Creating Low Carbon Communities

A report on key issues arising from the‘Communities and Climate Action’

Conference

Creating Low Carbon Communities

Introduction: ‘Communities and Climate Action’The ‘Communities and Climate Action’ conference took place in London in January 2011, with support from DECC, the Energy Saving Trust and Groundwork UK. People came from most parts of the UK, from Shetland to the South-West, and from small villages to major cities. They included people active in projects supported by the Government’s Low Carbon Communities Challenge.

The conference was run by the Communities and Climate Action Alliance, a new grouping of many of the national organisations supporting local action (see page 19). One aim was to find out what support there was for such a ‘network of networks’ and how it might work.

The aims of the event were to:1. Explore how community organisations can play a key role in the delivery of carbon

reduction targets2. Enable a broad range of ‘community and climate’ organisations to get up to speed on a

developing new agenda, and to jointly discuss their responses3. Strengthen the capacity of this ‘community and climate’ sector4. Enable the development of relationships between this sector and other agencies.

The event ran over two days: the first was a structured discussion involving some 130 people. The second day saw around 220 take part in a range of workshops and seminars with around 30 speakers from community organisations and enterprises as well as national agencies. Newly ennobled Baroness Worthington gave a key note address (see Appendix 1).

This report summarises the issues that arose from the discussions, and sets out challenges for community action and potential solutions. It does not attempt to cover all of what happened. Within these challenges and solutions there are actions that can be taken by any community, but there are also issues and actions that need to be addressed by national and local government.

The main sections cover:1. The challenges for community action on climate change2. What needs to happen? 3. A common purpose and a common voice4. Cooperation: People, projects, and policies5. Other issues covered at the conference

In addition a set of appendices cover:1. The speech by Baroness Worthington to the conference.2. The Communities and Climate Action Alliance (CCAA) 3. Learning from each other and telling our stories: a set of ‘Case Study Guidelines’ for

community action on climate change, developed out of the conference

An Executive Summary is on Page 3.

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Creating Low Carbon Communities

Creating Low Carbon Communities: A report on issues arising from the ‘Communities and Climate Action’ conference

Executive Summary

The ‘Communities and Climate Action’ conference took place in London in January 2011 and attracted over 200 people from local organisations and national agencies. It looked to explore the unique role of community organisations in the delivery of carbon reduction targets, and to help ‘community and climate’ organisations to get up to speed on a fast-developing agenda. The conference was run by the Communities and Climate Action Alliance, a new grouping of national organisations supporting local action. One aim was to find out what support there was for such a ‘network of networks’ and how it might work.

The conference made it clear that there are still many challenges to be resolved if the energy within communities to tackle climate change is to be mobilised as effectively as possible. There is clearly a lack of funding - both capital and revenue - but there are other issues to be addressed: Infrastructure to support low carbon behaviour change is poorly developed Other sectors do not understand the potential of community action National media have little interest in the community action agenda The sense of urgency around action on climate change has been lost There is a lack of self-belief within communities of their own power

These issues need concerted action by all sectors, working with communities and their support agencies. A range of solutions and ways forward are included in the report.

Four themes were the main focus of the conference: Housing and home energy services Community renewables Building engagement and behaviour change Transport

A range of workshops covered these issues and saw the launch of new initiatives including the ‘Local United’ social enterprise network (www.localunited.net), a new toolkit to support local action from the Energy Saving Trust and a new on-line map of community action on climate change (www.communitymaps.org.uk/ukclimateaction).

The conference also considered how groups can work together and share their experiences effectively. A set of guidelines on how case studies can best demonstrate local involvement were developed (see App. 3). The role of the Communities and Climate Action Alliance (see App. 2) was debated and there was full support for this new organisation, assuming it works positively with existing networks. A set of working principles is now in development.

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1. The challenges for community action on climate change

The first day of the conference worked through a set of discussions around the role of community action. This section summarises the outcomes of those discussions.

