Gödöllő Climate Club
23 September 2011
A Meeting of The Climate-Friendly Small Communities
We started our club meeting with an introduction to the Gödöllő Climate Club. We spoke about the beginning of the club meetings – what inspired us to establish the club, why in this format exactly and what we have done by now.
By the way, our meeting today was international. J Jane and David Straker visited us to introduce their club – a brother club of ours – which operates in Fownhope, England. They spoke about their programs, publications and about their plans for the future. For example, they joined the 350 project – a global movement aimed at solving the climate crisis – with a big tree planting event. With their biomass project, they would like to utilize the resources of the forest which would otherwise remain unused, near to their living place. They also take part in Hereford Energy Week by introducing their own plans on the use of energy. They shared with us the story of how they usually meet in the pub to discuss their ideas. Fortunately, everybody could enjoy their stories because Edina was there to translate everything. J
Our other invitees also dealt with or were at least interested in organizing climate-friendly communities. The Program of Climate-Friendly Small Communities (KLIKK) collects data on local initiatives established to deal with the issue of climate change. The role of local NGOs is very important in motivating citizens to save energy. General experience shows that bottom-up initiatives are always more successful with households. People’s interest has to be awakened in order for them to do something against climate change through their interest in creating an energy-saving lifestyle.
Climate-friendly Wekerle was also introduced through the Zöld Hajtás “Climate-friendly, human-friendly Wekerle” program. Their aim is to make greener their part of Budapest and they also want to reduce their energy consumption and support local community development. They maintain close cooperation with the Wekerle Culture House and Library and with local producers and with other local institutions - they can only reach their aims through wide collaboration with other partners.
The greening of the infrastructure of Transition Town Kecskemét is ensured by Green Umbrella project which is a public awareness-raising program. The work of the group builds on creating a climate-friendly attitude. They desire to promote climate-friendly solutions on a local level which anybody can apply in any part of their life. They organized a local money working group, an ecological farming course and a Green Bag (Alternative Local Consumer group) in which they connected local farmers with local customers (excluding third-party vendors). They work continually to reform menus in schools. Their aim is that there should be more local and healthy foods provided by school catering. They have established a community garden in which seven families can work.
You can find more general information about climate-friendly communities on our website and some are introduced in the Gödöllő Climate Club “From climate-friendly households to climate-friendly communities” guide.
Solier Café provided us with local food and drinks.
Thank to all our participants for an enjoyable evening!
Join us next time too!
