Renewable heating systems, such as wood-fuelled boilers and heat pumps, can help you make savings and keep your home energy efficient.

The UK Government has launched the Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme (RHPP), managed by the Energy Saving Trust, enabling homeowners to claim up to a £1,250 voucher towards a renewable heating system.

Vouchers must be claimed by 31 March. Call the Energy Saving Scotland advice centre on 0800 512 012 to find out more or visit www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/scotland/rhpp for more information on RHPP and renewable heating systems.

The NCW team are big fans of wood burning stoves – and have a lot of experience in choosing them and having them installed, so if you’re thinking of buying one feel free to contact us for advice on what to look for.

It’s also a good time of year to check your home’s insulation. There are many grants available to improve loft insulation and to fit draught-proofing. Some local authorities even offer a reduction in Council Tax to householders with well-insulated homes. If you need any assistance with finding out about schemes, let us know where you live and we’ll help you to find out what may be available.

We can also arrange to visit your home and offer advice on insulation and energy use, and we hope you’ll use this information exchange to share tips with us and with each other. We’re aware that many members of our Planet Pledge Community live in rented accommodation, where it’s not always easy to make alterations, so any contributions on that situation would be especially welcome.

Keep warm and keep in touch!

This is the time of year to enjoy many of our home-grown fruit and vegetables, and to scour the hedgerows for “freebies” such as fruit and nuts. Some of these goodies can be stored or made into preserves – for example, if you have tomatoes that didn’t ripen, why not make some green tomato chutney?

Using local produce is a great way of cutting our carbon footprints because there are so many hidden impacts associated with packaging and transporting food. Food transport accounts for 40 % of road freight in the UK, so most of us are effectively “eating” huge quantities of oil along with our food!

Scottish raspberries are at their best just now, and a traditional way of serving them is in cranachan – an easy but very tasty treat!

For 4 people, you just need to combine about 2 tbsp toasted oatmeal, 300g fresh raspberries, 350ml whipped cream, 2 tbsp honey and, traditionally, a generous slug of whisky (though I prefer Drambuie). It’s best served immediately so that the oatmeal remains crisp – I usually just chuck it all together at the table.
If you have any tips for finding, storing and preserving autumn fruits, or any recipes you’d like to share, we’d love to hear from you.

Happy foraging,
Gillian

The best website I have found is the man in seat 61, this is also a book. http://www.seat61.com/ – this tells you all about rail travel (mainly in Europe but also further afield)  This website also has info on boat travel.  The guardian green travel guide is also really good, again a website and a book – http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/green

Other places to look for transatlantic boat crossing are container ships, this is a good article about how to do this – http://matadornetwork.com/notebook/how-to-travel-by-cargo-ship/

If anyone has any experiences it would be great to hear your advice.  I have used the train a lot in europe and have found it generally very easy (even though I struggle with the language).  The fares tend to be pretty reasonable once you get out of the UK too.

If anyone else would like to post their pictures to go with their comments just email me at liz.corke@newcaledonianwoodlands.org

This summers topic is all about holidays and enjoying the long summer evenings!

We would love to hear from you:

• Where are you going on holiday this year?
• What steps have you taken to make it a low carbon trip?
• Any tips or recommendations for low carbon holiday destinations and travel options?
• What low carbon activities have you been getting up to in the lovely long evenings?

Once again the post that is the most interesting/original/best piece of advice/most committed/amusing  will recieve the Planet Pledge Prize!!

Happy posting!

Here are my tomato and cucumber seedlings, we are still building the greehouse so just hoping we can get it finished in time to get these planted out!  We are also hoping to get some tyres (you can get these just by asking at a garage as they have to pay to get rid of them) to plant potatoes in.  Tyres are ideal for planting potatoes  as when you need to add more soil to cover them you can just add another tyre layer.  You can also put the tyres on any surface from grass, to concrete and they will be quite happy.  Also have a look at your local authorities website as you can often get free compost from food waste recycling schemes if you pick it up yourself.

You can’t get much more local than from your back garden, window box or balcony and growing some food or herbs is a great way to reduce your carbon impact by replacing some of the food you would normally buy.

There is just time to plant your seeds and grow from scratch or if you are busy why not let someone else do the hard work for you and get some ready grown plants/seedlings.

We want to hear from you:

• what are you growing this year?
• where are you growing it?
• are you struggling to find a space to grow food?
• what were your most successful crops last year?
• ask any questions you might have about food growing
• any great hints and tips about anything related to food growing.

The post that is the most interesting/original/best piece of advice/most committed/amusing  will recieve the very first Planet Pledge Prize!!

This is where we hope all those signed up for the project and those who want to sign up can share facts, info and advice about how to reduce their carbon footprint!