Hello fellow Carbon Cutters, I’m Scott Williams, your new coordinator, and I’m here to help.

Firstly a bit about me. I’ve been aware of the problems created by our burning of greenhouse gases for some time, since the call to ban CFCs, and have been trying to reduce my carbon and ecological impact and leave no trace. I picked up a copy of ‘This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook’ and joined Action on Climate in Teignbridge, signing up as a Wildlife Warden. I am the founder of Turn The Tide Festival alongside Dave Hutton. In serendipity that same year ACT launched the Carbon Cutters project aiming to help communities across Teignbridge find sustainable ways to reduce their carbon footprint.

I’m also responsible for Reconnect Magazine, where we regularly provide local examples of carbon reduction, and champion reduce, repair and recycle.

Carbon Cutters can be change makers

It’s time to visualise a ‘net zero’ future, and how we might co-create that. I see Carbon Cutters as change makers, offering those seeking our help the opportunity to really imagine what life will be like, and offer possible pathways to get there.

A practical place we can start is by supporting local projects that already exist, or importing good ideas, and creating the conditions for low carbon ecosystems. We can educate and empower our young people with the knowledge and expertise they’ll need in the coming decades. We can work with local councils to provide enabling resources, and helpful policy and intentions that inspire our communities.

As your Carbon Cutter Coordinator, I’m here to help you focus on promoting the ideas and actions that offer the easiest way to reduce emissions. We can help an individual (or organisation) find for themselves the best direct action they can take, doing things within their control.

I see my role as a signpost, a community notice board, and an information centre. To signpost how to build resilience and community resource security. To find things to do, to celebrate what’s been achieved and to give everyone access to the information and advice they need to determine how best they can be empowered to cut their carbon footprint. If I can’t find the solutions to questions then our network can. Together we can share ideas, knowledge and cooperate on initiatives.

There’s a wealth of things those in our community wanting to bring about a change for the better are doing, I feel we just need to highlight them more. To do that I’d like to know about them, no matter how small or wacky. As Coordinator I hope to spread ideas and activities, and help community involvement in them. Once I’ve found my feet, I’m hoping to initialise a few new Carbon Cutters projects. In the meantime please let me know what you have done, are doing, and hope to do. I’d love to hear your ideas.

Training

Our next set of Carbon Cutters Training will take place over four sessions (the first one being an introduction) and we are set to start shortly. Please send anyone interested in getting on board my contact details: email scott@actionclimateteignbridge.org.

Recommended reading

I very much like the ideas Jay Tompt of Totnes REconomy has written about here: Transforming the Devonian Economy.

At the bottom of the piece there’s a link to the Net Zero Vision book, edited by David Sergeant and Emma Whittaker. This is a collection of essays by transition experts on key sectors of the Devon Carbon Plan’ in which Jay Tompt’s article first appeared.

Happenings

• Dawlish will be celebrating the King’s Big Help Out as part of the coronation on 8th May with their Refreshers Fair which offers a chance for attendees to find out about volunteering locally and has over 20 organisations attending, including ours.
• This year’s Big Green Week will be happening from 10th-18th June. I’m not aware of any specific things happening in Teignbridge – if you know of something please let me know.
• A storytelling event has been organised by ACT for 26th June, 6-9pm at the Courtenay Centre (home to Newton Abbot’s first community fridge). The event is a pilot. The idea is that storytelling is an important way humans communicate. The actions we need to take and the understandings we have need to be personal, practical and perceptible. People from ACT will talk about how it felt for them to engage in climate action and the audience will share their stories, and have a reflective conversation about the stories they’ve heard.

Send me your events

I’d like to ask all Community, Council, and suitable event representatives reading this to please send me the dates for any related  happenings in our area. So I can get the word out about them.

Carbon Cutters website

I’m hoping to update the Carbon Cutters website, do let me know if you have any suggestions of what could be added to our part of the ACT website.

Thank you to our sponsors

Lastly I would like to thank our sponsors Teign Energy Communities, TECs, for their support.