Communities Living Sustainably Energy Learning Report 22.04.15 by Ben Leach

Groundwork UK Learning Partnership Communities Living Sustainably Energy Learning Report

April 2015

Contents

Page No

1.0 Executive Summary

2.0

Introduction

3.0

Context

4.0

Main findings

5.0

Recommendations

Appendix 1 - Map of CLS projects

Appendix 2 - CLS Project summary

References

Authors Graham Ayling Sue Ansell Philippa Neate

Energy Saving Trust Energy Saving Trust Groundwork UK

1.0 Executive Summary This report draws out learning from the Communities Living Sustainably (CLS) programme up to the end of November 2014 and is based on telephone interviews with eleven of the twelve CLS projects. It looks specifically at activities related to energy and aims to highlight key issues and experience as well as reviewing the range of differing activities.

Main Findings CLS projects are working to change behaviour on domestic energy at a range of levels and are using their learning to adapt their approaches. Alongside this behaviour change work, some projects are also carrying out work focused on delivering domestic energy efficiency measures. Their activity is being delivered at a range of levels including: • • • •

Mass awareness work Detailed individual engagement Communal approaches and building local capacity Engaging with retrofit activity

Projects are learning from what is not working and are adapting their approaches accordingly. Examples of this include integrating energy efficiency advice into community events, rather than offering specific energy focused activities, and using a partnership of volunteer and professional advisors for home energy visits. This community professional relationship removes the need for volunteers to be experts and enables better management of advice given, as well as allowing the CLS projects to focus on identifying and engaging the target audience for these visits. CLS projects are beginning to engage at a strategic level to plan the energy future of their area. Sustainable Sheppey has piloted an approach that enables communities to get involved with planning the future of energy in their area. Several other projects are looking strategically at how to develop renewable energy across their locality or integrated approaches to energy efficiency and renewable energy. To date, this work appears to have been successful both in engaging local people and in identifying viable projects. The breadth of activity being carried out by the CLS projects is enabling them to deliver both strategic activity and practical projects on the ground. This enables those strategic and practical projects to reinforce each other, building credibility and identifying new opportunities locally. CLS projects are vulnerable to national policy changes but are developing social enterprise approaches to increase their resilience and progress community renewable energy projects. The CLS projects have reported a number of areas where national policy is impacting their ability to deliver projects (including changes to energy efficiency policy and to policy and incentives related to community renewables). Eight CLS projects are exploring social enterprise opportunities related to energy. Several approaches to developing community renewable energy are emerging including development of a portfolio of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, community energy investment funds and single community renewable energy installations. In the long term, the social enterprise structures being established by the CLS groups should help them to become more self-reliant and less dependent on supportive policy.

Recommendations The CLS projects are now well into delivery, are learning from each other and are progressing a range of energy related activity which other communities and stakeholders are able to benefit and learn from. The report identifies the following messages to share with specific stakeholders. For the Groundwork UK Learning Partnership The Groundwork UK Learning Partnership should continue to support peer to peer learning amongst the CLS projects through networking events focused on the main areas of activity highlighted in this report. This will provide opportunities for exchange of experience between projects, input from external experts and may stimulate further collaboration. Energy related support will also continue to be offered to projects through the test and stretch function of the programme. Topics to focus on include: • Monitoring and evaluation to effectively understand and communicate the impact of project activity • Developing domestic and community PV schemes including advice and support with technical and legal issues and the development of business models • Planning income generating activity in relation to energy and how this could be used to support CLS project exit strategies Future learning partnership research projects themed around behaviour change and energy have the potential to look further at the following areas of interest highlighted in this report: • Review the impact of the different approaches that projects are taking to behaviour change (including mass awareness work, detailed individual engagement, building local capacity and engaging with retrofit activity) with the different demographic groups that projects are working with. • Compare the different techniques used by projects to take forward community renewable schemes. For funders Tools metrics and resources developed under CLS could help to inform future funding programmes on climate change and sustainability. Funders should consider whether to draw on this experience to provide a bank of tools, resources and metrics for delivering and evaluating future sustainability and climate change programmes. Building the capacity of communities to engage with the development of energy and low carbon infrastructure for their locality should be a focus for future activity by funders and support agencies. For central government – Department for Energy and Climate Change CLS projects provide the opportunity to understand how communities are engaging with domestic energy efficiency in the current policy environment. The challenges and successes experienced could help to demonstrate how communities could engage with future government energy efficiency programmes. The examples of how CLS projects such as Sustain Eden and Sustainable Harborough have made use of the DECC funded Rural Community Energy Fund (RCEF) and how Communities Living Sustainably has helped to initiate those projects and add value could help to inform future government policy in this area. The CLS projects provide valuable examples of how to effectively build consensus around the development of low carbon infrastructure. The ability to facilitate this activity will become increasingly important to meet future challenging government carbon reduction targets.

The CLS projects provide examples of the benefit of cross sector partnerships in delivering local action on energy and could encourage central government to facilitate cross sector activity. For local government The CLS projects clearly show the value of community and local authority collaboration in delivering energy and carbon reduction projects. Local authorities can be key partners for community energy projects in the following ways: • Providing resources, skills and a route into policy making • Progressing fuel poverty and energy efficiency schemes through their role as a landlord of social housing or a facilitator of retrofit energy efficiency programmes • Supporting local energy planning by facilitating participative approaches and embedding energy planning activity within their own building stock. For other organisations and networks Community Energy England (CEE) was established in 2014 and works to represent the needs of community energy groups and help them to support each other. Some of the learning from CLS could be useful to CEE members, in particular examples of successful engagement work around domestic energy efficiency and behaviour change. This could help other groups to replicate good practice by CLS projects, but could also help them to promote community energy by adding to the evidence base of successful projects. Key messages to communicate to Community Energy England members include: • Communities can play an important role in decision-making around low carbon infrastructure in future, as evidenced by strategic work carried out by the CLS projects. • Communities can work effectively with large area-based energy efficiency schemes and can deliver significant impact. Housing Associations. Examples of CLS projects, such as Sustain Eden and Sustainable Harborough, working successfully with Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) on domestic energy efficiency activities can be shared with Housing Associations. Energy efficiency installation businesses. Case studies of CLS projects, such as One Planet Middlesbrough, which have worked successfully with the private sector to increase uptake of carbon reduction measures can be shared with energy efficiency and renewable energy installers.

2.0 Introduction This report draws out learning from the Big Lottery Fund’s Communities Living Sustainably (CLS) programme up to December 2014. It looks specifically at activities related to energy and aims to highlight key issues and experience from the CLS projects as well as reviewing the range of differing activities. The CLS programme is framed as a test and learn programme which aims to support new approaches to climate change adaptation and mitigation, and is one of the few examples of projects in England which are aiming to support vulnerable people to adapt to climate change. Vulnerability across the projects is described in terms of climate change risk (increased flooding and heat) and socio-economic disadvantage (describing an area or groups of individuals within an area). There are currently few other examples of community-led initiatives that are supporting both climate change adaptation and mitigation activity, and targeting the most vulnerable groups with those activities outside of the CLS programme. This report draws out learning to inform funding organisations including the Big Lottery Fund, local and national government as well as organisations supporting community-based activities. The report is based on telephone interviews with the eleven CLS projects that are carrying out energyrelated activity conducted in September – November 2014. The interviews were planned using background information on these activities, provided by the projects. Research to inform this report was carried out by the Energy Saving Trust. The Groundwork UK Learning Partnership produces quarterly reports capturing the learning emerging from CLS projects. Previous reports focused on four key themes, Energy, Growing and Green Space, Climate Change and Capturing Behaviour Change can be found at: www.communitieslivingsustainably.org.uk/about/learning-reports

About Communities Living Sustainably Communities Living Sustainably (CLS) is a £12 million programme funded by the Big Lottery Fund. Twelve communities in England have received funding to help deal with the potential impact of climate change and build the sustainability and resilience of their local community. The programme will run for five years, with these communities providing inspiration to other communities across England and sharing what they have learned with each other. A full list of these projects can be found in Appendix 2 and a map showing their location can be found in Appendix 1. The Groundwork UK Learning Partnership is made up of five organisations each with expertise in tackling climate change and helping communities to live more sustainably. The partnership comprises Groundwork UK, the Energy Saving Trust, the Federation of City Farms and Gardens, the New Economics Foundation and Building Research Establishment (BRE). This partnership has been brought together to encourage and support the funded, local communities to capture and share any lessons from their projects. A learning network has been established to encourage peer learning between communities, to better understand how communities can successfully live and work in a sustainable way and to provide information to inform and influence policy and practice both within the CLS programme and within the wider sustainability arena.