We are told that the Government wishes to see much higher levels of community engagement and decentralised action, leading to a ‘big society’. Those taking part in these discussions are already on the leading edge of such action, creating positive change in their communities that will deliver benefits now and for future generations. They made it very clear that this is not easy, that there are frustrations and barriers. But they also had plenty of ideas as to how those frustrations can be resolved. These are set out in section 2.

Community action – from frustrations to solutions

The conference was asked: ‘what is frustrating us in developing more and better community action?’ The key points in response included:

1. There is a lack of working capital and revenue.

2. Infrastructure is not being restructured or developed sufficiently rapidly (or with any sense of priority) so that it can support behaviour change around low carbon behaviours.

3. Other sectors do not understand the potential of community action, and it is hard to get ‘a foot in the door’ to communicate this.

4. The media are vital to transforming social norms, but national media seem to obstruct our agenda and we have little agency to change this.

5. Action on climate change has lost – as far as the national and local narratives are concerned - all sense of urgency.

6. There are conflicting agendas which have far more traction than community action on climate change and these can devalue and our activity

7. There is a lack of self-belief within communities of their power because of this experience being overlooked and sidelined.

Within these main points were some issues that came up repeatedly in discussion:

Delivering outcomes within communities by communities can be a slow process. This is because communities tend to work in more depth with people and on the issues. This is not always more expensive because a lot of time is freely given. While this slowness may be seen as a failing by other sectors, communities feel it is a necessary part of getting to holistic, community-based solutions that do more in the long-term for the health of a community. It is important to find ways of communicating this to other sectors to improve collaborative working in the future.

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Communities often feel that they are be treated as the amateur partner by larger agencies. They are almost always consulted last – locally and nationally - if consulted at all. We feel that communities have resources including time, expertise, and local trust and should be a stakeholder from the earliest stages of strategic planning.

Communities are deeply wary of close partnerships with other sectors. This is for a variety of reasons – although predominant ones are around losing credibility and trust in the eyes of the people we are trying to work with and fear that our projects may be re-shaped to make them meaningless or worse, greenwash. This is based on hard experience.

2. What needs to happen?

The conference then looked at solutions for each barrier. This was framed in the context of how communities can work with other sector partners. All proposed solutions are listed once, although each solution may help resolve multiple barriers.

There is a lack of working capital and revenueCommunities and sector partners can work together to: Explore ways to make it easier for other financial models – such as social enterprise - to

set-up and thrive Seek out existing local social enterprises – and give them support – even if this is just time

and strategic links Encourage the investment of local wealth into local resilience projects. Investing into our

own communities needs to become a compelling pioneer and prospector story

Infrastructure is not being restructured or developed sufficiently rapidly Communities and sector partners can work together to: Ensure that planning policies maximise all possible opportunities for infrastructure re-

structuring through caveats in developer project agreements. Be clear on what a low carbon infrastructure looks like, and understand the issues around

CHP, Community heating, Community Energy Supply Companies, sustainable transport, waste minimization and distributed energy networks

Create a map of existing low carbon incentives and disincentives in current infrastructure and creatively think how a deployment of new incentives AND disincentives might lead to a changed use of existing infrastructure. This might set the scene for a focused advocacy and communications initiative.

Other sectors do not understand the potential of community action Communities and sector partners can work together to: Seek out those in our own areas who are working on these issues, proactively welcoming

all players to the table and ensuring that there is good cross-section of representation at strategic meetings

Promote the examples that work and the role of environmental / climate action as a proven and positive way of getting people working together locally

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Engage with processes such as local partnerships, participatory budgeting, neighborhood councils, understand the imminent changes to local democracy and get carbon reduction on the agenda

Celebrate communities’ successes to other sector partners: word of mouth can act as a positive challenge and motivator.

