October was an incredibly exciting and interesting month at Bricks and Bread, with more people visiting the centre in the last few weeks than in the five months we have been open. The phone has been ringing off the hook with enquiries. Emails are coming in every few minutes from across the world offering support and asking for our help. Our website, that I created myself because we didn’t have the budget or the time to wait for someone else to do it properly, is now consistently attracting a whopping 9,000 hits on average a day!
We held a very successful event to support 350.org campaign and the International Day of Climate Action, which saw over 5000 events occurring in 181 countries to highlight that 350 parts per million is the safe upper limit of carbon emissions in the atmosphere - whilst we are now at 390ppm. The number of local people who attended our event with their children and grandchildren was really heart-warming. It was a family fun day which attracted more media coverage than we have ever managed to obtain, from our local paper to even a radio station in South Africa was covering our event.
Major organisations have contacted the Centre to ask us to work with them. I can’t believe how rapidly they have gone out of their way to align themselves with us, let alone offering us a considerable amount of sponsorship so we can achieve our goals of providing subsidised training and advice for local people. The huge effort and long hours I have put into creating this business appear to be paying off. The odds have truly been against me, I have not been able to afford more than a handful of days off in the last year. I have completely stuck my neck on the line to create this business. My closest friends thought it wasn’t worth me taking the risk of going bankrupt if it went wrong. I wish this is where my message ends as a good news story of a growing venture.
What was deeply troubling me and inspired me to create this centre is really worrying me now. At the beginning of this year it was obvious to me that this is a critical year for the future of our planet. The warning signs have been around for years, rising fossil fuel prices combined with diminishing resources and increasing demand for oil, along with our global trade network is increasing greenhouse gas emissions like co2 and methane. Our credit culture, throwaway society was not just creating a ticking bomb under the economy. It was also accelerating climate change.
In December world leaders are meeting for the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, if we are lucky they will make far reaching decisions that may reverse what has become a major threat to mankind and the environment. But be in no doubt that if they do create a treaty that really tackles climate change, this will have far reaching impacts on all our lives. The polluter will be forced to pay - that means all of us, as we all have an environmental impact. Whatever happens at Copenhagen it is still down to all of us to take immediate action and not just a handful of us. There are billions of people who don’t want to make changes to their lives. We may be lucky that the damage we have caused the environment may be reversible. I truly hope so.
There are millions of businesses who are only interested in profits; they ignore the consequences of marketing green wash. It is fairly simple to play with figures, turn statistics to your benefit, or offset carbon emissions. These businesses will not admit they haven’t reduced the environmental impacts from their business in case it damages consumer/shareholder opinions.
It has taken me seven years of determination to obtain my level of knowledge and another year of complete dedication to get this business off the ground. I know how incredibly difficult it is to make a business truly sustainable even if you start out that way and have very clear, transparent objectives. Once you work with other businesses and use other companies products it can quickly become an unsustainable business. In order to be a sustainable business, your supply chain needs to be supplied by sustainable businesses too. This is why just a few weeks before Copenhagen we have been inundated with offers of support from large organisations, as they are not stupid they will need ethical sustainable businesses like us to help them look good and survive.
I have not had any funding, grants, financial support of any kind from anyone in public sector organisations who either ought to be supporting us, or who said months ago they wanted to support us, they have not done anything yet! I may be on my way to being able to pay our bills and will make a profit in the next year that will benefit our local community. But in the meantime the majority of schools, small businesses and residents within 10 miles of the centre do not seem to realise how lucky they are to have a hub for expert advice here.
It is vitally important that they get in touch with us to obtain the advice, training, products and services we offer, as few people in our local area are self sufficient, they don’t know how to build eco homes or how to run a sustainable business. Unless we can rapidly engage the vast majority of people in our local area to come into the centre for advice, training and products, then all my business will achieve is to make large corporates look and feel better.
It is unbelievably urgent that everyone who reads this makes the effort to get in touch with us, even if you think you already do enough to be sustainable, or don’t believe you can do anything to make a difference. Trust me it is! Do something this week, don’t delay taking this action. This business is here to benefit you, our local economy, our community and most importantly for our environment.
This is not a sales technique, or a marketing ploy, this is a sincere message from a business woman who risked her own financial stability to set up a community interest company as a hub for experts, simply to help you and other local people learn how to live, work and build sustainably. Your response to this message is vital, within a very short time I can see Bricks and Bread becoming a crisis centre, sponsored by large corporates and helping the people who didn't think they needed to adapt to a low carbon economy!
Trudy Thompson
Founder
Bricks and Bread Sustainable Living Centre CIC
