Derbyshire Dales District Council’s third annual ‘Green Event’ event at the Agricultural Business Centre (ABC) in Bakewell will showcase solutions to the climate and biodiversity crisis.
The free-to-enter, family-friendly event on Saturday 17 August - running from 10am to 3pm – will encourage residents, businesses and visitors to reduce their carbon footprint by saving energy, generating less waste, becoming more active and encouraging biodiversity in their gardens.
District Council Leader Councillor Steve Flitter said:
"I would encourage local people to attend this event to learn more about how we can all help to reduce our carbon footprint. I'm delighted that the Council itself, which declared a Climate Emergency in 2019, is leading the way. Figures just released show that we have reduced emissions from our buildings and vehicles by 30% in the past four years. We still have some way to go to hit our net zero target in 2030, but the progress is encouraging.
"Our carbon footprint is directly linked to the amount of fossil fuels we use, and, following the installation of heat pumps at Matlock Town Hall and new electric heating in parts of the ABC last year, we have seen a 43% decrease in gas use in the Council’s buildings.
"Making great use of external funding that is available to all councils, we’re continuing to install solar panels on our buildings. The new panels at the ABC are doing a great job, producing more than 115kWh of our own ‘green’ electricity last year – enough to power 32 local homes.
"Later this year work another heat pump and more solar panels will be installed at our Northwood Depot, and then Wirksworth Leisure Centre and Arc Leisure Matlock will undergo a significant programme of energy efficiency improvements, including more heat pumps and solar panels."
As with the event in Ashbourne last year (see photo below), stalls and displays at the Green Event will include local experts on home energy improvements with installers of heat pumps, solar panels and efficient windows on hand to demonstrate their products.
The District Council's waste and recycling partner Serco will be at the event with their bin lorry. Children (and adults!) are welcome to take a seat in the cab and learn about where our waste goes. There will be recycling demonstrations and interactive games, with prizes to be won.
A series of talks will be presented throughout the day, starting at 10.30am with expert John Beardmore from T4 Sustainability discussing ‘Is a heat pump suitable for my home?’.
At 12 noon Keir Windsor from Hempcrete will present on ‘Natural insulation materials’, followed at 1.30pm with Richard Mallender from the Energy Saving Trust dispelling some of the myths around electric vehicles.
Marches Energy Agency will be at the event with their Fantastic Home vehicle, offering free impartial energy-saving and efficiency advice, including giveaways.
Moors for the Future and Derbyshire Wildlife Trust will be there too, along with several active local community climate and biodiversity groups.
