Suffolk Climate Change
SUFFOLK CLIMATE CHANGE PARTNERSHIP
Annual ReviewOF ACTIVITIES, 2015
The Suffolk Climate ChangePartnership – who we are
• The Suffolk Climate Change Partnership (SCCP) consists of Suffolk’s LocalAuthorities and the Environment Agency, working together locally with otherorganisations including New Anglia LEP, Groundwork Suffolk and UniversityCampus Suffolk under the banner of Creating the Greenest County.
• Our work delivers growth within the local economy, through direct support tobusinesses in reducing energy spend and improving profitability and encouragingthe development of local firms involved in delivering low carbon measures withinhomes and business premises.
• Our domestic energy efficiency and fuel poverty reduction work aligns with theSuffolk Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which makes clear links betweenhousing quality and health.
• Our strategic approach is set out in Suffolk Climate Action Plan 2; this is currentlyin revision.
• For further information on any of the projects and activities highlighted in thisReview, please contact:
David WaltonSuffolk Climate Change Partnership
www.greensuffolk.org
Front cover image: Howard Nurseries Ltd, Wortham:Gold Suffolk Carbon Charter holders.
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Suffolk Climate Change Partnership Annual Review of 2015 activities
Contents
Introduction 4
Our Vision and Target 5
Our Vision 5
Priority Work Areas 5
Value for Money 5
Business Energy Efficiency 6
Environmental Business Advisor (EBA) service 6
Suffolk Carbon Charter 7
Spotlight on: West Suffolk Councils 7
ECCE wins a Green Apple Award! 8
Suffolk Carbon Leaders 9
Domestic Energy Efficiency 10
Suffolk Energy Action 10
Spotlight on: Babergh & Mid Suffolk District Councils 11
Spotlight on: West Suffolk Councils 11
Community support 12
East Suffolk Greenprint Forum 12
Sunrise Community Energy 12
Warm Homes Healthy People 13
Rural Coffee Caravan 13
Adaptation to Climate Change 14
Thriving Community Buildings 14
Innovative new tool BERT is launched! 15
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Introduction
from Mark Pendlington,Chairman – New Anglia LocalEnterprise Partnership
It gives me great pleasure, on behalf of the New Anglia Local EnterprisePartnership, to introduce this Annual Review of activities undertaken by theSuffolk Climate Change Partnership in 2015.
All the work profiled here – and the example it sets – directly supports ourefforts to lead the transition to a low carbon economy and to make sure that thethousands of businesses located here are able to take their goods and servicesand compete and win in the competitive global marketplace. These ambitionsare at the heart of our Strategic Economic Plan as well as that of the SuffolkGrowth Strategy, which we are pleased and proud to support and endorse.
The UK Met Office has reported that 2015 was the hottest year on record since1850, as well as the sixth wettest on record since 1910, with December 2015the wettest month. Extremes of weather are fast becoming the ‘new normal’,which presents particular challenges to this, the most vulnerable region in theUK to the impacts of climate change, and the most low-lying with up to 30 percent of land below sea level. This is also the driest area of the UK, with lessannual average rainfall than parts of the Middle East, and yet our population is fast growing too, which brings into sharp focus the need to manage ouryear-round precious water resources.
Internationally too, 2015 has been a crucial year in tackling climate change. Thehistoric Agreement reached by 195 nations in Paris in November, to limit globalwarming to below 2oC and to pursue efforts to limit it below 1.5oC, exceededall but the most optimistic onlookers’ hopes for the Conference. With measuresto review progress every five years and to peak greenhouse gas emissions assoon as possible, let us hope this marks a turning point in our efforts toconstrain global warming and avoid its worst impacts. Time will tell.
This is why I welcome the Suffolk Climate Change Partnership’s target offacilitating a reduction in emissions in Suffolk of 35% on 2010 levels by 2025and 75% by 2050, in line with the UK Climate Change Act 2008 carbonbudgets, as well as its work to support climate resilience in our businesses andcommunities. We are well-placed here in the New Anglia area to lead byexample, and the Partnership is a great example of what can be achievedwhen organisations pull together around a common goal.
