Meet, Work and Collaborate at Bricks and Bread Sustainable Living Centre
Grow Your Business at our Incubator Hub

Entrance £6.50 – book here
(Sorry, no entrance without a ticket )
Please note! From 6th July Bricks and Bread Business Club members and guests only

• Mix with other local businesses and grow your network
• Discover our modern and inspirational work space with creche

Like minded people, wi-fi, good coffee, homemade cakes, meeting rooms and hot desks, printers, scanners and copiers, stationery and creative materials.

FREE Creative Activities using our scrapstore materials
Every Saturday we have something here at Bricks and Bread that you can take part in, all the family is welcome at the Centre, we always have a free activity such as having creative fun with our scrapstore materials or you can come and see displays of crafters and makers work.

FREE Advice Clinic
Trudy Thompson the Founder of Bricks and Bread has a free advice clinic in the morning which you can book into here – ask her anything you need help to solve – she has extensive knowledge of eco building, sustainable business techniques and self sufficiency.  If you are considering changing career or starting a business, or already run your own firm and need someone to talk to, Trudy is here to help.

Practical & creative workshops 
You will need to book onto these as places are limited, some have a small charge to cover materials

Bike Maintenance – Dust off the Cobwebs, Breath Life into your Old Bike!
Fee – £5 – click here to book your place
Trainer – Guy Partleton from Bicycle Recycling
Saturday 19th May

It’s time to dust off the cobwebs and get your bike back on the road.

Join bicycle mechanic and passionate bike up-cycler Guy Partelton for this workshop which will help you get back onto the streets using one of the most sustainable and exciting modes of transport – your bike!

Covering all of the basics, from fixing punctures to adjusting your brakes and gears, we’re hoping you can bring your own bike along so that we can help you get it back onto the road.

We will have some tools and two stands, but please bring along your own tool kit and Guy will give you some free advice on putting together the best basic maintenace tool kit for cyclists.

Course fee includes coffee break and home-baked cake!!

Twitter usernames of organisers @BicycleRecyclin @niccishepherd
Website http://www.bicyclerecycling.co.uk/

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Extreme Knitting
FREE – Book here
Trainer – Rachel from Cutlet Country Crafts
June 16th – 10am to 4pm
Cutlet Country Crafts website – http://www.cutletcountrycrafts.weebly.com
Twitter username: @cutletcountrycr

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Rag Rugging
Fee: £6 – Book here
Trainer – Deborah Hastings Supplier of Rag Rug Kits & Lavender Bag Kit & so much more that can be done by recycling fabrics
Saturday 29^th September 2012
Time: 11am – 4.30pm

Suitable for Adults and children – ideal family day out.

This workshop will introduce you to the traditional craft of making rug rugs and recycling waste fabrics. You will make a lavender bag cushion and have an opportunity to do samples of two other methods of making rag rugs. Deborah will bring her vast collection of rugs and garments made from waste textiles such as duvet covers and curtains providing a mini exhibition for the day. All resources and tools will be provided but there will be opportunities to purchase further resources to continue at home.

Deborah has trained in Goldwork embroidery and has been ‘crafting’ from a very small age coming from a family that ‘makes’. In the 1980’s she was a Handicraft Instructor for Southwark Social Services and this work in community and rehabilitation situations continues today with her work with the WEA in Devon and Cornwall. She is also a WI Denman College tutor and has been published in ‘WI Life’. Currently she is also having a number of items published in ‘Popular Crafts’. She works as a demonstrator and provides workshops for the famous fishing village on the North Devon coast of Clovelly and at the National Trust Property of The Old Post Office.

Web site: www.ragrugtextiles.com
Twitter username: @ragrugtextiles

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We are very lucky that Kevin Sharpe the Founder of Zero Carbon World has donated two electric vehicle charging points to us, we have both 13amp & 32amp which are available for our customers to use whilst they visit us. 

If you drive an electric vehicle you are welcome to come in and charge up, just give us a call on 01252 314060 to book your place.

