Birmingham
friends of the earth Newsletter, Winter 2019
GRASS GAS? Could we be turning
to
See page 20
Also Inside
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Plastics Campaign Update
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Biodiversity and Habitat Loss
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The Tyseley Incinerator
Contents Campaigns Digest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Warehouse News. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Clean Air Zone: Time for the Government to Cough Up! . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Plastics Campaign Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Flushed Away?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Make Someone Smile with These Ecofriendly Gift Ideas. . . . . . . . . . 14 Biodiversity and Habitat Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Tyseley Incinerator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Can We Make Gas?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Diary Dates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Contact Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Cover photo by Pixabay/Alexas_Fotos
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Plastics Campaign Update
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Biodiversity and Habitat Loss
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The Tyseley Incinerator
Campaigns Digest By Libby Harris
Happy New Year everyone. We are looking forward to the campaigning year ahead and we have some exciting plans, so watch this space! Over the past few months we have been developing the next phase of our air pollution and plastics campaign. We have also been working with the Greener Birmingham Coalition to develop a Green Year of Action campaign; keep an eye out over the next couple of months for events near you! There have also been a lot of developments with The Warehouse. We have welcomed new tenants into the building including a wholefoods shop. Volunteers have continued to work hard decorating and tidying. A huge thank you to everyone who has given up their time to help with this.
Air Pollution Over the past few months we have been developing the next stage of our air pollution campaign. Alongside continuing to push for a strong Clean Air Zone, we are
Photo by Libby Harris (BFOE)
planning to campaign for cleaner air outside of schools. At the time of writing this campaign is still in the development phase so please keep an eye out for updates. Take a look at Martin’s article to find out more.
Nature This year we are planning to host an event or two to coincide with the Greener Birmingham Coalition’s Year of Green Action in which we will be celebrating nature. We are looking to host events in early summer and if you would like to get 3
involved or if you have any ideas please get in touch! Take a look at Jake’s article on biodiversity and habitat loss to find out why it is important that we all play a part in protecting nature.
Transport The transport team sprung into action to campaign against the widening of the Dudley Road. At the time of writing campaigners have been talking to people who live and work on/near the Dudley Road. Take a look at our website for more information about this campaign.
Waste Our waste team have been very busy over the past few months planning our plastic-free Commonwealth Games campaign. We also ran a successful Christmas Crafternoon at The Warehouse on 15 December. Read Jodie’s article to find out more. We have also been raising awareness of the environmental impacts of flushing plastic items down the toilet. It isn’t well known that wipes which are labelled ‘flushable’ are ending up on our shorelines because they do not break down! Read Sarah’s article to find out more about this issue. 4
At the time of writing, the waste team are also responding to updates with Birmingham City Council’s Future Waste Strategy. Keep an eye out for a update about this but in the meantime you can read about UKWIN’s Incineration Report in Shaz’s article.
How you can get involved We always welcome new people and there are many different ways you can get involved with our campaigns. Whether you have an hour or two to spare or a whole day, please get in touch or come along to any of our weekly Monday meetings (contact and meeting details on the diary page).
Follow us on Twitter @Bham_FOE and Facebook www.facebook.com/ birminghamfoe to keep up to date with our latest campaigns news. For more in-depth information on our campaigns take a look at our website www.birminghamfoe.org.uk
S U P P O R T We are the only organisation in Birmingham that campaigns on Air Quality, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Energy, Transport, Planning, Waste and Recycling.
You can help us to do this in a number of ways: Take part in our campaigns. Join us as a supporter. Make a donation. Or you could receive our email updates and decide what you want to do when you know us a bit better.
Whichever way you get involved, you are helping to make Birmingham green and sustainable!