Communities need to be clear on what they can really offer in terms of carbon reduction and on how this can improve local quality of life. They can show organisations in other sectors how we can help them hit their targets. Sector partners can support this work by ensuring that they connect their local communities to other sector partners working on shared agendas

The media are vital to transforming social norms yet seem to obstruct our agenda Communities and sector partners can work together to: Ensure that ‘resilience’ is made more accessible as a story – and engages with more

accessible agendas such as health, well-being, food etc. Help consolidate messages – so that we ‘go out to the market’ with more of a common

voice Specifically look to influence local and national media (as with the new pro-wind and pro-

solar initiatives) and speak to them in their language Build the credibility of climate / sustainability messages through well-planned and

delivered media initiatives

Action on climate change has lost all sense of urgency Communities and sector partners can work together to: Develop the understanding of key players in local civil society of climate change and

impacts and timescales Work with inspirational speakers and others who really understand this agenda to

develop the ways in which the message should be communicated. Talk to a wider agenda than simply climate change or carbon, including work on food,

leisure, economy, health, vibrant communities: these conversations should take place at all levels within an organisation.

Understand what is urgent for any audience and link on these issues Seek out positive stories and successes and communicate them in every conceivable way- Internal stories can be used to build a sense of agency and positively challenge

comparable organisations elsewhere- External stories can be used as inspiration and guides

There are conflicting agendas which have far more tractionCommunities and sector partners can work together to:- Create local and national forums for debate and challenge, with the aim of finding areas

of common ground where we can start to work together. There is a hope that tolerance and co-working might increase as each sector becomes more familiar with the constraints, concerns and aspirations of partners.

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There is a lack of agency / self-belief within communities of their power Communities and sector partners can work together to: Evaluate what is being done to show the real benefits that result Promote the examples that work at street and community level and demonstrate their

successes Improve peer-to-peer working to build a stronger community action Build that power through training and skill-building, and share skills through secondment

from businesses and from local authorities into community endeavours.

Communities would do well to improve their own strategic thinking – especially in relation to working with unfamiliar – and sometimes it might feel, competing, partners.

Sector partners can help by working with communities to nurture that strategic thinking

Local authorities can develop community activity by practical and financial support but also by engaging them in strategic discussions about local energy and climate action. They could also support community time- banking to incentivise and thereby scale up wider community involvement in community-benefitting projects

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3. A common purpose and a common voice

One aim of the event was to find out what support there was for the Communities and Climate Action Alliance as a ‘network of networks’ and how it might work. There is a background document that had been sent in advance to all participants in Appendix 3. On the day participants were asked: To what extent do you feel that the Alliance could fulfil a useful purpose in helping to

represent your interests If you feel that CCAA has a role to play, how would you like us to represent your

interests over the coming 6-12 months?

A full discussion session including small groups and a question session with a panel of the CCAA members showed that almost all those attending the event were supportive of the idea of a ‘third tier’ organisation. There were some who saw this as a “good idea – with caveats”.

The key points in support of this and the potential benefits were clear in the discussion: There is a need for sharing and linkages between the various networks that support local

action. There is a need to make clear and to promote what communities can deliver. It can be difficult for smaller groups and networks to engage with political processes: this

has the potential to enable that engagement. There is a need for those working on community energy to engage strategically with those

working on other issues (such as transport) and also with the wider voluntary sector: this alliance could help with that.

There is innovation and emerging good practice in groups and enterprises across the UK and a need to share and learn from that practice: this should be an important role for the alliance.

There were also caveats (from a smaller of participants): How will this new body make decisions, especially those that may affect or impact on

positions of member organisations or others: will there be any form of veto? How will the alliance work with groups outside the alliance? Points raised on this included

work with other national networks such as Stop Climate Chaos and the new Climate Alliance as well as organisations such as Friends of the Earth as well as how it would work with regional bodies.

Is there to be any form of representative structure? What scope will there be for other organisations to join? How will external bodies such as the Energy Saving Trust work with the alliance? What mechanism will enable grass roots organisations to feed issues in the alliance?

The CCAA members responded to these points and undertook to develop a ‘working principles’ document that would show how it would work to deliver the benefits and ensure transparency and good decision-making.

