How to plan and deliver a successful community climate change project

Getting your community on board

Once you've decided to go ahead with a community climate change project, the first thing you'll need to do is tell people in your area about it and build up their support.

Before you start, ask yourself:

• How might the community feel about these issues?
• How will the project benefit them?
• Has anything similar been done before? If so, what lessons can be learnt?
• Who might you want involved?

Below are some ways you can reach out to your community and get them to support your project:

Set up a steering group of key people. This will help you to:

• Share tasks and responsibilities
• Draw on members' skills
• Get views from different parts of the community
• Provide a forum for community feedback.

Tell the community about your plans. However, before you arrange any publicity, make sure you have a clear message. There are lots of different types of publicity you could use:

• Putting leaflets and posters in community buildings
• Newsletters
• Holding public meetings
• Giving presentations at meetings of other community groups
• Working with partners to spread your message - community activists, community leaders, local authorities
• Setting up a website or making a film
• Advertising in the local press or other media
• Offering news stories to the local press or other media
• Going door to door, telling local people what you're planning
•  Talking to local schools
• Holding your own events such as fetes and coffee mornings, and talking about your project to people who attend.

Keep in regular contact with your community to make sure they stay enthusiastic and committed to your project.

Build in project `milestones' - small goals along the way that help towards your overall aim. When you achieve them, celebrate. Community projects can often take a long time to complete, so it's important to plan milestones early on so people can see progress, and don't become disheartened.

Make the project fun. Organise events and competitions, for example.

Calculating your community's carbon footprint

Calculating your community's carbon footprint will help you understand where your community's carbon emissions come from and how your project can help reduce them.

The Green Communities carbon calculator will let you enter local data so you can easily estimate and monitor your community's carbon footprint. It will help you work out the carbon emissions from homes, businesses and travel.

Go to the Community carbon footprint calculator.

Setting community carbon reduction targets

Once you know your community's carbon footprint, you can set realistic targets for reducing it through your project.

What is a realistic target for carbon reduction?

When you set your target, bear in mind the UK Government's goal to achieve an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. You may want to use this as your overall target, or even try to achieve it earlier than 2050. Remember to set regular milestones so you can measure your progress.

Think carefully about what will be possible based on your community's carbon footprint. You can discuss this with your local Energy Saving Trust advice centre on 0800 512 012. They can provide Home Energy Check forms for everyone in your community, which people can fill in to receive personal advice on saving energy. The results will help you build up a picture of what energy saving measures could be used in homes in your community. Alternatively, you can visit our online Home Energy Check.

Putting it into perspective

•     A 60% cut in emissions by 2050 means a reduction of 2.5% each year
•     An 80% cut in emissions by 2050 means a reduction of 4% each year
•     A 90% cut in emissions by 2050 means a reduction of 6% each year

Examples of communities who have set carbon reduction targets include:

•    Ashton Hayes
•    Carbon reduction action groups

Why set targets?

As well as helping you understand your community's carbon footprint and the potential for reducing it, setting targets can also help you get funding for your community project.

Funders often ask how you will measure the impact of your project or how you planned it. Knowing your carbon footprint can help you answer these questions and demonstrate that your plans are well thought out.

Creating an action plan

There are lots of ways you can reduce your carbon footprint to fight climate change. Developing an action plan can help you to:

• understand what options are available to you
• prioritise actions
• talk to the community about what you would like to achieve

Anyone can create a community action plan. The hardest part is deciding what actions will have the greatest impact and should be prioritised. Using the Energy Saving Trust's community carbon calculator, you can get a report which will help you prioritise the actions your project can take to benefit your community the most. Alternatively, if your community has already completed the home energy checks these can also help you work out what measures are needed to reduce carbon emissions from the homes in your community.

Find out more about  home energy saving measures and how much carbon they can save.

Below are some suggestions of what you could include in your action plan:

Energy efficiency

1. Look at simple measures you can take right away. While these may seem like small steps, they can have a huge impact both on the energy you use and the money you save.

2. Reduce the energy you use in your home by fitting measures such as:

• draught-proofing
• energy saving light bulbs
• hot water tank jackets
• loft and cavity wall insulation
• high efficiency boilers

Try the Home Energy Check to find out how much CO2 and money you can save by taking some simple energy saving measures. To find out more click here.

3. Consider working together as a community to get energy saving measures fitted. It can be easier and sometimes more cost effective to install a lot of measures at the same time. For more information on this, contact your local Energy Saving Trust advice centre (0800 512 012) or the Green Communities helpline (0844 848 0077).

Renewable energy and microgeneration

If you're thinking about fitting a renewable energy system it's important to understand which technologies would work best for you and your community.

Renewable energy in the home

The Energy Saving Trust's Home Energy Generation Selector lets you see the technologies that might be suitable to generate heat or electricity for your home. Find out more about the different types of technologies.

Community energy systems

Working as a community to generate your energy has advantages over doing it yourself. Many energy technologies work better on a larger scale. Also, you can often buy the equipment needed more cheaply, because buying in bulk reduces costs.

Renewable energy technologies - next steps

 Whether you are thinking about fitting individual or community energy systems there are a number of things you will need to decide before you get started. These include:

•     Which technology to use
•     What size system to install
•     Which installer and products to use
•     How to pay for the installation

Here's what to do to help you choose:

• See what products are available - research local suppliers and installers online and give them a call to find out more.
• Check that the suppliers are certified - either with the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (for all UK microgeneration products and installers) or the Solar Keymark (Solar thermal products and installers across Europe).
• Look into funding and financing - search for grants and offers.
• Check whether you need planning permission - contact your local authority.
• Get recommendations and quotes - arrange for a few potential installers to visit your home and tell you what they can offer and how much it will cost.

Wider sustainability

There are a number of other areas that you may want to include in your action plan. For more advice and support on any of these areas you may wish to contact some of the organisations below who specialise in these areas.

Transport

Sustrans provides creative, innovative and practical solutions to the transport challenges affecting us all.

Water

Waterwise is the leading authority on water efficiency in the UK.

Waste

Community Recycling Network UK promotes community-based sustainable waste management

WRAP helps individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more, making better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change.

Action plan template

As well as listing your actions, your plan should say when and how you'll complete your actions, who will be involved and so on - use our Action planning tool