Turning Beeston On to Turning Off “save energy – save money”

Pupils at Beeston’s John Clifford School, students from the University of Nottingham’s Department of Architecture & Built Environment and volunteers of Greening Beeston have come together to show the local community, via a range of “how-to” posters displayed around the town’s shops, cafes and notice boards, the part it can play in reducing energy usage AND saving money!

Background:

Over the last few weeks, year 5 pupils at John Clifford have been busy creating drawings of a range of energy saving actions inspired by a series of animations created and presented to them by students from the University of Nottingham.

The campaign, the brainchild of Greening Beeston, a group of volunteers who are nuts about saving energy, is designed to raise awareness about some of the no-cost actions that we can all take in our homes and in our daily lives, to save energy and save money.

After showing the animated presentation to the pupils, Alistair Tiplady and Jess Barnet 2^nd and 3^rd year students of the Architecture Environment Engineering course from the University of Nottingham, visited the school over several days to help the pupils develop and fine-tune their drawings for the save energy - save money campaign.

Greening Beeston:

We are a group of local people campaigning in Beeston to help fight the Climate Crisis of Global Warming. We want to encourage the residents of Beeston to understand more about the Climate Crisis and to make changes to help tackle it by reducing the amount of energy they use.  We aim to show, that by helping the environment, we can at the same time save money on our energy bills.

Sir Martyn Poliakoff of Greening Beeston says, “we want Beeston to become for sustainability what Hay-on-Wye has become for books”.

John Clifford School:

Janine Waring, Head at John Clifford School, says that we are proud of our links with our local community, and we regularly take part in events and fundraising efforts to benefit local people and our local area.

The students from the University of Nottingham initiated discussions about energy saving and money saving strategies to inspire the children to want to communicate a clear message to the people of Beeston. The children feel passionate that this message should be shared and celebrated as it fits in with many of the school’s values.

Janine adds “at John Clifford we “Take Care of our Community and Our World” and in promoting this project we are fulfilling our promise to each other. The children have thoroughly enjoyed being part of this project and have learnt many ways to support the environment and also to communicate clearly with others”.

University of Nottingham:

Dr. Xiaofeng (Ken) Zheng, Assistant Professor in Architectural Environment Engineering (AEE) at the Dept. of Architecture and Built Environment, and also a member of Greening Beeston, says that at our Greening Beeston meetings we talk about things we can do to promote energy saving and environment conservation in Beeston. Our AEE course is very much related to building energy efficiency and saving.

Ken adds “we are thrilled to collaborate with the local community on this meaningful project. It’s inspiring to see our AEE students work alongside pupils and volunteers to promote sustainable practices that benefit both the environment and household budgets”.

Beeston & District Civic Society:

Established in 1973 as a group of like-minded people who take a practical interest in their town, the Society seeks to do all it can to make Beeston and nearby a fine place to live. Its team of volunteers and trustees work together to run all the Society’s activities such as: local guided walks (summer), speaker events (winter), and Heritage Open Days. They also host grass-roots projects such as Beeston Street Art and Light Night; champion good local design with Civic Design Awards. All this while also striving to protect conservation areas and our natural environment; running a planning watchdog; urban tree planting; leading local campaigns to save buildings; installing Blue Plaques and liaising with local authorities on issues relating to the Society’s aims.

Mervyn Brown of the Civic Society says “This initiative will enthuse and inspire the next generation - setting them on their way to environmental awareness"

beestoncivicsociety.org.uk

#bemorecivic 

The project is being supported by:

Beeston and District Civic Society

Broxtowe Borough Council