Earlier this year, we pledged to plant a tree for every primary school child in the district – 55,000 trees – over the next two years.

Trees play a vital role in absorbing carbon – they remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store the carbon in wood.  In woodlands the carbon builds up and is locked away in the soil.

We are now putting plans in place to make this happen and working with Trees for Cities, Forest of Bradford (BEAT), Bradford and Leeds Fruit Trees, Town Councils and our communities. 

We would like to invite schools to get actively involved in this project in the following ways:

• Tree for Every Child Woods: A chance for schools or classes to come along and help to plant two new dedicated woods with public access.
• School Orchard: Start an orchard in your school. We will provide trees and training to fill the fruit bowl!
• School Trees: A bundle of native trees (with support and instructions) to increase the number of trees in school grounds.
• Take Away Trees: We will provide a limited number of smaller trees suitable to take home and plant in the garden.

To find out more and register an interest in any of the above please email climateaction@bradford.gov.uk  

We hope to officially launch Tree for Every Child during National Tree Planting Week – 28 November to 6 December.

A global virtual event featuring international speakers from the world of film, politics and science – TED Countdown Global Launch – takes place this Saturday (10 October).

It will look at the climate crisis, the race to a zero-carbon world and how everyone around the world can collaborate to take action. Among the speakers are actor Mark Ruffalo, HRH Prince William, Jane Fonda, David Lammy MP, Al Gore and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission.

The event runs from 4-9.30pm and can be accessed here 

 Alternatively, Bradford Impact Hub is hosting its own event to mark this from 4-7pm on 15 October. They will be screening talks from the TED Countdown and hosting discussions with local people.

You can join this event in person at a socially distanced gathering for 30 people or via Zoom. Information on the event and how to book tickets here. 

Glenaire Primary School in Baildon has been reaping the benefits of having solar panels for 12 months.

Since the official ‘launch’ of the panels in September 2019, the school has received £200 from the Feed in Tariff (FiT) – the amount paid back by their energy supplier for any extra units of energy produced which is exported to the National Grid.

The school plans to use this extra money for future environmental projects, such as replacing more of their lights with LEDs.

The panels were funded by the Run on Sun Fun(d), a charitable trust set up by Baildon Friends of the Earth which raised the money over a two and a half years.

In our third podcast, Cllr Caroline Firth (pictured back row, second from right) talks to John Anderson of Baildon Friends of the Earth about the importance of this scheme, teaching children about renewable energy. He also talks about his involvement the creation of The Fold – a state of the art Passivhaus eco building for Baildon Methodist Church. 

A further two new Electric Vehicle charge points are now up and running in Manningham and Ilkley.

They are at Victor Street Car Park, Manningham BD9 4RB (pictured here) and Hawksworth Street Car Park, Ilkley LS29 9DX.

For more information on charge points, see the Engie website. 

The war on single use plastics took a significant step forward last week with the delayed ban on plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds.

The new Government legislation was planned to apply from April, but was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It stops the sale and distribution of plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds in England, but has exemptions for people with disabilities and those with medical conditions who need to use plastic straws.

According to Greenpeace, a truckload of plastic enters the ocean every single minute and UK supermarkets produce 800,000 tonnes of it every year. It causes serious damage to sea animals, fish and birds who can become entangled in it or mistake it for food.