Zero Carbon World is donating EV Charging Stations to Bricks and Bread Sustainable Living Centre as well as Hotels, B&Bs, and Museums around the UK, to create an open infrastructure legacy that all EV drivers can use in the future.

For more information about Zero Carbon World – www.zerocarbonworld.org

 We are running a competition with an amazing selection of prizes to celebrate when we hit 10,000 followers on Twitter
(we have just gone past  9,000 followers)

When we hit 10,000 followers we will pick at random from the Twitter usernames who entered the competition 

To enter the competition – Say why you like us in a tweet to @bricksandbread
You must do all these things to qualify for the prize draw;

• Follow us on Twitter
• Send a tweet to @bricksandbread saying why you like us
• Make sure you use the hashtag in your tweet #BBhub

The Prizes – winner drawn at random from correct entries
We are giving away a great selection of prizes to the winner – the prizes reflect the range of things we do at Bricks and Bread Sustainable Living Centre

Crafters & makers exhibition
- a selection of delicious Hampshire Chutney

Thursday Twitter Training workshops
- two free tickets
- for a two hour Twitter training session

Trudy’s Business Mentoring – Change to Save
- two hour mentoring session
- for a small business who would like advice from our Founder

Saturday practical / creative workshops
- two free tickets
- learn one of these techniques (you get to pick) bike maintenance on 19th May, extreme knitting on 16th June or rag rugging on 29th September

Trudy Thompson the Founder of Bricks and Bread Sustainable Living Centre will join leading corporate strategy leaders speaking about their work in organisations such as BAE Systems, Orange, Hewlett Packard, Virgin Media and Barclaycard.

Trudy’s talk will be about her innovative Change to Save strategy which demonstrates both social enterprise and sustainable innovation in action.

The Chief Strategy Officer Summit brings together strategy executives for a thought leading summit acclaimed for its innovative insights into the strategic planning field.

At the Summit delegates discover tactics to optimize the role of strategic management in their organization and methods designed to deliver the most effective impact on thier business through effective strategic planning.

More information: http://strategy.theiegroup.com/cso-london/program

This County-wide event will build on the success of last year when 30 homeowners opened their properties to over 300 visitors, illustrating what they could do to their own home to reduce fuel bills and generate their own renewable energy. The weekend will be organised by Action Surrey, Surrey’s energy advice service that supports local councils across the county, Guildford Borough Council and environmental volunteer groups.

Ben Wood, project manager for Action Surrey added “this is a great opportunity to speak to homeowners who have been-there-and-done-it. Many of these individuals have installed solar panels, heat pumps, insulated their properties as well as they can, and explored other innovate ways to save energy. This is set to be a brilliant event made possible by passionate individuals who want to share their experience.”

Viewing a Surrey Green Home is free but booking is strictly required. Please visit www.actionsurrey.org/surreygreenhomes to book your ticket.

If you wish to participate and open your own home to the public to talk about your own experiences of retrofitting energy saving measures/renewable technology please contact us on info@actionsurrey.org

Action Surrey is funded by the Surrey Improvement Partnership and the eco-open homes event is supported by ICLEI, a network of sustainable cities operating worldwide to raise awareness of saving energy and other environmental challenges.

For further information about Action Surrey or the eco open homes event please visit

www.actionsurrey.org

www.actionsurrey.org/surreygreenhomes

Last night in the early hours of the morning some knitters hit the town with their creative mischief.  They tweeted me this morning to let me know what they had been up to, so I took Blue the Bricks and Bread sausage dog for a walk around the town to see what knitting I could find.  Here are my pics, I have no doubt there is much more I missed.  When I was taking pictures I noticed how many people just walked past without noticing that something was a bit different about the lamp post or railings, but an older gentleman who saw me taking pics stopped and looked a bit puzzled by the knitted railings, I was really pleased when he turned to me and said ‘Isn’t that brilliant, I love it’.

