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This month we look at sustainability and parenting and explore some options that can reduce our environmental impact without compromising on the development of our children. As every parent knows, during the baby phase nappies fill our general waste bin and so reusable nappy options are worth exploring to reduce this source of waste. You can borrow a kit of reusable nappies from the Wexford Town or Enniscorthy Cloth Nappy Library for a trial and see if they suit your situation. Single-use wipes are another big source of waste, with about 68 billion individual wet wipes being consumed in the EU-28 in 2017. Many of these single-use wipes contain plastics and are notoriously difficult to break down, clogging sewage systems and polluting marine environments. Why not consider reusable options like repurposing cotton towels/facecloths to use instead – they are soft, clean really well and can be popped into the wash or a wet bag when out and about. If you prefer you can purchase reusable cloths and kits from Cheeky Wipes or check out local online business The Nappy Market.
At beginning of April the Final Report of the Citizen’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss was officially launched, following agreement across on a potentially transformative suite of 159 recommendations. This marks a significant milestone along the journey to protect Ireland’s natural heritage and is a timely opportunity to consider what exactly is Biodiversity? And why is it so important to us?
Biodiversity is shorthand for biological diversity and refers to all life on Earth. The living world is a fascinating and varied place, encompassing a dizzying assortment of plants, animals, insects, birds and marine life, each carving a niche for themselves. At beginning of April the Final Report of the Citizen’s Assembly on Biodiversity Loss was officially launched, following agreement across on a potentially transformative suite of 159 recommendations. This marks a significant milestone along the journey to protect Ireland’s natural heritage and is a timely opportunity to consider what exactly is Biodiversity? And why is it so important to us?
Biodiversity is shorthand for biological diversity and refers to all life on Earth. The living world is a fascinating and varied place, encompassing a dizzying assortment of plants, animals, insects, birds and marine life, each carving a niche for themselves. We are proud of the greenery of Ireland’s world-renowned landscapes, which attract tourists from near and far and are important to our natural heritage. However, as the Citizen’s Assembly Report highlights, this reassuring greenery also masks the fact we are increasingly squandering the natural wealth we inherited, a situation underlined by the Government’s declaration of dual Climate and Biodiversity Crisis in 2019. If we look a little closer at what biodiversity contributes to our daily lives, we see why this is a crisis worth understanding and acting on. The benefits of biodiversity are both direct, like food, timber and other raw materials, and indirect, like pollination, regulating water and air quality, as well climate, and we can’t forget all the health and well-being effects from time spent surrounded by nature too. Areas that are particularly rich in biodiversity, for example bogs and wetlands, provide crucial ecosystem services, as well being wonderful places to visit. These ecosystem services (watch this video by EU Environment for a great introduction) are so important that human life would not be possible without them. We know our biodiversity is struggling based on reports from multiple agencies, some of which are focused on individual aspects of biodiversity like pollinators and birds, and others which look at broader trends like the EPA’s State of the Environment Report and the NPWS Article 17 Reports. The number of insects and birds are key indicators to biodiversity and startling statistics such as a 98% decline in the number of curlews in just 30 years illustrate how we are trending in the wrong the direction. We can also see signs of the decline in our daily lives, do you remember when the front of your car used to be covered in insects? We ask a lot of nature yet human activities undertaken without regard for nature are the underlying cause for biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse. These activities include changes in the use of land and sea, direct exploitation of species, pollution, and human-induced climate change. There are many useful resources out there to help us on our journey to reversing biodiversity loss but the first step is take a moment to listen to nature, wherever you find it, and make space for it in your life and in your decision-making. This video on the National Biodiversity Data Centre’s Maps can introduce you to some of the fascinating biodiversity right on your doorstep! Word Count: 501 Photo Credit: Marton Zsoldos Resources to get started: https://citizensassembly.ie/citizens-assembly-on-biodiversity-loss/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH-KHpLEIeY https://biodiversityireland.ie/ https://biodiversityireland.ie/top10/10-ways-to-help-biodiversity/ https://iwt.ie/ https://bsbi.org/wp-content/uploads/dlm_uploads/2023/02/BSBI-Plant-Atlas-2020-summary-report-Ireland-WEB.pdf https://www.ibcp.ie/ https://www.naturalcapitalireland.com/resources https://environment.ec.europa.eu/strategy/biodiversity-strategy-2030_en https://www.cbd.int/ https://www.unep.org/un-biodiversity-conference-cop-15 Links within article: https://citizensassembly.ie/wp-content/uploads/Report-on-Biodiversity-Loss_mid-res.pdf https://www.irishtimes.com/environment/climate-crisis/2022/11/17/biodiversity-and-climate-crises-must-be-addressed-in-tandem/#:~:text=On%20May%209th%2C%202019%2C%20D%C3%A1il,inside%20and%20outside%20the%20chamber. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6luBEJfi3s https://pollinators.ie/resources/ https://birdwatchireland.ie/publications/birds-of-conservation-concern-in-ireland-bocci-2020-2026/ https://www.epa.ie/our-services/monitoring--assessment/assessment/irelands-environment/state-of-environment-report-/ https://www.npws.ie/publications/article-17-reports https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=106pEX3vi7M  Stop Food Waste Reducing your food waste helps the environment and saves money too. Stop Food Waste is the national campaign to give you information and tips on how to make the most of your food and avoid food waste. www.stopfoodwaste.ie. Will you take the Stop Food Waste 7-Day Challenge? 1 March was National Stop Food Waste Day and we are invited to record our food waste for one week to identify what types of food we waste most. To record the food that goes into your food bin, you could:
The average Irish household can save around €700 a year by avoiding food waste. In the most recent national food waste attitudes survey commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency, three food types were identified as those wasted most often in Ireland:
Bread - Freeze it and Eat It!