Finally, this is an appropriate moment to thank all those who give their ideas,time and professional commitment to driving the success of the Partnership. Itis a collaboration to be celebrated and saluted, which in turn allows us to lookforward with confidence to even more progress and achievement in 2016.
Mark Pendlington,Anglian Water GroupDirector & Chair of NewAnglia LEP
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Suffolk Climate Change Partnership Annual Review of 2015 activities
Business Energy Efficiency.
Through our Environmental Business Advisor services wehave supported around 1,500 businesses to improve theenergy efficiency of their operations, saving them over£1.6mn and 8,300 tonnes of CO2 annually. The SuffolkCarbon Charter, a local accreditation and networkingscheme for SMEs, now has over 330 members.
Domestic energy efficiency, including fuelpoverty reduction.
Since 2008 we have directly supported over 1,000measures and signposted many thousands more Suffolk
residents to national schemes to reduce their energy billsand improve the thermal comfort of their homes, achievingover 50k tonnes of lifetime CO2 savings in the process.
Community support.
Offering advice and technical support to improve their community facilities, we have helped localgroups access almost £500k of funding since 2008.
Adaptation to climate change.
Business and community resilience advice andsupport and health sector liaison.
Our Vision and Target
Priority Work Areas
Our Partnership approach and strong reputation fordelivering projects in support of this agenda meanwe have been able to draw in significant levels ofexternal funding to Suffolk, to deliver initiativeswhich achieve results: some £11.2mn to date.
We have just received final approval for a £6.5mnERDF funded project that will see 1,000 SMEs acrossNorfolk and Suffolk get access to high quality energyefficiency advice, with 275 grants available toimplement measures to improve their carbon footprintand reduce energy spend. Experience shows that wewill be able to assist businesses to identify significantannual savings from their bottom line costs.
Additionality, for a second year, our Local Authoritymembers opted to receive support from GroundworkSuffolk with regards to improving the energyefficiency of Council-owned properties. Supportprovided included the creation of a user friendlyBuilding Energy Management System strategy, arenewable energy feasibility study, and energyefficiency reviews of business centres and car parks.Collectively the work identified cumulative savingsof over £21,000 and 99.00tCO2(e).
This all provides excellent value for money for itsmember Local Authorities!
Value for Money
Our Vision
“Suffolk wants to be an exemplar in tackling climate change andprotecting and enhancing its natural…environment…to be the countywith the greatest reduction in carbon emissions”.In support of this Vision we have a target to facilitate a reduction in emissions in Suffolk by 35% on 2010 levels by 2025, and 75% by 2050. This is in line with the carbon budgets set by the Committee onClimate Change for the UK Climate Change Act 2008, which requires the UK to reduce its emissions by 50% on 1990 levels by 2025 and 80% by 2050.
We use data from the Department of Energy and Climate Change to monitor progress against this target.
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The Suffolk Climate Change Partnership has supported Suffolk’s small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) toimprove their profitability by reducing energy use since 2008. This has continued to be a major area of focusfor us in 2015, supporting the Local Enterprise Partnerships to increase economic growth across the county inline with their Strategic Economic Plans as well as the Suffolk Growth Strategy.
The EBA service continues to supportSMEs in Suffolk to reduce energy andresource consumption and seek outthe best renewable energy options fortheir business.
Since 2008 our dedicated EBA service,run in partnership with Groundwork Suffolk, hasprovided resource efficiency support to more than850 SMEs and social enterprises. It has identifiedpotential annual energy bill savings of more than£3.7mn and potential annual CO2 emission reductionsof almost 17,000 tonnes.
Our evaluation work continues to see a furtherincrease in the percentage of the services’recommendations being implemented by thebusinesses supported. To date feedback from
businesses shows that at least 26% ofrecommended actions have been implemented,evidencing savings of nearly £980,000 and 4,500tonnes of CO2(e) annually.
The service continues to offer face to face support andadvice through a telephone and email hotlineallowing flexible access to expert advisors throughoutthe year. Examples of areas covered include energymonitoring and tariffs, irrigation and boreholes,heating system upgrades, building fabricimprovements and funding application support.
