inspire others to believe in a better world where we can all co-exist in peace with the natural world and all its creatures. As a young boy growing up, I always had a good imagination, I could imagine a world where the air was clean, people were happier, safer and healthier and compassionate to the natural world, it felt like heaven. Although I was always told that
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heaven was a faraway place, maybe we can create own little heaven starting in Birmingham, I thought. My enthusiasm and love for the cause, was, I think, the reason that so many places local to our office regained an interest in what we are doing. Before I knew it, it felt like most of Digbeth as well many other Birmingham groups knew about us! Many people were recognising me in the City having seen my picture on one of our leaflets. I felt I could do more, so encouraged people to attend our meetings and some did!
As my confidence grew, I spoke to the Central Mosque and Green Lane Mosque and we were able to have a stall there, supported by volunteers – and where we were able to raise funds for our campaigns and create awareness. My message to the people of Birmingham is let’s invest in our future; believe in yourself and make now the time to take collective ownership; that we the people can and will change our destiny forever and save our planet: it’s the only one we have.
Birmingham Friends of the Earth
are Proud to Sponsor Paget Rangers By Shaz Rahman
BFoE were delighted to sponsor Paget Rangers at the end of March and I attended the match with fellow BFoE volunteers. Although it may not seem so, there is actually a lot of crossover in what we do. We are both communityled organisations that rely on volunteers to help our local area. Those of us that went along really admire nonleague football clubs, who sit at the heart of a local community. In a world where inequality in football is ever increasing, leading to a bubble that will inevitably burst; it is great to have clubs, run by volunteers who are passionate about football. I have attended about 5 Paget matches in the past and the team spirit has always impressed me. I thought that BFoE sponsoring Paget Rangers for the day was a
Photo by Shaz Rahman
good way to overlap the two causes of environmental campaigning and football. I really liked how the players and the fans interacted at the Paget game and if you want to have a post-match beer with the players then you can! That would never happen at the top level of the men’s professional game. And as ever, local fixture Tannoy Tom was in action- who also just happens to be an investor and member of BFoE too!
Photo by BFoE
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Diary Dates Campaigns meetings
BFoE events
Mondays 7:30pm
17 June BFOE AGM, The Warehouse, (7pm) 20 July BFOE nature event, details to tbc
June 3 June 10 June 17 June 24 1 July 8 July 15 July 22 July 29 July
General Meeting Action Meeting AGM Action Meeting General Meeting Action Meeting Action Meeting Action Meeting Action Meeting
These all take place at The Warehouse and are open to everyone whether or not you have been before. We have two types of meetings: 1. General meeting: First Monday of the month and involves an update on each of our campaigns 2. Action meeting: Skills share or interactive discussion, or an activity which supports one of our campaigns. Please email info@birmimghamfoe. org.uk for up to date details.
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Contact Us
Farmers’ markets Kings Heath 1st Saturday of the month 9am–3:30pm Solihull 1st Friday of the month 9am–5pm New Street 1st & 3rd Wednesday of the month 10am–4pm Sutton Coldfield 2nd Friday of the month 9am–3pm Harborne 2nd Saturday of the month 9am–2pm Birmingham University 4th Wednesday of the month 9am–2pm Moseley Last Saturday of the month 9am–3pm
Friends of the Earth (Birmingham) The Warehouse 54-57 Allison Street Birmingham, B5 5TH Tele: (0121) 6326909 Email: info@birminghamfoe.org.uk Web: www.birminghamfoe.org.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/ birminghamfoe Twitter: @Bham_FOE Instagram: birminghamfoe Friends of the Earth is: • The largest international network of environmental groups in the world, represented in 72 countries. • One of the UK’s leading environmental pressure groups. • A unique network of campaigning local groups, working in more than 200 communities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. • Over 90% of its funds come from its supporters. Birmingham FoE We campaign at a local level to effect environmental change (in ways which feed into national and international policy) through: • Lobbying • Education • Empowering others to take action • Participation and representation through public fora.
Contacts Campaigns Co-ordinators Molly Luke & Jodie Etheridge Campaigns Support Worker Libby Harris General Manager Richard Bickle Treasurer Margaret Lynch Air Pollution Martin Stride Climate Change & Energy Molly Luke Economic Libby Harris Nature Mark Hawkins Planning Benjamin Mabbett Waste & Recycling John Newsons Newsletter Editor Catherine Palgrave Newsletter Graphic Designer Shannon Lattin Website Editor Libby Harris Talks Libby Harris & others Administration and Facilities Offer Nasreen All enquires and callers welcome
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Notice of Annual General Meeting 7.00pm, Monday 12 June 2019 The Warehouse, 54-57 Allison Street, Birmingham, B5 5TH Bring and share buffet served from 6.15pm Agenda 1 Apologies for Absence 2 Minutes 2018 AGM 3 Matters Arising 4 Annual Report and Accounts: • Warehouse Report • Campaigns Report • Finance Report 5 E xemption from full audit and appointment of independent examiner 6 Election of Directors 7 Any other business Friends of the Earth (Birmingham) Limited. Registered under the Co-operative & Community Benefit Societies Act 2010. Registered Number: 22063R.
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