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Christmas Promotions: CRP Clean Air Villages Directory

8th December 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

With the holiday season now upon us after a tough year, it’s no surprise everyone is looking ahead to Christmas for some much-needed cheer! With cities and stores re-opening, perhaps your Christmas shopping list is a becoming a dilemma… This holiday season, CRP has promoted numerous listed businesses from the CRP Clean Air Villages Directory via social media using #CleanAirChristmas! We will be promoting low-emission businesses based and servicing the 12 boroughs of the Clean Air Villages programme.

The Directory encourages shopping local, contributing to sustainable economies as well as improving London’s air quality with every delivery. Visit our the CRP Clean Air Villages Directory and start ticking off your Christmas list!

For more information on the Directory and how to list a business, please contact CRP Project Officer Rachael Aldridge, and for more information on the Clean Air Villages programme, please contact CRP Project Officer Anusha Rajamani.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

8th December 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

With the gradual opening of businesses after a second lockdown, now is a great time to start shopping locally and/or use ‘click & collect‘ services!

CRP encourages active travel across London, and what better month than December to walk or cycle around the city, enjoying the Christmas markets and lights. With this in mind, take a look at the activities happening in London during this month to help you to make the most of this time. Remember to keep yourself and others safe, maintaining social distance and wearing a mask in public spaces.

Christmas Markets across London:

Places to go and see the Christmas lights in London:

Ice Skating Rinks:

To see a full list of attractions, please see Visit London: 101 Christmas things to do in London!

Merry Christmas!

Clean Air Thames Launches Round 2 of Vessel Retrofit Funding 

8th December 2020 / Posted by Sefinat Otaru

CRP is pleased to announce a second round of funding to retrofit vessels operating on the Thames to reduce their emissions. We will be accepting applications until 12th February 2021.

Clean Air Thames is a three-year scheme to retrofit inland vessels to reduce emissions. £500,000 has been granted by the Mayor’s Air Quality Fund to help operators retrofit their vessels with post-exhaust treatments to reduce emissions. The project is administered by CRP in partnership with the Greater London Authority, the Port of London Authority (PLA) and the City of London Corporation. The project aims to retrofit commercial freight and passenger boats to reduce their hazardous emissions, including particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides by up to 90%.

The project complements the PLA’s Thames Green Scheme which is an indicator that allows operators to demonstrate their environmental performance.

Successful applicants for Round 1 were announce earlier this year – they were GPS Marine Contractors for their vessel GPS Anglia, and the PLA for their vessel, Driftwood 2. According to John Spencer, Managing Director of GPS, “No reliable, affordable technology exists at present to take us straight to net zero. The way forward, therefore, is to improve the emissions from the existing fleet and do so in ways that are readily achievable and affordable”.

The tidal Thames carries more passengers and freight than any other UK inland waterway. Vessels on the river account for approximately one per cent of emissions across Greater London. That number is expected to increase as standards for road vehicles become stricter, and the river is used to transport more people and freight.

For more information on the project and to download the application form and guidelines, please visit the Clean Air Thames project page or contact CRP Project Manager Sefinat Otaru. The funding is open to operators running vessels on the Tidal Thames within Greater London.

London’s Tier 2: Restrictions for Businesses

8th December 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

Last week, London emerged from Lockdown 2.0 into Tier 2 restrictions. We created this handy chart with the essential rules and regulations for businesses during this time. Click here to check the links for more detailed government guidance and business support. For more information, please contact CRP Project Officer Stav Friedman.

CRP’s Spotlight On: Cadogan

8th December 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

This week, we are showcasing the work of CRP Partner Cadogan, a dynamic property manager, investor and developer with a 300-year family history. Hear what Sustainability Manager Kate Neale has to say about Pavilion Road’s cargo bike scheme:

Earlier in the year, just weeks before the nation locked down for the first time, Cadogan and CRP together launched an e-cargo bike to support retailers on Pavilion Road, Chelsea. As part of CRP’s Defra-funded Clean Air Villages 2 (CAV2) programme, this scheme was designed to provide a zero-emissions delivery facility to the road. Although it was planned pre-COVID, it turned out to be a hugely valuable resource over the subsequent months. The trial is part of Cadogan’s wider sustainability strategy which aims to tackle air quality across the Estate. Cadogan and CRP’s CAV2 cargo bike trial ended at the end of May, but Cadogan are relaunching the initiative to support retailers across Chelsea in December!

As Chelsea’s ‘village street’, Pavilion Road offers local residents a butchers, bakery, cheesemonger, fishmonger and dry cleaners, amongst others. The e-cargo bike was invaluable in connecting local residents with these retailers, offering consolidated home deliveries from multiple stores. The trial was a great success, and as a result, the scheme saved 526kg CO2 per year, as well as 1.8kg NOx and 53g of PM2.5 per year – please see the CAV2 case study for more details.

Customers who live within a 3 mile radius can use the complimentary service to deliver items from any participating Chelsea store, helping protect the vulnerable, support retailers and reduce vehicle traffic. Contact Cadogan if you’re a local resident and want to find out how to utilise the scheme, and improve your local air quality through zero-emission deliveries this Christmas!

CRP’s Human Rights Day LiveShare Session: Keep Informed! 

8th December 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

This Human Rights Day, Thursday 10th December, join us at 2pm for the penultimate LiveShare in our series of 16 online events. This session will discuss The Right to Clean Air, delving deeper into the ways we can help protect and empower our communities. We would like to thank all of you who have attended our sessions so far! We’ve been joined by experts from across the industries of transport, business and environment, discussing a range of topics to help facilitate knowledge sharing and lessons of best practice.

