Our Camden up Close Treasure Trail is featured in this week’s Ham & High newspaper (Thursday 29 September).

A photo and short article on page 2 detail the activities at the Belsize green fair and our treasure hunt.

The article says:

Camden Friends of the Earth hosted an eco-friendly treasure hunt across the borough.

Enthusiastic treasure seekers used only sustainable transport to hunt out clues, beginning at Camden Market and ending at the urban farm festival.

Photo: Camden treasure hunters Rosa and Ashley with trail organiser Natasha Clayton, of Camden Friends of the Earth

Click the images to view the article in full.

Want to try out the treasure trail for yourself?

If you’d like to try out the treasure trail in your own time, you can download the Camden up Close Treasure Trail directions (pdf).

Well done all - you may have heard by now - Camden Friends of the Earth won the Earthmover award for Outreach event or activity of the year, awarded at a glittering awards ceremony at Friends of the Earth Annual Local Groups conference 2011.

The Earthmover Awards celebrate successes of the last year and recognise and reward the inspirational and innovative campaigning of local groups. The Judged Awards which includes the Outreach award are assessed by a panel of judges in advance of Conference. Camden FoE was given the award for a combination of our successful Energy Bill public meeting in March and our very popular pop-up freegan vegan banquet last October.

There are over 200 local Friends of the Earth groups across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, running some great campaigns and putting on inspiring events. As you can imagine we were really pleased to win the Earthmover award, especially as there were so many other deserving winners!

We’re looking for volunteers for two upcoming projects:

Renewables case studies: researchers, interviewers, photographers and writers

For our Big Energy Conversation campaign we’re looking to create some case studies of local Camden businesses and other organisations that either use renewable energy or work with renewable energy. We’re looking for volunteers to research examples of local businesses that we can interview, to help interview businesses, to take photos and to write up case studies.

Treasure hunt helpers

We’re planning a public transport treasure hunt to take place on Saturday 24th September to mark 350.org’s global day of action. The event will be an opportunity for people to explore a few different areas of Camden using public or active transport to get around and will end at the Belsize Green Fair. We need volunteers to help plan the route, write some clues, and test out the treasure hunt!

Want to help?

If you’re interested in any of the above we’d love to hear from you!
Email Susan at camdenfoe@gmail.com or come along to our next meeting, Tues 2 August, 7pm at the Pirate Castle to find out how you can get involved (please note our August meeting starts at 7pm - half an hour earlier than usual!).

Camden Friends of the Earth visited the brilliant Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales from June 10-13.  Some highlights of our trip:

• the inspiring WISE building with its eclipse-like ceiling cover (to block out daylight when needed)
• sensory blindfold exploration of the woods (and river!)
• the water-balanced cliff railway
• a great example of solar PV panels working in wet cloudy rainy weather conditions!
• beautiful scenery, mountain, woodland walks, and pub gardens of Machynlleth

Take the opportunity to visit CAT with Camden Friends of the Earth!

With over 7 acres of hands-on displays and gardens and with over 35 years of experience in sustainability practice, the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) inspires thousands of visitors every year. Based in beautiful Mid Wales, the Centre overlooks the Snowdonia National Park, renowned for its stunning scenery and outdoor activities.

We will be visiting from Friday 10th June to Monday 13th June 2011
£150, including food, accommodation and train travel from London.

Interested? Please join our Facebook group for further details or contact Jess Gold: projectearthrock@googlemail.com.

In 2010 we campaigned to Fix the Food Chain and to cut carbon emissions locally and nationally, getting support from local people and community groups, speaking to MPs and councillors, and attending some great events including Camden Green Fair… we had some great lobbying successes, and some unforgettable events from the well-attended MP hustings before the elections, to our fundraising banquet and swap shop!

See our 2010 Review of the Year (PDF) to read about all our campaigns, events and activities that Camden Friends of the Earth organised and participated in last year - thank you to everyone involved.

And, if you’d like to be involved in 2011, get in touch - everyone is welcome!

A reminder that from 2011 our regular monthly meetings will now be on the first Tuesday of each month (not Mondays as previously!).

Our first meeting of 2011 will therefore be on Tuesday 4th January, 7.30pm at the Pirate Castle, Oval Road.

And if you haven’t registered for either of the following free events, both on Saturday 29 January - please do! Members from Camden FoE will be at both:

• Friends of the Earth Regional Gathering - a great introduction to FoE, current campaigns and skillshares
• Camden Green Summit - a day of interactive sessions to consider the delivery plan for a greener Camden

This week Australia has announced its intention to phase out incandescent bulbs. Why has a country that won’t sign up to the Kyoto protocol beaten the UK to this simple step?

- this will help Oz reduce its annual carbon dioxide emissions by 800,000 tonnes by 2012
- the same move in the UK could reduce our annual emissions by 2-3 million tonnes
- that’s equivalent to 6 months worth of emissions from the Didcot power station
- Lighting consumes about a fifth of the world’s electricity production
- Fluorescent bulbs are typically five times more energy-efficient than incandescent bulbs

At an individual level, Dr Matt Prescott (founder of the Ban the Bulb campaign) has said, “Lighting accounts for about 15% of the average home’s electricity bill. Each fluorescent bulb saves you about £9 a year, or up to £150 over its lifetime. If they stuck £150 in cash on the packet of a £5 fluorescent bulb then there would be hardly any quibbles from consumers.”

If the UK can be persuaded to change all its televisions to a digital service, surely it can cope with this money (and carbon) saving option?

Petition the government here