3.0 Context Energy and carbon emissions in the UK Carbon emissions reduction has reached a turning point in the UK. Progress has been made in reducing emissions and advances in technology are making deeper cuts in carbon far more affordable. At the same time there are very mixed messages in the media around climate change and energy and very different positions on the future of carbon emissions reduction amongst politicians. The UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s average carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas emissions over the four year period of our carbon budget to 2014 are an average of 23.6% lower than the 1990 baseline from which they are measured1. Whilst annual emissions do vary from year to year, this represents a clear downward trend. It is also notable that emissions from both businesses and domestic users have reduced. This and the scale of the reduction indicate that this is not merely the result of global recession or the reduction of heavy industry in the UK but could be the beginning of a far more significant change. However, perhaps due to the range of different views on carbon emissions reduction and the relative complexity of the data, this message is not being communicated clearly. At the same time, the cost of energy has a higher profile than ever before with the risk of increasing numbers of households being pushed into fuel poverty. Solutions being proposed to address the affordability of energy range from major government funded insulation programmes to cutting all energy efficiency and renewable energy support that is currently funded through energy bills (ECO2 and Feed-in Tariff3).

Community Energy in the UK The community energy sector in the UK has continued to grow. Current estimates suggest that there have been around 50004 community energy projects in the UK over recent years. These projects range from purely voluntary groups running awareness events and providing energy advice to neighbours to social enterprises running a portfolio of renewable energy systems and putting resources into local energy efficiency projects. In January 2014, the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first Community Energy Strategy was launched by the Department for Energy and Climate Change in response to the continued growth of the sector. Whilst interest and participation in renewable energy projects has grown substantially across the sector in recent years, there appears to have been a decrease in activity and delivery around energy efficiency.

Renewable energy The growth of renewable energy activity has been enabled by Feed-in Tariffs helping the development of sound business plans for projects. Leading community groups have developed successful community renewables projects financed through Feed-in Tariffs and have then shared information and mentored other groups, enabling more rapid growth in activity. This has, in turn, led to the development of a social enterprise ecosystem around community renewables including providers of social finance, specialists in running community share issues and community-based developers or consultants. To date, community solar PV has shown the most rapid growth of all the renewable energy technologies. This reflects the fact that it is simpler to develop than most other technologies, particularly where it is building integrated, generally experiencing less resistance at planning and having a simpler business model with energy yields being relatively simple to predict. Solar PV is therefore fulfilling an important role in enabling the development of new renewable energy-based social enterprises and building their capacity to be able to take on more ambitious projects in future. This is, however, a time-limited opportunity as the Feed-in Tariff decreases over time.

Energy efficiency In contrast community groups have found the Energy Companies Obligation (ECO) and Green Deal5 support schemes for domestic energy efficiency more difficult to engage with than the previous Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT)6. The delivery model for ECO and Green Deal has focused on costeffective mass delivery at national level, making it difficult for community groups, with a small catchment area, to engage with providers and advise customers accordingly. The transition from grant and discountbased support for “able-to-pay” homes under CERT to loans at commercial rates under Green Deal has been difficult, resulting in lower than expected uptake. In addition the ECO scheme started with comparatively complex qualifying criteria, making it difficult to give a clear message on what support might be expected. This has resulted in either: • Groups focusing more on renewable energy projects or • Groups struggling to achieve results on domestic energy efficiency without the level of access to incentives experienced in the past through partnering with local authorities on CERT schemes These issues have been recognised at national level and most of the major political parties have developed, or are developing proposals for future energy efficiency activity that will enable more local activity and areabased approaches.

The Communities Living Sustainably projects The CLS projects are delivering energy and carbon reduction activity in the context of broad-based sustainability and climate change projects. They have developed their own portfolio of energy activity aimed at addressing local need. The projects are facing the same issues and opportunities as the rest of the sector and as a result their activity reflects some similar trends. However, there are also some marked differences. In particular, the Big Lottery Fund has provided the resources for the CLS projects to be much more active on behaviour change than other groups. This in turn has led to a higher level of activity around domestic energy efficiency. The CLS projects therefore provide some very timely and potentially important learning opportunities for organisations with an interest in the future of community energy in the UK.

Energy Learning Report â&#x20AC;&#x201C; January 2014 This is the second Energy Learning Report from the Communities Living Sustainably programme. The first was completed in January 2014 when projects were at an early stage of delivery. It found that projects had prioritised behaviour change activity within their work. This continues to be the case, with projects working to change behaviour on domestic energy at a range of levels. Many were finding it difficult to work with mainstream energy efficiency schemes. Changes to government policy concerning ECO7 and Green Deal continue to cause uncertainty and this highlights the dependency of CLS projects (along with the rest of the community energy sector) on supportive and consistent central government policy to deliver energy efficiency measures. When the first Energy Learning report was produced, some projects were at the stage of undertaking feasibility studies for community renewable energy schemes. These have been progressed over the last year, with CLS in Dorset and Sustainable Sheppey in particular making substantial progress and setting up an Energy Cooperative and an Energy Trust respectively to take these schemes forward. These are outlined as case studies in this report. The key barriers to progressing community renewables that CLS has addressed to date appear to be providing resource for project inception (identifying potential sites and initial assessment of potential) and resourcing ongoing project management and development activity. The previous report found that CLS is supporting a bottom â&#x20AC;&#x201C;up approach to community renewables and that one project, Sustainable Sheppey had made good early progress in running a collaborative planning process with the local authority and local community members. It was hoped that this approach would be able to bring forward renewable energy schemes in a less confrontational way, by involving local people from the start and enabling them to understand the benefits and constraints of the different technologies available. One year on, there are encouraging signs that this approach is proving successful and other CLS projects are also beginning to progress strategic activity in this area. The first energy report highlighted the important role that local authorities are playing in progressing CLS project energy activity. Over the last year this support has proven to be an important enabling factor. Local authorities are providing resources and skills to support project development and are often a major landlord of social housing making them a valuable partner to progress retrofitting projects. They also have a key role to play in supporting strategic local energy planning activity, both as a facilitator of participative planning approaches and to embed energy planning activity within local policy and practice. This report contains key messages for how local authorities can best support community energy activity.

4.0 Main findings 4.1 CLS projects are working to change behaviour on domestic energy at a range of levels and are using their learning to adapt their approaches. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Mass awareness work Detailed individual engagement Communal approaches and building local capacity Engaging with retrofit activity

CLS projects are using a variety of group/social and individual approaches to engagement on energy. This presents an opportunity to better understand the impacts of these various approaches with different demographic groups. Some have achieved significant reach with their projects. Most groups are using a mixture of ‘shallow’ engagement (such as stalls at events) to reach large numbers and ‘deep’ engagement on a face-to-face basis (e.g. home visits and training) of a smaller number of individuals or groups. Most projects have focused on initial public engagement during 2014 with some also installing monitoring equipment. A number of the projects are now following up on previous engagements to see if any changes have resulted. The projects have developed their own bespoke methods of monitoring and evaluation; there is a wide variety of approaches including before and after behaviour change surveys, home visit data collection and recording the number of referrals into energy efficiency schemes. All projects have monitoring and evaluation plans in place in line with programme requirements. However a number of projects reported that they do not yet have data available to share or have data but are not currently collating it or using it to inform their work programme. Many projects are currently finding it difficult to quantify their impact in terms of behaviour or carbon and energy savings although most are attempting to do so within their evaluation plans. This is not a problem unique to the CLS programme: many organisations and community projects struggle with this issue, as there are many factors that influence behaviour and it can be difficult to access detailed data on actual energy use from multiple households.

Manor House PACT Energy Advice Surgery

4.1.1 Mass awareness work Surgeries and advice in public places The majority of projects are disseminating advice and raising awareness of energy work in public places. CLS projects report that it can be difficult to engage the public in conversations about energy, with uptake of energy-specific events and training being low, unless the audience is already engaged with the subject. However, many projects have found that once they engage people in the conversation, the advice is valued, so have amended their original project ideas to overcome these issues. Integrating energy talks and surgeries with other events generally results in a more positive response from the public. This shows that taking conversations on energy to places where people already are can be more effective than relying on people seeking out advice. Several projects have tailored their engagement approaches to gain access to the public spaces where people feel most comfortable. In some cases this is clubs or mutual support groups, in others it is local public events. Importantly, several projects approach these events as a first step, leading to further engagement with people. They provide the opportunity to start a relationship with attendees, obtain contact details and can lead to follow up work to track progress on energy saving pledges made.