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4. Cooperation: People, projects, and policies

Many participants work on community energy projects and building engagement. There are often other local organisations whose main focus is more politically directed and who work on advocacy and campaigning. One key question is how project focused groups can build effective links with others active in their area to increase their influence and impact. Local coalitions can play an important role. The key ways forward were seen as:

Be clear on who is active locally If our aim is to have stronger and more effective local initiatives, then it is important to be clear who is already at work on these issues. Some form of survey or mapping work may be helpful in this, to highlight

Independent local groups focused on climate and energy Social and community enterprises Local groups that are linked national organisations Groups or programmes set up by or with local authorities Other community groups and projects Agencies that offer support to these groups

Find the common groundWhile there may be different approaches to action at the local level, there is always a shared recognition of the need for change. No one organisation will be able to deliver the wide range of changes need to deliver genuinely low carbon communities. Getting shared recognition of the need for varied approaches can be a first step to longer-term cooperation. A second step may be to identify a few common goals. These may not be directly about climate: they may be about work with local government or buy-in from other civil society groups.

Work together and separatelyCoalitions can be important for certain types of activity, for strategic issues, and for work with larger bodies. Within any such coalition it will be important to recognise groups’ need to also work separately and also that on occasion groups may compete for funding.

Better understanding of how to measure successDifferent groups will be seeking different outcomes. Talking and working together can help identify common outcomes, while setting up proper evaluation systems for any programme or project will help demonstrate its’ impact both to other organisations and to funders.

Improve our outreachAll organisations are likely to benefit from better outreach. Being completely inclusive - open to everyone interested in climate and sustainability – is a challenge but can offer real benefits. Different organisations can share news bulletins, mutual weblinks and publicity at events. Outreach beyond those already interested can also be done by groups working together. A coalition can act as a local forum – actively seeking other local voices and giving them a chance to engage. The use of simple, clear, inclusive language can help reach out to all cultures, while mentoring and support can help smaller groups become more effective.

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5. Other issues covered at the conference

Day 2 of the conference covered a wide range of issues. Four themes were the main focus: Housing and home energy services Community renewables Building engagement and behaviour change Transport

Other workshops covered issues including New support for social enterprise in this sector The wider engagement of civil society Developing positive visions of a low carbon future Advocacy and campaigning to support community action. Action Planning by local organisations using Energy Saving Trust tools Big Society and climate change – interlinked processes?There were also sessions on working with local energy agencies, with DECC and with local councils.

Links to presentations and summaries of workshops where these available are attached here:

1. Housing and home energy services There are many organisations active in this field. They include: The National Energy Foundation www.nef.org.uk Sustainable Homes www.sustainablehomes.co.uk The Sustainable Energy Academy run ‘Old Home SuperHome’ - a network of exemplar

retrofitted old dwellings www.sustainable-energyacademy.org.uk Local United brings together and supports community activists setting up social enterprises:

www.localunited.net The Community Energy Practitioners Forum links many organisations working in this

field: http://www.nef.org.uk/communities/cepf.html

2. Community renewables Community Energy Scotland are Scotland’s national body supporting community-based

organisations to benefit from renewable energy. www.communityenergyscotland.org.uk Community Renewable Energy (CoRE) is a social enterprise working with communities to

develop renewable energy projects www.corecoop.net The Community Energy Practitioners Forum http://www.nef.org.uk/communities/cepf.html

3. Building engagement and behaviour change A great many well-known organisations work in this field, including Global Action Plan,

who presented a review of their work: www.globalactionplan.org.uk One key issue was how far we should be working to change values rather than behaviours.

WWF’s ‘Common Cause’ report makes this case: http://assets.wwf.org.uk/downloads/common_cause_report.pdf Another view is at http://www.campaignstrategy.org/index.php

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One speaker, David Fell of Brook Lyndhurst, produces a regular blog on related issues: www.brooklyndhurst.co.uk/blog.

