Getting off-grid: developing a wood gasifier in the woods in darkest Buckinghamshire
As industrial society continues on its capitalist and consumer-led treadmill, its detrimental effect on ecology and the environment are accelerating whilst the returns diminish. As a counter to this, a growing number of people across the world are building communities and working to become independent Read more
Part-time work available in the Lowimpact team
This is the second of a series of jobs that will hopefully become available this year. Read more
Job opportunity in the WWOOF team
Personnel and Organisational Administrator WWOOF UK (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) is looking for a specialist in HR policy and procedures, with strong people skills. Read more
Career change? How to become a self-employed natural builder
We’re approached a lot by people wanting to change career to one focused on one of the topics on our website. The most common topic is probably low-impact building. Read more
Earth Building UK are looking for two new directors – can you help?
Earth Building UK is a registered charity involved in a wide range of activities to do with all aspects of earth building. We don’t know exactly how many earth buildings there are in the UK – many thousands certainly, and built using a wide range of techniques. Read more
New phone? Maybe it’s a Fairphone for you in 2015? Here’s why.
Dave of Lowimpact.org interviews Lucy Neal, Dave Mauger and Emily Oliver of Transition Town Tooting about Fairphone. Lowimpact.org is constantly looking for sustainable ways to provide the basic necessities of life Read more
New website, new name & the power of networking
Goodbye old website (left), hello new website (right) – and with the new website comes a new name. Since we started in 2001, we’ve always had a bit of a problem with our name. Read more
How to turn trees into houses, and why it’s a good idea
There’s a lot of talk these days about ‘carbon sequestration’ – how to lock up carbon from the atmosphere in various ways, including: Read more
What low-impacters are up to around the country: Greystoke Cycle Cafe
Proper seasonal tea garden cafés (i.e. just with a tea garden facility and no indoor space as a cosy backup) are few and far between in this country – especially in the north (thanks largely to the weather) Read more
What is TTIP exactly, and what’s it for? Interview with the World Development Movement
You may have heard of a proposed trade deal called TTIP (generally pronounced tee-tip). You may also be aware of an awful lot of protest against it. Do you know what it is, and why there is so much opposition to it? Read more
Is the global human population too high? Steady-state people as well as steady-state economics?
There is a long-standing case made for the benefits of a steady-state economy. With climate change, collapsing biodiversity and increasing pressure on key resources, that has to be the way to go. Read more
Why Brian Cox is wrong about nuclear fusion
Who’s been watching ‘Human Universe‘ with Brian Cox? I’m especially talking about the last episode – ‘What is our Future?‘ Brian Cox is doing a great job popularising science – and science, as he says, is a ‘wonderful tool for making the darkness visible’. Read more
New share offers in community-owned renewable energy projects around the UK
Pomona Solar launched its pioneer share offer during h-Energy festivities on 11th October in Hereford. Pomona’s first scheme is for a 250kW solar PV array that will supply low-cost electricity to small businesses located on the site. Read more
Why Adam Smith, father of capitalism, would have hated neoliberalism
1776 was a very good year. The US declared independence and Adam Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations. Both of these events helped mark the transition to a new world; both have contributed enormously to human freedom, and have therefore been claimed by neoliberals as their own. Read more
Help put energy into the hands of local people, and make yourself a bit of money at the same time
The Low Carbon Hub has just launched its 2014 community share offer to raise £1.5 million investment into its first wave of renewable energy schemes for Oxfordshire. Read more
Are we ‘silenced by economic power’? Paris 2015 and the Hartwell Paper
In December 2011, South Africa welcomed the United Nations Framing Convention on Climate Change. The host city was Durban, where a number of years before, and just after his release from prison, Nelson Mandela had Read more
Where do banks get the money for mortgages from?
The simple answer is that they don’t have it. They check your credit record, decide you’re OK, type some numbers into a computer and suddenly you owe them a significant portion of your income for 25 years, plus interest. Read more
The Great Seed Festival: let’s prevent the corporate takeover of our seeds
Our entire lives depend on seed. Almost all of the food we eat starts out as a seed – from the vegetables, fruits and roots we grow, to the bread we bake, the milk we make and even our meat, which comes primarily from animals that live on food grown from seed. Read more
Size matters: why a big house can’t be a green house
The wonderful Art Ludwig of Oasis Design in the US was asked to design and build an ‘eco-home’ for a client. He wrote a letter to the client to explain that he couldn’t take on the project because green ‘add-ons’ aren’t green at all when tacked on to a house that is too big Read more
French farmhouse free to the right low-impacter (roofing skills would be a bonus)
We are in contact with an English man who has a French property but will no longer be able to live there. He’s happy to give it away to someone who will turn it into the kind of eco-home / low-impact smallholding that he intended. Read more