Industry News

News from Green Communities March

Green Communities – going out on a high note
As you will have heard from our announcement and last month’s e-news, Green Communities will no longer be funded after the 31st of March. We will continue to maintain our online tools and information, including a new online resource to help plan carbon saving in community buildings. The Energy Saving Scotland advice centres will continue to provide support to community groups as part of the on-going delivery of their services. For more information, community groups are encouraged in Scotland to contact their local Energy Saving Scotland advice centre.

The Green Communities network now has over 6500 members including community groups, councils, voluntary sector organisations and a wide range of other groups interested in community action on climate change. Although this is the last issue of our e-news, we will circulate our “Local Energy News” e-newsletter to all Green Communities members. Local Energy News has previously been aimed at local authorities but, in future, will also include articles aimed at community groups and should help to keep you all up to date with changes to policy and examples of good practice. We are also continuing to work toward launching new services for communities in future.

Between April 2010 and March 2011 we have supported over 1600 community climate change projects by phone, email, face-to-face and online. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the team here at Energy Saving Trust as well as of our partners (including Centre for Sustainable Energy, all of our Expert Support panel and many others) for helping to make the programme such a success.

The future of community action in delivering a low carbon economy
The next couple of years feel very much like a turning point for community action on climate change. The movement has grown exponentially over the last few years in both numbers and confidence. At last some of the things which felt like pipe dreams not so long ago are starting to happen, with pioneering groups across the country leading community renewables projects and setting up community businesses to take the initiative in making the low carbon economy a reality. The enquiries coming in to Green Communities and discussions at the recent Communities and Climate Action Alliance conference have made it clear that it is no longer a handful of pioneering groups taking the initiative in this way but communities across the country are working on social enterprise approaches to carbon saving.

The next few years won’t be easy. With grant funding from the public sector drying up, starting a new project is going to be more challenging than ever. Hopefully Feed in Tariffs and the introduction of the Renewable Heat Incentive may be enough to carry forward the growth of community renewables and we wait to see what place might be carved out for communities within Green Deal.

The thing that makes me most optimistic for the future is the way that people within the sector are working together. From blogging and swapping ideas at conferences to sharing legal agreements and business models people across the sector have shown a remarkable ability to share hard-won experience. It’s that openness, generosity and willingness to work together that I think might make the difference.

Best wishes,
Graham Ayling
Community Services Manager, Energy Saving Trust