4. TransportRelevant organisations include:

The Campaign for Better Transport http://www.bettertransport.org.uk/ Sustrans http://www.sustrans.org.uk/what-we-do/liveable-neighbourhoods/diy-

streets/diy-streets-resources-and-links HCT (originally Hackney Community Transport) are now a large social enterprise

supplying local transport services: http://www.hctgroup.org/ The Big Lemon Bus company is a transport social enterprise in Brighton:

www.the biglemon .com/

Workshop issues:

1. Support for social enterprise in this sector Carbon Leapfrog provide access to specialist legal and financial support: http://carbonleapfrog.org/Local United (see above) also offer support.

2. Positive visions of a low carbon futureLow Carbon Communities Network is developing work in this area: www.lowcarboncommunities .net/

3. Advocacy and campaigning on climate changeMany NGOs are active in this area, many linked through Stop Climate Chaos (www.stopclimatechaos.org ) and the Alliance for Jobs, Climate and Communities (www. climatealliance .co.uk ) Work by NGOs such as Friends of the Earth and WWF is also very relevant.

4. Action Planning The Energy Saving Trust demonstrated a toolkit for ‘planning your local low carbon future’, www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/cafe/Green-Communities/Guidance-and-useful-tools

5. Working with local energy agencies, with local councils.The Community Energy Practitioners Forum (see link above) led work on this. Local energy agencies involved in this workshop included: Centre for Sustainable Energy www.cse.org.uk, Marches Energy Agency (MEA) www.mea.org.uk and Severn Wye Energy Agency www.swea.org.uk

Further workshop presentations are available at www.lowcarboncommunities.net

Many of the organisations which took part (and many others) are listed on the interactive ‘UK Climate Action’ on-line map of community action on climate change launched at the conference: www.communitymaps.org.uk/ukclimateaction.

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Appendix 1. Speech by Baroness Worthington to the Communities and Climate Action conference.

The invitation to speak today described me as “the House of Lords person for the climate movement”. I hadn’t thought of it that way until I received the email but that is exactly what I hope I can work to become. Free of any geographic constituency I would like to adopt the climate change movement as my constituency - if you’ll have me.

I’ve had a hand in a number of pieces of new legislation - not least the Climate Change Act 2008 which I campaigned for whilst at FOE and then helped to draft while of secondment to the Government. With this new role I hope I can influence many more enabling pieces of legislation and policy that will truly put this country on to the path towards sustainability.

The pace at which Governments are prepared to move is too slow. The entire system is too conservative. And so the ability to legislate our way out of this problem is limited.

What is not limited in human ingenuity and energy. Everyone in this room has shown that we do not need to wait for our politicians in order to act. We can at an individual and community level take matters into our own hands and implement change. Renowned computer scientist Alan Kay once said “the best way to predict the future is to invent it” and all the groups represented here today are doing exactly that.

Please keep doing it. You are the spearhead of a movement which will I hope ultimately bring our way of living into harmony with our environment. But as much as we need to keep doing what we’re doing there are also a couple of additional actions we need to take.

Firstly, we need to spread the word - of course that is easier said than done but it is absolutely essential that all of the actions and projects taking place across the country are made more visible.

Politicians only sign up to things they believe they can deliver and they also take the concerns of mainstream society very seriously. If a sustainable future is seen to be undesirable or impossible - or worse still simply not seen - then we will never get the kinds of laws and policies we need to make it possible for ever community to easily become sustainable, without even realising it.

Your experiences, the things you have learned, the things that have been easy, those that have been more difficult, they all need to be communicated as widely as possible. Creating a central hub where all this information can be shared is essential. Sadly, creating your own communication channels and taking news of your work to Westminster will be essential as you cannot rely on the usual media channels who are famous for rejecting good news stories as they simply don’t sell.

The other important additional role that needs to fulfilled is reaching out to encourage other communities to take action. This is important both within the UK and further afield.

