Bike to School Week takes place on 27 September-1 October. It is a great way for children, parents and teachers to give travel to and from school by bike a go! And along the way, enjoy the fresh air and freedom that cycling provides, find out the best cycling routes around your neighbourhood, and put your cycle skills to good use.

If you are looking for a new walking challenge to boost your fitness and well-being, you might like to visit Slow Ways. This unique network of over 7,000 suggested walking routes between neighbouring cities, towns and villages was drafted online by volunteers during the Spring 2020 lockdown. Slow Ways are looking for people to walk, review and verify them all - checking over 100,000km of routes across Great Britain.  

It's Lift Share Week on 4-10 October. During the daily rush hour there are up to 38 million empty car seats in the UK! So, if you want to #CommuteBackBetter in a more sustainable way but can't give up your car, please consider car sharing. The West Sussex Car Share site helps you find someone to share your journey with to begin saving money. Car sharing is also a great way to alleviate the stress caused by travel and reduce road and parking congestion. View our video here. 

Government car sharing guidance for England recommends that sharers have fixed travel partners and ensure the vehicle is well ventilated through the use of a ventilation system or opening windows. Shared vehicles should be cleaned between shifts or before each handover. You can see the full guidance here.

Read our school travel press release  

Find out about our active travel projects

LoCASE (Low Carbon Across the South and East) is a Business Growth and Innovation Grants scheme for businesses. The scheme offers grants of up to £10,000 to environmentally-focused organisations for business growth projects.

LoCASE also offer grants of up to £10,000 to any other type of business for energy/resource efficiency projects such as LED lighting, insulation, heating or machinery upgrades, or renewable energy systems.

LoCASE also provides workshops to help businesses innovate and grow. To attend, you must be a member, but membership is free.   

The second round of our popular Solar Together Sussex scheme has launched to help our residents reduce their carbon emissions and energy costs by fitting solar panels to their home. 

The group buying scheme brings households together to install high quality solar panels and battery systems at a competitive price.

If you already have solar panels, you could register to have a battery storage system added so you can get the most out of the clean energy you generate.

Here’s how it works:

• Registration –  if you are a homeowner, register your interest in the scheme free of charge and without obligation. You'll need to provide some basic information about your roof, such as its size and orientation.
• Auction – a supplier ‘auction’ will be held on 28 September when approved solar installers will bid to supply solar panels to all the households who have registered their interest, with the most competitive bid winning. The more people that register, the better the deal should be for each household.
• Personal recommendation - from the start of October, those who have signed up will be emailed a personal recommendation and quote from the winning supplier. 
• Decision - If you've signed up to the scheme you will now need to decide if you want to accept the recommendation and quote. There is no obligation to continue. You will have until 26 November to decide.
• Installation -  If the recommendation and quote is accepted, the winning supplier will be in contact to survey the roof and set an installation date.

To register or for detailed information about likely costs, and the amount of energy you can expect to generate, visit the Solar Together website.

We are supporting our Pollinator Action Plan, by working with council partners and residents to deliver our first ‘Pollinator Highway’ along the A2025 in Lancing, to provide vital links between residents’ gardens and local natural habitats. We are also now evaluating our Community Road Verge (CRV) project currently running in 11 areas across the county. These verges receive only one mow per year after wildflowers have set seed and the grass cuttings are collected to reduce soil fertility, benefiting wildflower growth.

In all, there are over 4000 species of insect in the UK that carry out pollination of our native wild plants and our food crops. Insect pollination is extremely important to the UK economy, with estimated values of £691 million annually. Without pollinators, we would struggle to grow many vegetables and fruits including apples, pears, strawberries, beans and peas.

Image: Pollinator proactivity at the Lancing Pollinator Highway: Parish Councillors (from left) Joe Pannell, Doris Martin and Mandy Buxton. Read the full press release.

We are getting behind the Defra Plant for our Planet campaign and asking everyone to do something to help this initiative in the build-up to this year’s all-important UN Climate Conference COP26.

As individuals, communities, groups, and organisations, it’s time to step up for nature and help both reverse the ongoing and steep decline in biodiversity and mitigate against climate change.

Nature has provided solace for many of us throughout the pandemic, but now it needs our help.

Here are some suggestions on how we can all help support nature in our gardens and outdoor spaces:

• Planting in gardens, allotments, and even in window boxes can all have a positive impact on the natural world - whether it’s flowers for pollinators, or trees in the gardens.
• Consider keeping your natural lawn as artificial grass can reduce healthy habitats for insects. Let the grass grow!
• Mowing the lawn or verge only once every four weeks makes space for many important insect species and allows plants such as daisies and white clover to flower, increasing nectar production.
• Plant or sow native wildflowers, shrubs and trees where possible on areas that aren’t already species-rich.
• Start a vegetable patch and always use peat-free compost.
• Open your phone camera and start scanning your environment with an app like Seek. If you’ve found a mushroom, flower or insect, and are not sure what it is, open Seek to identify it. Drawing from millions of wildlife observations of commonly recorded insects, birds, plants, amphibians, and more in your area you can learn all about them.
• iRecord – record your local wildlife sightings – this data is collated, checked by experts, and made available to support research and decision-making at local and national levels and will contribute to the Sussex Biodiversity Records Centre.
• There is something for all ages and levels in the 2021 Great British Wildflower Hunt.
• Create a wildlife pond - even small bodies of water will attract frogs, newts and dragonflies.
• Build an insect hotel using piles of twigs, rocks and rotting wood in the garden. Put up a bird box with feed to help birds thrive.
• Leave a gap in the garden fence so that wildlife such as hedgehogs can move from plot to plot.

If you share your efforts on social media, please don’t forget to use the hashtag #PlantForOurPlanet

It's the eighteenth annual WRAP Recycle Week on 20-26 September and this year the event is putting climate change at its heart. It’s a week to encourage us all to recycle more of the right things, more often. 

All items for recycling should be:

Keep an eye out for further details on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and #RecycleWeek on social media.

• Are you struggling to pay your heating bills, or worried about how you might pay them whilst keeping warm? Grant funding and free energy advice is available to eligible people on a low income or those who have a long-term health condition. Find advice in my area.
• The South Downs National Park Authority wants to hear from people who have helped nature at home, or in their community, since the start of lockdown last year. There are some fantastic prizes up for grabs, including up to £250 towards helping wildlife in your community, family membership of the RSPB and a bug-hunting kit.
• This year’s Great British Beach Clean will take place between 17-26 September 2021, with hundreds of beach cleans take place up and down the UK. Check out their website to get involved.
• SuperHomes are holding a free online event on 28 September, for residents wanting to learn more about home retrofit and how their project can help. 

Consultations

• We are currently developing a Bus Services Improvement Plan (BSIP) in collaboration with the county's bus operators. If you have an opinion, take part in the Get buses back better consultation survey.
• Have your say on our flood risk strategy by participating in the Local Flood Risk Management Strategy Consultation.
• Don't miss out on the Draft West Sussex Transport Plan consultation which closes on 8 October.