4.1.2 Detailed individual engagement Home visits Six of the CLS projects are carrying out or planning to carry out home visits. The CLS Energy Learning Report produced in November 2013 identified a number of challenges facing projects particularly in relation to the use of volunteer home energy advisors. These included concern over the personal safety of advisors and how to effectively support them to provide good quality advice. Several projects have now devised solutions that work for their project, often by using a mixture of volunteer and professional advisors. This community/professional relationship seems to work well in a number of ways. Using energy/home improvement professionals to conduct home visits removes the need for volunteers to be experts and enables better management of the quality of advice given. The Manor House PACT case study on page 17 demonstrates this to good effect. Volunteers are involved in the work but are not overburdened with responsibility for the challenging task of giving accurate advice and installing measures. The use of professional community organisations has also enabled the transfer of liabilities and management issues associated with home visits onto organisations that already have systems in place to manage them. Sustain Eden is running a programme of home visits to provide advice and install draught proofing measures to vulnerable householders. They awarded a tender to Eden Housing Association and their Handyperson Service contractor in October to run the service; these contractors are already known and trusted in the area. To date they have draught-proofed 40 homes (the target is 150). Contracting out the actual home visit has enabled CLS projects to focus on how to reach their target audience for home visits. Projects are focusing on building relationships with trusted intermediary organisations through which they can reach vulnerable customers in an environment which puts those people at ease. These support organisations also generate referrals into home visit schemes, making it easier for projects to reach larger numbers of people. Building relationships with a range of community-level organisations which support vulnerable customers such as Health Visitors and Housing Associations also enables a longer term local presence for CLS projects, with the opportunity for repeat engagement with individuals. This approach is used in large programmes such as the Welsh Governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Nest fuel poverty programme8, and is likely to be key in local, area-based delivery of energy efficiency in the future.

Groundwork’s Green Doctor9 is a popular model for home visits. Green Doctors are independent, impartial experts who visit people in their homes. They conduct an energy use check-up then offer energy saving advice. They also provide kit that keeps people warm, identify financial support when needed and fit energy saving equipment. CLS projects are either contracting Groundwork to deliver this service or are aiming to replicate the approach themselves. This demonstrates the willingness of communities to replicate approaches from other projects, where they feel it is appropriate. Demonstration homes Four projects have focused on retrofitting demonstration homes (improving existing houses with energy efficiency measures) or holding open house events to show people energy saving measures in situ. This approach is becoming more popular across the community energy sector. It enables the public to visit a home, see energy saving and renewable energy measures and discuss installation and operation with householders themselves. This approach works well where it is used as an engagement tool alongside other activity that enables householders to take action to change their behaviour or invest in energy saving measures. CLS in Action Sustainable Harborough: The first Harborough Green Open Homes day took place in June 2014, with six homes volunteering to open their doors to showcase green technologies and sustainable home improvements, including solar panels, external wall insulation, irrigation systems, air source heat pumps and ‘A’-rated appliances. The homes ranged in size and age, from a traditional Victorian terrace to a 1950’s detached bungalow, enabling bespoke technologies to be showcased. The project advertised for volunteers who wished to open their homes to the public. Interested participants then completed a short survey to outline the types of energy saving features their home contains. Visitors were also able to speak directly with the householders to get impartial practical advice. Seven Locks Housing, a partner in the Sustainable Harborough project, has also completed an energy efficient retrofit of one of their properties and are using this as an engagement tool for their tenants. The residents of this Ecohome report being more comfortable in their home, have smaller bills and enjoy living there. Energy use in the property is being monitored over time. Seven Locks Housing aims to roll out a programme of energy advice to the rest of the households within the Acclaim Housing Group in 2015. This will include training for current householders, new tenants and front line staff on how to use boiler controls and reduce energy use in the home. An information pack to complement the training (specific to the type of housing stock) is also being produced. Although the wider Severn Locks Housing programme is outside the scope of the CLS grant, the Eco-home project illustrates how CLS is adding value to existing programmes.

4.1.3 Communal approaches and building local capacity Many of the CLS projects are supporting volunteers to provide energy advice or co-ordinate energy activity within their community. This approach enlists local champions or groups of interested individuals and aims to enable ‘peer to peer’ advice, with neighbours sharing information on energy. Peers also support and encourage each other to make changes, providing a sense of shared purpose. Groups of neighbours or friends will also develop approaches that are tailored to their particular needs. This method of engagement draws on research which emphasises the role of peer pressure in influencing behaviour and aims to establish new ”social norms” around pro-environmental behaviour10. Several of the CLS projects are using peer-support groups to engage people with energy issues. This approach was pioneered by ‘Transition Streets’, developed by the Transition network, which establishes local groups of residents who meet regularly and work together to move towards more sustainable lifestyles. Some projects (such as CLS in Dorset) have adopted the Transition Streets11 approach directly, whilst others have developed their own variations, such as Manor House PACT’s “Closer Neighbours” initiative (see Manor House PACT case study on page 17). Other CLS projects have adopted less structured methods of peer support, involving training of local champions who then provide advice to their peer groups or attend local events to engage people with energy and sustainability. CLS in Action: L8 Living Sustainably, Liverpool: The project has recruited 15 volunteer Energy Champions to attend events, giving advice on how to make homes more ‘energy secure’. This is a model that has worked for the project on other topics such as food and so they have replicated it to disseminate energy advice. The champions are based on the Community Organiser model12 and are trained in listening skills. They are recruited from different ethnic groups, enabling the project to reach across the community and access relevant support organisations. The project recruits people who are passionate and can convey that passion, rather than purely people skilled or knowledgeable about energy, as an ability to communicate is key to the role. Training on energy issues is then provided to all volunteers. The Champions are already attending events and will start delivering home visits in January 2015 once they have completed the full Community Organiser and energy audit training. The home visits will be delivered in pairs for safety. Granby Toxteth Development Trust (GTDT) firmly believes that: ‘the approach of local people supporting local people works. If people have a particular passion you can nurture that and enable them to use it. Communication skills are important as, once people are engaged with the topic by a good communicator, they are much more likely to act’. As GTDT is a well-established community organisation with expertise in engagement it is in a strong position to apply this experience to a new topic, in this case, energy efficiency.

Projects are also building local capacity through providing energy training to both members of the public and frontline workers. This then enables them to provide information and support to others. The key to all of these training programmes has been choosing the right people to train who are able to influence others. Targeting tutors, enthusiastic people and frontline staff means that the training should have a wider impact as those individuals will influence and support others to change their behaviour. This can be especially effective where advice workers who deliver home visits or other face to face advice are trained to identify where clients have particular problems related to energy and refer them on for specialist advice or support. Two project examples of the wider impact of training initiatives are outlined on the next page.

CLS in Action WEA Greening Wingrove, Newcastle: A key barrier for WEA Greening Wingrove is that non-Englishspeaking residents lack the language to communicate about fuel poverty, bill problems or questions on how to use their heating systems. This is a particular issue as the project is being delivered within a multi-ethnic area. The project contracted National Energy Action and a local training provider to run an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) training session focused on the language of energy. Despite lots of publicity and engagement, uptake of the courses was very low. They commissioned a second piece of work to integrate energy into existing ESOL courses run by Westgate College, Newcastle College and Action Learning Newcastle, as well as other community groups that run ESOL activities. This has proven successful. They have currently trained 15 ESOL tutors and are aiming for 25 tutors, reaching 250 students in the longer term. Initially the uptake of courses was low as the majority of students were female Muslims, who were uncomfortable about attending a course run by a male tutor. As a response female tutors were made available. Case Study, One Planet Middlesbrough: A champion with DISC (a drug and alcohol support organisation) undertook a one day training session with One Planet Middlesbrough (OPM) and subsequently signed up to become an OPM Community Champion. In this role he is able to support customers at DISC to reduce their energy bills and live in a more sustainable way. Since taking on the role he has taken part in further OPM training and activities, including a draught proofing workshop. He also applied to DISC for funding for draught proofing materials to help other service userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s draught proof their homes and was awarded ÂŁ900. He has now secured employment on an OPM funded project to further engage people with sustainable living.