Business Energy Efficiency
Environmental Business Advisor (EBA) service
“The Environmental Business Advisorservice identified several projectsthat would result in reduced energyconsumption and spend in mycurrent and new unit. Therenovation of the new unit inparticular will allow for many ofGroundwork’s suggestions for highefficiency lighting, heating andbuilding fabric to be implemented,therefore ensuring that the running costs will be limited fromthe outset”.
Beverley Webb, New Horizons Day CareA Groundwork Suffolk Environmental BusinessAdvisor on-site
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Suffolk Climate Change Partnership Annual Review of 2015 activities
The Carbon Charter (www.greensuffolk.org/charter)has now approved over 340 businesses for theirenvironmental and energy management. The threelevels (Gold, Silver, and Bronze) have become therecognised standard for sustainable business inSuffolk. Established jointly by Suffolk County Counciland the Environment Agency, the Charter is designed to be appropriate to any SME as achallenging but attainable measure of their progressin environmental management. Companyassessments are undertaken by Groundwork Suffolk, with approvals being made by a panel drawn from the SCCP.
With the growth in membership we have seen agrowth in other activity, including a new PathfinderPartner in West Suffolk Councils, who are supportinglocal businesses through the assessment process. Wecontinue to develop our relationship with pre-existingPathfinder Partners the East of England Co-op – wherehalf of their Locally Sourced suppliers have beenaccredited – and the Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival,where a Charter Loyalty Card scheme attractedadditional business for the Charter holders present. In addition, we ran one-off promotions withorganisations including Ipswich Borough Council andthe Suffolk Chamber of Commerce.
Suffolk Carbon Charter
During 2015 the West Suffolk Councils of StEdmundsbury Borough and Forest Heath District jointlybecame a Pathfinder Partner for the Suffolk CarbonCharter, signing up to its aims of promotingsustainable business practices. The Councils havedemonstrated good environmental practice throughtheir own environmental management and are nowpromoting and supporting the Charter throughout their supply chain and when engaging with allbusinesses in West Suffolk.
Since becoming a Pathfinder Partner, the Councils havesupported and funded 8 additional Carbon Charter
assessments across West Suffolk and will continue to support and fund applications during 2016.
In June 2015 the Councils jointly launched the West Suffolk Solar for Business scheme, which aims to support local companies to reduce theirelectricity costs and provide a percentage of theirelectricity usage from a renewable source. The Councils plan, finance, install and manage the solar installation. 100% of the electricity generated from the system is available to thebusiness at a discounted tariff cheaper than their current supplier.
Spotlight on: West Suffolk Councils
James Waters, Leaderand Cabinet Memberfor Planning andGrowth at Forest HeathDistrict Council (left)and Jessica Fleming,Suffolk County CouncilMember withResponsibility forSuffolk: the GreenestCounty presentingLignacite Ltd ofBrandon with theirCarbon Charter Goldaward.
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Denny Bros Ltd is a family owned businessestablished in 1945. In 2014, they installed 50kWp ofsolar photovoltaics (PV) on their Bury St Edmunds site.
Through their involvement in West Suffolk Solar forBusiness in 2015 they are now benefitting from afurther 100kWp, which should save them around£5,000 every year for the next 20 years.
To date the West Suffolk solar for Business schemehas installed PV systems at 7 sites across West Suffolkwith a combined generating total of 521kWp.
Mayor Patrick Chung with Graham Denny and JulianColman from Denny Bros on the roof of theirmanufacturing site in Bury St Edmunds
“By working with the Council we know
that the scheme has been well researched,
installed and will generate the predicted
value both for the Council and us.”Graham Denny, Managing Director.
Groundwork Suffolk was proud to accept a Green AppleAward this year on behalf of the organisations involvedin the East Coast Carbon Efficiency Project (ECCE). Thiscelebrated the efforts of the businesses that madeimprovements to reduce costs and greenhouse gasemissions and the advice Groundwork Suffolk providedthrough ECCE.
Between 2012 and 2014 the project provided over£197,000 of grant money to 59 businesses, andaccredited 100 businesses with the Suffolk Carbon
Charter. The on-site reviews identified cumulativepotential annual savings of more than £1,200,000 and6,200 tonnes of CO2.
Another well-deserved accolade for our hard work insupporting businesses across the county!
ECCE wins a Green Apple Award!