For donations go to http://localgiving.com/birminghamfoe
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Warehouse News By Richard Bickle, General Manager
Over the winter our team of volunteers have been hard at work decorating office spaces and getting the building ready for new tenants. The main achievement
Photo by Ben Mabbett (BFOE)
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has been the transformation of the old cafe kitchen into a cosy office space with the chimney breast brickwork exposed and re-pointed as an attractive feature. We were very sorry that the previous operators of the Warehouse Cafe moved out at the end of November. A lot of time over the ensuing weeks was spent working on plans for a new operator to move in. Hopefully by the time you read this the new cafe will have just started trading and we will be looking back at a series of interesting pop-up events during the weeks when the cafe was shut. Finally, one very welcome but unexpected outcome of the Heritage Weekend back in September is the return of a wholefood shop to the Warehouse. There will be a full report in the next newsletter, but by the time this one lands on your door mats the shop should have recently started trading in the old reception room at the corner of Shaw’s Passage and Allison Street.
Clean Air Zone
Time for the Government to Cough Up!
Photo by Libby Harris(BFOE)
By Martin Stride
As most of you are aware, Birmingham (along with 5 other cities in England) has been required by the government to submit a scheme for a Clean Air Zone (CAZ) to tackle levels of air pollution, specifically nitrogen dioxide, which exceed legal limits in a number of parts of the city. This is damaging the health of people and ecosystems. To tackle the pollution properly, various air modelling scenarios indicated that the most stringent class D charging zone would
be necessary, in which all noncompliant vehicles including cars would be charged to enter the CAZ. Birmingham City Council held a public consultation on its proposals which BFOE responded to. Unsurprisingly the majority of respondents were against the proposed charging scheme, but as Councillor Waseem Zaffar, Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment said, it was a consultation, not a referendum. However, the feedback did identify that a number of individuals and
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groups would experience some difficulty in coping with the charge, such as those on low incomes working in the CAZ who are unable to switch to public transport and unable to afford a new vehicle.
Petition During the consultation period, BFOE ran a petition in which we supported council’s charging scheme to include cars as an essential first step but noted that this was just the start. We were asking for more emphasis on attractive and viable alternatives to driving such as a network of safe cycling and walking routes and quick clean and reliable public transport with low fares. Further, we were calling for a city-wide Clean Air Zone by 2020. We held a number of street stalls where people were only too happy to chat to us about their concerns on air pollution and sign our petition. We collected over 800 signatures of support in the space of a couple of months. We handed our petition over to Councillor Fred Grindrod on 10th September to bolster our consultation response. We were pleased to see that the council had not back-pedalled
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on its commitment to tackle air pollution seriously and has stuck to its position of charging all noncompliant vehicles including cars. Given that Birmingham is one of the most car-dependant cities in Europe, this was a nettle which had to be firmly grasped. Having said that, even with the charging regime and all the proposed additional measures such as restricting free car parking within the CAZ, the modelling indicates that pollution levels of NO2 would not be reduced to below the legal limits until 2021. The council line was that compliance could not be achieved before 2021 without adversely affecting the economy and jeopardising jobs. The city council submitted its business case to central government by the September 15th deadline.
Time for the Government to cough up the money! After several months of numbercrunching, discussions with DEFRA, further consultation with directly affected groups and additional air quality modelling, in early December the council issued its Full Business Case in which it has
specified the actual charge for noncomplaint vehicles entering the CAZ (£8.00 for cars, £50.00 for buses, coaches and Hg Vs), and has drawn up a package of mitigation measures and exemptions. These are far too numerous to list here, but exemptions will include not charging non-compliant cars registered to addresses within the CAZ for the first two years of the scheme. Mitigation measures will include financial help for taxi drivers to upgrade or renew their vehicles, and financial help for key workers
and those on a low income who work in the CAZ. The council has submitted its Full Business Case to the government in which it outlines the costs of its scheme (including the mitigation and end exemption measures) and has made a bid for the funding which will total around £68 million. The ball is now in the government’s court and it rests with them to cough up the required funds! It will be interesting to see how much the council will manage to secure.
