We apologise for the break in communications...We're not lazy, just forgetful!

Back in September last year our new website, the 'Leapsite', went live to tremendous fanfare.
The long and the short of this is that the Leap Blog is now hosted there.

Please go to: http://www.designforchange.co.uk/blog.php for more excellent Leap happenings!

UK Blackouts by 2016?

The government's new energy advisor, due to take his post on 1st October, has told the BBC that by the time coal and nuclear power stations go offline in 2016, energy customers could already be experiencing blackouts.

Professor David MacKay, author of Sustainable Energy - Without The Hot Air is currently a researcher at Cambridge University, but has been asked to join the Department of Energy next month. He said that government policy was 'going in the right direction' but that the severity of the situation had not been made clear to the British public.

"There is a worry that in 2016 there might not be enough electricity. My guess is that what the market might do is fix that problem by making more gas power stations, which isn't the direction we want to be going in," he said.

"So we really should be upping the build rate of the alternatives as soon as possible."

A synopsis and full PDF copy of Professor MacKay's book are available here: http://www.withouthotair.com/ and is recommended by The Economist, The Guardian, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace.

Water Pilgrim Hits BBC Homepage!

Maxim Laithwaite, aka the Water Pilgrim has been interviewed by BBC 5 Live and has ended up on the BBC Homepage for all its visitors to see!

Maxim started out on his 600 mile journey on 10th July in Minehead and reached Land's End on 2nd August. His epic journey was designed to raise awareness of water shortage in the poorest countries on Earth and is now coming to its end in Poole on Saturday (12th September).

Click here to view the BBC's Story.

Design Forum Launches Training Event

The South West Design Forum has launched a series of training days for designers hosted across the South West region.
Entitled Design Train 09, the workshops are being supported and subsidised by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The workshops cover several subjects including Project Management, Digital Imaging, Leadership and Management, Sustainable Design and Service Design and will be delivered in Bournemouth, Bath, Falmouth, Bristol and Taunton.
For Further Information go to: http://www.swdf.co.uk/DesignTrain

"Radical Rent-a-Bikes Generate Eco-Friendly Energy"

"Designer Chiyu Chen has conceived of an ingenious transit system that encourages the use of sustainable transportation by crediting people for renting and riding bicycles. His Hybrid2 system consists of a fleet of rentable bicycles that are capable of generating and storing kinetic energy, which is then used to power the city’s hybrid electric buses. Simply rent a bike, charge it up with kinetic energy from pedal power, and then return it to a kiosk - the station feeds energy into the city’s smart grid, and you receive a credit towards your next bus pass!"

What a Great Idea!

Do You Want to Eradicate Poverty?

Christian Aid have had a great little video made as an introduction to their 'Poverty Over' website and evokes Nexus Productions' renowned animated title sequence for Steven Speilberg's 'Catch Me if You Can' from 2002. You can view the video here.

'Field of Light' by Bruce Munro

Late last year, renowned light sculptor Bruce Munro and his team descended on the Eden Project in Bodelva to create a truly inspiring sight for visitors to see. Entitled 'Field of Light' the piece contained 6,000 acrylic 'stems' capped with glass spheres and used 24,000 metres of fibre optic cable.
“I think Field of Light looks fantastic at the Eden Project” said Munro “ I’m always slightly nervous before we’ve installed a piece, in case somehow it doesn’t work in the location. But I’m really happy at how it’s worked out.”

Place Based Learning Website Goes Live

Place Based Learning, an initiative funded by the Carnegie UK Trust “encourages teachers and students to use the school site, the local community, and special places nearby as resources, turning communities into classrooms.”
This fantastic project being pioneered in Cornwall by Will Coleman; is designed to open up the endless exciting opportunities available to teachers and educational professionals just outside the classroom that will give children the feeling of place and membership of a community that is so lacking from recent educational approaches.

Green Awards Go with Park Lane Press

Park Lane Press in Wiltshire have been chosen by the Green Awards 2009 as their printing sponsor. In this role Park Lane will print all the promotional material for the awards and is said by the company to be a celebration of ten years of waterless printing.
The company is also celebrating a highly successful year with their own awards with four major environmental awards being won by this already highly regarded press.
Like Leap, Park Lane Press are ISO-14001 accredited and back in June was awarded the Best SME Award at the second annual ISO-14001 Awards hosted by the British Standards Institution.
Park Lane’s waterless printing process saves a huge amount of water (obviously), but also energy and solvents, especially isopropyl alcohol (IPA). In ten years Park Lane has saved 58,700 litres of IPA solvent and over 7,300,000 litres of water.
Philip Sudwell, Managing Director of Park Lane Press said: “I would urge all businesses to see green not as a compromise in quality or an additional cost but the complete opposite. It’s what our customers demand and we have proved it is possible to place green issues at the heart of a successful business without jeopardising product quality or our bottom line.” Here here to that!

Leap has Pledged... Will You?

"Truro Cathedral is behind a campaign to get Cornwall's voice heard at the next Climate Summit due to take place in Copenhagen in December. An open meeting has been convened at the Cathedral on Friday 9th October at 7.30pm in order that the voice of the ordinary people of Cornwall can be heard. Please tell as many people as you can about this event, there will be guest speakers and a chance to view the supporting exhibition."

A Cornish Declaration has been drafted that states:

We the people of Cornwall and our visitors, pledge to ensure that our families and our communities will survive to freely enjoy the bounty and beauty of Cornwall

We pledge:

• to strive to restore the balance between nature and society
• to strive to lead sustainable lives
• to strive to leave positive footprints on the path to Copenhagen and into the future

We want Cornwall to be part of a planet which lives within its means.