4.1.4 Engaging with retrofit activity Some of the CLS projects are collaborating with wider energy efficiency programmes that are active in the local area to maximise the uptake of energy saving measures as a result of their work. Working with existing energy efficiency programmes has helped some projects to deliver significant numbers of energy efficiency improvements by drawing on existing capacity and relationships across the public and private sectors. The role that community energy groups typically play in energy efficiency deployment programmes is to identify potential customers for schemes and act as a trusted, impartial voice to endorse scheme marketing. This capitalises on the local knowledge and access to informal community networks which community groups have and has the potential to reach socially excluded customers who are not reached by or do not respond to conventional marketing. It also enables locally-delivered advice to complement the installations carried out by the scheme. Having a community or local authority relationship can lend credibility to energy efficiency programmes which are often delivered or represented by energy suppliers or energy efficiency installers. There are many examples of successful delivery of past energy efficiency programmes such as the Carbon Emission Reduction Target (CERT)13 through partnerships involving communities and local authorities fulfilling this endorsement role. This has become less common in recent years as energy efficiency programmes have moved towards mass-delivery models and more complex qualification criteria. However several of the CLS projects have still had some success with applying this approach to current programmes. Two examples are outlined below.

CLS in Action Green Prosperity Hull: Green Prosperity is working in partnership with a Warm Zone14 project, which provides free energy advice alongside the provision of grants and benefits advice. The Warm Zone shares information with the project and passes on details of customers in the project area. Green Prosperity then follow up with householders living in properties with lower energy ratings to offer energy advice, support with switching suppliers and installation of measures such as draught proofing and energy monitors. This adds value to the existing Warm Zone work and provides the project with a structured way of identifying households to engage with. One Planet Middlesbrough: The project has developed a track record of working with energy efficiency installers and used existing relationships to access funding from the Energy Efficiency Commitment (ECO) supplier-led energy efficiency programme early in the project. They partnered with the local authority in marketing the scheme and the combination of two trusted local brands proved especially effective. The target area for the project had high levels of deprivation and a high level of ECO eligibility. This made the project attractive to installers working with energy suppliers to deliver installations under ECO. One Planet Middlesbroughâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s independent status also enabled more flexibility in referring customers to installers. The project was therefore able to deliver large numbers of energy efficiency installations early in the project. However changes to the ECO scheme at national level have resulted in installers not having access to ECO funding and an unavoidable slowdown in recent delivery. This will hopefully be resolved once there is clarity on the future of national fuel poverty funding. Community groups across the UK have reported difficulty in working on domestic energy efficiency alongside the current supplier-led mass-delivery programmes ECO and Green Deal. Whilst community groups are working to develop sustainable business models for energy efficiency activities, such as through referral fees from installers or energy efficiency schemes, the mass-delivery focus of recent activity has led to this being impractical. This trend has been recognised across the sector and is clearly reflected amongst the CLS projects. It has also been recognised by policy-makers and the future of fuel poverty and energy efficiency programmes is currently under review. However, CLS funding has provided resource to fund energy advice, behaviour change work and engagement. In addition to enabling some projects to work effectively with ECO, this has enabled the CLS projects to establish a strong, trusted local presence. This should equip them to engage early with future energy efficiency programmes which are likely to take a more locality-based approach. The successful energy efficiency activity under CLS could also provide important recent case studies of how communities are able to engage with larger scale activity at a time when government officials are considering changes to policy.

Case Study 1 – Manor House PACT Manor House PACT is combining two different approaches to encourage behaviour change on energy. They are carrying out home energy advice visits and have initiated a Closer Neighbours scheme utilising a peer to peer approach.

The project Manor House PACT’s home visits are based on Groundwork’s Green Doctor model and include provision of simple energy and water saving measures as well as the offer of an energy supply switching service. The first two hour visit is by a professional home energy assessor. The assessor conducts an in-depth interview covering ways to reduce energy consumption, a benefits check and a discussion of no cost energy saving behaviour. Residents are asked to consider signing up to one or more actions from a list of pledges (e.g. not leaving appliances on standby). Next the assessor installs energy saving measures such as draught proofing, low energy bulbs and water saving devices such as showerheads and hippos. The energy saving measures are funded by the CLS project whilst the water saving measures are funded by Thames Water as part of its water saving promotional activity. The measures provided change according to the seasons and include measures focused on householder comfort, for example fans in summer and blankets in winter. Customers may also be referred to relevant support from other organisations, such as the council, fire brigade services or the health service, depending on their individual needs. Assessors carry out a Warm Homes discount check for every visit, to determine what grant funding the householder might be eligible for, and also add people to the Distribution Network Operator’s Priority Services Register, which supports vulnerable customers during power cuts. Customers are signposted to the Energy Saving Advice Service for further advice and referrals into ECO. The second visit is carried out three months later, to follow up whether residents have kept to pledges and to check progress on referrals to other services. Residents are provided with advice to help them to understand their bills and how energy is priced. Support on switching energy supplier is also provided using an internet-connected tablet, enabling householders to switch on the spot if required. Manor House PACT is also about to start a ‘Closer Neighbours’ initiative. This involves local groups of community members working together on a five step programme for more sustainable living, including sessions on climate change and energy, waste, transport and food. The aim is for people to work together in a facilitated approach creating a peer support network to help them change their behaviour. Manor House PACT has developed a bespoke toolkit for the Closer Neighbours groups to use. It also offers expert speakers and facilitators as needed.

Partnerships Manor House PACT is developing partnerships with Age UK and Citizen’s Advice Bureau to provide energy advice at their advice hubs. The relationship with Thames Water has yielded water efficiency measures to give away to customers enabling a joined up approach to saving resources in the home. The ‘Closer Neighbours’ initiative has been developed by Manor House PACT and Eco-Active, a local charity, has been contracted to facilitate 15 groups through the process.

Beneficiaries The home visits are open to all but as the area ranks high on the index of multiple deprivation the majority of customers are on low incomes. Outreach is mainly carried out through door knocking, then through word of mouth, with customers being referred in by neighbours, friends and family. As door knocking is generally carried out during the day, it tends to reach people who are elderly, caring for children or unemployed. Social rented blocks were targeted first for door knocking. A resident that received a home visit stated: “The Energy Advisor helped me make some changes to my flat and to think about how I can use less energy and water. I was really surprised when my next quarterly bill was down by almost £50 these savings will make a real difference to my family”

Achievements Over 500 home visits have been carried out so far against a target of 900 first visits by the end of the CLS funded programme and 340 second visits have been completed. The project aims to carry out second visits for 80% of participating households by the end of the CLS programme. Project staff reported that they feel the main success of the project has been in saving people money on their fuel bills. However, they do also try to communicate the climate change impact of those savings to customers. A toolkit has been developed specifically for participants in the ‘Closer Neighbours’ project, it includes information on energy efficiency and renewable energy, project ideas and offers available locally on energy saving measures. A local knitting group has become the first to register for the initiative.

Learning Representatives of the project reported that, in their experience, the language around climate change can be intimidating to people. They believe that this can be broken down by building people’s knowledge around energy over time and intend to build long term relationships with the people they engage with. They have found that schools can plan an effective role in recruiting participants for the ‘Closer Neighbours’ project through children taking messages home to parents. Manor House PACT established volunteer placements enabling local people to shadow their professional energy advisers with a view to training people to become energy advisers or Home Energy Assessors in the future. With a couple of notable exceptions who have found employment, in one case with Groundwork themselves, the capacity of local people taking up the placements has been an issue. In general the volunteers were unable to cope with the technical challenges of the full Energy Assessor role. The project has overcome this by breaking down the placements into smaller roles which are more achievable for local volunteers (for example an administrative or data entry role). This enables people to learn skills that are transferable to a wider variety of careers.

4.2 CLS projects are beginning to engage at a strategic level to plan the energy future of their area. Alongside their more delivery-focused work discussed in section 4.1, five of the CLS projects are also taking strategic approaches to carbon reduction across their locality. Strategic approaches will become increasingly important if the UK is to meet its target of an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. The strategic activity being undertaken by the CLS projects is therefore particularly important in understanding how communities can engage with and even lead the development of low carbon infrastructure in future. The CLS projects are well suited to a strategic approach, given their broad, locality-based partnerships and focus on delivering locally appropriate sustainability projects. Project approaches include: - -

Detailed local energy planning Area-wide opportunity studies for renewable energy and energy efficiency

Local energy planning Local energy planning involves looking holistically at delivery of energy for a locality over the long term. This approach is used in other European countries but is quite rare in the UK. It has huge potential for: • Enabling participative approaches to carbon emissions reduction and delivery of energy infrastructure to meet local needs. This can give local people a greater say in how energy is produced and used in the future in their area. • Enabling deep cuts in carbon emissions in the longer term through identifying area-wide opportunities. In particular, through mobilising local knowledge and support to help identify and deliver new opportunities such as district heating, domestic renewable energy and community-owned energy projects. • Addressing energy network constraints. As the amount of distributed renewable energy generation increases, development is now being constrained by the capacity of the electricity distribution network. A more strategic approach could help to ensure that projects are developed with this in mind and can be planned in unconstrained locations, or alongside future plans for network upgrades. Local energy planning could help to empower local people to make informed decisions about where and how they think renewable energy should be developed in their locality. The development of low carbon infrastructure can be disruptive, controversial and even frightening to local residents. A number of CLS projects are either working directly on consensus building or are developing structures that could empower communities or represent them more effectively in future discussions around low carbon infrastructure. Projects, such as the CLS schemes, that involve local authorities working in partnership with communities and the private sector present the opportunity for collaborative, locally-led approaches to developing renewable energy resources. This approach could also become increasingly important for other energy infrastructure projects such as future development of the energy distribution network and “smart grids” which embed energy storage and better energy demand management into the distribution network. Sustainable Sheppey in particular, has developed a strategic approach to sustainable energy, which engages local people in decision making through community-led energy planning. A detailed case study looking at this is on page 21.

