Weekly meeting

This evening 25 attendees, including a visiting Rotarian, were treated to an excellent talk by Rotarian Keith Tovey, Emeritus Reader at the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia.

Since 2001 his research has been largely focussed on energy and carbon reduction, and this was the basis of his talk this evening. He wants Rotarians to consider their carbon footprint, in their personal lives as well as being part of their Rotary Club. He gave us five points that everyone should try and follow, which will help reduce our personal carbon footprint. These are:

Switch off any appliances that are not in use

Monitor domestic energy usage, and seek ways to reduce consumption of electricity, gas and petrol.

Use more efficient appliances.

Use renewable energy where possible e.g. solar panels

Plant trees.

Keith encouraged us to sponsor a Young Environmentalist competition at our local schools, and to consider the carbon footprint of the Rotary Club's activities e.g travelling to meeting venues, energy used at the venue, drinks consumed, travel to committee meetings and the various projects we undertake.

It was a very thought provoking talk, which we will certainly discuss at forthcoming business meetings.