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Sustainable Communities Act

Wed, 11 December 2013
The Sustainable Communities Act 2007 gives power to local authorities to submit proposals about the social, economic and environmental improvements they want to see introduced in their local areas. In October the government extended these powers to town and parish councils.
 
The Department for Communities and Local Government says: ‘This is the opportunity for town and parish councils to engage with the local community and ask for their ideas about how the community can be improved. If there are barriers to the implementation of these ideas they can use the Act to ask the government to remove them. The barriers can be in legislation or guidance or they may be the result of established practice.’
 

More: www.bit.ly/1frg1bU

 

Peak District Environmental Quality Mark

Wed, 11 December 2013
Environmental Quality Mark
 
The Peak District Environmental Quality Mark (EQM) is an award presented to businesses that put pride in the peak district at the heart of their operations safeguard natural resource, safeguard the environment, add to the wellbeing of their communities and promote these values to their customers.
 
To find out more about achieving the EQM visit: www.eqm.org.uk/peakdistrict/index.asp
 

New Local Green Accreditation Scheme

Wed, 11 December 2013
Businesses and community organisations across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire are now able to access valuable support in cutting costs and going green.NEP Energy Services (NEPes) has launched the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Investors in the Environment (iiE) programme, a not-for-profit environmental accreditation scheme and support service.
 
iiE provides all the help, support, promotion and networking that is needed to help create smarter business practices, and ensure businesses gain recognition for their green efforts. The scheme will help businesses to increase resource efficiency, improve their social and environmental impacts, and win business from an increasingly green aware market place. While there is a cost for independent accreditation, all income will be used to subsidise support for local third sector organisations to improve their resource efficiency, cut costs and increase their chances of winning increasingly competitive funding bids.
 
The scheme helps organisations to develop a comprehensive Environmental Management System and action plan for continual energy, cost and carbon reduction. Members are then rewarded with a nationally recognised green stamp of approval; registered on a national green directory and provided with access to discounted resource efficiency goods and services.
 
 

£500,000 Fund to Help Community Energy Projects

Mon, 18 November 2013

Community energy projects are being given a boost today thanks to a new £500,000 Community Energy Peer Mentoring Fund announced by the Cabinet Office’s Centre for Social Action and the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

 

Up to £50,000 is being made available for each group who can demonstrate that they will use social action to mentor other smaller community projects and share skills to boost the number of projects across the country. The Fund will be administered by the Social Investment Business on behalf of the Government.

Currently, community energy groups work on a variety of different projects such as raising funds to get a solar panel on their community building or installing energy efficiency measures to help communities save money on their energy bills.  The new funding is designed to help new groups get off the ground so they can start saving money and generating energy in their community. It will also help existing groups to professionalise, develop business plans and scale up their work.

Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd said: 'This fund will provide a real boost for groups doing fantastic work in community energy, and is key to our long term aim of helping other such schemes to spring up right across the country.'

Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: 'This new fund will give aspiring communities access to the cash they need to help kick start hundreds of clean green energy projects. Not only can community energy projects boost local economies and drive forward green growth, they can also help save money on energy bills too.'

Caroline Forster, Director of Investment at the Social Investment Business said: 'We are looking for ambitious plans of social action to inspire new partnerships and encourage more communities to seed new community energy initiatives across England.'

To trial a new form of grant giving for this diverse sector, government will be keeping application criteria to a minimum and organisations will be invited to ‘pitch ideas’ to secure investment. Organisations can apply from today until 12 December 2013. Grants will range from £10,000 to £50,000.

Community energy organisations use social action to achieve a range of goals across the country, including: tackling climate change; helping people save money on their energy bills; generating energy; and clubbing together to get a better deal from energy companies.

The first tranche of money will be given out in February 2014 and organisations will need to spend their grants by March 2015.

 

Energy Saving: It’s a Social Thing

Mon, 4 November 2013
With energy bills rising again and the winter approaching, researchers from Keele University have found a positive way of helping householders to keep their energy costs down and houses warm. The Reducing Energy Consumption through Community Knowledge Networks (RECCKN) project team, which worked with households for two years on low-cost and low-tech approaches to saving energy, found that consumers are sceptical of the commercial motives of the Big Six energy companies, and are much more likely to trust advice that comes from friends, family, local companies and organisations, and the third sector.
 
Face-to-face discussion helps to cut through the often confusing range of offers and information with which consumers are bombarded, and the chance to ask questions provides the detailed advice and reassurance often absent from leaflets and other forms of written advice. As one householder commented, ‘It’s a minefield out there, so you end up doing nothing because there is so much choice’.
 

Project participants, including those from local communities, have contributed to a short video about their findings: www.recckn.org.uk/videos.htm.