Last week saw the first in the series of 4 ‘Galloway Footsteps’ events, with participants encouraged to measure and then take steps to reduce their carbon footprint using the online ‘Giki’ tool. ‘Team Galloway’ already has 35 members and a commitment to reduce 32 tonnes of carbon over the next year!
The Galloway Footsteps initiative is a series of four online events, one a month on a Wednesday evening, from May to August 2021, where we explore the impact we have on the environment and are inspired to make changes on a variety of topics, from Home to Food to Transport. Then, using Giki Zero (https://zero.giki.earth/), a free online sustainability calculator, we can track the impact of these changes we make.
The May event focussed on ‘What We Buy’, and the recording of the event can be found on the Galloway Glens YouTube channel. Eyes are now turning to the next event on 2nd June at 7.30pm entitled ‘What We Eat’, exploring innovative and local opportunities to bring us closer to the food we eat.
Book your free ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/153645217983. Events are open to all, irrespective of whether you attend previous or future events, where you are based or whether you decide to measure your carbon footprint on the online Giki tool.
The aim of the initiative is to highlight how the decisions we make as consumers can make a genuine difference to the carbon footprint we all leave on the planet, as well as embedding changes in our lives. The events are being delivered by the Galloway Glens Scheme, in partnership with Dumfries & Galloway Council’s Environment Team, the Crichton Carbon Centre and Giki.
Leading the Galloway Footsteps Initiative is Helen Keron, from the Galloway Glens Team. Looking ahead to the ‘What We Eat’ event on 02 June, Helen said:
“The enthusiasm of the Team Galloway members for making small changes in their lifestyle that are already really adding up is so great to see. Giki makes measuring and reducing your carbon footprint easy and it’s actually quite good fun as well! The Galloway Footsteps events are all about helping us all to make the individual changes that count, instead of feeling overwhelmed by the scale of the Climate Emergency problem. I’m excited to see how we all get on, and really looking forward to hearing from Abi Mordin of Hidden Veg and Propagate about inspiration for making good food buying choices next month.”
A member of the Giki team will attend each event to support users and answer any queries. Jo Hand, co-founder of Giki, said:
“Our mission at Giki is to help people live more sustainably and find their path to a Net Zero lifestyle, by providing easy to use, evidence based tools that allow everyone to make the decisions which are right for them, their lifestyle and their budget. We believe that if everyone can build their own personal plan for what they can do to protect their world, then we can all play a crucial role to preserve the environment on which we all depend.”