ECCE was a three-year partnership project betweenSuffolk Coastal & Waveney District Councils andGroundwork Suffolk and was part-financed by theEuropean Regional Development Fund.
Suffolk Carbon Leaders (www.greensuffolk.org/scl) is a Suffolk County Council run project that targetsenergy reduction from mid-sized businesses – the 154 participants so far have an average turnover of£34.5m. The support they can access is flexible totheir needs and preferences, but includes a fullreview of energy saving potential, and support toachieve that potential.
This support has included brokering technical services,access to funding, environmental accreditations(including to the Carbon Charter), staff engagementprogrammes and much more. Some participants inthe programme have taken the additional support tolook at wider or more ambitious projects, such asheat networks or joint procurement activities.
The average project participant has identified annualsavings of 145 tonnes of CO2 or over £40,000 –achievable on a payback of less than 3.5 years.Across the project that’s a total saving of £6m or21,000 tonnes of CO2. Businesses to have completedthe programme thus far are achieving around a thirdof identified savings.
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Suffolk Climate Change Partnership Annual Review of 2015 activities
Case Study: Suffolk Mushrooms
Suffolk Mushrooms joined the Suffolk CarbonLeaders programme keen to understand how theycould keep improving. Having recently replacedthe oil boiler with a biomass system they hadalready seen dramatic reductions in their spend onfuel - and the associated emissions. The supportfrom SCL helped them identify a further 108 tonnesof carbon savings, through the implementation ofmeasures including voltage optimisation, LEDlighting and solar panels. This would also providethem with savings of nearly £40,000 per year ontheir energy spend.
Inspired by their participation in Suffolk CarbonLeaders, Suffolk Mushrooms have made energyefficiency a high priority when procuring plant andequipment, their new chillers use inverter drivenmotors, and they are making use of free aircooling, while LED lighting is being rolled out in all the growing tunnels. They’re aiming to continue their progress with reduced plastic use and supplementing the biomass material with waste product.
Suffolk Carbon Leaders
The growing room with new LED lighting system,Suffolk Mushrooms, Stanton
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Suffolk Energy Action is the campaign name thatSuffolk’s Councils use to promote domestic energyefficiency offers to Suffolk residents. The serviceplaces particular emphasis on using local installers to undertake the work, thus supporting Suffolk’s lowcarbon economy.
During the 2014/15 heating season over 222households had free/heavily discounted loft andcavity wall insulation installed via Suffolk EnergyAction’s partner organisation Aran Services Ltd, basednear Bury St Edmunds. These improvements, whichare not dependent on income, will greatly enhancethe comfort of these homes and result in estimatedcollective fuel bill savings of £34,000 across thecounty. Money saved by controlling fuel bills is moneythat can be spent here in Suffolk. The total value ofthe 222 installations to the economy of Suffolk is alsoestimated to be worth £119,000.
Almost two years ago the Suffolk Climate ChangePartnership were awarded £5.7 million by theDepartment of Energy and Climate Change from their
Green Deal Communities Fund. This money is currentlybeing used to make improvements to the energyefficiency and comfort of Suffolk’s older properties thatare without a cavity wall and which are difficult andexpensive to heat. By the end of 2015 126 householdshad benefited from solid wall insulation as a result ofthis scheme and a further 675 are scheduled to have it fitted in 2016. Typical annual bill savings from theinstallation of external or internal solid wall insulationrange from £180 per year to over £460 per year,depending on the size and type of property.
On-line videos of some Suffolk properties where solidwall insulation has been fitted are hosted on theSuffolk Energy Action website and the benefits enjoyedby the residents are clear to see. These demonstratefirst-hand that improved energy efficiency can be bothfinancially rewarding and beneficial to the quality andcomfort of a resident’s home.
For more information go towww.suffolkenergyaction.org
Suffolk Energy Action
Tackling domestic energy efficiency in Suffolk is a crucial element in our ambition to be the county with thegreatest reduction in carbon emissions. Our Local Authority partners’ work around this supports theirobligations under the Home Energy Conservation Act 1995.
Domestic Energy Efficiency
Anna’s Ipswichhome before andafter her SuffolkEnergy Actionexternal wallinsulation work.
Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils have been atthe forefront of the development of the domestic SolarPV market in Suffolk through investment in their ownhousing stock, and in the process, have become one of the largest operators of domestic renewabletechnology in England. January 2016 saw the twocouncils complete the roll-out of over 5MW of Solar PVacross its two districts, providing nearly 2,000 homeswith free renewable electricity whilst generating anincome for both councils from the government’s feed-
in tariff. The project has seen the installation of over20,000 PV panels to the south-facing roofs of councilhouses in a little under two years. Crews working on behalf of the councils achieved an impressiveinstallation rate of one panel every nine minutesthroughout the installation phase and the impacts canbe seen in most towns and villages across the districts.
The three aims of the project were to deliver a keyenvironmental improvement within the districts, assistin alleviating fuel poverty and to provide a long-termincome stream for the councils to protect frontlineservices to the wider public. In doing so, it is estimatedthat the project will have a carbon reduction impact of 2,000T CO2 every year for the 20 year lifespan of the project, provide over £250,000 of free electricityannually to the residents who agreed to host theinstallations and provide £5M of additional income tothe councils for reinvestment in the services it provides.
The councils regard the project as the first step inengaging with the energy market to providebenefits to businesses, communities and individualswithin the districts.
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Suffolk Climate Change Partnership Annual Review of 2015 activities
Spotlight on: Babergh and Mid Suffolk District Councils
5kW of Solar PV on council houses in NeedhamMarket
National Grid Energy Innovation Fund
A successful bid was submitted to the National GridEnergy Innovation fund to provide new gas centralheating systems and external wall insulation (EWI) topark home properties in Stanton. National Gridawarded the project £100,000 and they also fundedthe installation of 14 new gas connections andheating systems to homes with residents over theage of 70, along with EWI to 24 properties.
Park homes have traditionally missed out onnationally-mandated insulation programmes due totheir classification as temporary accommodation. A prerequisite for the insulation installer was beingable to secure a 25 year installation warranty for theEWI, as this has not previously been possible.
The site has 216 homes in total and all residents must be over 55 years old. Many are retired and spendconsiderable time at home, so being able to maintain a warm and affordable property is essential. 10 of theproperties benefited from both a new gas central heating
system and EWI and the improvement to the comfortlevels in these properties is significant. Most of the homeswho have had EWI installed comment that the thermostathas been turned down a few degrees and the homeremains warmer longer once the heating is turned off.
The 14 EWI measures where central heating wasalready installed should see lifetime CO2 savings of 25tonnes and financial savings of at least £237 per year.The 10 properties that had new gas central heatingand EWI installed should benefit from savings of £402per year and lifetime CO2 savings of 64 tonnes.
Spotlight on: West Suffolk Councils
A Shepherds ParkGrove residentsigns a new gasconnectionapplication formwith Mark Duckerfrom National GridAffordable Warmth.
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Following on from last year’s Powering Up Suffolkconference, 2015 saw a lot of developments in thearea of community energy in Suffolk; the biggest ofthese being the formation of a new social enterprisecalled Sunrise Community Energy.
Through the work of our Community Advisor it becameapparent that a lot of community organisations wereinterested in solar panels but couldn’t afford to installthem on their own. Bringing together representativesfrom University Campus Suffolk, Eastern Savings andLoans Credit Union, St Elizabeth’s Hospice, the Quakers,Ipswich Scouts and Suffolk Libraries IPS, it was decidedit would be better for these groups to try and raiseinvestment together and Sunrise was formed as aCommunity Benefit Society.
The aim of Sunrise is to own and manage renewableenergy installations sited on host partner properties,whilst allowing local residents the chance to invest in theprojects via crowdfunding. With our Partnership supportthe group were successful in applying for a £20,000 grant
from the Urban CommunityEnergy Fund, which enabledthe group to work withBirketts Solicitors to draw up roof lease agreements andother local professionals to help get the project to aninvestable stage. Over 180kW of solar PV was identifiedfrom initial partner roof space.
However, circumstances changed later in the year withthe review by the Department of Energy and ClimateChange into the ‘Feed-in-Tariff’ rates. Some of theSunrise projects are on pause until installation costscome down, whilst a few others raced to complete theirinstalls before the deadline. Fortunately, St Elizabeth’sHospice was in a position to self-fund and installed a90kWp solar PV array and Transition Lavenham CIC alsomanaged to fund a solar PV array on their village hall.
