What if? Imagining a zero carbon future for Sevenoaks District
April 26, 2021 9:31 AM By Tony Clayton
Over seventy local people, and inspirational speakers including Rob Hopkins of Transition Towns, gathered on 21st April and thought the unthinkable. What if Sevenoaks District (not just the Council) made it to Zero Carbon well before the Government target?
Over seventy local people, and inspirational speakers including Rob Hopkins of Transition Towns, gathered on 21st April and thought the unthinkable. What if Sevenoaks District (not just the Council) made it to Zero Carbon well before the Government target?
Rob challenged us to come up with "What If?' questions - and ideas to change the way we live. How can we win for the environment, win for quality of life, win for our local economy and win for jobs?
What if:
all our gardens were wildlife sanctuaries
all our streets were lined with trees
we didn't need rubbish collections
we had weekly car free days, and no HGVs
parents felt it was safe to let children cycle to school
council decisions were taken on lowest environmental impact
Sevenoaks was a genuinely zero plastic town
we had real action plans to insulate the housing stock
...... and many more
We talked through how important it is to link up individual actions that we can make, on energy saving, recycling, active travel and the rest with the bigger picture of decarbonising transport, the way we heat homes and offices, and how we work. So much has to change, and changes will be much easier if we start now, together, rather than put them off
People from Sevenoaks and surrounding villages have many of the skills and connections, to speed up progress. We have people working on community energy, on walking and cycling schemes, on green finance and on big technology changes. But most of them are working somewhere else!
Can we bring all these together, to make a difference in the place where we live?
Could we make Sevenoaks famous for the actions we are taking to create a genuinely sustainable future? Do we want to be green leaders? Of course we do. After all, they named Sevenoaks after the trees!