So well done to the secret Knitting Ne’er Do Wells you did a fantastic job of cheering up sleepy Farnham. 
You can connect with them on Twitter their username is @K_N_D_W

Rachel is one of the crafters & makers exhibitors who is sharing her inspiring story and promoting her work at Bricks and Bread – here is Cutlet Country Crafts Exhibition Storyboard

Rachel Ellis Contact Details
www.cutletcountrycrafts.weebly.com
Twitter – @cutletcountrycr
facebook – www.facebook.com/cutletcountrycrafts
email – cutletcountrycrafts@hotmail.co.uk

Every Thursday Trudy Thompson hosts a two hour training session to learn how to use Twitter effectively – for business use or just for fun.  The classes are suitable for those who have never used Twitter before or who have been using it for a while.

Click here to book your place on a Thursday Twitter class

Trudy has been using Twitter (username @bricksandbread) since 2009. Her use of social media has played a vital part in the success of Bricks and Bread.  Currently there are over 9,000 people following us on Twitter.

In these sessions Trudy shares the most useful things she has learnt about using Twitter.
These are very relaxed and fun events, all with coffee & networking opportunities.
You can bring a laptop, ipad or use your phone to try out the techniques whilst the session is on.

The class starts at 2pm and ends at 4.30pm

Costs £50 a session
- or half price £25 for Bricks and Bread hub members
To join the Bricks and Bread hub click here, its free and gives you great benefits

The workshop will cover;

Usernames
What to say in profiles & which pictures to use
Joining up your social media with your website & business printing

Writing effective tweets
The value of tweeting pictures
How to shorten your tweets and links
How to use hashtags
Check your spelling

Asking for help
Who is useful to talk to?

who to follow, how many followers & unfollowing
Follow Friday, who to recommend, how many to send & checking your #ff ranking
Your social media profile how do you rate?

Popular events to take part in on Twitter – like Theo Paphitis #sbs

Conversations with other twitter users
how and when to direct message someone
Retweeting – what to RT & when to do it

Using the search facility
Reading the timeline
What is trending?

Read my FREE guide here, it has my top Twitter tips to help you get started
Demystify using Twitter & find out how this free social media website can be used to become your most effective tool for sales, marketing, research and PR
- If you can’t read the document above or would like it in pdf format it is here for you to download

 
4th & 18th of February at Bricks and Bread Sustainable Living Centre in Aldershot

Free workshop

Peglooming and extreme knitting workshop by Rachel Ellis of Cutlet Country Crafts

Rachel is one of the crafters & makers exhibitors who is sharing her inspiring story and promoting her work at Bricks and Bread

Rachel Ellis Contact Details
www.cutletcountrycrafts.weebly.com
Twitter – @cutletcountrycr
facebook – www.facebook.com/cutletcountrycrafts
email – cutletcountrycrafts@hotmail.co.uk

What Rachel has to say about how she learnt her skills
I am inspired by crafting as a child I would sit for hours with my grandma making things. This has continued all through my life a lot of it was for practical reasons making clothes and furnishing for the home and children.

Recently I have started to share these crafts to allow others to be able to make things that they thought they could never do. As the price of things go up in the retail stores it seems more and more people are wanting to be a little more self sufficient and be able to make things for themselves the home or for gifts to friends and family.

I do classes and day courses in Peglooming, extreme knitting, sewing, jewellery making, nuno felting and card making.

As I do a wide range of crafts I never get bored of crafting and I’m always looking for new ways or techniques to expand on the crafts I do.

Cutlet Country Crafts came about when I lost my job at a large IT company and I had to start and sell my items to make ends meet and try to avoid loosing our smallholding and animals. It has been slowly picking up pace but is still in the early days and I have been learning a lot about promoting.

