There used to be an expression for pointless activities describing them as like ‘sending coals to Newcastle’ because during the 16th century the Newcasle on Tyne area of England was exporting more than 15,000 tonnes of coal annually.
But in an ironic environmental twist, Newcastle has announced that it plans to become the first carbon free city in the world by 2025.
The path to this ambitious goal includes updating the city’s infrastructure, increasing forest cover and reducing energy consumption. There’s even a game to educate city residents on how to become more eco-friendly in their everyday lives. Called the “Carbon Challenge,” the game’s aim is to prevent the melting of an ice cap by choosing “carbon goodies,” like recycling, bicycles and insulation, and avoiding “carbon baddies,” such as coal piles, airplanes and packaged products.
Newcastle has also involved local universities, city officials, and the public in their project called the Carbon Routemap: A Routemap to a Low Carbon Economy in Newcastle.
The project attempts to bridge the gap between top-down methods and needed bottom-up approaches (ie: the use of localised data sets) which can provide disaggregated figures for taking action. Using GIS and national statistics, the team involved will attempt to estimate hourly energy consumption in individual buildings. These hourly energy profiles can then be used to inform the public and hopefully inspire people to reduce their consumption. The aim of the carbon route map project is to provide Newcastle City Council with a transferable approach that has an adequate spatial and temporal resolution for evaluating mitigation measures at city scale.
You can read more about it at This Big City.
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