Pick your pledges

PledgeStart nowStart in the next twelve months
Learn more about retrofitting – free course from Low Carbon Trust
Check the efficiency of my light bulbs – LED advice
Spend less time in the shower
Turn the central heating thermostat down by 1 degree
Put thermostats on my radiators
Put tinfoil reflectors behind my radiators
Close curtains before it gets dark
Fit heavy curtains over back/front door
Make draught excluders for doors
Add draught proofing on windows and doors
Fit secondary glazing (see cost effective diy solution)
Fit loft insulation – information on insulation
Add insulation to sold floors – insulating concrete floors
Visit a repair café
Talk to others in your community about setting up a repair café near you
Stop buying vegetable in plastic packaging
Find out where the water Refill stations are near you
Join a litter picking party
Adopt a beach
Check what types of plastic your council can recycle
Get an energy monitor to check your energy usage
Start composting in your garden, or find out where the nearest community compost to you is
Start composting kitchen waste (e.g. Bokashi bins)
Investigate renewable energy solutions for your home

Chris Rowland

Chris Rowland

Chris Rowland is CEO of OVESCO (Ouse Valley Energy Services Co CIC), which was set up in 2007 to work with Lewes District Council to deliver microgeneration grants. OVESCO was one of the first community energy groups in the UK to use the Feed-in Tariff to back a community share offer with a 98kW roof top solar PV system at Harveys Depot in Lewes. In 2014 OVESCO won an Ashden Award for their work as the vanguard of community energy. Since then OVESCO has installed community solar at a further 14 sites in Sussex, mostly benefiting local schools. In 2015 as a director of Meadow Blue Community Energy, Chris helped raise over £1.2 million of community investment in a 5MW solar farm near Chichester. Chris is currently; a director of Community Energy South, work on CommuniHeat to switch an off gas community to electric heating and working on a 16MW solar farm for the Lewes District.

Switching to a green electricity supplier

If you’d like to reduce your carbon footprint, but are not in a position to install renewable energy in your home, one option is to switch to a green energy supplier. A ‘green’ energy supplier may have a range of environmental and ethical policies, such as:

  • supplying electricity that is 100% renewable,
  • supplying green gas
  • paying all employees a living wage
  • supporting environmental policies
  • charitable donations

It’s worth doing some research and comparing what they offer.

Switching to a green energy supplier does not guarantee that the electricity you receive is generated from a renewable source. It is more likely to mean that the company you buy your electricity from is supplying renewable energy to the grid ,or buys renewable energy from a third party. For most green energy companies, only a percentage of the energy they supply to the grid is renewable

Energy companies that have their own renewable energy generators producing 100% of their electricity include:

  • Good Energy
  • Ecotricity

Both these companies have been recommended to us by customers. Ecotricity is also a partner to the Eastbourne Eco Action Network (EEAN). Find out how switching to Ecotricity can support our effort to turn the Eastbourne area carbon neutral.

Note that switching to a greener energy company probably won’t save you money. Ethical policies such as paying a living wage and using only renewable can lead to higher prices. But check out prices and check out their green credentials, you may feel it is worth the extra.

For more information, see

Duncan Baker Brown

Duncan Baker Brown
Duncan Baker Brown

Duncan Baker Brown, BSc. DipArch FRSA ARB RIBA, presents our keynote speech on Building in the age of emergencies.

Duncan is founder of BakerBrown, Climate Literacy Champion (Principal Lecturer) at the School of Architecture Technology & Engineering University of Brighton, Member of RIBA Council, Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN), Architects Declare Steering Committee, Member of Brighton & Hove City Circular Economy Oversight Board, Member of South Downs National Park Design Review Panel

Brief Biography

Duncan is a practising architect, academic and environmental activist. Author of ‘The Re-Use Atlas: a designer’s guide towards a circular economy’ published by RIBA, he has practised, researched, and taught around issues of sustainable development and closed-looped systems for more than 25 years. He recently founded BakerBrown, a research-led architectural practice and consultancy created to address the huge demands presented by the climate and ecological emergency as well as the challenges of designing in a post-COVID world.  Over the years Duncan’s practices (and academic ‘live’ projects) have won numerous accolades including RIBA National Awards and a special award from The Stephen Lawrence Prize for the Brighton Waste House – the prize money has since been used to set up a student prize for circular, closed loop design at the University of Brighton where Duncan teaches.

Duncan has worked on projects as diverse as ‘The Greenwich Millennium Village’ in London, the RIBA’s ‘House of the Future’, the multi-award-winning ‘Brighton Waste House’ and recently he designed a new building for Glyndebourne Opera that will be constructed from waste flows and organic materials grown on site. Duncan is currently working on schemes for Net-Zero Carbon social housing with Brighton & Hove District Council, where he has recently lead on the drafting of their soon to be published Circular Economy Route Map.

Duncan is currently the Principal Investigator for two EU Interreg research programmes focussing on the re-use of construction waste, building deconstruction and re-construction. He is curated the recent international digital summer school for August 02nd-13th 2021. It asked teams of students from across the world to consider the social, economic, political, ethical, phenomenological and environmental issues associated with re-use or ‘Mining the Anthropocene’ as Duncan calls it.  Called the ‘School of Re-construction’, Duncan is working on this project with Rotor DC from Brussels, Bellastock from Paris, Anthropocene Architecture School from Glasgow, Jonny Pugh (Flores & Pratts Architects), together with Brighton & Hove City Council.

Duncan is an experienced public speaker, and is one of the most high-profile architects/academics promoting the benefits of closed-loop circular systems. He also author’s academic papers, curate’s exhibitions and symposia, and host’s workshops in the UK, Europe and on occasion further afield. He recently helped to curated the ACAN Circular Economy lecture series during lockdown that attracted over 900 participants at three of the nine broadcasts. These events test ideas relating the important role the built environment has in contributing positively towards the existential challenge the Climate and Ecological Emergency present all sections of society, especially the disenfranchised.

aj100 Talk ‘Wake Up!” – Link       Recent Written Work – Link        Academic Research  – Link

Practice – Link   TEDx Talk – Link

Repair Cafés and Libraries of Things

red fabric banner with the words Lewes Repair Cafe

On this page you can find out about:

  • Repair cafes and Sheds
  • The Lewes Library of Things

Have you thought about setting up a Repair Café in your community? How about a Library of Things? These schemes are the perfect antidote to excess consumerism, they reduce CO2 emissions from manufacturing, they reduce waste and they save us money.

Tony Rowell set up the Lewes Library of Things in 2019 and the Lewes Repair Café during lockdown in 2021. In the videos below, Tony talks about his experiences and lessons learned.

Repair Café in Seaford – coming soon

Seaford Environmental Alliance are in the process of setting up a Repair Café at

The SEA Climate Hub
4 Clinton Place,
Seaford,
BN25 1NN.

The Repair Café will be held on the last Saturday of the month. Volunteers will be on hand to work through repairs with people, explaining what they are doing to spread their knowledge. We will be repairing small electricals, ceramics, jewellery, bikes, clothing and anything else which our repairers can turn their skills to!

While people wait for their items to be looked at we will have drinks and cake available, as well as an opportunity to look around the hub. The repairs and café are both free but we welcome voluntary donations.


The Sheds

There are three Eastbourne Sheds at Langney, Hampden Park and Seaside. These are spaces for people aged 50+ to potter around in a shed with like minded people. Shedders can get involved with woodworking, wood turning, refurbishing tools and community projects. See the Eastbourne Sheds website.

Other repair cafes nearby

Resources from other sources

Lewes Repair Café in pictures

Lewes Library of Things in pictures