Peg looming
I was taught this craft by my Great Grandma, who was an amazing person, my inspiration and my world. When we were children she taught us to make what we needed and if something was wearing out it normally was recycled into something else and used until it had no life left at all.
We use to make rugs, underblankets, winter jumpers, scarves, bags all on the loom. I remember making an underblanket from raw wool then we had to take it to the stream at the back of the yard and wash it in the running water to get the lanolin out and then hang it up to dry either outside or in the barn. When it was dry it was put on the bed between the mattress and bottom sheet over time the raw wool used to naturally felt together and the blanket became very comfy and warm.
I have over the years made a lot of items from recycled materials such as plastic carrier bags, rags made from old sheets and curtains, jumpers which I have felted in the washer then cut into strips to make something woven.

Extreme Knitting
I remember watching the women of my family knitting when I was young and I had my small set of needles and just managed squares which later grandma would make into blankets, I always wanted to knit something like the rest of my family but never managed until I was an adult myself. I found it very hard to follow complex patterns as I suffer from dyslexia and they just didn’t make sense, so I would cast on and knit away testing and trying different ways until eventually I had made something. This made me curious and I had read an article about large needles and clothing that was popular in the sixties so I managed to get some large needles and lots of balls of yarn and started playing with different stitches and number of yarns. I found it very addictive as the yarns paint colours through the item that you really can’t replicate. The items are thick and warm and very practical especially in the colder months even just a lap blanket to pop over you whilst watching tv means that we can keep the heating off longer or at least turned down to save on those ever increasing bills.
I now write simple patterns so that people can do something nice to wear or use at entry level or take the pattern as a template and use any stitches they want. My kits give the beginner the confidence and ability to start a very simple style of knitting that can lead to hours of fun and results much faster than traditional knitting.

There is no charge for this event but you will need to register to book your place –
http://cfsd.org.uk/sids/suscin-events/eco-innovation-bricks-&-bread.html

23rd January 2012

Eco-innovation at Bricks and Bread Sustainable Living Centre
Bricks and Bread
Albion Works
Church Lane East
Aldershot
Hampshire
GU11 3BT

Background
Eco-innovation is driving new opportunities for products, services, technologies and new business models. There is mounting evidence that eco-innovation improves the capacity of companies to capture new growth opportunities, reduce costs and strengthen corporate image.

Event Concept
This unique event has been designed as a creative mix of presentations, networking and collaborative working. Leading-edge thinkers and practitioners will present followed by a speed networking session that will directly connect participants. This will then be followed
by a Pecha Kucha style series of 5 minute presentations on personal visions of eco-innovation. An OpenGreen workshop will be organised in the afternoon. OpenGreen is an open innovation process aimed at identifying new income generating opportunities for more sustainable products, services and technologies.

Target audiences
This FREE workshop is aimed at companies with less than 250 employees based in the South East of England that design, produce and/or market sustainable, low carbon, resource and water efficient technologies, products, services and new business models.

• Benefits of attending
• Leading-edge experience and knowledge
• Up-to-date information on new opportunities
• Networking with other like-minded companies
• Living lab for new ideas

For more information email mcharter@ucreative.ac.uk and see cfsd.org.uk/sids for current activities

Emma Selby, Trudy Thompson & Alex Christie

“It’s fantastic, Bricks and Bread is such a nucleus of ideas and “can do” attitude that you can’t help but be swept up in the buzz of the place.”- Alex Christie, Managing Director Energi Recruitment

2012 is set to be a very exciting year for Hub members Energi recruitment with new collaborative ventures working alongside Trudy Thompson at the Aldershot Bricks and Bread Sustainable Living Centre, and moving into offices on site so they can work even closer to support our activities.

Energi recruit for the building services industry both in the UK and overseas, Alex Christie, Managing Director, and Emma Selby, Finance & Marketing Manager, head up the UK team whilst Puneet Sabharwal is Sales Manager in Bangalore, India.  The move to Bricks and Bread cements Energi’s commitment to responsible and ethical recruitment and the promotion of sustainable living.

“we are so excited to be in the midst of such a stimulating environment and are looking forward to immersing ourselves in the Bricks and Bread ethos through collaborative projects and new ventures”.