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In the UK, we need to reach out to communities that are likely to have to make the biggest transitions as we move to a low carbon economy. I am thinking about those communities whose jobs and livelihoods depend on fossil fuels, those living and working in our aging coal fired power stations and at oil refineries and steel works. All too often industry lobbyists use the fact that they are large employers to brow beat Government into relaxing laws and policies.

They are successful because there is an element of truth to what they say - if a large employer moves out of an area it can have a devastating impact - these communities more than any others need to believe in a different future and to be actively campaigning for their employers to adopt it. There are already initiatives underway to partner with similar communities in Eastern European nations such as Poland.

This is exactly the kind of expansion we need. Poland is one of the most important countries we need to persuade to adopt Europe’s tougher climate target of a 30% cut by 2020 - a move which would remove around 3bn tonnes from the atmosphere. If there is a groundswell of action at a community level support for the move will be far easier.

And we shouldn’t stop at Europe, let’s also seek to partner with communities in the US and China. The global politics of climate change seems to be almost unceasingly depressing. You just have to look at what is happening in the US currently to see how long we have to go before there is anything like a global consensus to act.

But not waiting for this and acting now can bring about the right political conditions to enable that consensus to more easily reached.

I wouldn’t be much of a campaigner if I didn’t take this opportunity to say a bit about the NGO I set up two years ago. Sandbag was established to try to create ways for individuals to engage with the biggest most powerful policies in place to tackle climate change - and is currently focused on the European emissions trading scheme. This if you like is the other end of the spectrum from community action but the two are interrelated.

Legal caps set in Europe now cover half of all CO2 emissions that dictate how much pollution there will be in the future. This is because a fixed amount of permits to pollute get issued every year - 1 per tonne of CO2 which decides how much gets emitted either now or in the future since the permits can be saved up and used at any time. Sadly, the number of permits issued has been far too high. 2009 saw a huge drop in emissions due to the recession but the permit levels remained where they were meaning that a very generous hand out to polluters suddenly became even more generous.

By looking in detail at the data that is released about those who are capped we have been able to show how many spare permits there are in the system and which companies and installations have hold of them. We can also track the huge volume of offsets people are using to meet their targets. We use this to lobby eurocrats and politicians to tighten the caps and to fight back against the huge amount of industry lobbying that takes place to try to keep things as they are.

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We also tried to make this information as easy to access as possible and our website houses a map of all the power stations and factories covered by the scheme. Enter your post code and the map reveals those polluters who are near to you letting you find out how much they emit, the permits they were given and how much offsetting they have undertaken. We will make this information more accessible through an application for smart phones called the ‘carbon geiger counter’ – alerting you to the nearby presence of large scale polluters in the same way a geiger counter makes radiation visible.

This is interesting (you may be thinking) but what has it got to do with me and my community? Unfortunately the introduction of the EU emissions trading scheme means that there is now less we can do to affect the level of pollution for our emissions from electricity now and in the future.

Actions we citizens take to reduce our electricity free up permits to pollute that can be sold to someone else so they can use it to pollute. And by freeing up even more permits it boosts the supply making the price of permits drop meaning all polluters have less of an incentive to clean up their act. This is a hidden scandal about which we as a community have been far too complacent.

In Australia when a similar law was being debated that would have covered all sources of emissions there was a high profile campaign about this problem. They were partially successful in that the Government conceded that something would be included in the legislation to protect citizens ability to go further than the cap and deliver real additional savings that could not be sold on. In the US too there are provisions in place to protect the savings that arise when citizens voluntarily switch to renewable sources of electricity. It is a tragedy that nothing similar exists in the EU.

So what can we do about it? Should we lobby to get rid of emissions trading all together? No: this is a legal framework with huge potential. But we can demand that the power companies who are issued with the permits destroy some on our behalf whenever we can provide clear evidence that our actions and investments have reduced electricity demand. We can lobby the EU to include provisions to set aside permits for citizen action in future phases of the scheme.

And we can if we wish enter the market and buy up the permits ourselves and take them out of the hands of would be polluters.Of course the first two options are by far the most preferable and Sandbag would be delighted to hear from anyone interested in supporting us in our campaign to secure these measures.