Find Stop Food Waste on: ****************************************************************** Sustainable Enniscorthy is carrying out a community energy survey linked to the development of an Energy Master Plan for Enniscorthy. We’d appreciate you taking the time to complete it! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfYhR18DpPgP6jP39MoFtZ8i_evCB11IiJm4gNrBVBWV5KaKQ/viewform?vc=0&c=0&w=1&flr=0 Energy Saving - Jan 2023 Saving energy has never been more important, especially in the face of significant increases in energy costs and there have been lots of articles in the media over the past few months setting out the many ways to save energy from small tips and tricks to large retrofitting projects. But all this info can be overwhelming and it can be hard to know where to start and what actions will make the most difference in your home, so here is some advice from the Sustainable Enniscorthy team based on our experience of doing our own project and some of our expertise! 1: Know your use It sounds simple, but it is really important to understand what fuels you are using and how much they cost over a year, particularly for oil and solid fuels. Keep a track of your fuel usage for a year, both the amount of fuel used by type and the cost as this makes it easier to understand if changes to your heating system will reduce your costs. For electricity, it is really helpful to use an energy monitor, even just for a month or two. These can show you what appliances in your home use the most energy and help you figure out if there are any electrical goods using much more energy than you thought! There are lots of these available online such as the Owl Monitor of the Efergy Monitor. These are easy to set up yourself and are wireless and portable so you can easily walk around your home switching on and off appliances to see how much energy they are using. They can also give daily/weekly/monthly consumption as well. You can also borrow a Home Energy Saving Kit from Wexford Library, Gorey Library & Enniscorthy Library. The Kit contains six simple tools to help you assess how energy efficient your home is and identify possible problem areas for improvement. Knowing your electricity use in more detail can also help you figure out if solar panels might be a good investment to help you reduce your bills, especially now that electricity companies are paying for excess energy produced. 2. Short term goals There are a few relatively simple and low cost actions that most households can make over the coming year. These may not knock hundreds off your bill but can help make your current heating systems work more efficiently and burn less fuel.
Once you better understand what your heating and electricity costs are and have taken some of the smaller steps you can figure out if you want to look at bigger measures, like insulation or changing your heating system. Some of these are supported by grants through the SEAI. However there are also other actions that have a big impact but are not currently grant supported, for example changing from open fire or older stoves to new efficient stoves or upgrading your older oil boiler to a new boiler.   A BUSY YEAR The Sustainable Enniscorthy Team took a little break during July to recharge the batteries after a very busy year so far. Here's a short overview of all that we were working on and a preview of what's coming before the end of 2023! Irene Cadogan (Chair) ChangeX Projects The group have been working on three separate projects in association with ChangeX and Accenture. (1) The Green plan which aims to help people make simple changes to reduce their carbon footprint, (2) Freshwater Slaney, a citizen science project measuring water quality of the Slaney (3) Setting up our first Repair Cafe Find out more on ChangeX or our website Sustainable Energy Community Our energy master plan for Enniscorthy is almost complete and we look forward to launching it in the coming months. To support this work we ran two very success energy expo's to share energy saving advice across the community. Working with others We were delighted to work with other community groups and stakeholders to support the development of the TASC Community Climate Action report for the Town and we look forward to support the development of the suggested projects. We also continue to work with and support other groups such as Tidy Towns and the Community Allotments too. Coming Soon Over the coming months we will be hosting the launch of our energy efficiency master plan for the Town, more repair café's, biodiversity walks, topical talks, more Slaney News articles and some special events. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for more details! A massive thank you to everyone who has supported us and the work we are doing. I'd like to say a particular thank you to the hard working committee as well!! We're always happy to welcome new members as well, so don't hesitate to  Article on: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
When shopping have you ever considered the amount of packaging used on products you purchase? It is estimated that approximately half of plastic produced worldwide is single use. Vast amounts of plastic, metal, cardboard and paper are used in food, drink and other products we purchase. All this packaging has an environmental impact to produce, recycle and dispose. Are you familiar with the 3Rs term? Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Recently a fourth ‘R’ Refuse is gaining momentum. It is asking us to rethink and Refuse unnecessary packaging before we purchase a product. (Sustainable Enniscorthy monthly column for Slaney News July issue)
Sustainable Fashion The fast fashion industry is among the world’s most polluting industries, contributing substantially to global water waste and greenhouse gas emissions. The clothing choices we make have significant environmental impact. Those choices include how much we buy, what we buy, how much we wear our clothes, how we care for them, and what we do with them when we no longer want them. Doing something every day can be profoundly helpful in giving people hope, and it’s a path to change. by Sarah Lazarovic posted Jan 07, 2019 original post from YES Magazine
Plastic Free July® is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities.
There are lots of bits of plastic littering the lovely streets of Enniscorthy, what can you do to help? - Buy less stuff wrapped in plastic - If you need to buy it, make sure to put the wrapping in the bin - Make sure your wheelie bin is secure and the lid is closed properly - you'd be surprised how much plastic can get blown around from household bins. - Organise a small street clean! It can be a big or small and area as you like, every little helps! https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/ |
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