Area wide opportunity studies for renewable energy and energy efficiency Sustainable Sheppey is currently the only CLS project to have run a collaborative energy planning process to date, however several of the CLS projects have undertaken or are planning strategic studies into the opportunities for community renewable energy and/or energy efficiency across their area. This approach can highlight technical, economic, social and environmental opportunities and constraints which can then be used either to inform policy or for specific energy planning activity in future. The breadth of activity being carried out through the CLS projects has enabled them to deliver both strategic activity and practical projects on the ground. There are examples of CLS participants bringing learning from practical projects to bear on their strategic challenges and vice versa. This enables those strategic and practical projects to reinforce each other, building credibility and identifying new opportunities locally. CLS in Action The Irwell Valley Sustainable Communities project, Salford is working with WSP Ltd (a major engineering consultancy) to use its â&#x20AC;&#x153;PACTâ&#x20AC;? tool to help residents monitor their carbon footprint and provide baseline information on energy and carbon emissions. Alongside this, the project is now reviewing opportunities for renewable energy across the locality including hydropower and geothermal energy. There is also a proposal to carry out an area-wide analysis covering energy performance of the housing stock and potential for energy efficiency and renewable energy (including for district heating) in a holistic approach. L8 Living Sustainably, Liverpool is taking an integrated approach to energy efficiency and renewable energy in the area, having revised its original solar-focused plans to look more broadly at what measures are most suitable across the local area. Through this process, they have identified priority projects covering energy efficiency and renewables (including insulation, solar streets, draught proofing and low energy retrofit). As the L8 Living Sustainably and Irwell Valley projects develop, it may be informative to compare these different approaches with the Sustainable Sheppey project to understand the relative strengths of different techniques and to better understand the contrasting challenges and opportunities in urban and rural areas.

Case Study 2 â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Sustainable Sheppey Sustainable Sheppey is working with local people to identify the best ways to develop renewable energy on the island.

Community planning for a low carbon future The Sustainable Sheppey Communities Living Sustainably (CLS) project is led by Swale Borough Council and a number of other local organisations including the County Council, local community organisations and a local housing provider. The community energy project aims to involve local people in identifying the most appropriate way to develop renewable energy on the island. It has established a Community Energy Trust to facilitate community benefit directly from their own projects and also negotiate for community benefit from largerscale commercial renewable energy schemes that are planned for the island.

The project The project started with a review of the feasibility studies that had been completed for the County of Kent and Swale Borough Council. This work identified potential opportunities for wind, biomass and solar energy. Marine renewable energy was also reviewed due to Sheppey being an island. Kent County Council worked with their project enabler to put together information on the potential for renewable energy on the island. This included user-friendly maps that enabled people to easily understand where the resources were at their best, for example the highest average wind speeds, and helped them to make informed decisions around balancing impact on the locality with effectiveness of the resource. A drop-in session gave residents the opportunity to look at the materials, provide their views on the technologies and request to be included in future community activity. Residents were also able to respond using an online form hosted on the Kent County Council website15. The initial participative planning sessions brought community members together to understand where they thought the different renewable energy technologies could be located and what opportunities and challenges they presented for the island. This feedback was reviewed and it was decided that Kent County Council would put out a tender for feasibility studies on biomass, wind and anaerobic digestion of marine biomass (using seaweed as feedstock). A feasibility study on the potential for community-scale solar PV (covering both ground-mounted solar farms and larger roof-mounted systems on public or commercial buildings) was also completed. The feasibility studies were delivered at the beginning of 2014 and the results were reported back to Sustainable Sheppey in April. The partners agreed to complete further work to understand specific opportunities for wind and biomass. The public building element of the solar feasibility was given to the Kent County Council property group who are investigating the potential for solar PV installations on the Councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own buildings. Three community buildings (Friendship House, Eastchurch Village Hall and Sheppey Leisure Centre) have recently been visited and quotes are being sought for possible PV installations. Solar PV installations on these buildings could potentially generate 23,870kWh of electricity per year, with an annual Feed-in Tariff income of ÂŁ3,679 plus the additional saving from any electricity used directly within the building when the panels are generating. A Community Energy Trust has been set up to enable Sustainable Sheppey to take renewable energy projects forward and distribute benefits from them. This is also envisaged as a vehicle for partnership work with commercial renewable energy developments on the island, to manage community benefit or shared ownership schemes. In developing the Community Energy Trust, Sustainable Sheppey used a document produced by Energy Saving Trust on selecting and establishing social enterprise structures for community energy projects.

Partnerships Kent County Council has been able to use its expertise in working with communities on energy as well as its staff and systems capacity to support engagement activities. The County Council legal team has also supported the project by providing input into the documents for the establishment of the Community Energy Trust, saving the project considerable legal costs. The community partners in Sustainable Sheppey have provided intelligent and considered views throughout the process. They have also been able to provide support based on their professional backgrounds, for example providing legal advice. One of the community representatives has a number of installations on his own property and has converted a barn to enable schools and other groups to visit and learn about the technologies.

Beneficiaries Empowering the community to take an active role in decision-making around renewable energy and maximising community benefit from such developments have always been core aims of the project. The scheme aims to influence the future development of renewable energy across the island, bringing about more: • Projects that are aligned with community aspirations • Projects that will bring real benefit to members of the community, particularly the most vulnerable • Projects using technologies that are more in line with the community’s view on what is appropriate for the island, enabling a less confrontational development/planning process • Projects that should result in renewable energy being seen more positively, encouraging more public involvement and support for future projects. Benefits to the community might include direct financial benefit to community projects through community funds, opportunities for local share ownership and possible job creation.

Achievements The project’s engagement process involved one drop-in session and three workshops with community members, which were well received by participants and identified public support for renewable energy projects. A new, independent Community Energy Trust has been established, providing a non-profit distributing social enterprise structure to help deliver future community energy projects and share the benefits across the community. The aims and objectives of the Trust have been agreed and three board meetings have been held to date. The Trust has been structured so that it is also able to receive community benefit payments from the commercial renewable energy schemes planned on the island and is currently engaging with developers to understand what might be possible. This could provide an early income stream to kick-start the activity of the Trust. The solar feasibility study identified 28 buildings as having both a favourable orientation and a viable roof space. Of these properties, 15 are used by charities, community groups or clubs and 13 are owned by Kent County Council. The potential annual generation capacity, if PV were installed on all the community buildings could be 138,730kWh bringing in an income of £20,786. The annual generation capacity for the Kent County Council buildings could be 432,090kWh bringing in an income of £60,069.

Learning In general, people have been open-minded and in favour of renewable energy projects when openly engaged from the beginning. The positive response to wind energy in particular, suggests that people may feel less threatened by development when they are engaged in the decision-making process and their views taken on-board at an early stage. Although engagement with the community has been positive, it was felt that a longer engagement period (potentially working Parish by Parish) would have helped harder to reach residents engage with and benefit from the initial collaborative feasibility activity. To maintain focus and keep people interested, it was decided that regular meetings would be planned in and they would not be cancelled even if attendance is low. The project team reported that understanding the different funding mechanisms, such as community benefit from commercial developments, local share ownership, social finance and grants, for renewable energy projects is a steep learning curve. This experience is also reflected by other CLS projects working on community energy. However it is worth noting that community members can bring additional skills to help address this and there are a number of people within the Sheppey community that are able to bring relevant professional skills such as legal advice to the project. The opportunity of working with commercial renewable energy developments to secure community benefit funding or deliver joint venture projects can provide a valuable source of income for community energy social enterprises. This may be especially useful at an early stage in the development of community businesses to help build their capacity.