Watch this space for further energy-savingcommunity investment opportunities from Sunrise,such as LED lighting upgrades and renewableelectricity and heating projects…
Sunrise Community Energy
This is a free membership network for individuals,communities and organisations across Suffolk whowish to add to and share experiences and learningand encourage each other on actions which benefitlocal people and the environment. Membership,which increased to 163 in 2015, is predominantly fromand around the Suffolk Coastal and Waveney Districts.
Six forums/events were held, many in conjunction withlocal community groups, covering water, waste, energy,biodiversity, and permaculture with up to 40 in
attendance. In addition, two workshops were run tosupport the East Suffolk Partnership - one on the circulareconomy and another on Suffolk Coast Greeters.
Key projects supported by the Forum have includedThriving Community Buildings (see below), SuffolkCoast Greeters, Suffolk Coast Volunteering Holidays, and Wake up and Smell the Coffee. Three communityevents (Lowestoft Rising, Felixstowe WHHP, OultonBroad WHHP) were also attended on behalf of the SCCPto provide advice and support on environmental issues.
East Suffolk Greenprint Forum
Minutes of all meetings and links to presentations can be found onhttp://www.suffolkcoastal.gov.uk/yourdistrict/greenissues/greenprint/meetings/. A video clip showing the ESP Forum can be seen on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KuOFgg-MWM.
Community Support
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Suffolk Climate Change Partnership Annual Review of 2015 activities
In 2015, Suffolk’s Councils were awarded £1.6million from the Department of Energy and ClimateChange. This will be used to promote an offerthrough the Warm Homes Healthy People service to install first time central heating systems in thehomes of vulnerable Suffolk residents who arestruggling financially to adequately heat their home.
In 2016, over 350 vulnerable Suffolk households willbenefit from a fully funded first time central heating
system as well as improvements to the insulation oftheir home. One aim of this work is to reduce theimpact that cold and damp homes have on peoples’health.
It is estimated that just one unelected overnight stayin hospital caused by COPD (Chronic ObstructivePulmonary Disorder) costs the public purse nearly£1,500 and improved heating can help to minimisethese events.
Warm Homes Healthy People
Over recent years, the Coffee Caravan has beenincreasingly involved in events and schemes all overSuffolk to promote energy saving and reduce fuelpoverty by helping people to safely switch energyproviders.
We have a strong link with the Warmer HomesHealthy People project. They travel with us often,dispensing advice and helping people access grants,lending electric heaters and advising on improvingenergy efficiency.
We ran an Energy Info Soup Lunch at Stanton Village Hall which helped residents access new gasconnections and solid wall insulation (offered throughWest Suffolk Councils – see above) for many of thehouses on nearby Shepherds Park Grove. Residentscame to see if there was anything that could be doneto help them warm their very cold homes.
In 2015 we worked with the Suffolk Energy ActionScheme, delivering 27 roadshow days using ourmobile information centres, telling people about thelarge grants available to them (especially for solidwall properties) and explaining the Green Deal indetail. We also worked with Groundwork Suffolk atmany of our visits, to promote advice and educationregarding safer switching of energy suppliers withthe Big Energy Saving Network organisation. We also ran an Energy Info day at Wrentham villageattended by UK Power Networks and NationalEnergy Action who were there with ECO energyefficiency grants and bills advice.
In the last few months we have been trained up tobe home assessors for the Befriending Scheme’s
service, Suffolk Switched on. This means we cancarry out full house surveys and provide anextensive report of pointers to where energy can besaved and the home insulated and draught proofed.We can also perform an energy companycomparison and present the findings to them.
We ALWAYS have energy saving and fuel advicestalls at our big Golden Age Fairs and have held more than 20 of these over the last 4 years.
