People&Places

People&Places Stories from two Low Carbon Villages In partnership with: Low Carbon Village Project National Trust Green Energy and npower - working together for a greener future An experiment at two National Trust owned villages to understand what motivates communities to reduce their carbon footprints Getting It 1 engaged P. 3 happened 2 here P. 6 Perspectives from the 3projects P. 8 How it all 4adds up P. 18 Getting people on 5 board... P. 22 The National Trust cares for places of beauty and significance for ever, for everyone, throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As an independent charity, the National Trust receives no direct Government funding for its core work. Thanks to the generosity and active involvement of 4 million members and more than 61,500 volunteers, as well as many benefactors, tenants and other partners, the National Trust has grown into Europe’s biggest conservation charity, providing wonderful experiences enjoyed by 17.7 million people visiting pay-for-entry properties each year and countless more visiting National Trust coast and countryside places. www.nationaltrust.org.uk RWE npower is a leading integrated energy company and is part of the RWE Group, one of Europe’s leading electricity and gas companies. They serve around 6.22 million customer accounts and produce over 10% of the electricity used in the UK. They supply electricity and gas to residential and business customers across the UK and are committed to providing them with the products and services to improve their energy efficiency and reduce their energy bills. They operate and manage a diverse portfolio of oil, coal and gas-fired power stations, with a generating capacity of over 11GW. They also manage a portfolio of cogeneration plants. RWE npower renewables, the UK subsidiary of RWE Innogy plc, is a leading developer of renewable technologies. It operates over 500MW of onshore and offshore wind farms, almost 70MW of hydroelectric projects and has over 1,000MW of new renewable generation under construction. RWE Technology provides services relating to the engineering and construction of new power stations for all RWE Group companies. www.rwenpower.com National Trust Green Energy is a no-premium, green energy product for consumers featuring a Green Energy Fund to support investment in micro- and small-scale renewable energy at National Trust places. To date over 25 places have benefited from funding, installing a range of technologies from solar thermal to biomass. www.ntgreenenergy.org.uk Forum for the Future is a non-profit organisation working globally with business and government to create a sustainable future. They aim to transform the critical systems that we all depend on, such as food, energy and finance, to make them fit for the challenges of the 21st century. They have 15 years’ experience inspiring new thinking, building creative partnerships and developing practical innovations to change our world. www.forumforthefuture.org 2 Getting 1 engaged Turn on the TV or pick up a newspaper, and you can hardly escape the pictures of climate catastrophes, alarms about spiralling energy bills and other stories about how climate change is already having an impact on our lives. But understanding what positive actions you can make in your day-to-day life, and being motivated to actually take them, is trickier. In the Low Carbon Villages (LCV) project, the National Trust worked with its energy partner, npower, in two rural communities to tackle the disillusionment and helplessness that many people feel about climate change. The project first began in Wallington in the winter of 2007/2008, with Coleshill starting in August 2008. Through a process of engagement over a three-year period, it aimed to develop positive and practical solutions that could set villagers on a journey to low- carbon living, by helping the two communities determine what would work best for them. A budget of £600,000 provided by npower, as part of a wider partnership with the National Trust, paid for the most appropriate measures identified within each village to save energy, cut carbon and encourage more sustainable lifestyles. It also covered the cost of a project manager in each village. 3 As these many and varied examples illustrate, there is no pre-existing template for ‘how to do it’. And the LCV project certainly wasn’t a matter of budgeting for a preplanned series of technological interventions that a project manager would then put into action in each village. Quite the contrary, explains the National Trust’s Head of Corporate The LCV project is not a lone venture, but communities face, and tackles them head Partnerships, Elin Horgan: “We wanted part of a wider learning process. More on. The consortium of environmental it to be community-led and to have and more good community work is being groups, builders and architects raises them decide their own priorities.” It was done these days on low-carbon living. demand for the scheme through PR crucial, and not always easy at first, for the The Transition Towns movement is a and marketing, and then supports project managers to establish a trusted great example, spreading awareness and homeowners by providing loans and a role working within the local community. engagement through everyday actions trusted network of builders, architects and Above all, says Horgan, the project’s accessible to all. There is inspiring work surveyors to do the job. successes underlined “the importance of to draw on from Ashton Hayes, from putting in the time and energy, to develop Dyfi Valley and from Kent Low Carbon Also in the southwest, The Bristol Green good relationships” and to understand Communities, to name but three of many Doors project, with “people ... learning the processes by which people make local initiatives, and web-based tools such ... energy ... homes” as the strapline on meaningful changes in the way they live as www.imeasure.org.uk can be used to its website (www.bristolgreendoors. their lives. help keep track of household energy costs org), stresses the sharing of learning and carbon. Up and down the country with no preaching or pushing; “We let Ruth Worton was closely involved with small groups are holding structured the householders speak for themselves,” Coleshill in particular, on behalf of Carbon Conversations, pioneered in it says, “and do not offer advice on npower, where she is now the Charity Cambridge, to explore practical steps retrofitting other than encouraging people and Volunteering Delivery Manager. and support one another through the to attend our popular events.” Meanwhile, Like Horgan, she places great emphasis psychological minefields of behaviour in Brighton’s trendy North Laine area the on community engagement as the key. change. Tidy Street project (www.tidystreet.org) Looking back, she says, it’s clear to her quite literally turned energy monitoring that “the most important thing is inspiring The Refit West project (www.refitwest. into an art form. Residents got smart people to change their behaviour”. This com), led by Forum for the Future, meters to record their electricity usage also means being realistic about what has identified the key barriers that every day in the spring of 2011, and a can be achieved – and how long it may graffiti artist painted a huge display in take. Intriguingly, she notes, “it’s the coloured chalk on the street, dramatising small things that really captured people’s the comparison between power use in interest”, unlocking the engagement that Tidy Street and assorted other places makes it possible to move on to other, around the world. sometimes tougher, issues. 4 As Fiona Bennie, Principal Sustainability Advisor at Forum for the Future, says, “This type of research is a very powerful way to get to the heart of what makes people tick, and to help us create sustainable alternatives to current products and services that are desirable and accessible. As we spend quality time with individuals in their own context, we can really get to know them and understand their everyday behaviour and what incentives/benefits it will take to change their behaviour.” Particular insights from this project on reconciling conservation with cutting carbon are especially relevant for the National Trust, which is seeking to reduce There were several reasons why the LCV high hurdle when money is tight. There’s its energy use across 300 historic houses idea appealed to npower, says Worton. no shame in the fact that rising energy and properties open to the visiting public, The company wanted a project with a prices and the desire to save money 360 holiday cottages and thousands strong community element to tackle are many people’s biggest motivating of tenanted buildings in its care. In the people’s disillusionment about climate factors for cutting energy consumption. Energy: Grow Your Own report launched change, and was keen to help show And delivering a clear ‘quick win’ like the in 2010, the Trust sets out an ambitious how solutions could be both accessible successful insulation programmes at both target to reduce its use of fossil fuels and attractive. Cutting carbon in villages can be a crucial factor in drawing for heat and electricity by 50% by 2020 older buildings was another important people into new initiatives, sustaining and through conserving energy and generating challenge. Working with the National Trust developing their interest in participating its own power. By 2020 it aims to be offered, in Worton’s words, “a fantastic – not to mention the media coverage, providing half of its overall energy needs opportunity to do that”. bringing good publicity to all concerned. from renewables and only 10% from oil, cutting its dependence on electricity It would also complement npower’s The project managers in both villages generated from fossil fuels from 46% existing role as the National Trust’s assiduously kept everyone abreast of now to just 27%.

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