4.3 CLS projects are vulnerable to national policy changes but are developing social enterprise approaches to increase their resilience and progress community renewable energy projects. All of the CLS projectsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; energy activities are hugely influenced by national government policy, as is the case across the community energy sector. These projects clearly illustrate how national policy can be both a driver and a threat for such activity. In many cases CLS activity has been developed specifically to utilise supportive national policy to deliver local benefit and carbon emissions reduction. In other cases projectsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; activity and ability to achieve impact has been constrained by national policies. A key issue highlighted by many of the projects has been the transient nature of national policy, particularly in relation to incentives to support carbon emissions reduction. This, along with mixed messages in the media and occasional misselling by suppliers of energy saving and renewable energy measures, contributes to the confusion and lack of trust felt by the public around energy issues. Withdrawal of Green Deal16 funding was listed as a specific problem by several projects that had spent considerable time, effort and resource setting up work packages based on referrals to Green Deal. In addition to uncertainty over funding for household energy efficiency measures, CLS projects are also very aware of the precarious nature of grant funding for their own activity and are seeking more independence and longevity for their work. This is increasingly leading the CLS projects (in line with trends across the wider community sector) to turn to social enterprise approaches in an attempt to build their resilience, independence and self-reliance. This approach can enable community projects to generate their own income through selling energy or other low carbon goods and services. Eight CLS projects are exploring social enterprise opportunities related to energy. In some cases this is driven solely by the aim of funding and owning a renewable energy scheme but it is also being seen as a way to generate income to continue project work beyond the CLS programme. Several approaches to developing community renewable energy are emerging, including; development of a portfolio of PV projects, community energy investment funds and single community renewable energy installations. Some CLS projects including Manor House PACT and SustainEden which did not originally include community renewables have recently adopted projects as part of their exit strategy. This may be a result of CLS projects sharing ideas and support, and demonstrates the ability of communities to learn from each other and be opportunistic in developing their projects.

Many of the CLS projects are also developing social enterprises around renewable energy, or are carrying out early stage feasibility with a view to developing community renewables in future. The short project summaries below highlight the different approaches to social enterprise for renewable energy activity being explored by the CLS projects: CLS in Action Manor House PACT is planning a PV project, exploring an opportunity on a council building, and One Planet Middlesbrough is considering installing PV on schools. SustainEden and Sustainable Harborough have both secured funding from the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) Rural Community Energy Fund for feasibility work for hydro power and Anaerobic Digestion (AD)17. Sustain Eden partner Alston Moor Partnership has secured funding for a hydro feasibility, and the programme has supported the Kirkby Thore community to secure AD feasibility and development funding through RCEF. The latter are planning on selling the project to a developer once all permissions are in place, and retaining a share. Communities Living Sustainably in Dorset and SustainEden are both developing a local source of wood fuel for biomass heating. The Dorset CLS project is establishing a social enterprise-based local wood fuel supply. Sustain Eden has agreements in place with two woodland owners, one a private individual and one the National Trust. Around 15 individuals are involved at each site, managing the woodland in return for a free supply of local firewood. The Irwell Valley Sustainable Communities Project, Salford is planning to take on two hydro power schemes which the local authority is currently in the early stages of developing. They are also discussing involvement in a solar panel manufacturing and installation scheme with Salford University aimed at helping local people into employment in this sector. Most of the CLS renewables projects are at quite an early stage, and from Energy Saving Trust’s experience on the Welsh Government’s Ynni’r Fro18 and Scottish Government’s CARES19 community renewables support programmes, the more ambitious schemes may take upwards of 3-5 years to deliver. It is likely that some of these schemes will not be delivered until well after the end of the CLS funded projects, however CLS is providing support through the crucial early stages of projects before an investable business plan is in place. Communities need support throughout this process, not just to help secure finance for projects but also moral and technical support and help with issues such as legal agreements and preparing for the planning process. Several projects are also taking an alternative approach to setting up community renewable energy. Instead of focusing effort on a single site or cluster of sites, they are working to establish new local investment funds. These funds could help a range of local projects to raise finance for community renewables and might provide some economies of scale through running multiple share-issues through a single vehicle. Communities can find it difficult to raise finance for single schemes as the sums of money are too small to attract commercial loans. These funds have potential to help broaden the uptake of community renewable energy, giving new projects a simple solution for raising finance through a local share issue.

A phased approach to breaking policy dependency? Social enterprise for community renewables still currently has significant dependencies on government policy and incentives. Feed-in Tariffs were introduced to help reduce the costs of renewable energy, allowing these technologies to become cost effective more quickly. As a result, the viability of renewable energy-based businesses is currently highly dependent on the level of the Feed-in Tariff and the long term future of this support. Following the introduction of Feed-in Tariffs, community groups have been developing successful social enterprise approaches to renewable energy relying on loans and investment rather than grant funding. Pioneering groups are sharing information across the sector, enabling a growing network of community businesses to replicate and adapt approaches to their own needs rather than having to develop a business model and legal agreements in isolation. CLS projects have also used this approach to develop their schemes. Although these projects are currently dependent on Feed-in Tariffs, in the longer term once Feed-in Tariffs are removed, the social enterprises that have been established will have the skills and experience to continue delivering renewable energy projects. The community renewable energy sector will be especially well placed to become involved with direct sales of locally generated renewable energy to customers as this market develops in future. Selling direct to customers would give projects a better price per unit of electricity as well as helping them to engage with a wider range of people. This could enable a “phased” reduction of policy dependency as renewable energy becomes commercially competitive.

Current policy threats to community renewables There are currently a number of national policy issues which could significantly affect the ability of CLS projects to successfully deliver their aspirations around social enterprise for renewable energy in the short to medium term. Specifically these issues are: • The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recently changed its view of the eligibility of community energy projects as co-operatives, resulting in them now refusing to register new community energy cooperatives. To date, this has been by far the most common structure for such projects. This decision is currently the subject of a consultation. • Changes to the tax relief to be provided to investors in community renewables projects. It is not yet clear what the impact of these changes will be. Depending on the final outcome of the FCA ruling noted above, this could mean tax relief remaining in place under a different scheme or being removed altogether. Given the creativity, innovation and adaptability shown by the community energy sector to date, it is likely that these issues will not be a permanent barrier to the development of community renewables, as groups will find alternative structures. However, they are leading to considerable uncertainty and delay in the short term.

Case study 3: Communities Living Sustainably in Dorset Communities Living Sustainably in Dorset provides a good example of how to set up a community energy co-operative to take forward community renewable energy projects.

Introduction The Communities Living Sustainably in Dorset project is managed through a broad partnership led by Dorset Community Action and includes a range of different voluntary sector groups, the County Council and economic development partnerships. One of the project’s aims is to establish new solar PV projects. Working with social enterprise experts Wessex Community Assets the project has established ‘Dorset Community Energy’, a new community energy co-operative.

The project The aim of the Dorset Community Energy co-operative is to reduce carbon emissions and deliver local economic benefit through community renewable energy projects such as solar photovoltaic (PV) installations on schools and community buildings. The project is aiming to deliver six solar installations and will report on the carbon emissions reduction from the renewable energy generated. The systems will be installed on local school buildings owned by the Council and village halls, making the scheme highly visible in the community and maximising its educational benefit. CLS is funding the delivery of solar surveys on local public buildings to determine the most suitable sites for the PV systems. The average size of the systems being investigated is 15kW, with all installations being under 30kW to avoid the additional cost of an export meter.

Partnerships The CLS funding enabled a part-time project officer at Dorset County Council to work on the project one day per week. This provided much needed time and expertise to set up Dorset Community Energy as a new social enterprise (with an “Industrial and Provident Society for the Benefit of the Community” structure) and to plan its solar projects. Dorset Community Energy will own and operate the solar PV systems, leasing roof space on the host schools from Dorset County Council. The project has sought peer support from other leading community solar projects including purchasing CLS-funded consultancy from Bath & West Community Energy and also visiting Plymouth City Council to discuss their model of local authority-led community PV. A finance package is being developed for the scheme; this is likely to involve a loan to cover the initial capital from either a social finance provider with specialism in community energy or the County Council. The group then plans to tender for a specialist community sector organisation to run a community share issue enabling local people to own a share in the project. Running the share issue after the system is installed will remove a significant risk from the investment for local people (ie that the project will fail before installation). As part of its wider behaviour change work, Communities Living Sustainably in Dorset will also conduct survey work to understand what influence share ownership in the PV scheme has on people’s environmental behaviour. A “framework agreement” has been arranged with solar installers. This simplifies the procurement process, by running a single full procurement process rather than one for each of the six sites. The framework agreement is made with a list of suitable installers and a simpler mini competition is run to decide the installer for each site.

