Communities

Your community can become a pioneer in the fight to combat climate change.

The Energy Saving Trust advice centre has launched a new project to help people in North East communities to reduce their carbon emissions and save money on their fuel bills.

As part of this project (the Low Carbon Communities Programme), we are now working with 3 communities: Sadberge Parish (click here to see what is happening as part of the Sadberge Energy Saving Project), West Rainton and Leaming Parish and Belford in Northumberland. We are supporting those communities to gather information and generate a base line of energy use. This baseline will be used to support community members to install the measures available to them (such as cavity wall and loft insulation) as well as measuring energy consumption in order to identify where energy can be saved.

However, we're always interested in working with more local communities (not just parish councils) and individuals. We can support you through a number of channels including:

• Completing a Home Energy Check Survey for your Community, generating free personalised Home Energy Reports for each household.
• Running a series of awareness sessions about reducing energy use, sustainable transport options and on various renewable technologies.
• Providing a wealth of articles and information for your community communiations, from newsletters to your community website.
• Attending any local meetings to advise on setting up a green group in your community to head up action from within!

If you are looking for some input on environmental activities, we will be happy to be involved. We at the Energy Saving Trust advice centre for the North East are here to help and support communities in transforming advice on energy efficiency into action. We look forward to hearing from you.

For further information, please contact our Project Manager for Communities, Colin MacDonald at the Energy Saving Trust advice centre on freephone 0191 230 5492 or e-mail colin.macdonald@est-ne.org.uk