Meet the CREW Team: Armelle

Hi everyone, following on from Morgan, my name is Armelle and I am another member of CREW! I have just finished my studies in Geography with Economics and, outside of CREW, my interests lie in green finance, ESG investing and the global energy transition. I started with CREW at the end of 2019 and initially joined as an Energy Advisor, to be a part of the work CREW does to alleviate fuel poverty within our local community. Over the past couple of years, I have worked on distributing emergency fuel vouchers, helping clients access white goods and deal with arrears on their energy bills. I have also enjoyed helping clients access grants (which they are rarely aware of!) and generally spreading awareness of those small energy efficiency measures which can end up saving clients (and you!) a lot more money (and help the environment), than one would expect. However, not long after joining CREW, I began to learn more and became involved in the many ways in CREW's work to decarbonise our local community... Have a look at the Home Carbon Audit and the Our Projects section on our website and social media to see us in action! 

P.S. more in progress, and more to come soon!

The community share offer at the DEVAS Club was the first big project I was introduced to, and I am still inspired by seeing the team work so hard towards raising the £50,000 (where four heat pumps were installed at the youth club in Battersea in March this year). From the fuel poverty side to all the renewable energy projects, CREW has extensive networks and expertise to call upon. This is definitely what makes CREW unique, and I have learned SO much already. I will also add that CREW is extremely adaptable and, for example, advice given at our Energy Cafés has already been altered to incorporate the impacts of the price cap and the recent energy supplier crisis. Overall, through working with CREW, I am convinced of the need for a community energy group within every local community, a sector which clearly has a lot of social value to add towards the pre-existing benefits of renewable energy.

Some recent changes…
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I thought I would tell you about a couple of small changes I have made to try and limit my impact on the environment recently. I have now finished all the single-use plastic bottles of soap which we had in the house and will, from now on, only be using bar-soaps. However… large refill pouches are also available for liquid soap, which would also limit the number of single-use plastic you use ☺

Secondly, after reading a very interesting analysis (which can be read here) by David Mytton, a researcher in sustainable computing, I made the decision to no longer purchase a new phone. In reality, my phone worked perfectly fine. I was being swayed by the new updates and a reluctance to spend time clearing out my phone and transferring photos to my laptop - a matter of convenience. As is mentioned by David, the most part of emissions arise from production in the first place.

On a side note touching upon the culture of consumerism, what do you think of the Repairability Index introduced in France this year to help the transition to a circular economy?

How about you?

I would love to hear about any changes you have also made recently! Reach out and as the CREW Newsletter community, we can start sharing tips… From disposing of your inhalers in the Pharmacy, to carrying out a Home Waste Audit to help you identify a good starting point for change, there is bound to be a measure which someone else has not considered. Perhaps we can try and map out the progress we make as a community over a given period of time!

Behaviour…

And this brings me on to my final point. I enjoy reading about the behavioural science around solving the climate crisis and reducing our negative environmental impact. At the level of individual action and behavioural changes, what different variables do you think make it difficult for you/other people to make changes? Do you think people need to be told exactly what to do in order for change to be made? Is change more likely if people are able to visualise the impact they are having? I would love to hear your thoughts and more!