Thankyou. I hope that many new initiatives will be spawned over these two days. I feel privileged to be here - please lobby me!

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Appendix 2. The Communities and Climate Action Alliance (CCAA)

This appendix is based on a paper circulated before the Conference.

It is clear that the speed and scale of society's response to climate change does not yet match the urgency of the threat we face. Many believe, supported by behavioural change theory and practice, that communities can act as powerful agents of change. However to have any significant impact, community action will need to move from the margins to the mainstream. The range of barriers currently facing community action will need to be addressed, in part through more productive partnerships between communities and other key stakeholders like local authorities, the private sector, policy makers, NGOs etc.

The conference has been organised primarily by the Low Carbon Communities Network, on behalf of the Communities and Climate Action Alliance (CCAA), with support from an informal grouping of representatives from the Alliance member networks. CCAA members currently include the Transition Network, EST’s Green Communities Network, the Community Energy Practitioners Forum, Local United, Scottish Climate Challenge Fund communities and the Low Carbon Communities Network. The conference is acting as the annual conference for the Low Carbon Communities Network and EST’s Green Communities. It is also the conference that DECC are using to connect and learn from its Low Carbon Community Challenge communities. The conference has been funded by EST, DECC and Groundwork UK.

The shared belief amongst the CCAA is that communities have a unique and critical role in helping the UK meet its national carbon reduction targets. Each of the member networks would contend that the communities’ role is currently poorly understood. We argue that national and local policy makers risk making policy decisions that are not as effective in the long term as they could be, because communities and community carbon reduction delivery models – such as social enterprise - are not an effective part of the strategic discussion.

At the moment we see ourselves as an ‘exploratory’ and ‘informal’ grouping of networks. We know there are networks missing from the table, however, we also are aware that before we grow the CCAA, we need to check out whether network members feel there is some useful purpose to it existing at all. We are also very aware that there are other views and approaches to community action, and we hope to see all these discussed at the conference.

Why did CCAA get together?CCAA came together early summer 2010 as a result of a number of overlapping conversations that various networks had been having with government departments, DECC & CLG and NESTA. It was clear that there was a strong common thread amongst many of the existing networks actively engaged in community action on climate change. It was suggested that this strong action focus could be better supported if networks worked together (as opposed to separately) on shared agendas in order to help government and other stakeholders respond more quickly and at appropriate scale.

What do we think CCAA’s purpose could be?o To demonstrate to government and other partners communities’ unique and critical role in

helping deliver climate change targetso To help build a sense of shared purpose and collective action amongst our members and across

a range of key private and public sector partners aimed at lowering the barriers to community action on climate change

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partner strengths and which actively enables the potential for community action on climate change.

We feel the benefits of working together further include:- on-going understanding of each others’ activities, helping reduce duplication and increase

cross fertilisation- reduced time spent by each network on lobbying and partnership development with key

stakeholders - increased impact through more co-ordinated and coherent activity

Apart from meeting your needs, what does CCAA hope to achieve at this conference?The CCAA hopes this can also be an occasion for us to explore together some of the common opportunities and threats that face all of us in our different networks in this new political and economic setting.

Much of the conference is focused on practical action and projects, many run by social enterprises, while some are also working closely with local councils. As we move from ‘should we act?’ to ‘how do we act most effectively?’, groups are developing new working links with other sectors, and exploring these linkages will be an important part of the event.

We want to use this conference to enquire whether together, representing over 5,000 communities, we can set out shared needs and desires to UK government in a stronger way, and therefore achieve more rapid change.

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Appendix 3. Learning from each other and telling our stories: Case Study Guidelines for community action on climate change

A theme for the conference was how communities can share learning and good practice. There are many on-line sets of case studies of ‘good’ local action, but organisers felt that many of these fail to demonstrate the benefits that the community engagement aspects can deliver, both in terms of environmental and social change. One session heard from 12 local examples of emerging practice, and from this discussion came ideas for a comprehensive set of guidelines for what local organisations would like to see included in future case studies.

