News and updates
October 2020
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National #CleanAirDay - Thursday 8 October
Thursday 8 October is National Clean Air Day, the UK’s largest air pollution campaign, and Camden Council is reaffirming its commitment to improve air quality throughout the borough, to better protect the health of those who live, work and study in Camden.
Camden has committed to achieve the ambitious World Health Organization (WHO) air quality guidelines by 2030, and this means everyone must work together to reduce air pollution.
Through the Idling Action project, which Camden co-leads with City of London, Camden are calling on businesses and drivers to take the #EnginesOff pledge to cut out avoidable air pollution from unnecessary engine idling. To access free driver education resources and pledge materials, please contact natalie.curd@camden.gov.uk or visit the website here.
Global Action Plan, the charity behind National Clean Air Day, has produced a collection of free workplace resources to enable employers and employees to raise awareness of the importance of workplace air quality for health, and to inspire action for cleaner air. For more information, and to access these resources, please click here.
The charity have also been running #CleanAirDayLive - a full day of online live programming acknowledging the benefits of clean air spaces, celebrating those already taking action and inspiring others to play their part in helping to clean the air we breathe. Head over to the Clean Air Day Twitter page to follow and catch up on updates from the sessions - @cleanairdayuk.
Earlier this year, Camden released the guide Improving Indoor Air Quality: Advice for Homes and following this, Camden's Air Quality team have been designing air quality guidance applicable to businesses which will be released before the end of the year. Once this has been published, the Camden Climate Change Alliance will make this available to its members.
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Camden Giving Week, 12 - 18 October
Camden Giving Week is a week dedicated to showing compassion and support to Camden neighbours facing inequality. As a result of the pandemic, Camden Giving has seen a decrease in donations, yet an increase in demand for the work the charity does.
#CamdenGivingWeek was coined as a way to acknowledge the existing inequalities in Camden in order to fight back and secure vital funding for things people really need, such as food banks, homeless shelters and mental health support.
Camden Giving are inviting businesses to support the week no matter how large or small. From hosting a virtual social event, to donating via your Payroll Giving scheme or donating directly via the Camden Giving website and sparing the cost of something saved whilst working from home (e.g. cost of commuting).
Most importantly Camden Giving are encouraging people to speak to each other and continue to spread the Camden Giving word.
For more information, click here or email: grace@camdengiving.org.uk.
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London's Air Quality - Dramatically Improving
Since 2016 and the implementation of a plethora of air quality policies by the Mayor, analysis has shown a dramatic improvement in air quality between 2016 and early 2020, before lockdown.
The analysis also acknowledges the success of policies such as the central London Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) - and soon to be expansion of this, as well as cleaner buses and electric taxis. There has also been a 97 per cent reduction in the number of state primary and secondary schools located in areas exceeding legal pollution limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from 455 in 2016, to just 14 in 2019.
As of September 2020 a phased programme of new Healthy School Streets are being rolled out as part of the Enabling Safe Travel in Camden scheme, along with many other measures.
Despite Camden's early adoption of WHO guidelines, 99 per cent of Londoners are still living in areas that exceed these limits, meaning there is still a long way to go.
For more information on how Camden is tackling air quality in the borough, click here.
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Mayor launches Heavy Scrappage Scheme
As of 1 March 2021, tighter Low Emission Zone (LEZ) standards will come into force across London.
In order to help support small businesses and charities continue with their preparation for this, the Mayor has launched a new heavy scrappage scheme in order to remove barriers that may prevent such organisations playing their part in helping to clean up London's air.
In light of the coronavirus pandemic, protecting public health has a renewed focus making it even more crucial to address London's air quality.
The scheme offers grants of £15,000 to scrap a heavy vehicle and replace it with a compliant vehicle, or to retrofit diesel vehicles up to the cleanest Euro VI standards.
The scheme follows the successful programme for small businesses and charities to scrap older, more polluting vans and minibuses. So far, 100 organisations have pre-registered their interest in the new scheme.
Read more about the scheme and check if your vehicle is compliant here.
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Invitation to join: SDGs Leaders Group
Last month saw a renewed focus on the Sustainable Development Goals, with #GlobalGoalsWeek marking 5 years since the 17 goals were agreed by all 193 Member States of the UN.
The goals provide a framework for organisations to cover a broad spectrum of areas. In addition to this the SDG Leaders Group seeks to simplify the SDGs for businesses, communities and schools to demonstrate the impact local action has on global issues.
Hosted by Model My City - a Camden initiative to bring the Global Goals to life, the CCCA want to invite those working actively to achieve them, to join the SDGs Camden Leaders Group.
The next SDG Leaders Group meeting will be held online on Tuesday 27th October 2pm - 3.15pm.
The session will be delivered by Model My City, Camden Climate Change Alliance and the Greater London Authority (GLA).
For more information about this event and details of how to register, please click here.
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Refill Refreshed! Reduce Packaging
Plastic pollution campaigning organisation City to Sea are taking the award-winning Refill campaign - which helps tackle the issues of packaging, to the next level.
The successful Refill campaign has already saved 100 million pieces of plastic from the world's oceans and is now expanding to help people in Camden live with less plastic by making it easier to go packaging free.
Effective from 1 October, the public will be able to access the free Refill app, which will help people find places to refill their coffee cup, lunch-box, groceries, as well as cleaning products and toiletries, making it the first dedicated app to helping people find out where they can bring their own containers and refill.
Users will be incentivised for reducing packaging with a variety of discounts via the app.
Refill are calling for businesses interested in taking part to get in contact.
Read more and learn how you can get involved with the campaign here.
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Update: Display Energy Certificates
The Energy Performance of Buildings Regulations for England Wales came into effect on 1 October 2008 and has since required all buildings within a certain criteria to present a valid Display Energy Certificate (DEC).
Recently there have been two significant changes made to the way DECs are formatted and lodged with the national register:
- DECs are no longer registered through the previously used 'Landmark' register. To see what this has been replaced with, click here.
- The layout of the certificate has been updated from the previous format. The formats are broadly the same, with a few key differences to make understanding building results clearer to the reader.
The CCCA is able to produce a DEC for your business as well as Advisory Reports with different recommended payback periods.
To learn more about these changes and how the CCCA can help you, read the full article here.
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