All posts tagged as case study

Transition Town Totnes

With just a few days to go before the deadline for entering the Big Green Challenge, here’s an inspiring story of how one town is preparing for a low-carbon future.

Transition Town Totnes is part of the Transition Network – communities that are working together to create a local timetable for reducing carbon emissions and dependence on oil. Through a range of working groups, Transition Town Totnes organises energy reduction projects that are fun, engaging and inspiring for all members of the community.

Projects in Totnes have included running renewable energy workshop, installing 50 rooftop solar water heaters and hosting an art exhibition with an environmental theme. Another initiative is the Totnes Pound, a local currency system that aims to encourage local trade and strengthen the local economy by keeping money circulating in the community.

The original Transition Town was Kinsale in Ireland and the initiative has now spread as far as Australia and New Zealand. You can find out about all of the towns involved at the Transition Towns Wiki.

If you’re interested in starting up a transition intiative in your town then check out the Transition Network conference which takes place in Cirencester from 11-13 April 2008.

Edinburgh Community Backgreens Association

Here’s a great example of a community working together to reduce carbon emissions and build a strong sense of neighbourhood and community spirit.

Since 2006, Edinburgh Community Backgreens Association has been working with households to turn neglected tenement backgreens into shared community green spaces. It’s established seven sites in Edinburgh, and the engagement and participation of local residents is central to the success of the community backgreens model.

Residents volunteer their time at monthly workshops to clear the rubbish and overgrowth and lay out the new community greens. A Green Caretaker – usually a tenement resident – is appointed for each backgreen, to oversee its development and provide a regular maintenance service.

The community backgreens provide a focus for community activity and facilitate the environmental sustainability of the tenement buildings. As well as space to grow plants, fruit and vegetables, the backgreens include play and relaxation areas, community composting and bike sheds.

You’ve got one week left before the deadline for entering the Big Green Challenge, so if you’ve been thinking about putting an application together with members of your local community, then get going today!

Sustainable Moseley

If you’re wondering how other groups organise themselves to tackle carbon emissions in their communities, then Sustainable Moseley might provide you with some inspiration. SusMo is an action group set up by residents in the Moseley area of Birmingham. The group’s aim is to reduce Moseley’s carbon footprint, through individual action and community initiatives.

The group meets regularly to discuss new ideas and approaches, and local businesses, community groups, schools, churches and housing associations are supporting the group’s work. SusMo has cross-party support from local politicians and Lynne Jones, MP for Bimingham Selly Oak, is an active member of the group.

SusMo’s first step was to take stock of the current level of carbon emissions generated by residents, businesses and organisations in the community. The group then joined up with CRed – the Carbon Reduction Project – to enable local people to make an online pledge to cut their carbon emissions at home, at work and on the move.

SusMo believes that an element of competition can be helpful in encouraging people to go the extra mile in reducing carbon emissions. If you need a push to start turning your ideas into action, then enter the Big Green Challenge! Have a read of the rules and then get your application underway today.

Get inspired by BedZED

BedZED in Wallington, Surrey is the UK’s biggest carbon-neutral eco-community, producing at least as much energy from renewable sources as it consumes.

Completed in 2002, BedZED – the Beddington Zero Energy Development – was developed by the Peabody Trust in partnership with Bill Dunster Architects and the BioRegional Development Group. It includes 82 homes of various sizes, plus buildings for commercial use, an exhibition centre and a children’s nursery.

Buildings are fitted with low energy lighting and energy efficient appliances and there’s a strong emphasis on roof gardens, sunlight and solar energy, renewable materials, reduction of energy consumption and waste water recycling. BedZED also has a green transport plan which promotes walking, cycling and use of public transport.

Sustainable living is incorporated into every aspect of the BedZED community. If you’re looking for some inspiration for how your own community could get involved in the Big Green Challenge then take a look at this BioRegional article on how BedZED residents have taken a green approach to food, travel and waste.

Baywind Energy Co-operative

Baywind Energy Co-operative is a fantastic example of what a community can achieve when people pull together. In 1996, a community in Cumbria purchased two wind turbines on a development built by a Swedish company, giving local residents a stake in the production of renewable energy. When the developers decided to withdraw from the project, the community purchased the other three turbines on the site.

Baywind now owns and runs six turbines, which generate enough power to supply around 1,400 households in the nearby town of Ulverston. More than 1,300 people own shares in Baywind, with 40 per cent living in Cumbria or Lancaster. The success of Baywind has inspired the group to set up Energy4All, a social enterprise which helps people to set up similar projects across the UK.

NESTA’s Vicki Costello says: “Baywind provides a great example of what we hope to help finalists in the Big Green Challenge achieve. We’re looking for ideas which can be trialled in one area and then re-created elsewhere”.

Mike Swain, science editor at the Daily Mirror, visited the Baywind project as part of the newspaper’s coverage of the Big Green Challenge. Watch the video on their site