At the recent Environmental Fair at the Lightbox, we asked visitors what they wanted Woking to look like in 2020.
Posed with questions such as :
- How can we ensure our children are happier and healthier?
- Where will our food come from?
- How will people travel?
- How different will our work/life balance be?
- How close to zero-carbon will our economy be?
Visitors listed a number of very creative and inspirational ideas. Amongst these were ideas about future quality of life, food supply/growing and transport, as well as several aspirational ideas for changes in working practices.Amongst the ideas listed by the end of the day were:
- Bring and swap area in central Woking
- Zero waste
- Carbon rationing is well established
- Reconnecting children and communities with nature
- Safe roads, well maintained, no potholes
- Borough-wide electric car-share scheme + renewable energy charging system
- Care for our trees
- Simple living + values reconnecting with people, earth and nature, neighbours and community
- Living buildings
- More art, song, dance and music for all to share and be inspired
- Lower energy bills
- Local food growing co-operative
- People will stop working so frantically, slow down a little and make time to live
- 4 day working week, 5th day skills learning or community based projects
- Rent-a-bike system – pay a daily fee to pick up and drop off anywhere
- Car to bike ratio reversed
- People throw very little away
- Green/compost waste collection for people who don’t have gardens
- Some golf courses converted to allotments
- All local roads prioritised for pedestrians
- More allotments
- Community composting areas for all food and garden waste
- Free concerts/busking/events in Woking Town square
- White roofs on at least all council owned and commercial buildings to reflect sun, replacing lost ice-caps
- Local sustainability groups in every Woking village
- All our food will be grown locally
- Adopt Dutch-style residential streets, designed for pedestrians, wheelchair users and cyclists, where trees can be planted partly in the road and are considered to be important
- Roof top gardens – less concrete and paving everywhere
- Walk to school
- No rubbish on the street, fewer cars, more green
- D.I.Y., sewing, cooking and growing workshops
- We all have learnt to wait a little while, rather than having it now!
- Recycling for different materials collected separately
- Gardens for wildlife, involving everyone in their green space
- Cleaner paths free of chewing gum and dog mess
We obviously have an inspired community in Woking, and the challenge we face collectively is to put into practice some, or indeed, all, of those ideas.
There are many small groups around Woking taking first steps to start building a more sustainable future. If you would like to find out how to become involved in some way, then contact us here .
Welcome to Woking Environment Action! 