By Raiyan Azmi on behalf of SLH
This article was originally written for the August edition of Heatons Post
Sustainable Living in the Heatons brought three thought-provoking and fun activities to the Heatons Post Summerfest in July. The first – which brought plenty of people of all ages in, including the mayor – was our smoothie bike. People came and learnt to use their own renewable energy source (their legs) to produce delicious banana, strawberry and apple smoothies. The bike was so popular that we were churning out a smoothie every 80 seconds through the day – with no need to worry about the energy bill!
The second activity was DIY bughouses. SLH provided a wider variety of natural materials and help for visitors to construct their own homes for insect life. Insects play a critical and underappreciated role in our ecosystem, pollinating flowers to help them reproduce, decomposing organic waste, and providing a source of food for birds and other small animals. Children took away the bughouses they made, and some food for thought too hopefully.
SLH volunteers also showed visitors how to work out their carbon footprint in a quick, simple way by using the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) calculator. This prompted some engaging discussions on ways to gradually reduce one’s footprint. It was a wonderful atmosphere and great community event – thanks Heatons Post for organising!