Sustainability Task Force (Weds 24th Oct)

Meets every month. Tomorrow night (Wed 24th Oct), at 6.30pm in the Town Hall is the second session on transport issues. I've been a member since inception.

SusForce is ALL party. Not just engaged Councillors but also Camden officers with a committment to the climate change agenda. Usually excellent external speakers.

The Task Force's paper on waste and recycling goes to the Camden Executive this week.

Alexis Rowell, Camden's Eco Champion, ensures it is lively and well run. Unlike much of what happens in the Town Hall, SusForce meetings are FUN and well attended by the public.

The next SusForce meeting is on Wed 5th Dec at 6.30pm in the Town Hall and it's on Biodiversity.

The SusForce website is at: http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/environment/events-and-initiatives/sustainability-task-force/;jsessionid=17CD3F64E5D0430F242C4A984EAB1547.node1

The session on Water on 14th November was excellent - with the notable exception of the stuffed-shirt from Thames Water.

Members are in the process of preparing our recommendations to the Executive on Transport, which should be finalised before Christmas.

If plants, insects and animals are struggling with global warming, then the likelihood is we won’t be far behind. According to the World Conservation Union the number of species threatened with extinction increased from 16,118 in 2006 to 16,306 in 2007. Our Camden Biodiversity Officer, Moy Cash, will explain what we are doing to preserve and enhance biodiversity.

One way to encourage biodiversity is to install green roofs. So we're delighted to welcome London ’s top green roof expert Dusty Gedge. He’ll be looking at the benefits of living roofs for the energy balance of buildings, for mitigating climate change, for countering the urban heat island effect, for controlling storm water, for enhancing biodiversity and as leisure amenities.

Most people, asked to name Camden ’s green spaces, would think of our parks. But it’s a little known fact that we actually have more green areas on our housing estates than in our parks and open spaces. What’s more, if you include the hard surfaces on our housing estates, then we could actually more than double the amount of green space in Camden . Mathew Frith of the Peabody Trust will tell us about what he’s been doing to green housing estates around London and how we could do the same thing in Camden.

Biodiversity and Green Spaces - a Camden Sustainability Task Force meeting - Wed 5 Dec @ 18:30 in Camden Town Hall