Inside the waste reuse showroom

Read more on their blog

 ” I am a stay-at-home mummy of two with lots of ideas, but with no idea how to start. After an amazing mentoring session with Trudy I have been able to go away feeling so much more confident in my own strengths and abilities, and focused for what I need to do for the future. I feel that Trudy has changed my life on a personal level and I know I can take her advice with me for what ever ventures I persue in the future. “ – Catherine Jennings @BELLA_and_WILL - Trudy is mentoring Catherine for Doug Richard’s School for Creative Start-ups @S4CS

Chief Executive Officer of the Year Award
This award is for a visionary CEO who most clearly demonstrates an outstanding commitment to sustainability in their market. The judges will take into account the personal contribution of the CEO to the organisation’s growth or robust market share, competitive positioning, as well as sound commercial results. This will all be built on a foundation of outstanding green credentials, together with a sound grasp of what is needed in the future.

The People and Environment Achievement Business Awards (PEABs)
Celebrate how green initiatives can be good for business as well as the planet. The new Awards will showcase excellence and innovation as demonstrated by an individual or team within an organisation of any shape or size, whether from the public and private sector, whose contribution to the “greening” of UK businesses has been genuinely effective.

The Awards recognise the exceptional leadership and vision that make a lasting impression and whose best practice and key strategies might inspire others in the future. They will highlight the people who are creating Britain’s greenest businesses, who understand and respect the planet’s precious resources and are prepared to make changes today to improve future well-being.

Hosted by King Lion Media is association with GREEN Magazine, the quarterly magazine distributed by the Guardian, this awards ceremony honours those who have demonstrated the importance of sustainability within business.

“The PEA Business Awards look for the real innovators–the teams and individuals who are driving new models of business. If this is a moment where the business sector has to respond rapidly to the social, environment and economic crises we confront, the PEA Business Awards celebrate the catalysts.”
Leo Johnson, Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers Sustainability & Climate Change & Chairman of Pea Business Awards Judges

The Judges

Leo Johnson
Is a Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers Sustainability and Climate Change team. He is also co-founder of Sustainable Finance Ltd, which advises over 50 international financial institutions around the risks and opportunities of sustainability, and is now a part of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Group.

Deborah Meaden
Deborah joined the panel of investors for series three of the BBC2 program ‘Dragons’ Den’ and has since invested in a number of businesses, ranging from Market Research to online Antiques valuations. Most recently she stepped in to acquire Fox Brothers, a Historic Textile firm based in the South West which was on the verge of closure. Deborah says, ‘As an active and passionate supporter of environmental initiatives I’m delighted to be a judge of the inaugural People and Environmental Achievement Business Awards. We are looking for the role models of the future, those who will show the direction of travel for creating sustainable businesses.’

Tony Juniper
A well known environmental campaigner, writer and independent sustainability adviser.  He is a Special Adviser to the Prince of Wales’ International Sustainability Unit and a Senior Associate with the Cambridge University Program for Sustainability Leadership, where he works as a member of the teaching faculty and is developing a new programme on natural capital and ecosystem services.

Alex Lambie
Alex Lambie is a business development consultant with a strong commitment to social and environmental responsibility.  He founded the UK’s first fashionable fairtrade organic clothing company. He writes on social and environmental issues for The Big Issue and Green Magazine and gives “green expert” opinion for TV and Radio. 

Jo Fairley
In 1991, Jo co-founded Green & Black’s organic chocolate, with husband Craig Sams and now owns Judges Bakery in her hometown of Hastings.  For eight years, Jo chaired the Health Products Standards Committee for the Soil Association, helping to set the standards for organic beauty care in the UK.

 Jo Wood
Is a pioneer and committed supporter of all things organic and natural. She is the founder of Jo Wood Organics, a successful and award winning organic fragrance and beauty range and lives in Kingston, London.

Paul Turner
Paul is Lloyds Banking Group’s Community Investment & Sustainable Development Director.