At Copenhagen in December 2009 we want the Prime Minister and his Ministers to forge an agreement amongst all nations to keep the increase in temperature of this planet to below 2 degrees C.
Please goto: http://www.trurocathedral.org.uk/hot-topics/hot-topics.php to sign the pledge.

Waterslide!

Here's something that Matt found the other week...

See more funny videos and TBT Videos at Today's Big Thing.

Last Night at Transition

Last night's Transition St Austell meeting was the first that Katy and I have attended. It was a film night showing Leonardo DiCaprio's The 11th Hour with a discussion to follow. Although not highly attended, we had a in depth discussion afterwards about the issues raised and how they might affect our town. The next meeting is due to be a seminar about renewable energy in the middle of September.

Leap Gains Ethical Accrediation

Last week we received word that we have finally gained our ethical accreditation from the ethical company organisation. In their own words: “The Ethical Company Organisation is working for animal welfare, human rights and the environment by providing clear information on companies for ethical shoppers.” Their website, where you can find out all about their accreditation scheme and The Good Shopping Guide (their annual summary of all their research), can be found at: http://www.ethical-company-organisation.org/
Keep an eye out for the logo on our emails in the near future...

Next Transition St Austell Meeting 6th August 2009

To support our client Transition St Austell we've lent the group two titles from our environmental DVD collection. Mark and Katie of Transition said: "We are back at the White Hart, St Austell for a film night. The film in question is The 11th Hour. Created, produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, on the state of the natural environment the film documents the grave problems facing the planet's life systems. Global warming, deforestation, mass species extinction, and depletion of the oceans' habitats are all addressed. The film's premise is that the future of humanity is in jeopardy. The film proposes potential solutions to these problems by calling for restorative action by the reshaping and rethinking of global human activity through technology, social responsibility and conservation."
At this early stage of the resurgence of Transition in St Austell it would be great if we could get more people at each subsequent meeting.
Let's try to restore the largest town in Cornwall to the rich community that it once was...

Leap Highlighted

As a company with one foot in the media industry, we like to keep on top of ours and our clients exposure in the press and online. I was surprised this morning to find that we were featured in an article about ISO-14001 accreditation and the EMS Easy tool and how it's helping SME's on an online green newsletter entitled GreenWise.
The article discusses the benefits of the EMS Easy tool kit and that it enables smaller businesses to gain accreditations that five years ago they wouldn't have considered possible or economical to aim for.
"Apart from Cornwall-based Leap Media, four of Global Action Plan’s clients have achieved ISO14001 using the tool kit in the past year – none of them employing more than 50 staff – dispelling the myth that environmental management standards are the sole preserve of large organisations."
Leap previously worked for Global Action Plan and developed all branding and marketing collateral for their Envision project.
Full article is to be found here.

Leap Nominated for University of Plymouth Vice Chancellor Award

Leap were told the other day that Unlocking Cornish Potential (UCP), the guys that brought Claire England and Chris Maynard into the company, have nominated Leap for the University of Plymouth Vice Chancellor Award for Enterprise in Cornwall.
It is awarded to businesses and individuals "for enterprising activities in Cornwall which have influenced thinking in the county and contributed to its economic, social and cultural development."
The winner will be announced at a black tie Awards Dinner to be held in the Graduation Marquee on Thursday 17th September.

Holz Eco House

Claire found this last week whilst designing Holz' Autumn/Winter catalogue for 2009/10:

Plan ‘Green’ Dolls House
An exciting edition to our much loved dolls house collection. Made from sustainable rubber wood, this eco dolls house has a wind turbine, solar panel and electricity inverter. Its own water butt, recycling bins, an adjustable blind to regulate sunlight and air circulation, and biofacade which uses the natural cycle of plant growth to create shade. Also includes room furniture. Everything a modern doll family could need!

All for a very reasonable £142.90! Now, I'm sure that my sister's doll's house cost WAY more than that!

the creekside, west looe

As you can see above Leap have branded an exclusive development of two bedroom apartments beside the river in West Looe.
The twelve energy efficient apartments are being designed and fitted to the highest standard and will be available later this summer.
If you follow this link here you will see Kieran’s beautifully designed website where you can find out more about availability of the properties and the town itself.
Claire is also putting the finishing touches to a comprehensive brochure that will show the apartments in their best light.

Leap is Now ISO-14001 Accredited!

After two years of hard graft and the training of four of our five employees, we have now (last Tuesday in fact) been given our ISO-14001 accreditation.
This is culmination of a huge amount of work and drive by Matt and Jonny and singles us out as the only graphic design studio in the South West (and maybe the country) that has achieved this prestigious recognition.
The 14001 accreditation is concerned with Leap's environmental management system and calls for a measurable reduction in all of its outputs year on year.
For more information Jonny Parker should be contacted in the first instance.

Upton Towans beach in Gwithian was sold at auction yesterday for £80,000. The proceeds from the sale will go to the Hall for Cornwall as the owner, Dennis Arbon, wanted the sale to benefit the people of Cornwall. The buyer is said to be keen to keep the beech totally unspoilt, which is another positive outcome from the sale. Without any chance of planning being granted now or in the future, you may ask what the buyer got from the sale. It is believed to be a literary trophy associated with one Virginia Woolf, as the beach is thought to be the inspiration for her 1927 novel To the Lighthouse. Tim Brinkman of the Hall for Cornwall said: "I'm absolutely delighted. It's a great fillip for the theatre." And were inclined to agree with him. We just hope that the Jack’s Cows project raises just as much if not more money for Cornwall’s premiere theatre.