Sustainability stories - Cotteridge LM

Chris and Harriet Martin, Cotteridge LM

We’ve become increasingly climate change conscious since seeing the matching curves of CO2 and world temperature increases in 1979. Between 1979 and 2008 we cut our home heating energy by 72% and our electricity use by 73%. In 2007 we moved to a largely vegetarian diet, collected about 500 aluminium tins from the streets for recycling, bought a lot less and, most importantly, and ceased flying. Our carbon footprints halved from 12 tonnes to 6 tonnes in that year. Giving up flying was particularly difficult as I am American by birth. Using www.seat61.com we have travelled by train to Italy, Spain, Russia and eastern Syria. Free passes help make bus and local train the default choice for city travel.

In 2008 Chris acquired an allotment and our own food production increased--not a huge hit in CO2 terms, but a linkage to a new community as well as to the soil. Our family house was bigger than we needed and, despite all our improvements, more energy hungry than we wanted. Chris spotted a semi detached house while cycling back from his allotment. It needed a lot of renovation—good, as we wanted to use the most and the best possible insulation.

We were very fortunate in being able to work on the house for six months before moving in. As well as cavity wall and very deep loft insulation, we insulated under the floors, dry lined external walls, installed A rated glazing, bought a smokeless wood burner, built a conservatory for passive solar gain, installed solar thermal panels on the roof and solar PV panels on a DIY custom built pergola in the garden. The PV panels should generate as much electricity as we use in a year and the solar thermal panels should provide at least half of our hot water needs.

In September 2010 our home was accepted as the 63rd national “Old Home Super Home.” It will be open to the public two weekends a year enabling us to share our experiences with others. Details of the house appear on the meeting website and we have written a booklet explaining our decisions and processes for visitors.

Our blue planet has been a wondrous place to live our lives. The growing realization that we and our parents have been so effective in smothering it in CO2 blights our peaceful retirement. We need to know that we are making a serious effort towards righting this wrong, done by our generation to future generations of life on earth.

We’d love to hear the story of you or your meeting too. Just email sunnivat@quaker.org.uk and tell us about it.