Earthship Brighton - Crowdfunding appeal

Earthship Brighton have a crowdfunding appeal going on with 

 https://www.buzzbnk.org/EarthshipBrighton

Earthship Brighton is the sustainable community centre for Stanmer Organics. This is a not-for-profit consortium representing 15 different groups operating at Stanmer Park, a 17 acre Soil Association accredited piece of land on the outskirts of Brighton. Earthship Brighton is the first project of the Low Carbon Trust, a not-for-profit co-operative company formed in 2001 to highlight the connection between buildings, the carbon emissions they produce and climate change through innovative construction projects and communications work. 

Earthship Brighton, the first in England, is a beautiful structure made from recycled car tyres and sustainably sourced timber with adobe walls. We have a large glazed area which is south facing to maximise passive solar gain and solar water heating panels on the roof to provide hot water. Our electricity comes from photo-voltaics and a wind turbine and all our water is harvested from the rain. With our grey water being treated with planters and a reed-bed system for our black water, plus composting toilets, we will be able to recycle all of our human waste on site. The Earthship therefore gives us a glimpse of a luxury low carbon future - how a zero waste and zero energy society might look. 

Inside the building there is a meeting room which can seat around 40 people theatre-style plus kitchen facilities and a relaxing atrium area. There is also an outside space that will increase seating capacity for events to 100. The Low Carbon Trust gives regular tours of the Earthship and we also offer training in low and zero carbon design and provide consultancy to community groups, companies and individuals all around the UK to seed and develop their own projects.

Social Saturday 2015 - 10th Oct

This Saturday 10th October is Social Saturday. Info below is via http://www.socialsaturday.org.uk

The aim of Social Saturday 2015 is to raise awareness of just how easy it is to support social enterprises - businesses that put people and planet first, and use your spending power to make a positive difference to the world we live in.

The aim of Social Saturday 2015 is to raise awareness of just how easy it is to support businesses that trade quality items and services and invest profits in projects supporting the local community, international development, the environment, charities and a wealth of other progressive schemes.

Social enterprises operate in and support a vast array of sectors. With over 70,000 businesses in the UK alone trading for people and the planet - from print shops to chocolate, energy companies to beer, healthcare providers to baby clothes and housing to pants – the reach of our growing movement is undeniable. Click here for examples.

Following the immense success of last year's inaugural Social Saturday, this year, on 10th October we anticipate Social Saturday 2015 to be a true testament to the strength and influence of the social enterprise movement. We will achieve this by creating a more physical presence throughout the UK, so that the general public can identify social enterprises operating in their area and buy the products and services they provide.

So how can you get involved?

If you are a consumer, then consume! To visit our buy social directory click here and choose what project to support with your purchase. Don’t stop there – the fun has only begun! Tweet about your purchase, post on Instagram and pin on Pinterest with #socialsaturday2015 to spread the message. Last year our twitterati supporters included Jamie Oliver, 10 Downing Street and Tesco. We’d love to see what you’ve bought and who it’s helped!

Take a look at our Social Saturday map and visit these fantastic organisations in person to hear first-hand about how your purchase will make a real difference.

If you are a social enterprise, or business you can still consume! Here at SEUK our printing, graphics, office cleaning, water, event management, catering, promotional items and venue hire are all provided by social enterprises. See our Buy Social Guide for more inspiration.

Who's behind it?

Social Saturday is led by the national campaigning body, Social Enterprise UK, and is supported by the Cabinet Office. The day has cross party political support and is part of the UK's successful Buy Socialcampaign.

The Buy Social campaign aims to get more people buying from social enterprises. Following successful two year campaign to get more businesses trading with social enterprises, Buy Social is now calling on consumers to get involved.

Find out more about the Buy Social campaign.

Buying socially is such an obvious thing to do, why do we need the Social Saturday campaign?

The 2013 State of Social Enterprise Survey showed that social enterprises primarily trade with the general public and whilst three quarters of the public support the idea of social enterprise, awareness remains low. Social Saturday was launched in 2014 to help the general public to celebrate and buy from social enterprises, businesses that trade for people and planet.

On the day, people across the country hit the high street or went online to use their spending power for good and buy from social enterprises.

11 million people reached on Twitter via #socialsaturday
30+ events around the country celebrating the day 
50+ media hits in the week before and on the day

The day was a huge success, with PM David Cameron writing to the Financial Times in support of social enterprises, Big Issue vendors taking our message to the streets in the run up, celebrities including Jamie Oliver and Freema Agyeman voicing their support on Twitter, and national media coverage in the Daily Telegraph, Guardian and Which?.

This year we want Social Saturday 2015 to be even bigger.

#fridayheroes @goodgym Blog 2nd Oct 2015

This is the first post in my revamped #fridayheroes series. Now using this blog instead of Twitter it allows me a few more words to express why you should be following these people

1st pick was the easiest, it's The Good Gym, these were the people who laid the seeds of an idea of doing good, which led me to develop Bright Green Penguin

For anyone who doesn't know Good Gym is all about combing keeping fit & doing good by completing tasks such as digging up the soil, clearing weeds etc

It is based on 3 things: Group Runs, Solo Runs to Your Good Gym Coach, & Special Missions 

I first found out about Good Gym, when it was just a small group of runners, with a base from York Hall, Bethnal Green. My first group run was 14th Feb 2011. Now it has expanded all over London, with runs in Islington, Camden, Brent, Lambeth, Hackney & many more (and I'm sure they have plans for even more). There is also Good Gym Bristol

See Good Gym blog post from 2011 about the group runs we did

http://www.thegoodgym.org/blog/page/3/

The main thing for me, the reason why I think it is so important org to follow & support is because of the Coach Runs

The Coach Runs are runs where you are paired with an isolated elderly person, who is your coach. You then run to them on a regular basis, to check on them to see how they are

I was paired with Millie, an isolated lady based in Whitechapel. When I first saw her, she was in hospital for a short period of time. Then I ran weekly to her house, where at first it was just a quick hello but as the friendship developed with Millie, you can tell she wanted to chat, she loved to chat so would end up spending at least 30 mins or more chatting. I would sometimes drop off fruit sometimes on my run but Millie always made me take an orange home with me

These coach runs were the highlight of the week for me, the reason to run & I can't underestimate the impact on my life this had. So it was a really sad thing when Millie passed away, especially as the last few months of running to her was when she was back in hospital & not responsive. I still talked to her, no idea if she could hear me or not, but I hope she could & that provided her some comfort & joy

So I really recommend Good Gym, as it is gives you a real reason to run. The group runs are fun, great team working 

So many great memories, so it was with sadness I had to stop doing Good Gym when I came down to Brighton, but there are potential plans for one down here & that be amazing 

if you interested in knowing more check out  

www.goodgym.org

Final fun facts  

Because of Good Gym, I got to appear in Runners World Magazine, be interviewed for Japenese TV & appear on live radio show to talk about the Good Gym

Thank you Good Gym