Website of the day: The Centre for Alternative Technology

The origins of CAT lie in the attempts of a visionary millionaire and a load of hippies to establish a entirely self-sufficient community in the arguably less than ideal setting of a disused slate quarry on the south edge of Snowdonia in 1975.

It quickly became apparent that this implied going back more or less to the stone age and, as this was not considered palatable, the direction was shifted into what was then called Intermediate Technology. It has been of Europe’s leading demonstration centre in sustainability every since.

For most of that time its was dismissed by decision-makers – as just a load of old hippies – with the one exception of overseas development, where the wisdom, applicability and economic efficiency of its solutions won respectability with government agencies.

Undeterred, CAT worked away steadily at developing workable solutions and educating the public in both the issues involved and their resolution.

Extraordinarily it become one of the top tourist destinations in North Wales, and established itself as the leading consultancy for small scale off-the-grid power installations – solar wind and hydro - eco-building, energy conservation in buildings and several other disciplines.

Almost overnight the situation flipped when governments woke up abruptly to the environmental issues CAT had been advertising for 20 years or more. It suddenly found itself at the centre of mainstream thinking, with numerous government departments scrambling over themselves to hurriedly reformulate policy in areas hitherto unknown to them, particularly with respect to wind energy which almost no-one else in the country knew anything about at that time, and energy conservation in buildings.



CAT is a more or less obligatory visit for anyone seriously interested in positive, practical solutions to our environmental crisis.

It has an excellent shop for sustainability items and an outstanding range of books on every aspect of sustainability, including many of its own publications. There is also a very good organic vegetarian restaurant.

CAT also runs a wide range of short and long residential courses on anything from blacksmithing to organic gardening, installing wind turbines – you can even make one out of recycled materials – to building your own eco-home. Even how to convert your car to run on chip fat – or biodiesel. These are perhaps the best way to really understand the breadth of vision of the place.

It also offers a number of MA/MSc courses related to architecture, energy, and environmental management.

Do try to visit if you have not already.


http://www.cat.org.uk/index.tmpl?refer=index&init=1




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