Nordic Horizons

Iceland strikes back - the poster

Beyond NATO - March 4 - Now open for bookings

This event , co-hosted with the Europa Institute , Edinburgh University, will explore the two faces of Nordic Security. More details of speakers and free tickets are available here. Early booking is advised.

We now do video conferences !

The UHI video link and Lesley

It's official - with the help and assistance of Elaine Morrison of the UHI last week's 'Great Green Danes' was beamed around the UHI network from Edinburgh. Well done!

The notes, photos, powerpoint presentation and over 2 hours of audio from the meeting are also now available here. 

More notes and presentation material on its way

Meeting notes and audio from the Great Green Danes event will be available shortly. Dave Watson has already provided an excellent meeting report on his blog.

The sharp eyed amongst you will have noticed there were no meeting notes for the Nordic Revolutions event in December. This transcript of this cycling meeting has been located and been placed in the meeting archive to complete the documentation. However,this is also available for download here.

Stop Press - next event update - Great Green Danes - 16 Jan

1. No places left - if you have a place and now can't come or if you'd like to go on waiting list contact nordichorizons@hotmail.co.uk

2. Video conference link with UHI Exec Office in Inverness - they can connect with other UHI learning centres in H&I if there's demand or move to a larger room in Ness Bank in Sneckie. For all this contact Elaine Morrison  ( elaine.morrison@uhi.ac.uk )

3. Great Scottish speakers are coming -- Drew Ratter from Shetland Islands Council on its pretty enormous Viking wind project and Martin Mathers from Scottish Power Renewables (in personal capacity) who once studied Samsoe for a dissertation.

Posters for 'Great Green Danes'

Print and Display !

Here are the latest designer posters for the forthcoming meeting next week!

Venue details for 'Iceland Strikes Back' meeting announced

Details of the venue location at Edinburgh University have been finalised. An  additional speaker  Sigrun Davidsdottir has been confirmed and  all up to date details are available here.

The Great Green Danes - 16 January 2013

The Great Green Danes

Scottish Parliament

 Committee Room One - Wednesday 16 January - 18:00 to 20:00

 

Scotland’s fast becoming a European hub for the production of large-scale renewable energy using  the template that guided the oil and gas industries; “Big is Beautiful.”

Wave and tidal projects are being encouraged to find the same "large" scale. Energy is a policy area reserved to Westminster but Holyrood’s planning control gives Edinburgh considerable clout. What though about Scotland’s communities?

Soren Hermansen is one of Time Life’s Heroes of the Environment 2008. In 1997 the small, tight-knit, conservative, farming island of Samso, nestled in the Kattegat Strait, won a contest sponsored by the Danish Government to become Denmark's showcase for sustainable power, eventually going carbon-free without any state funding, tax breaks or technical expertise.

Then almost all Samso’s power came from oil and coal and the island's 4,300 residents didn't know a wind turbine from a grain silo -- Samso seemed an odd choice. Soren Hermansen, though, saw an opportunity. Today Samso isn't just carbon-neutral — it produces 10% more clean electricity than it uses, and feeds extra power back into the grid at a profit. How did Samso do it – and what lessons are there for communities across Scotland?

Labour’s Jenny Marra MSP (pioneer of the Switchtogether scheme) will host the event.

Book free seats now by “joining” on Facebook or send an email to NH via nordichorizons@hotmail.co.uk

Please assume you have a place unless we tell you otherwise. General info and speaker updates are posted on our Facebook page and this website . Please keep checking there rather than sending individual emails – NH is a small, self-administering, volunteer-based group with a rather ambitious list of new meetings to arrange. Thank you!

Nordic Welfare - a DIY Guide - A Short Audio Precis

Nordic Welfare Event Poster

After the meeting about Nordic Welfare with Profs Jon Kvist and Jochen Clasen, we have recorded a short summary podcast with Lesley Riddoch giving her report and initial thoughts.

You can download and listen to Nordic Welfare - A Short Guide with Lesley Riddoch

If you would like a copy of the presentation which is an excellent guide to the Danish Welfare perspective, we have posted a full copy of Prof Kvist slides here. The full audio recordings of the presentations and lively Q&A session are also available here.

The Copenhagen House of Food

 

Anya Hultberg

Anya Hultberg of the Copenhagen House of Food talks to Lesley Riddoch about the amazing conversion of Copenhagen's public kitchens to organic. It is an integral part of the 'Carbon Neutral by 2025 ' plan for Copenhagen. Organic food is embedded in the Eco-metropolis plans for 2015.

 ( Lesley also wrote about the Copenhagen House of Food in the Scotsman here. ) 

 

Download and listen to the interview with Anya Hultberg of the Copenhagen House of Food here.