National Energy Action’s Community Action AwardScheme recognises best practice amongst those whoare working to tackle fuel poverty and improveenergy efficiency in their local communities. So wethought that, well, we have been doing quite a bitof that - so we applied. And we won! Part of theaward is £1,500 to spend on the charity and toenhance the advice we can give, so with thinking
Rural Coffee Caravan
Garry Simmonds of Rural Coffee Caravan acceptingtheir NEA Community Action award
The ‘Thriving Community Buildings’ project began inAugust 2014 and is offering communities in theSuffolk Coastal and Waveney Districts assistance tobuild resilience through their community buildings. Itis jointly delivered by Groundwork Suffolk andCommunity Action Suffolk (CAS), bringing togethertheir collective expertise in the following areas:
Resource efficiency and renewable energy
Energy management, monitoring and tariffs
Health and safety
Governance, trustees and management
Safeguarding
Financial management accounting and fundraising strategy
Business planning
Employment of staff and volunteers
Ability to support the community in times ofemergency now and with regard to futurechanges (particularly climate related ones)
The project aims to provide 10 ‘thrivability’ audits and20 support plans to community buildings and has so faridentified annual cost and carbon savings of £12,241and 56.2tCO2(e) from 8 audits. A further 19 communitieshave received telephone and email support plans.
Actions that have been implemented, or are in theprocess of being implemented, include heatingsystem controls and lighting upgrades, grant fundingapplications, solar PV, building fabric improvementsand utility tariff reviews. We are gathering impactdata on implemented actions as we progressthrough the project. Other outcomes for the projectinclude:
Increased turnover through improved marketingand service offerings and appropriate charging
Increased trustee knowledge and improvedgovernance
Increased community capacity through additional trustees and volunteers
Legal compliance
The aim of the project is to provide a stable networkof accessible, warm community facilities whichsupport health, wellbeing and community cohesionin Suffolk.
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Adaptation to Climate Change
“A superb report that I know will be of
great help to our Hall Committee.”Judith Dunnett, ex-Chairman of Playford VillageHall, talking about their Thrivability Review.
Thriving Community Buildings
caps on we came up with an innovative idea (weare quite good at innovative!).
We have the internet with us 99% of the time onour phones and iPads so we can research on behalfof service users, but often there is a lot of info towrite down or maybe a form needs printing off. Thiscan be time consuming and many people we meetdo not have the internet at home or struggle withconnection speeds, so we go back to HQ and print itoff to send on. Or at least we did until now…
Thanks to the grant money we have managed tobuy 2 micro printers, each no bigger than a boxof dominoes. These are perfect for our mobilework: inkless, battery-powered (and chargeablefrom the car), more reliable and wireless,enabling us to access resources and print themout for service users on the spot. A bigimprovement, which will enable us to help manymore people in fuel poverty!
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Suffolk Climate Change Partnership Annual Review of 2015 activities
Business resilience is the ability of a business tosuccessfully adapt to interruptions such as severeweather; a resilient business should be able tocontinue their business operations even when facedwith a significant event.
Resilience is about forward planning and beingprepared for an event rather than reacting after ithas happened. With this in mind, Suffolk Coastal andWaveney District Councils, the Environment Agencyand Groundwork have created an innovative newonline tool, The Business Efficient Resilience Toolkit(BERT), to help businesses review their resiliencestatus and most importantly enable them to developand build a tailored resilience action plan.
BERT encapsulates the learning and feedback that allpartners have received over the years whilst deliveringand developing different resilience approaches. Withfunding from Suffolk Coastal and Waveney DistrictCouncils and the Environment Agency, the toolkitcomes with a free support package provided byGroundwork. This includes telephone and email,onsite and group support to coastal businesses inSuffolk and Norfolk.
Innovative new tool BERT is launched!
The programme has received excellent feedbackto date:
"The resilience programme was of
paramount importance in making us aware
of avenues we could pursue in order to
protect the hotel from environmental
impact, particularly flooding as we are
next to the sea. Louise's advice was clear
and concise and the action plans easy to
follow. We would not hesitate to
recommend the programme and all its
associated advisory agencies."James Green, General Manager - WentworthHotel, Aldeburgh
It is available here:https://www.getbusinessresilient.co.uk/
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For further information on any of the projectsand activities highlighted in this publication,please contact:
David Walton Suffolk Climate Change [email protected]
www.greensuffolk.org
Published February 2016
Skar Precision Mouldings Ltd, Hadleigh:investigating voltage optimisation throughSuffolk Carbon Leaders.