Beneficiaries The benefits from the scheme will be shared between the host schools and the community. The schools electricity bills will be lower during the day when they are using electricity generated by the solar PV. Dorset Community Energy will own the systems and receive income for any electricity sold back to the grid and from the Feed-in Tariff subsidy scheme. Being a social enterprise, its profits will go back into its social aims to deliver local sustainability projects. A standard roof rental agreement has been developed with the Councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legal team, covering rental of the school roof space for the PV systems. This enables Dorset Community Energy to go to school governors with a clear offer detailing how the agreement will work and information on the feasibility of the scheme. The Council has also developed a standard business plan spreadsheet for PV systems. This provides a standard process, showing what information is needed to assess each site (e.g. available roof area) and providing a common method for calculation of costs and potential returns streamlining the feasibility process.

Achievements To date the project has carried out 20 surveys of potential solar PV sites and has identified 4 sites that are committed to progressing and have good potential for a viable community PV project within the timescale of the CLS funding. The first installation is expected by early 2015 and a range of other schemes are currently under discussion.

Learning Time and resources The role of developing Dorset Community Energy and its portfolio of community PV projects proved time consuming and would have benefited from more staff capacity. Once the social enterprise was established and the solar PV offer (including roof rental agreement, etc) developed it has typically taken around three months engagement with potential host sites from initial survey to commitment to install. The business case for relatively small-scale community financed solar PV schemes is very marginal, especially when the participating sites are provided with free electricity. The benefit to participating schools can be considerable. In addition to learning opportunities and pupil engagement one of the Dorset participating schools will receive up to ÂŁ50,000 of free solar electricity over a 20 year period. The Dorset team feels that start-up funding streams to cover time for social enterprise set up, co-ordination and technical studies across England are vital and could give a significant boost to growth of the community energy sector. External threats There are a number of national policy developments that could impact on the scheme, in particular the removal of Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) support for share issues in community energy schemes. This situation has now been clarified and investors in community energy social enterprises will be able to benefit from 30% Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR) when the EIS scheme closes. The project plans to run the share issue in the spring with pre-accreditation for SITR enabling greater clarity on likely returns. Working with building owners Initially building owners were approached at a very early stage in the project to ensure they were fully engaged. However this proved to be difficult as there was not enough certainty on the nature of the PV offer. As a result, work was then focused on producing a standard roof lease document and putting a finance package together. This then enabled the project to present a clear offer and, as a result, has already identified four of their six possible projects, with others under discussion.

Council â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Community partnerships Partnerships between local authorities and community social enterprises have huge potential to deliver local social and economic benefit from renewable energy across the UK. Dorset County Council had been committed to a major investment in solar PV on its own stock, but reduction in the level of Feed-in Tariff support made the project unviable. However the Dorset Community Energy-led approach has enabled solar investment through a social enterprise model. Procuring the solar systems through the co-operative has worked well as it can be more flexible and has a simpler structure than the local authority. This has enabled negotiation of competitive prices for the systems.

5.0 Recommendations The CLS projects are now well into delivery, are learning from each other and are progressing a range of energy related activity which other communities and stakeholders are able to benefit and learn from.

5.1 For the Groundwork UK learning partnership The Groundwork UK Learning Partnership should continue to support peer to peer learning amongst the CLS projects through networking events focused on the main areas of activity highlighted in this report. This will provide opportunities for exchange of experience between projects, input from external experts and may stimulate further collaboration. Energy related support will also continue to be offered to projects through the test and stretch function of the programme. Topics to focus on include: • Monitoring and evaluation to effectively understand and communicate the impact of project activity • Developing domestic and community PV schemes including advice and support with technical and legal issues and the development of business models • Planning income generating activity in relation to energy and how this could be used to support CLS project exit strategies The future learning partnership research projects themed around behaviour change and energy have the potential to look at the following areas of interest highlighted in this report: • Review the impact of the different approaches that projects are taking to behaviour change (including mass awareness work, detailed individual engagement, building local capacity and engaging with retrofit activity) with the different demographic groups that projects are working with. • Compare the different techniques used by projects to take forward community renewable schemes.

5.1 For funders Tools, metrics and resources developed under CLS could help to inform future funding programmes on climate change and sustainability. Funders should consider whether to draw on this experience to provide a bank of tools, resources and metrics for delivering and evaluating sustainability and climate change projects. Use of these resources could be optional to avoid stifling creativity but making them available could reduce duplication in subsequent programmes and enable projects to focus their activity on innovation in implementation. Useful materials generated by the CLS projects can be made available as part of the legacy of the programme. Building the capacity of communities to be able to engage with the development of energy and low carbon infrastructure for their locality should be a focus for future activity by funders and support agencies. The Sustainable Sheppey project and wider strategic activity by other CLS projects has illustrated that partnerships involving community organisations and local authorities can engage local people effectively with decision-making around energy. This will become increasingly important over the coming years as our energy supply and distribution infrastructure are renewed, distributed renewable energy generation becomes more common and carbon emissions continue to be driven down.

5.2

For Central Government

Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC): The CLS projects are gaining valuable practical experience of community approaches to energy efficiency and renewable energy. This experience could be highly valuable to members of DECC’s community energy team who are working on implementation of the national Community Energy Strategy. It could also potentially be helpful in working with MPs on evidencebased policy following the general election. Specific messages contained within this report to disseminate include: CLS projects provide the opportunity to understand how communities are engaging with domestic energy efficiency in the current policy environment, including their work on advice and behaviour change. The challenges and successes experienced by CLS projects working to address fuel poverty and promote the uptake of energy efficiency measures at a community level could help to demonstrate how communities could engage with future energy efficiency programmes and help to drive increased uptake of measures in the domestic sector. The initiation and development of community renewables projects. Particularly how CLS projects such as Sustain Eden and Sustainable Harborough have made use of the DECC-funded Rural Community Energy Fund (RCEF).This should highlight the role that Communities Living Sustainably has played in helping to initiate community renewable energy schemes and developing the project to the point where a funding application can be made to RCEF. The CLS projects, particularly Sustainable Sheppey provide valuable examples of how to effectively build consensus around the development of low carbon infrastructure. The ability to facilitate this activity locally will become increasingly important to meet future challenging government carbon reduction targets. The CLS programme provides tangible examples of the benefit of cross sector partnerships in delivering local action on energy and carbon emissions reduction. Central Government policy could look to facilitate more cross sector activity especially in relation to local government involvement.

5.3

For Local Government

The CLS projects clearly show the value of community and local authority collaboration in delivering energy and carbon reduction projects. The role of local authorities in delivering community energy projects is likely to become increasingly important in the future as the necessity of achieving deeper cuts in carbon emissions drives more local level activity. The examples below should be shared with local authorities to encourage wider collaboration. Local authorities can be key partners for community energy projects in the following ways: - Providing resources, skills and a route into policy making. Within CLS, local authorities are enabling projects to: • Access skills, resources and experience on running community energy projects, including community renewable project management, delivering energy efficient retrofit programmes, establishing social enterprises and bringing planning expertise. • Lease land or roof space on public and community buildings to deploy solar PV or other renewable energy systems • Input into and facilitate local decision making on energy infrastructure

- Progressing fuel poverty and energy efficiency schemes – many of the projects are working with local authorities as a landlord of social housing or a facilitator of retrofit energy efficiency programmes. This approach combines the reach of community organisations within their area with the resources of the local authority and its ability to access retrofit funding. Several projects commented on the value of being able to use both local authority and community group branding in their communications to build trust within the local community. - Supporting Local Energy Planning – several CLS projects are working to plan broad based carbon reduction activity across their locality. Local authorities have a key role in this activity, both as a facilitator of participative approaches to local energy planning and in embedding energy planning activity within local policy and practice within their own buildings. The CLS project examples could provide inspiration to local authorities working in this area.

