The Challenge of Being Green

• Argyle Street Housing Co-operative (ASH) is a purpose-built, government-funded housing co-operative in Cambridge, set up in 1981. The co-op offers shared accommodation and consists of houses and flats, surrounding three communal gardens. There are currently 86 co-op members. Bryony Vickers is 31, a member of ASH and the Development Co-ordinator. She is responsible for looking at the co-op’s internal development in terms of improving the environmental impact of the existing buildings and the co-op’s policies. She is passionate about environmental issues and finished a degree in sustainability last year.

• Her role in the housing co-op, and her passion for sustainability, meant that she was already trying to improve the housing co-op’s green credentials before signing up for Greener Together. “I was quite excited to hear about Greener Together”, she explains “and thought it could be something that ASH would like to be involved in, because we’re already quite green and because we’re already making moves in that direction”. Bryony was particularly interested in signing up to Greener Together because of its focus on behavioural change. “There’s a lot of work at ASH being done on infrastructure, and I think that’s really important, but I also think you need to have the two-pronged approach of addressing both the issues. I thought Greener Together would be a great way to encourage people to think about their behaviour, particularly in terms of energy use; it makes a massive difference.

• “At ASH, we have been measuring the gas and electricity use of our four-person houses. All houses are identical in terms of structure; it’s the tenants and their lifestyles that differ. We found that the highest figure of carbon emissions was 100% larger than the lowest. This shows that within the home, purely through behaviour, it’s possible to cut carbon emissions by at least half”.

• The housing co-op’s target was 30 pioneers, and Bryony got the first 15 people to sign up relatively easily. “After that, it became an uphill struggle. People seemed interested in the project, and thought it was a great idea, but to actually get people to commit to being involved was much harder”. ASH now has 27 people signed up. However, despite almost getting the required numbers, Bryony has also found it difficult to get those who’ve signed up to actually engage with the project. “The hardest thing is getting people to talk to me in the first place which is making it harder to find out what’s stopping them from being involved”. She suspects that it’s a combination of people being too busy, and a side-effect of the housing association being quite green to start with. “People already feel like they’re making a big effort and the idea of having to commit to making an extra effort or to do more seems like too much, or maybe even a bit unnecessary”.

• Being green

• Bryony is just about to start some new strategies to see if that improves participation. “I’ve decided to hold weekly surgeries and make a time every week when I’ll be available in the garden. It’ll be quite casual, so people can have a chat about green issues in general, as well as Greener Together. Perhaps making it wider and less formal might make it more appealing”. Bryony is determined to keep trying to make Greener Together a success, despite the challenges to date. “Even if I can get just a couple of people thinking about it more, it’s possible that things will disseminate further out amongst the people they know”.

• Bryony has signed up to 9 pledges. “The ones within the home have been going well. I’ve nominated my daughter as the light monitor so she gets to tell us off for leaving the lights on. That’s been quite effective”. However, other pledges have been harder: “buying less packaging has been quite tricky, simply because of the amount in shops that’s out there”. Bryony’s greatest success is a new pledge that she’s made herself: to eat less meat. “I find it quite difficult cos I’m a real foodie and I like meat, even though I understand that it’s much less sustainable than other sources of protein.” She’s made a commitment to only eating meat three times a week and only buying it from local butchers that source it from local farms. “I’d had the idea of cutting down on meat for a while, but signing up for Greener Together has pushed me into actually doing it”. She hasn’t found it as hard as she expected. “I still have to remind myself when I’m out shopping, but once you’ve made the commitment to doing it, you start to change your mindset and it’s not actually too much of a problem”.