Photo by Maverick Photo Agency. Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
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Plastics campaign update Jodie Etheridge
It has been a busy few months. On 10th September we posted our petition to Michael Gove for a Plastic Bottle Deposit Return Scheme. It was a very successful petition and we gained nearly 600 signatures. Campaigners gathered by a local post box and took photos to mark the send-off. We are very proud of the hard work that went into building support for our petition. A big thank you everyone who made this possible.
After the petition hand-in we began to think about moving the campaign into its next stage, one which would have a wider focus on plastic waste rather than just on a Deposit Return Scheme. To mark the campaign moving into a new, exciting phase on 13th September we showed the film ‘A Plastic Ocean’, a documentary about the problem of plastic waste. We teamed up with Birmingham Cooperative Film Society to screen the film in our spacious new meeting room at the
Above: Photo by Libby Harris (BFOE) | Right: Photo by Pixabay/bilyjan
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Warehouse. The screening was very successful and well-attended by supporters, campaigners and representatives from other environmental groups. We had a successful follow-up discussion night in October to give people a chance to discuss their thoughts on the film and some key themes that arose from it. In terms of the next phase of the campaign, at the time of writing this article we have been campaigning on how to waste less plastic at Christmas time and still have fun! In December we had a fun Christmas Crafternoon. This was a very successful afternoon of fun and creative plastic-free crafts. We hope to have other craft events in the future. Our focus for 2019 will move towards supporting the call for a plastic-free Commonwealth Games which are coming to
Birmingham in 2022. At the time of writing, we have done some initial research into this. We have also decided that we intend to focus our campaign on plastic used in food and drinks containers at the games. We have been in communication with the organising committee about this focus and we look forward to building on this communication soon. As always, a massive thank you to everyone who has been working hard on the plastics campaign.
Onwards and upwards!
If you would like to join our plastic campaign team then please get in touch: info@birminghamfoe.org.uk
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Flushed Away?
Sarah Shaw
As consumers we’re paying more and more attention to the environmental impact of what we put in our shopping baskets. But what about the stuff we put down our toilets? According to the Marine Conservation Society, around 8.5% of all litter washing up on the UK’s beaches comes directly from our toilets. Cotton buds, cigarette buds, tampons, plasters, nappies,
condoms, sanitary towels, dental floss: all are regularly flushed down the toilet, and all find their way to our coastlines. This is because these products contain plastics, which can take centuries to biodegrade and so can’t be dealt with by waste treatment facilities. Once on our beaches, marine wildlife can mistake these items for food—leading to more plastics in the food chain. Yep, you read that right: you may literally end up eating what you put down the toilet.
Above: Photo by Pixabay/jarmoluk | Right: Photo by Pixabay/guvo59
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Even so-called ‘flushable’ toilet wipes end up on the shoreline. Despite what manufacturers claim, flushable wet wipes don’t really break down and disperse in the same way as toilet paper. In 2017 the Great British Beach Clean weekend found an average of 27 wet wipes per 100 meters of coastline, which was an increase of 94% from the previous year. The problem is getting worse, not better. As well as contributing to coastal litter, wet wipes also cause blockages in our sewer systems by clumping together into what are known as ‘fatbergs’. Fatbergs are caused by a mixture of cooking fats, wet wipes and other items that are wrongly flushed down the toilet: even seemingly harmless bits of hair or pieces of dental floss get snagged up in the clump, which can grow to the size of a doubledecker bus.
So what can you do? For starters, ditch the ‘flushable’ toilet wipes and use regular toilet paper instead—you’ll save yourself money, and our marine life will thank you for it. Also, make sure you have a bin in your bathroom so that your visitors have somewhere other than the toilet to dispose of their hygiene products; it’ll be easier for you to get rid of little things like plasters and hair, too. In the kitchen, pour leftover cooking fats into an old container (such as an empty yogurt pot or margarine tub) and throw the filled container into the bin.
And remember: If it isn’t wee, paper or poo you mustn’t flush it down the loo!
These fatbergs can clog sewers so severely that they risk flooding the streets above with raw sewage. As well as being a public health risk, fatbergs are expensive: Severn Trent spends over £5 million every year clearing such blockages, a cost which is passed on to consumers.
