York Environment Week 2020 is over, but you can watch video recordings of most of the events here: see the below listings, and look for events with a 🎥 in the title.
How can food help York’s environment? 🎥
Good Food York
28 November, 2 – 3:30pm
Local growers help tackle the climate crisis by using excess carbon from the air, and storing it in the soil, while giving us healthy crops to eat. Join Good Food York and learn how a local Food Circle is helping this happen.
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Haybox cooking
SF Innovations
28 November, 4:30 – 5:30pm
Haybox cookers are also known as thermal or retained heat cooking. In this workshop learn about all the benefits of Haybox Cooking, and how to make one at home using readily available materials.
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Heading for extinction (and what to do about it)
Extinction Rebellion York
28 November, 7 – 9pm
Speakers from Extinction Rebellion York will share the science on where our planet is heading, discuss some of the current psychology around climate change, and offer solutions.
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TCV volunteering sessions
The Conservation Volunteers
29th November, 1st, 2nd, 3rd December
The Conservation Volunteers carry out practical conservation tasks throughout York and the surrounding countryside for the benefit of people and the environment.
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A recipe for thriving? Tasters from the Doughnut 🎥
York Green Party
29 November, 2 – 5pm
This mini conference will hear from groups and councillors from Amsterdam, Cambridge and Cornwall that have embraced the Doughnut Economics approach, and asks: what would a Yorkshire Doughnut be like?
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Stories of food and resilience from Tang Hall 🎥
Edible York
29 November, 3:30 – 4:45pm
In recent years the Tang Hall Community Centre has undertaken a series of diverse initiatives in and around food. The event reveals the thinking behind those initiatives and what the benefits have been for local people. It is a good news story that contains ideas that can be taken up in other neighbourhoods.
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Greener Pocklington – Community Action 🎥
Greener Pocklington
29 November, 7 – 8pm
Greener Pocklington is a community group formed to combat the climate crisis and wildlife habitat loss through practical projects. This event describes some of the projects and successes. A discussion will follow the presentation.
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A murder mystery in Amsterdam 🎥
Caroline Lewis
30 November 2 – 3pm
A presentation and discussion about the process of transport change and cycling in Amsterdam, and whether it can apply to York.
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Living well with water 🎥
University of Leeds
30 November, 6 – 7pm
With the likelihood of flooding increasing with climate change, what might it mean to practice flood risk management differently?
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One Planet York – The Revitalisation
One Planet York
30 November, 7 – 8:30pm
Keynote speech from Mike Berners-Lee, author of How Bad are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything (published 2010 and republished in a new and updated edition 2020) and ‘ There Is No Planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years’ (2019) plus discussion with our Panel – including members of the OPY Advisory Board and Mentoring Team.
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Trees in New Earswick and the Nature Reserve
New Earswick Nature Reserve
1 December, 2 – 3:30pm
New Earswick is a “Garden Village” and has a tradition of growing fine trees. 2020 has seen the creation of a new Tree Trail for the village alongside the water in the Nature Reserve. We invite you to step inside the reserve and take a virtual tour of this York oasis. Using videos, a short talk and panel we will offer a Q&A session to inspire you about our trees.
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What your home is made of… and why it matters 🎥
Constructive Individuals/My Future York
1 December, 7 – 8:30pm
Few of us know what’s behind the wallpaper or beneath the carpet. Why bother, if it stands up okay? Well, mainly because your home loses heat – lots of it – and if you want to improve this, you need some basic understanding of what you’re improving. Architect & Passivhaus Designer Phil Bixby will give you a brief tour, helped by York Community Energy & St.Nicks, showing how you can save money and improve comfort.
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Forest School – mud and mayhem or much more? 🎥
Friends of Rowntree Park
2 December, 2 – 3pm
Explore the ethos behind Forest School, how this translates in practice, and most importantly the benefits for all those involved and nature itself. The Friends of Rowntree Park Forest School runs in an urban area, bringing generations together to appreciate the awesomeness of nature around them.
