SEAD (Scottish Education and Action for Development)

Alyth Climate Action town formed when two people from Alyth were making a banner for the G8 held Gleneagles in 2005. Find out about what they’ve been up to since then, which includes producing what is perhaps the first romantic comedy to be written about climate change!

Getting Started

As the two members of the Alyth community were illustrating the banner with rain and sunshine, to take on the Make Poverty History march, they discussed how it would be best to get people to change their lifestyles to reduce their carbon footprints. They decided that individuals often feel it is not worthwhile if no one else is bothering, and that a community project would have much more impact. People would feel that their efforts were less futile and governments would take more notice of communities’ efforts than those of individuals. Alyth is a very, very community minded town so it seemed like the perfect place.

The first event was an Energy Saving Fair in one of the town halls. Since then there has been a showing of An Inconvenient Truth and an infra-red survey of home efficiency with an exhibition in the hall, sponsored by Scottish Hydro. The most successful events have had something to attract children, and thus their parents.

Future Plans

They now have a whole host of new projects planned. One is a street by street home efficiency survey. Another is a transport and hot office survey. They are hoping to reduce and rationalise commuting from Alyth partly by encouraging employers to hire space in a hot office in Alyth. The third idea is to put on a play! The play has been written by a member of the committee. It is a musical romantic comedy set in a house in Alyth where the occupant is struggling against his own inertia about reducing energy use in his life.

Alyth’s top tips for communities starting out

Be visible and active, don’t preach, be light hearted, offer free stuff and entertain the children!

This entry was posted on 12 January 2009 at 9:52 pm and is filed under Opportunities for community groups, SOCC News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.