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Make someone smile
with these eco-friendly gift ideas
By Sunny James
If you’re looking for gift ideas for friends or family, or if you know someone who’s thinking about how they can live greener, why not get them an eco-friendly gift? You can make someone in your life happy and make a positive change for the planet at the same time with any of the goodies mentioned in this article. There are also many other options for eco-friendly gifts, these ideas are just to help get you started. As long as the item can help reduce waste or resources, act 14
as a re-usable alternative to singleuse items or replace something non-recyclable with something that is, you’re on the right track.
1. Re-usable coffee cups Chances are you know someone who’s a big coffee drinker, but really, these cups are great for anybody who enjoys a hot drink or uses a water dispenser where they work. Less than 1% of disposable coffee cups are actually recycled, meaning the rest contribute towards our big waste problem.
Switching to re-usable is an easy way to help combat this issue and most coffee chains offer a discount to customers who use them too.
2. Biodegradable glitter Many children and adults alike love using glitter, whether it’s for crafts and decorations or to add a bit of sparkle when doing makeup. However glitter is a microplastic, meaning it can easily pass through water filtration systems and reach the oceans where it’s swallowed by aquatic life. There are many concerns over the effects micro-plastics could have on the environment, but biodegradable glitter is a great alternative that can be enjoyed guilt-free.
3. Handmade soap Everybody uses soap, but not everybody considers that liquid soap comes in plastic bottles. Converting to bar soap helps reduce plastic waste and they can also be more fun. Handmade soaps come in a huge variety of shapes, colours and designs and there are even lots of guides online to help you make your own. To ‘wrap up’ this list, make sure to get some re-usable wrapping cloth. Traditional wrapping paper is highly wasteful as it’s only used once before ending up in a landfill. Wrapping cloth can be re-used by the receiver to wrap gifts for you in the future, saving waste and starting a new tradition of swapping cloths.
Left: Photo by Pixabay/Pexels | Above: Photo by Pixabay/Silviarita
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Biodiversity and Habitat Loss By Jake Yeates
Loss of habitat is the key factor which causes the decline in biodiversity around the world. It is the main reason why species become extinct. The key habitat which is lost is forest, mainly rainforests. Ecosystems and forests in the Mediterranean and have lost 80 % of their cover, due to humans’ felling of trees—and human-induced climate change. Throughout the world, much forestry was lost centuries ago, when it was converted to farmland. Tropical forests are still being chopped down, at the rate of 50 football pitches every minute! This cannot continue unabated. Pre-the 1980s, clearance of land was done by and for individuals and families, who would clear small areas of land for small farms, houses and cattle. Then global commercial agriculture took over and cleared millions of acres of 16
rainforest and forest, for crops and to grow animals (often to be used for meat). The commercialisation of farming also increased the size of fields, massively reducing the number of hedges. This jeopardises the survival of hedgehogs , dormice, bats, voles and insects—including bees. Skylarks and many birds of prey are nearing extinction, as a result of businesses which profit from very harmful factory farming. Often, people think that rearing “dairy” cattle isn’t so bad, but: there are 1700 factory farms in the UK, of which 789 are “mega-farms”. Each one of these rears a million chickens (in cages), 20,000 pigs or 2,000 cows. None of these animals ever sees the light of day, let alone any fields/their natural habitat. Of course, the growth of towns (urban sprawl) and increasing road-building removes thousands of hectares of woodland and scrubland.
Photo by Pixabay/Picography
The solutions to the above are, of course: Reducing the human population. This is vastly difficult, but can be done. Access to contraception, removing people from poverty and investing in sustainable communities can all help to stem population growth. Reductions in levels of deforestation—ideally to zero. National governments need to impose (and enforce) limits on this.