We are continuing to bring industry experts together and our penultimate LiveShare will be no exception, so make sure you tune in! We will be joined by speakers from Guy’s and St Thomas’s Trust Charity, Tranquil City and CRP’s Defra-funded Clean Air Villages 3 (CAV3) programme. During the session, CRP will further discuss one of the CAV3 monitoring initiatives that’s enabling citizens to have greater control over their right to clean air.

To reserve your space to ‘The Right to Clean Air: Protecting and Empowering Communities’, sign up here! 

If you are not able to make a session, don’t worry! All of our LiveShares are posted on our YouTube channel for you to view and share whenever you like. Remember to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to receive all our LiveShare updates and upcoming sessions. We hope to see you very soon!

All LiveShares are funded by Defra and are delivered as part of CRP’s Clean Air Villages 3 programme.

For more information, please contact CRP Guidance Manager Tomos Joyce.

CRP’s Staff Spotlight On: Tomos Joyce

24th November 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

This week, we are featuring CRP Guidance Manager Tomos Joyce, who has been at CRP since September 2019. 

I am a Guidance Manager here at Cross River Partnership. I work across a range of projects, primarily on the Vivacity monitoring programme and CRP’s LiveShare sessions. My best bits at CRP include the 25-year anniversary event at the Tate Modern, attending the International Air Quality Conference at City Hall, and most importantly working with such an engaged team towards improving air quality in London.

Stepping Our Way to Minsk, Belarus or Malaga!

24th November 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

Amid another lockdown and after 7+ months of working from home, the CRP team have been getting creative when it comes to getting active. While many of us have been enjoying the benefits of working from home – no more early morning commutes – we’ve also been missing some things: the face-to-face catchups over cups of tea, the lunchtime brainstorms and the excuse to move about our city and get out of our cosy homes!

To motivate ourselves to keep active, four weeks ago we started a CRP Step Challenge – dividing our team into two groups, to compete for the highest increase in daily step counts. Over the last few weeks, team members have increased their daily totals competing in Weekend Warrior challenges in preparation for the final week where each participant needed to increase their daily step count by 4,000 steps!

CRP Project Officer Stav Friedman kept the challenges going – from artistic litter pick-ups to a walking bingo – and the CRP team really racked up the mileage. In fact, collectively the team walked over 2,274km, enough to walk straight to Minsk, Belarus – or Malaga, Spain, if you’re craving a warmer destination! The Step Challenge was so popular, we’re anticipating a December version to be revealed soon… so keep an eye out in future newsletters, as the question remains: how far can we really go?

Illuminated River Shines!

24th November 2020 / Posted by Susannah Wilks

CRP was excited to see the Illuminated River project showcased in London’s iconic Time Out magazine on 4th November, by Eddy Frankel:

“Over the past few years, artist Leo Villareal (in collaboration with architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands) has been transforming central London’s bridges with mesmerising light installations, as part of the ‘Illuminated River’ project. He’s already given London Bridge, Cannon Street, Southwark and Millennium bridges (between the London Borough of Southwark and the City of London Corporation) the flashy treatment, and now he’s finally doing the iconic Waterloo Bridge (between the London Borough of Lambeth and Westminster City Council).

Works will be completed in early 2021, and then he’ll move on to Lambeth Bridge, Westminster Bridge and all the rest. By the time it’s completed, it will be the longest (as well as free, outdoors and Covid-safe) public artwork in the world.”

The Illuminated River project has been a huge collaboration between a large number of disparate organisations, led by the Illuminated River Foundation’s Sarah Gaventa.

CRP was pleased to spread the word about the Illuminated River project at one of its recent Live Share sessions ‘City of Culture: Re-starting the night-time economy‘. Please see the recording here, the toolkit from this LiveShare here, and the LiveShare slides here.

CRP’s Spotlight On: Brixton BID

24th November 2020 / Posted by CRP Team

This week, we are showcasing the work of CRP BID partner Brixton BID. Established in 2014 by local businesses, Brixton BID works to make the district a sustainable and distinctive destination. Hear what Managing Director Gianluca Rizzo and Projects Lead Reece Simwogerere have to say about Evie, the BID’s shared electric vehicle:

Brixton BID has managed to secure a continuation of the exclusive and unlimited access to the first-ever shared electric van ‘Evie’ to all Brixton businesses in partnership with Zipcar and London Borough of Lambeth. As members will be aware, the project began with CRP involved, as part of CRP’s Defra-funded Clean Air Villages 2 programme, in November 2019. Evie has a positive impact on air quality and helps small businesses transition to low-carbon ways of working.

The joint initiative, The Brixton Electric Van Project, aims to help businesses thrive and create a positive impact on the community and was due to end on 25th November 2020. However, thanks to the positive feedback received regarding many benefits delivered to local businesses, the BID and partners are happy to announce that Evie will remain in Brixton and give local businesses exclusive shared access 24/7. This project has so far proven to be an unqualified success for Brixton, with usage over the initial one year period resulting in the equivalent miles of driving to New York City! All of these miles would have been otherwise driven by a tailpipe polluting equivalent.

Gianluca Rizzo, Managing Director of the Brixton BID, said of the update, “In these difficult economic times, we are doing everything to support our businesses whilst also being considerate towards the environment. Our mission to make Brixton a sustainable business destination continues.”

Brixton BID, Zipcar and London Borough of Lambeth have worked together to ensure the project can continue to help local businesses and the environment. In order to continue to offer unlimited access to the e-van, businesses can book Evie at the discounted rates of either £7 per hour or £50 per day. This is more competitive than both the standard business discount and Zipcar’s consumer van rate, saving up to £4 an hour or £55 per day. Lambeth Council has committed to ensuring the parking bay can continue to be used for e-van parking.

We’d like to thank everyone involved in the project for their continued commitment.

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