IntroductionAn ideal case study might include:

A short summary (max. 400 words) An analysis of the project that covers most / all of the points raised below A narrative that describes how and why the work was done Some visual images if appropriate Details of where the project is, if it is still going, whether it is possible / useful to visit etc. and

contact details, links to relevant website etc.

Developing a case study that included all the details listed below would be difficult for any individual project. But we would hope that these act as guidelines, both for local projects and for websites, directories that are seeking to share learning and disseminate innovative practice.

1. BackgroundWhat was the context for the project?

What area did the project take place in? What (roughly) are the demographics of the area (population, poverty levels, ethnicity etc.) Why did it happen? Had anything similar happened in the area before?

2. ObjectivesWhat was the original objective of the project?

Who was meant to benefit? How ere these beneficiaries decided? Were the intended benefits delivered? What are the key ‘facts and figures’ for the project? On what scale was it?

3. Project management3.1 Who set the project up and ran it?

Had they done anything similar before? What skills did the project group need and have? How had these been acquired? Were the skills needed looked for locally and if so how? Was anyone (e.g. paid staff) brought in to the project? How were they recruited? Where did the project group get advice, support and information?

3.2 How was the project resourced? What was the budget and where did it come from? Were there issues around the balance between revenue and capital funding? Are there specific tips or advice for other projects?

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3.3 What were the main problems? What were the principal obstacles met with in the project? How did the organisation running the project deal with obstacles? Were there obstacles that could not be overcome? If so, how did the project adapt?

3.4 The benefits What were the financial benefits for the beneficiaries? What skills (and qualifications) were acquired by those involved? What other benefits are there for the local community and other stakeholders?

4. Community and Stakeholder Engagement4.1 The community

How did the project engage with the local community? Did the project seek the engagement of specific groups (communities of interest) within an

area (e.g young or older people, disabled people, people from a specific faith)? If so how was their engagement developed?

Were local people involved in running / managing the project? Did engagement with the local community add value to the project? If so how? How was this

assessed / recorded?

4.2 Stakeholders Was an assessment made of other likely stakeholders? How did the project engage with other stakeholders? Were their benefits and / or problems arising from this engagement?

4.3 Volunteers Did the project use volunteer labour? Did this involve long-term and/or short-term volunteers? If so how were they brought in to

the project? How were volunteers trained and supported? How were the community and other volunteers kept involved during the life of the project? Was this a problem?

5. Innovation What was done that was perceived by those involved to be new? Was this in the original project or did the innovation emerge as the work went on?

6. Evaluation and Monitoring How was the evaluation done and how far did this go beyond recording progress? How far were those involved invited to feed into the evaluation? Did the project group record or document the work? If so how? Is there a public record (e.g

photos, blog, website)? How was the project launched?

7. Success and replicability What were the key success factors? Would those who did it think the project is (fairly easily) replicable?

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Creating Low Carbon Communities

This report was compiled by Chris Church (Chair of the Low Carbon Communities Network) on behalf of the Communities and Climate Action Alliance (CCAA). Thanks to all those who contributed and whose efforts made the conference such a success. Copyright for this report rests with CCAA.

Use of the material in this document on a not-for-profit basis is encouraged. Please feel free to circulate and use this material in any appropriate way, and please acknowledge CCAA when doing so.

CCAA is currently (April 2011) developing a website. In the meantime copies of this report can be obtained from the Low Carbon Communities Network (www.lowcarboncommunities.net) . Any queries regarding content should be sent to ccaa@ lowcarboncommunities.net

The Communities and Climate Action Alliance currently includes representatives of: Low Carbon Communities Network Transition Network The Community Energy Practitioners Forum Local United The National Energy Foundation Awel Aman Tawe (for Welsh Networks) Keep Scotland Beautiful (which administers and supports the Climate Challenge Fund in Scotland) The Energy Saving Trust ‘Green Communities’ network

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