There is hope: We can all take action to promote rewilding, which could help threatened species to recover. Some recently extinct animal and plant groups would benefit hugely from rewilding—and their numbers
could increase. Of course, this would impact very positively on biodiversity levels throughout the UK. Another means by which to support biodiversity is to put pressure on MPs, etc. to enforce limits on such projects as road building and urban sprawl. In Scotland, golden eagles still hunt in the highlands. Scottish wildcats are critically endangered (with only 400 left) and the famously beautiful red squirrels are on the brink of extinction. Rewilding could secure the sustained survival of these (and of many other) beautiful animals, which are so important to the natural food chain and local environment. Even the Kentish plover could be seen again. Could you become a plover lover?! 17
The Tyseley Incinerator
By Shaz Rahman
A new report from the ‘United Kingdom Without Incineration Report (UKWIN)’ organisation has stated the considerable downsides to incineration as a way of producing electricity. The report is available on the UKWIN website: ukwin.org.uk/climate/
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A few key findings from the report include: 1. The release of CO2 from incinerators makes climate change worse and comes with a cost to society that is not paid by those incinerating waste. 2. The ‘carbon intensity’ of energy produced through waste incineration is more than 23 times greater than that for low carbon sources such as wind and solar.
Incineration is clearly not a low carbon technology. 3. Composition analysis indicates that much of what is currently used as incinerator feedstock could be recycled or composted, and this would result in carbon savings and other environmental benefits. Thus, incinerating waste comes with a significant ‘opportunity cost’. There are many more points that are worth reading within the report. This report highlights the key problems with incineration, of which we have been campaigning on for many years at Birmingham Friends of the Earth (BFOE). Birmingham City Council has a very important decision to make about the incinerator which operates in Tyseley. Veolia (the operators) are due to walk away from the incinerator in 2019 and the council has to decide whether to take on the running of the incinerator, find another organisation to run it or shut it down. The technology is outdated and it should be shut down. BFOE have consistently argued that the incinerator in Tyseley should be shut down. It depresses recycling rates, and with Birmingham currently
only recycling 23% of its waste we need this to change. The incinerator burns a lot of recyclables. At the time of writing there are rumours as to whether an incinerator tax will be announced by central government. If this happens it will make the business case for keeping the incinerator even shakier than it already is. The reason that this tax may come into force is that it depresses recycling rates. On top of this, the incinerator is arguably the single biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in the city. The incinerator is a big obstacle to Birmingham reaching its carbon reduction policies of reducing CO2 emissions by 60% by 2027 against a 1990 baseline. We at BFOE are against Birmingham City Council keeping the incinerator open beyond 2019. If you agree, could you contact either your councillor or MP about shutting it down? Birmingham City Council is considering running the incinerator past 2019. We think this is a terrible idea for Birmingham. The idea should be scrapped. Photo by John Newson (BFOE)
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Can We Make Gas? By John Newson
Gas is very convenient and is the established way to heat our buildings in winter, which is 45% of total energy use. The North Sea gas fields are depleted and gas is increasingly imported. We don’t want to frack deep rocks in Britain to force out shale gas—a dangerous technology that has already caused a series of earth tremors in Lancashire. The alternative is to make “green gas”, at scale, from renewable processes at the surface, instead of pumping up fossil gas that releases fossil carbon and accelerates climate change. The gas system provides an already existing way to store and distribute energy which could help make use of intermittent renewable sources of energy. There are several approaches to making Green Gas (methane).
1. Sewerage gas. The water industry can feed into the gas network in future from sewerage works. Digestion by
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bacteria makes the methane in enclosed tanks, instead of releasing it into the air. This methane is being injected into the gas grid, for example at Coleshill near Birmingham and at Didcot sewerage works.1 Animal waste from livestock is used to make gas on farms and this is widespread in Germany.
