Canterbury’s climate action champions will be recognised this month as the first ever Canterbury Climate Action Awards are handed out to organisations and individuals making the city greener and cleaner for all.
More than 30 local businesses, community groups, schools, colleges, Canterbury’s universities and individual carbon heroes will come together on 24th and 25th September for the first Canterbury Climate Action Festival, a free public event founded by the Canterbury Climate Action Partnership (CCAP) and sponsored by E.On and HSBC UK, to showcase the positive eco-conscious activity underway across the district.
Part of the national Great Big Green Week, the festival will be hosted at Augustine Hall courtesy of festival host Canterbury Christ Church University from 10am to 5pm Saturday and 10am to 3pm Sunday, with 30+ stalls and free family activities to make bug hotels, bird feeders, eco-artwork sessions and workshops on low-waste living. There will also be a CCAP stand at the Canterbury Food Festival in Dane John Gardens offering information on the event as well.
There will also be a programme of talks and discussions each day on everything from retrofitting homes and repair cafes to the climate change agenda for Canterbury. In partnership with Reward Events, a local sustainable event management company, work is also being carried out towards making the festival carbon neutral.
The festival culminates in the first ever Canterbury Climate Action Awards from 3.30pm to 5pm on Sunday 25th September sponsored by HSBC. A total of 28 nominations have been received across five award categories that champion the work of businesses, schools, colleges and universities, community organisations and individuals to support low carbon and biodiversity initiatives and innovation.
The festival is sponsored by E.On, hosted by Canterbury Christ Church University. The headline award sponsor is HSBC UK with individual award sponsorship provided by Barratt Homes, Canterbury BID, Convert Energy, David Wilson Homes, Mansfields, Pillory Barn, Shepherd Neame and Unitrax.
As in 2021, CCAP will have official accreditation at the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, and will use this opportunity to showcase the outcome of the Climate Action Festival internationally.
Dr Carl Wright, Chair of CCAP, said: “2022 saw our hottest summer on record, extreme weather events and spiralling energy costs, demonstrating that the Climate Crisis is happening now. Our Canterbury Climate Action Festival and Awards present a key opportunity to highlight what both individuals and organisations should do to address the growing Climate Emergency and to help realise the vital Zero Carbon targets.”
Awards will be given out for each category, and an overall Climate Action Award winner will be presented with a prize of a Unitrax folding electric bicycle. Nominees include:
- Conker Conservation
- Convert Energy
- FW Mansfield
- Kreston Reeves
- The Marlowe Theatre
- Solaris Energy
- Vita Stores Whitstable
- The Foundry Brewery
- Canterbury College
- Canterbury Christ Church University
- University of Kent
- Mid Kent College
- Barham Primary School
- Herne Bay Junior School
- Whitstable and Seasalter Junior Schools
- St Anselm’s School
- Canterbury Alliance for Sustainable Transport
- The Green Team Canterbury
- The Franciscan Gardens Canterbury
- Natural Whitstable
- Wildwood Trust & Kent Wildlife Trust
- Canterbury Repair Cafe
- Soroptimist International – South East England
- Anastasia Semaan
- Future Food Forests
Visit the CCAP website for full details of the different nominees and more details on the festival: https://www.ccap.org.uk/canterbury-climate-action-festival-2022
In the lead up to the festival, there will be a free ‘walk and talk’ on Wednesday 21st September at 6pm with We ARE Nature at the Abbots Mill Project Peace Garden.
The festival and awards have been created by The Canterbury Climate Action Partnership (CCAP), an independent not-for-profit Community Interest Company working to bring together all like-minded interest groups within the district to mobilise action towards a more sustainable future; especially to achieve a zero carbon district by 2030.
FESTIVAL & AWARDS SPONSORS
For more information about the Festival and Awards, including information on each of the nominations, please visit https://www.ccap.org.uk/canterbury-climate-action-festival-2022
For more media information or to request interviews or filming, please contact Sinead Hanna sinead@sineadhanna.com 07792209973.
NOTES FOR EDITORS
About CCAP
Canterbury Climate Action Partnership (CCAP) was formed in June 2019 as a partnership between the Canterbury Society and the Canterbury Sustainable Development Goals Forum. It has now grown to include representatives from Canterbury City Council, local civic society groups, our three universities, business, residents’ associations, faith groups, youth groups and many others.
The partnership is an independent not-for-profit Community Interest Company working closely with our city and county councils, and councillors from various political parties attend our meetings. The Partnership sees its main role as bringing together all like-minded interest groups within the district to mobilise action towards a more sustainable future; especially to achieve a zero carbon district by 2030. Our aims have been agreed by all our partnership groups and by extension, our residents (via residents’ associations), our young people (via the universities and youth groups), and our business community (via the Business Improvement District).
These aims are:
- To support the Council in the implementation of their Climate Emergency and associated actions
- To reduce consumption and the related carbon emissions throughout the district and work towards a net zero carbon Canterbury by 2030.
- To promote the regeneration of our ecology and biodiversity and to increase the proportion of energy we consume that is generated locally from renewable sources.
- To work with and support other groups that are campaigning for a more sustainable future and SDG implementation for/in our district: for better air quality, modal shift, sustainable transport, the reversal of habitat loss and bio-diversity collapse, sustainable land management, the avoidance of waste (reuse, repair, buy less), the conservation of water, better recycling rates, a reduction in the use of plastics generally and the eradication of single use plastics specifically.
- To support the work of the Canterbury Society and the Canterbury SDG Forum in respect of the above.
Visit www.ccap.org.uk for more information.
