This page includes news and background information about Sustainable Thornbury.
Click on the images below to go to our special pages.
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All the fun of the EcoFair on 19th May at The Chantry in Thornbury. Come and find out about how you can do the green thing and save £££s. How to reduce those soaring energy bills, how to keep your favourite clothes fashionable, how to grow your own food and make your own compost. We've even got a 20% EcoFair-only discount on HotBox Composters! And Good Energy is offering £50 off to anyone switching to them at the EcoFair.
Bring your bike and get a free maintenance check. Bring your electricity bill and talk about switching to renewables.
We are planning a fun event just like last time, whatever the weather. There will be family activities and a performance stage for local talent. There will be an opportunity to question experts at our gardener's question time and the energy forum. See our EcoFair pages for details of stalls, activities and demonstrations. Come along and bring your friends to come and have some serious fun!
Download the EcoFair leaflet (PDF 740KB) and EcoFair poster (PDF 251KB).
We are running a Creative Recycling Competition alongside the EcoFair with prizes awarded on the day of the EcoFair. Can you have fun and save money? The competition is to make something useful from stuff that would be thrown away. Put on your thinking caps and get creative. Our creative recycling competition is open to everyone with prizes for entries from under 5s to adults. What about a storage or bug box, a toy, a garment, a garden creation - the choice is only limited by your imagination and ingenuity. The closing date is 17th May so you have time to start planning your entry. Winners will be announced at 1pm at the Ecofair. So let's see what all you artistic and engineering recyclers can come up with!
The strategy workshop on Saturday 11 February at The Chantry
was great fun and we did a lot of work. We have an emerging list of
possible projects and campaigns for the next year or so, including
several on community energy efficiency and energy generation. See the workshop report for more details.
Have you ever wondered what to do with your unwanted things so they don't end up in a landfill hole in the ground? Then see our updated Reuse and Recycle Directory, with lots of contacts, help and tips on disposing of the things you no longer want.
The online version of the directory has been updated to include:
We thank solar panel installer Ethical Solar for donating £1000 to Sustainable Thornbury. We support the fitting of solar panels, although we do not endorse any particular supplier. Ethical Solar claims to be more ethical and environmental than most installers.
ST now has a Facebook group. and a Facebook page. If you are on Facebook, you can get news from our Facebook group by joining it. Anyone can see our Facebook page.
ST also has a Yahoo group called SustThornbury, which is an opportunity to exchange ideas and chat with other ST members. To join click on the graphic below. You need to be signed up to Yahoo groups, which you will be if you are on Freecycle.
Click to join SustThornbury
At the AGM on 25th May 2011, the members decided not to charge for membership. Please join if you want to hear about and support what we are doing.
After all our lobbying and hard work, the new Thornbury allotments have been created near Filnore Woods at the back of the Thornbury Leisure Centre car park. These allotments are now called Filnore Allotments. For further details or to register an interest please contact the Filnore Allotments Association at allotments@sustainablethornbury.org.
See the allotments page for more details.
The new allotments in Alveston already have crops growing in them.
Sustainable Thornbury has been successful in an application to become one of 10 Transition Initiatives (based in the UK) participating in the Building a New Local Economy Project. The Project, run by Transition Training and Consulting, aims to help transition communities grow social enterprises and influence existing local businesses such that they contribute to the wellbeing of that community, and society overall (including the most disadvantaged and marginalised). The term 'business' includes all types of private, public and third-sector organisations. The Project is funded by the Roddick Foundation and will run for 12 months beginning in December 2010.
Sustainable Thornbury, in partnership with the Sheiling School, already successfully launched Thornbury Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA), which is now an independent entity. "We are so excited to learn from, and work with, experienced social entrepreneurs in ways that will benefit Thornbury and the surrounding villages," said Heather Luna of Sustainable Thornbury. "We hope the CSA was just the start."
Thornbury Harvest Co-op, our local food scheme, is now up and running. They are looking for more members. They share out vegetables every Thursday 4pm to 7pm at the Sheiling School.
Thornbury Harvest Co-op is a Community Supported Agriculture, where consumers work with farmers and growers to produce local food. Members collect and weigh their share of the vegetables each week. The vegetables cost £10 per week or £41 per month for a standard share for two adults who eat lots of veg, but half shares are available. The annual membership subscription is £10, and you can join without buying vegetables if you wish to support the scheme or keep in touch with it.
If you want to buy good local food and support local growers please email or ring 01454 416778.
Our monthly discussion and planning meetings are on the fourth Wednesday of each month at the Chantry starting at 7:30pm. For a list of dates please see the the diary dates page.
If you want to receive our Bulletin by email, please become a member.
We thank solar panel installer Ethical Solar for donating £1000.
South Gloucestershire Council has generously given us more grants of over £1000 under their community grant scheme and environmental grant scheme. We are very grateful for their support. The grants were to help with a range of running costs, including organising the EcoFair and the Community Supported Agriculture scheme.
Sustainable Thornbury is a community group focussed on the market town of Thornbury and the surrounding area in South Gloucestershire, England. We are concerned about global warming and peak oil, so we are trying to make our town more sustainable. We are a Transition Initiative. More ...
The group is currently working on waste and next year's EcoFair. We also have a Grow-your-own-Food self-help group. More ...
If you want to receive regular news, you can get our Bulletin by email. To do this, please become a member or give us your contact details. You can also see what is happening on the What We Are Doing page, and our Facebook page.
We have run projects and campaigns on local food, energy efficiency, reducing plastic bags, developing skills and reusing goods. More ...
We sometimes have public talks, film shows and discussions for anyone who wants to know more about climate change, energy, food, waste, transport and related topics.
Most of our projects and campaigns are run by working groups. We get together most months, usually in the evenings, for the whole group and for each of the working groups. If you would like to come to meetings and help out, please contact us. A list of planned meetings and events is on our Diary dates page.
We need more members so that we can show we have the support of local people. Membership entitles you to get our email bulletin, so please join us.