2. Grass to gas This is an approach being trialled by Ecotricity. Grass also makes a consistent product that can be put into the grid; instead of feeding grass to cattle, it could be digested and made into gas.2 People should be eating less meat and dairy for health reasons and that would release grassland for energy crops. It would need about 1 acre
1. http://www.cngservices.co.uk/index.php/ services/biomethane/the-didcot-project 2. https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/our-greenenergy/our-green-gas/how-green-gas-works 3. http://www.zerocarbonbritain.org/en/ component/k2/item/149?Itemid=276
of grassland to heat a household, according to Ecotricity. Organic wastes from the food industry, paper making and others can also be digested and used for gas.
the air to make synthetic methane, using the Sabatier process. The Centre for Alternative Technology sees this as a key technology in their Zero Carbon Britain Plan.3
3. Wind to gas.
All the three methods exist on a small scale and show great promise to move us from fossil gas that releases greenhouse gases towards home-grown and renewable green gas. A report for National Grid some years ago showed that half of current gas could be replaced by green gas (so we would also need to become more energy efficient).
This method would use excess wind electricity at night and in winter months, instead of wasting it or turning off the turbines. Electricity can drive the electrolysis of water, splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen. Some hydrogen can be mixed into the gas supply but beyond that hydrogen could be combined with carbon dioxide from
Photo by John Newson (BFoE)
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Diary Dates Campaigns meetings
BFoE events
Mondays 7:30pm
We have some exciting events planned for 2019! Keep an eye out over the coming months for more details.
18 February Action Meeting: BFoE Heritage Project Presentation 25 February Action Meeting General Meeting 4 March Action Meeting 11 March Action Meeting 18 March Action Meeting 25 March These all take place at The Warehouse and are open to everyone whether or not you have been before. We have two types of meetings: 1. General meeting: First Monday of the month and involves an update on each of our campaigns 2. Action meeting: Skills share or interactive discussion, or an activity which supports one of our campaigns. Please email info@birmimghamfoe. org.uk for up to date details.
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Farmers’ markets Kings Heath 1st Saturday of the month 9am–3:30pm Solihull 1st Friday of the month 9am–5pm New Street 1st & 3rd Wednesday of the month 10am–4pm Sutton Coldfield 2nd Friday of the month 9am–3pm Harborne 2nd Saturday of the month 9am–2pm Birmingham University 4th Wednesday of the month 9am–2pm Moseley Last Saturday of the month 9am–3pm
Contact Us Friends of the Earth (Birmingham) The Warehouse 54-57 Allison Street Birmingham, B5 5TH Tele: (0121) 6326909 Email: info@birminghamfoe.org.uk Web: www.birminghamfoe.org.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/ birminghamfoe Twitter: @Bham_FOE Instagram: birminghamfoe Friends of the Earth is: • The largest international network of environmental groups in the world, represented in 72 countries. • One of the UK’s leading environmental pressure groups. • A unique network of campaigning local groups, working in more than 200 communities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. • Over 90% of its funds come from its supporters. Birmingham FoE We campaign at a local level to effect environmental change (in ways which feed into national and international policy) through: • Lobbying • Education • Empowering others to take action • Participation and representation through public fora.
Contacts Campaigns Co-ordinators Molly Luke & Jodie Etheridge Campaigns Support Worker Libby Harris General Manager Richard Bickle Treasurer Margaret Lynch Air Pollution Martin Stride Climate Change & Energy Molly Luke Economic Libby Harris Nature Mark Hawkins Planning Benjamin Mabbett Waste & Recycling John Newsons Newsletter Editor Catherine Palgrave Newsletter Graphic Designer Shannon Lattin Website Editor Libby Harris Talks Libby Harris & others Administration and Facilities Offer Nasreen All enquires and callers welcome
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THE WAREHOUSE Birmingham Friends of the Earth's little green community in the big city. - Bright, comfortable meeting spaces - Fixed prices from £10 - 5 minutes walk from Birmingham City Centre - Reduced hire prices for small organisations & voluntary groups - Laptop and projector hire available - Helps support the work of Birmingham Friend's of the Earth - Home of legendary vegetarian restaurant The Warehouse Cafe Find us at 54-57 Allison Street, Birmingham MEETING ROOM ENQUIRIES TO MEET@BIRMINGHAMFOE.ORG.UK
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