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From the 2013 Housing Design Awards to York tomorrow 🎥
Constructive Individuals
2 December, 7 – 8:30pm
York Environment Forum’s Philip Crowe brought the 2013 Housing Design Awards display to the Guildhall. To celebrate his passion for design we bring two of the winners together. Both are much involved in York – Richard Partington’s Derwenthorpe was an award winner, and David Mikhail, now as Mikhail Riches, will design York’s pioneering Housing Development Programme of 600 homes to Passivhaus standard. We’ll hear their thoughts on how housing design has moved on.
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Kimberlow Hill and Diamond Wood Project
John Lally Foundation
3 December, 10am – 4:30pm
Join us to help re-wilding by habitat building, planting more trees on Kimberlow Hill (University of York campus), and also to reclaim and recycle as many plastic tree planting tubes, stakes and cable ties as possible. Much of these materials can be reused on other projects.
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Hull Road Park Gardening Session
The Conservation Volunteers
3 December, 10am-1pm
The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) carry out practical conservation tasks and gardening throughout York in parks and the surrounding countryside for the benefit of people and the environment.
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Waste Free Lunch Challenge!
St Nicks
3 December, 12:30 – 1:30pm
Join St Nicks for a virtual lunch and share your own waste-busting tips. We’ll explore the concept of zero waste, talk about our low carbon recycling service and how we can help you to reduce rubbish. We’ll do our best to answer questions about recycling in York and we’re keen to learn from you, too! We can all help the city move towards being a waste-free society. One has to start somewhere; why not with a meal in good company?
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Christmas, Recycled 🎥
Carole Green
3 December, 2 – 3pm
From small beginnings in 2010, Bishopthorpe’s annual event to “recycle Christmas” has grown and broadened in scope, from gathering batteries to exchanging everything from seeds to handbags. It occupies a regular slot on the calendar, using the second Saturday in January as a chance to prove the winter’s festivities don’t have to all be about consumption.
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Electric Dreams: a brief history and future of the Grid 🎥
York Community Energy
3 December, 7 – 8pm
How our values are reflected in our power networks: from the early days of private generation, through municipalisation, centralisation, the nuclear age and into the future of how we might get to zero carbon.
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Discovering Reptiles
The Conservation Volunteers & Froglife
4 December, 9:30am – 1:30pm
Have you ever wanted to know more about the UK’s common and rarer reptiles? Ben Harris from the charity Froglife will explain how to identify these creatures, will give an overview of their ecology, and cover how to use various survey techniques to monitor their populations.
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Your mobile phone and the planet
One Planet York
4 December, 2 – 3pm
A discussion on the benefits and challenges of mobile phones for the environmentally conscious: how valuable mobile phones are in keeping us up to date and connected; how to use our phones better; and which phones are most environmentally responsible.
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Draught-proofing workshop 🎥
York Community Energy
4 December, 7 – 9pm
Tired of having a cold and draughty house? Join York Community Energy, and St Nicks’ Energy Champions, for our online draught-proofing workshop and Q&A. We’ll show you some quick and cheap DIY solutions to stop the wind howling through your doors, floors, windows and more.
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Small solar power systems
SF Innovations
5 December, 2 – 3:30pm
This workshop shows how to put together a small stand-alone solar power system. We will look at the design of 3 sizes of systems that will power appliances such as LED lighting, laptop batteries, and small kettles, and can be used for charging phones.
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Slowing the flow 🎥
Slowing the Flow Pickering
5 December, 7 – 8pm
Natural Flood Management and ‘Slowing the Flow (STF)’ are an important part of Flood Risk Management and upland ecosystems. Pickering’s STF was a ground-breaking pilot project that proved the concept and now includes Beavers to perform this vital task. Hear how and why it happened.
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Exploring York Greenways 🎥
York Greenways
6 December, 7 – 8 pm
York lies at the crossroads of two key routes of the National Cycle Network. Sustrans Volunteer Rangers worked on the tarmac infrastructure. Find out more about York Greenways, established by local volunteers in 2011, to help realise the health, social and environmental benefits for residents and visitors.
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