Hi there, Climate Café® Dundee has been going since August 2023, we meet on the last Wednesday of every month at 10.30am – 12 noon at the Dundee Rep and Scottish dance Theatre. Everyone gets free refreshments and pastries. Our demographic is from early twenties to late seventies.
The Climate Café® was started because we at the theatre have a great passion to protect the planet. Our aim is to reduce the damage our business can do.
The Café is a great way to meet likeminded organisations and individuals who want to do right by reducing carbon emissions.
So far, we have had a great run and have had a lot of interesting people come along, this is our story so far.
August 2023: We had a clothing sale with clothing from the wardrobe dept. Jess Pepper the climate café founder opened our café and spoke about the cafes and the reasoning behind them. We asked the people in attendance to write up some ideas on a whiteboard of what they want to get out of the café, this will help us to find the right path.
September 2023: We discussed the motion signed by Scottish Parliament and forwarded by John Swinney MSP to support the Climate Cafés. Dr Tanya Ewing founder of “Glaze & Save” gave a talk on ways to reduce energy bills in the home and Cllr Heather Anderson also popped in to talk about what Dundee City Council has been doing.
October 2023: Jean Kemp from Global Justice Dundee, talked about the energy treaty charter. It is a petition against the rising costs in fossil fuels, (this had a great outcome in February 2024). In October we also had a little fun with a poetry workshop. 3 pieces of poetry were read out. I British the other American. The reader also wrote a piece herself. We broke the people into groups to write up a piece in 20 minutes, then read them out. It opened everyone`s minds and we were surprised how all the poems were on different topics under the climate banner. In October we had an extended café with a special guest. Mr. Joe Fitzpatrick MSP for Dundee west, this gave our café goers a chance to discuss climate concerns with their MSP.
November 2023: This was our last café for 2023 as December is a very busy month for the theatre. We ended with a talk by Caishlan Sweeney on the new Eden project being planned for Dundee, then we finished with a climate quiz. The prizes were made from recycled products and wrapped in left over wallpaper.
We started back in January 2024 with a talk from Cllr Heather Anderson, who gave everyone information on the councils plans to make their 77,456 houses and flats low carbon with heat pumps, district heating, insulation etc. We also had a great discussion on ECOCIDE law and Eco Dundee talked about their petition to stop the council using pesticides.
In February 2024: The energy treaty spoke about back in October 2023 by Global Justice Dundee was accepted and the UK government have moved away. We discussed the Heat in Buildings Bill consultation. Our speaker in February was Mr Jim Lees of Energy 4 all who is one of the partners of Dundee renewable energy society, he talked about the new solar meadow being installed on the outskirts of Dundee. Dundee rep also gave the story so far of their journey to net zero. Finally, we also started to use the Climate Café Mug.
So, this brings us up to date, so far, we have had a varied mix of topics and interests, we hope the rest of the year will go as well. The café has been a great place to include everyone and is a platform for people to discuss topics they are passionate about. Below are a few more pictures.
Keep up to date with our latest news here.