ZERO Grand Opening!

Join in a day of celebration of ZERO, a brand new community hub for Guildford. The afternoon will be jam packed with exciting events, talks and workshops and displays from local groups.

Here's the itinerary:

12pm :  Introduction to ZERO

12:10pm :  Welcome from Guildford Environmental Forum

12:30pm :  Ribbon Cutting

1pm :  Home Energy Solutions Open Forum

2pm :  Vertical Farming Talk

3pm :  University Of Surrey Sustainability

4.30pm :  Water Rangers - The Health of our Local Waterways

Plus exhibits all day from:

Terracycle, Surrey Hills Baby Clothes Library, ZERO Wellbeing, Guildford Library Of Things, Cargo Bikes from Electric Bikes Guildford, Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), Green Read Share and more!

Plus: refreshments from the ZERO Cafe, kids activities and paper making.

Here's more information on the day's events:

Home Energy Solutions Open Forum (1pm):

One of the best ways we can individually contribute to lowering emissions is through retrofitting our homes. For those who can afford the initial outlay retrofitting will not only significantly lower your energy bills, but will slash your environmental footprint. But not everyone can afford it, so what other steps can governments & councils take to assist this pathway. We'll be cutting through the confusion with some experts in the field in an open forum chaired by Olivia Carpenter-Lomax, chair of the Energy Sector Panel of The Institution of Engineering & Technology.

Vertical Farming Talk (2pm):

Vertical Farming can play a prominent role in a community strategy to build food security and self-sufficiency in times of fragile supply chains and potential crop failure. It's not a magic bullet, but it's an important avenue for communities to explore, whilst also providing pesticide free, fresh, and delicious food, without transport emissions, and year-round growing seasons in a fraction of the time of traditional farming. Join Zoe Harris from the University Of Surrey and Will Benson from Seedleaves as they take us through the benefits, limitations, and practicalities of using innovative growing techniques to cope with a changing planet.

University of Surrey Sustainability (3pm):

The University Of Surrey is setting ambitious targets to hit carbon neutrality, and with a wealth of research and initiatives ready to deploy to the community, ZERO aims to develop a strong relationship with several different departments on Stag Hill to assist the borough in hitting carbon neutrality as quickly as possible. We're joined by Pro Vice Chancellor Graham Miller and Head Of Sustainability Tom Parrot for a discussion on the University's sustainability targets, how communities can employ some of the innovation from academia, and how we can work together as a united borough to cope with a changing planet.

Water Rangers - The Health of our Local Waterways (4:30pm):

Our waterways have been a major focus recently with the UK Government's lax approach to allowing water companies to dump raw sewage into our already threatened ecosystems. On Saturday, Kat Kavanagh joins us to talk about the health of our local waterways. Kat is Executive Director of Water Rangers, who use citizen science to sample Canada's rivers and streams. Guildford is lucky enough to have Kat as a new resident, and Kat is eager to start looking at the Wey and how we, as a community, can develop a plan to protect it.