Speaking through actions
Our story
In early 2021 Mayo Co Council ran a competition to identify the county’s best Decarbonising zone. The entry for the Louisburgh area was overseen by Paul Butler, James Ryan, Richard Mannion, Rosarie Tiernan, Ciara Cullen and Jim Campbell. We achieved 3rd place, which was ok but the best outcome was that we found our ad hoc grouping had worked well and we decided to maintain our momentum by setting up Climate Action Louisburgh Locality (CALL).
Our motivation is our high anxiety about the climate crisis, environmental breakdown and the increasing loss of essential wild species as human activities impact more and more on the natural world. In response to these looming threats, we are taking action to help mitigate the damage and to prepare our community to become more resilient and self-sufficient in facing them.
From the beginning we decided that we were about getting things done rather than sitting around talking about what to do. We felt that the best way to promote radical change was to undertake radical action and achieve impressive targets quickly. It is empowering for people who feel overwhelmed by the scale and diversity of the problems to observe, “Wow! Yeah! At a grass roots level, we have the power to make change happen here in our own locality. And this can help catalyse change further afield in other communities and even throughout society”.
CALL is already demonstrating the success of that strategy.
We immediately structured our new group so that it consisted of semi-autonomous sub-groups carrying out actions under the headings of Sustainable Energy, Carbon Sequestration and Biodiversity and Local Food Production.
With time, more volunteers joined, and our interests have diversified accordingly. Newer sub-groups now include Sustainable Mobility, Sustainable Living and Public Awareness.
CALL has about a dozen active volunteer members that live locally, of diverse gender, age and background. Our group includes representatives from other community groups such as Community Futures, SEAI Sustainable Energy Community Programme and Local Heritage. These strong connections with the local community have facilitated our collective action.
Our Mission
Within CALL, we are committed to reducing emissions and waste while facilitating biodiversity enhancement within our locality. “Saving the Planet” requires radical change in the way we do everything and in the way we live; this must happen both globally and locally. The more that local communities undertake change in their areas the quicker the required global and system changes can happen. We believe that “doing stuff”, achieving radical targets quickly, can promote the urgent changes required, perhaps much more so than doing demos and protesting.
We expect our actions to result in our locality being an even better place to live, with greatly increased community resilience and self-sufficiency, increased employment and business opportunities and a thriving natural world around us. In sum we expect our actions to result in improved quality of life in our parish and islands.
Our ambitions include:
- Retrofit 500 homes with 100’s of PV installations by 2030
- Develop wind power in our area
- Plant 1,500 acres of mixed native trees by 2030
- Big improvements in public transport services by 2030
- Much better facilities for electric vehicles before 2030
- Increased self-sufficiency in food and electricity
- Encourage the circular economy by promoting sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. In this way, the life cycle of products is extended. In practice, it implies reducing waste to a minimum.
Photo by Adrian Tiernan, @artaltitudesdroneworks
Why Join Us
Vision
A thriving, sustainable, resilient, self-sufficient, caring community in balance with nature and with net zero carbon emissions.
Mission
Promote reduction of emissions and waste while facilitating biodiversity enhancement, community resilience and self-sufficiency.
Purpose
Help our community to take effective climate and biodiversity action while becoming more resilient and self-sufficient.
Objective
Reduce emissions by 50% and increase biodiversity by 30% by 2030 while helping our community to thrive.
Meet our team
CE, Founder, board member
Rosarie Tiernan, M. ED
Treasurer, Founder, board member
Jim Campbell
I am a graduate engineer. In my previous career I worked in process automation, water and wastewater treatment and building construction. I founded Enviroprojects Ltd. and carried out project management work for the Irish Government, the European Commission and the United Nations mainly in water treatment and waste disposal projects in Ireland, Europe and the Middle East. I am one of the founding members of Louisburgh and Killeen Sustainable Energy Community (2019) and CALL (2021).
Secretary, Founder, board member
Richard Mannion
I am a sheep farmer and agri-tourism host with a passion for self-sufficiency. I worked in Pharmaceutical industry 1979 – 2011 as Manufacturing Manager. Currently, I am also the Secretary of local Irish Natura Hill Farmers Association, Liaison Officer for Mayo Branches and founding Director and Treasurer of Killeen Childcare Ltd.
Founder, board member
James Ryan
Grandfather, constantly striving musician. I am a marine biologist with a passion for terrestrial and marine wild places. I have been founder/proprietor of various shellfish and marine finfish farms. I am a Founder/director, Killary Fjord Boat Tours which provides boat-based hospitality and tours in Connemara and Dublin. For a period during the noughties I managed the Ocean Energy Programme, Marine Institute, responsible for research and development in marine renewable energy, including the set-up of the Atlantic Marine Energy Test Site off the North Mayo coast, focusing on wave energy devices and floating wind platforms. Member, Callacoon Native Woodland Project. Founder, Mullagh (Kilsallagh) Native Woodland Project.
Founder
Paul Butler
I am a founder member of CALL and a professional forester. I have worked on forestry projects in many countries. Glad to be back in Ireland growing trees for all the multiple benefits they give us!
Founder, board member
Ciara Cullen
A long time resident of Clare Island, running Macalla Farm for over two decades, teaching residential retreats in yoga & mindfulness, natural horsemanship, vegetarian cooking etc. An organic grower committed to sustainable/regenerative practices, I’ve welcomed more than 150 volunteers from all over the world who’ve helped on the farm since 2001. Passionate about all aspects of food, with my two children we started the Stone Barn Cafe, a seed-to-plate organic vegetarian/vegan cafe. A sociologist by training, I’ve been involved with community development projects on the island since the 1990’s.
Board member
Mary O'Malley
I am from Killeen and very passionate about all things community related and have been a serial volunteer with many different community groups. As a founder of Louisburgh-Killeen Heritage I am also very interested in all aspects of our local heritage including farming practices, land usage, traditional skills and crafts, growing our own produce, protecting our mountains, waterways and coastal areas. I am a proud member of CALL and look forward to supporting all of the actions in our locality towards a more sustainable future.
An rud is annamh is iontach.
Board member
Iliana Chollett, PhD
I am a marine biologist that develops tools to support the sustainable use of our marine resources. I am also passionate about sustainability, foraging and self-sufficiency, and I’ll have a go at repairing anything! I started the Louisburgh Free Market WhatsApp group to cut on waste in our locality and I am the lead of CALL’s Sustainable Living subgroup.
Member
Gareth Lewis
As a crowdfunding evangelist, I am actively coaching small and medium businesses with workshops on design thinking and innovation management. In my role as resident business and innovations coach for the Climate-KIC network, I provide “green” start-ups with support and advice in the field of innovation management, sales and marketing design.
Answer the CALL now
Take action and help us change our future!
Photo by Adrian Tiernan, @artaltitudesdroneworks