More than £30,000 has been awarded in funding to eleven projects across Bath and the surrounding area to help them reduce carbon emissions and tackle fuel poverty.
For the eighth year running, community-owned Bath & West Community Energy (BWCE) has given a proportion of its surplus income from renewable energy generation to the independently run BWCE Fund for the benefit of local communities.
Quartet Community Foundation administers the grant programme on behalf of the fund.
This year, a total of £31,706 was given to a range of projects, including:
- Encouraging residents to reduce waste, such as Bath Share & Repair
- Gardening projects, such as the new food garden at the Carers Centre B&NES
- Cutting carbon emissions from local buildings, such as the new air source heat pump at Bath City Farm.
Sophie Hooper Lea, Chair of Trustees for the Bath & West Community Energy Fund, said: “This is a decisive decade for climate action and the BWCE Fund is delighted to support these 11 fantastic organisations in reducing their own carbon emissions and helping local people to live in a more environmentally friendly way.
“Since 2015 the BWCE Fund grant programme administered by Quartet Community Foundation has awarded 80 grants worth over £238,000.
“Those grants have all gone to local organisations doing vital work to benefit our local communities as well as the environment.”
Suzanne Rolt, CEO at Quartet Community Foundation added: “The Vital Signs report we published last year focused on the impact of climate change on local communities and the actions needed to reduce consumption and carbon emissions.
“Against a backdrop of Covid, we’ve seen that as the demand for services provided by local charities has peaked, these same charities have had less capacity to address the climate emergency.
“It’s through the additional and focused support of the BWCE Fund that they can continue to work towards the achievement of a fairer, greener society in and around Bath.”
Lorna Montgomery from Bath Share & Repair, which received £1801, said: “We know that changing behaviour should start as young as possible, and this grant will allow us to present ideas and concepts to primary school children about how to reduce their impact on the environment in a sustainable way.
“We are incredibly grateful to the BWCE Fund for helping us to test the water in this area and define the best way to make a difference to our community. Thank you!”
The 11 funded projects through the BWCE Fund grants in Bath & North East Somerset are:
- £1,800 to First Steps (Bath) for work towards the replacement of a boiler heating system with a sustainable alternative.
- £1,725 to FACE – Families Acting on Climate Emergency – for building the FACE community in schools and other settings across the B&NES area, and researching needs, opportunities, barriers and triggers for climate action amongst local families.
- £4,000 to Carers Centre B&NES (Care Network) to create a food garden for carers to learn to grow food and to provide food for carers to increase sustainability and food security.
- £1,500 to Zero Carbon Compton for Energy Efficiency surveys for households in Compton Dando, including social housing tenants.
- £1,801 to Bath Share & Repair toward the Carbon Footprint Project, which will help younger children to understand how they can repair, reduce and reuse to reduce carbon emissions.
- £1,000 to Percy Community Centre for additional insulation to enclose the parts of the community centre’s boiler room infrastructure that are currently uninsulated.
- £5,000 to Bath City Farm, towards an air source heat pump and ventilation system for the new purpose-built community hub and cafe.
- £4,000 to Middle Ground Growers CIC toward the cost of building a solar-powered barn to power the group’s farm – charging tools, delivery bikes and cold storage for crops.
- £5,000 to Freshford Village Memorial Hall to replace the hall’s old oil-fired boiler, oil tank and controls with a highly thermally efficient air conditioning system.
- £4,000 to Trowbridge Environmental Community Group toward the cost of delivering four repair-and-reuse cafe community events during 2022, to encourage members of the public to become more engaged with their lifestyle choices and learn how they can live more sustainably.
- £1,880 to Corston Community Orchard & Garden to establish a rainwater harvesting, storage and distribution system to ensure there is a sustainable and sufficient water supply so that the newly planted trees and hedging can thrive.
