In light of the United Nations World climate change conference (COP 28) taking place in the United Arab Emirates, environmental charity Arran Eco Savvy outlines some of the actions being taken on Arran.
What are we doing on Arran?
The Arran Community has already done so much in our small part of the world. Positioned at the forefront of sustainable initiatives, Arran showcases a commitment to preserving its natural beauty and fostering a resilient environment, economy and community as seen through the enormous range of projects implemented by individuals and businesses across the island.
These have targeted everything from waste reduction to green energy generation and more.
One of these is the Green Islands Project led by Arran EcoSavvy in partnership with North Ayrshire Council and funded by the UK and Scottish governments. This initiative, undertaken over the past two years, aims to produce a carbon emissions equivalent baseline for the island as a whole. Twenty one businesses and 37 domestic properties participated in assessments.
The project began in January 2022 to accelerate the path to net zero and boost the local economy by 2030, in line with North Ayrshire Council’s ambition. It looked at how the overall carbon footprint of Arran and Cumbrae could be measured and supported our respective communities to measure their emissions and plan.
Summary of main outcomes
Using this data, information from energy suppliers and transport companies, as well as a formula to upscale the data to be representative of the island as much as possible, an estimate of 69,759 tCO2e is released across the island each year, whilst the true figure factoring in land use and farming emissions would be higher still.
This project highlighted why we need to reduce our carbon emissions and provided valuable support to enable partners to assess their current emissions and offer ideas for reducing them over time. It assessed what measures would be needed to reach the net zero goals of the Scottish and UK governments and the ambition of North Ayrshire Council.
The end result of the project were carbon dioxide equivalent figures for the island’s yearly emissions and carbon reduction plans produced for Arran and Cumbrae that factored transport, energy and food.
Arran’s Carbon emissions
The full report is available on the AES website at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PEpqysxrJNDMLagrbzqiPAKMgmpkL7gU/view
So what can we do about addressing our carbon emissions on Arran?
A range of recommendations were made to reduce our emissions, reduce long term costs and improve mental and physical wellbeing.
* Insulate our buildings
* convert heating to heat pumps and other sustainable heating technologies
* install domestic solar panels
Householders can get support for these improvements through grant and loan schemes through Home Energy Scotland.
Businesses and large organisations can also ensure a sustainable future for the island’s environment and economy by:
* developing carbon recapture via heat or gas systems and natural ways such as tree planting
* reducing waste through materials or supplier changes
* developing on island skills to take forward and improve upon these recommendations.
Elf correspondence
Sir,
Libby, Anwen, Zoe and Sam, the frantic tribe of Christmas elves behind the children’s activities hall that ran alongside Karen Bell’s fabulous Christmas market at the high school, would like to thank all the incredible volunteers, local businesses and community groups who banded together in our hour of need.
Arran Deliveries who beat the weather to deliver the 300 selection boxes secured by Events Arran, the wonderful man of the month, Santa himself, Arran Pipe Band and the fire brigade who gave Santa his big entrance, the Arran Repair Cafe who gave their time and wonderful grotto Tony Smith who gave us Radio Sparkle, Anne and Sandy at Voneus for the wi-fi, all the wonderful choirs and performers who kept us entertained, and Fergie’s and The Shore who kept us all fed. We thank you all.
In particular, we thank the people of Arran for their astonishing generosity.
We held a raffle and a tombolla and asked for donations on the day simply to cover the cost of putting on the children’s activities, but we are delighted to say that due to the community’s amazing support we raised an excess £840 which will be held in trust by Arran CVS to fund future not-for-profit community children’s Christmas events on Arran.
The extremely generous £450 donation from the island Co-ops to buy this year’s grotto gifts was a wonderful surprise.
The tiny tribe of frantic little Christmas elves are moving on to other projects now. Their primary one will be launching an inclusive children’s charity for families and young people on Arran who may currently be isolated or managing complex extra needs. Watch this space.
Meanwhile the Santa Market is set to return next year.
Merry Christmas!
Yours,
Libby, Anwen, Zoe and Sam, ex-elves and future facilitators.