5.4

For other organisations and networks

Community Energy England. Community Energy England (CEE) was established in 2014 and works to represent the needs of community energy groups and help them to support each other. Some of the learning from CLS could be useful to CEE members, in particular examples of successful engagement work around domestic energy efficiency and behaviour change. This could help other groups to replicate good practice by CLS projects, and could also help them to promote community energy by adding to the evidence base of successful projects. Key messages to communicate to Community Energy England members include: • Communities can play an important role in decision-making around low carbon infrastructure in future, as evidenced by strategic work carried out by the CLS projects. • Communities can work effectively with large area-based energy efficiency schemes and can deliver significant impact. The evidence of impact from CLS projects could be used to make the case to government for facilitation of community engagement with retrofit programmes as well as identifying key success factors. Housing Associations. Examples of CLS projects, such as Sustain Eden and Sustainable Harborough, working successfully with Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) should be shared with Housing Associations. These could be especially informative around the role that community representatives can play as trusted intermediaries to provide energy advice or share behaviour change messages. In addition these projects illustrate the role that RSLs can play in applying their retrofit experience and resources to supporting domestic energy efficiency beyond their own housing stock. Energy efficiency installation businesses. Case studies of CLS projects, such as One Planet Middlesbrough, which have worked successfully with the private sector to increase uptake of carbon reduction measures could be shared with energy efficiency and renewable energy installers to build the credibility of the community energy sector as a partner for delivery programmes.

Appendix 1 - Map of CLS projects

Appendix 2 - CLS Project Summary Project Name Sustain Eden

Green Prosperity

Manor House PACT

Sustainable Sheppey

Sustainable Sunderland

Amount Project description awarded £955,270 Working with the remote, dispersed community of Eden in Cumbria. The project will look to tackle fuel poverty, promote energy efficiency and renewables, address flood risk issues through effective planning and investigate potential sustainable transport models. There is a strong emphasis on community resilience and skill sharing with particular focus on older people as a demographic most at risk £812,956 The project looks to support a ‘Green Homecare Service’ which aims to promote sustainable transport options for care workers. The project will also support communities to become more energy efficient, reduce waste and tackle fuel poverty through practical advice and home visits. The project will also create an Eco-house demonstration project which forms an interactive element of the project. £999,049 Aims to deliver the PACT (Prepare Adapt Connect Thrive) programme. The PACT will work under the strands aimed at promoting access to open spaces, providing ‘Green’ vocational training opportunities and promoting interaction in the local neighbourhoods with a focus on climate change £946,275 This project aims to promote the importance of local resources, making greener choices and developing new skills. The project will look to promote sustainable living through a Sustainable Homes Initiative; a community food initiative and renewable energy sources particularly a waste oil recycling scheme. Employment and skills will also be increased through the provision of a environmental awareness courses and training opportunities for energy champions. £999,066 A partnership approach across Sunderland. The project aims to increase the awareness and understanding of climate change through activities aimed at reducing fuel poverty; increasing environmental awareness particularly among social housing tenants and school children. Volunteers will also be provided with certified training which aims to improve their employability. The project will also look to engage the BME community who are traditionally less aware of climate change issues.

Duration Location 3 years

Penrith, Cumbria

3 years

Hull

3 years

London Boroughs of Hackney and Haringey

3 years

Isle of Sheppey

4 years

Sunderland

L8 Living Sustainably

One Planet Middlesbrough

Sustainable Harborough

The Irwell Valley Sustainable Communities Project

£917,045 Operates across the Princes Park and Riverside areas of Liverpool. The project seeks to promote energy efficiency and sustainable energy sources including Solar PV and encourage local food growing through the creation of a patchwork farm. A community energy venture will also seek to provide local households with electricity at a reduced rate, including potential savings of around 30 per cent on household bills £998,928 Promotes the principles of One Planet Living across Middlesbrough. The main focus of the project will be on sustainable transport; local and sustainable food; sustainable water; climate change adaptation; zero carbon and zero waste. The project looks to achieve behaviour change towards a more sustainable lifestyle with all communities across the town, including vulnerable and deprived communities, those with low educational attainment and people living with a variety of health issues. £999,962 This project has a focus on the town of Market Harborough as a ‘test bed’ for sustainable living, and looks to improve the environmental sustainability and resilience to climate change of an entire town. The project also aims to make an impact in water and energy efficiency, food growing and bio-diversity, as well as look to make an economic impact through the launch of a sustainable energy company and the Harborough Currency for example. RCC will also develop a demonstration house which will be retro-fitted for more sustainable living. The property will be used as show home for sustainable living with events held to highlight the changes that can be made. £999,986 A community-led project based in Salford. The project will increase awareness of climate change issues through community based working and interaction with local people to develop solutions which are most applicable to them. A key element of the project will be to develop land for the community to use for food growing initiatives. A carbon impact tool will also be used by local residents to raise awareness of the impacts behaviour change can have with a focus on fuel bills and energy savings. Green Champions will also support the community by promoting sustainable living.

5 years

Liverpool

5 years

Middlesbrough

5 years

Leicestershire & Rutland

5 years

Salford

Greening Wingrove

Real Food: Wythenshawe

Communities Living Sustainably in Dorset

£978,147

Based in the Wingrove district of Newcastle. The project activities will focus on three main strands which are the maximisation of community assets, conscious consumption and a community innovation fund. The work areas include demonstration projects on topics such as food growing, water usage and energy generation. The community innovation fund will support the local community to develop initiatives and activities which will form part of the wider project with each initiative being responsive to the needs of the local community and be designed by them. £1,000,000 Based in Wythenshawe, Manchester this project aims to promote greater community cohesion and engagement with climate change. The project will include five flagship projects which draw on local resources. The five flagship projects include an indoor growing system; outdoor growing spaces; a walled community garden and sustainable eating. The project will also launch five community hubs to provide support and advice with a focus on the individual flagship projects. Examples of the community hubs include the Manchester College and University Hospital South Manchester. £960,523 This project aims to improve resilience to climate change across Dorset by delivering a range of activities to address the greatest needs. It will involve engaging communities and businesses to adopt ‘green’ behaviours, supporting schools to achieve ‘eco-school’ status, recruiting residents as volunteers to help people in their community improve their resilience to climate change and developing social enterprises such as a wood fuel enterprise that uses local woodland resources.

5 years

Newcastle upon Tyne

5 years

Manchester

3 years

Dorset

References Annual Energy Statement 2014, Department of Energy and Climate Change https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/371388/43586_Cm_8945_print_ ready.pdf 1. UK Government’s Annual Energy Statement 2014 2. ECO – The Energy Companies Obligation - places legal obligations on the larger energy suppliers to deliver energy efficiency measures to domestic energy users. This is funded by a small premium on energy bills. For more information see: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/domestic/content/green-deal-and-eco 3. Feed-in Tariff - The Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme is a government programme designed to promote the uptake of a range of small-scale renewable energy technologies. It provides an additional payment per unit of energy generated which is funded by a small premium on energy bills. 4. Community Energy in the UK: Part 2, DECC, 2014: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/communityenergy-in-the-uk-part-2 5. The Green Deal is a government-backed scheme which helps people to understand what energy-saving improvements they could make to their homes and offers loans to cover the cost of those improvements. For more information see: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/domestic/content/green-deal-and-eco 6. The Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) was the previous major national energy supplier-led energy efficiency scheme. It generally provided grants and discounts to make energy efficiency measures more affordable and worked extensively with local authorities enabling local targeting of activity. 7. ECO – The Energy Companies Obligation - places legal obligations on the larger energy suppliers to deliver energy efficiency measures to domestic energy users. This is funded by a small premium on energy bills. For more information see: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/domestic/content/green-deal-and-eco 8. “Nest” is a Welsh Government fuel poverty support programme. It provides advice and grants for households in fuel poverty. The scheme is delivered by British Gas on behalf of Welsh Government and Energy Saving Trust provides the advice and engagement component. This includes using “Partnership Development Managers” to engage with community level support organisations to help them refer vulnerable clients into the scheme. See http://www.nestwales.org.uk/ 9. http://www.groundwork.org.uk/Pages/Category/green-doctor 10. http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Behaviour_change_reference_report_tcm6-9697.pdf 11. Transition Streets facilitates groups of neighbours to form peer support networks and work through a programme of change to pro-environmental behaviour. http://www.transitionstreets.org.uk/ 12. Community Organising is the work of building relationships in communities to activate people and create social and political change through collective action. http://www.cocollaborative.org.uk/ 13. See page 9 for detail 14. http://www.warmzones.co.uk/the-zones/hull 15. https://kentcc.firmstep.com/default.aspx/RenderForm/?F.Name=pJ4v7WXLjpf&HideAll=1%20 16. The Green Deal is a government-backed scheme which helps people to understand what energy saving improvements they could make to their homes and offers loans to cover the cost of those improvements. For more information see: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/domestic/content/green-deal-and-eco 17. Anaerobic Digestion is process which breaks down organic waste to produce a biogas which can be burned to generate heat or used to power electricity generating plants. For more information see: http://www.biogas-info. co.uk/ 18. http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/organisations/content/ynnir-fro-community-programme 19. http://www.localenergyscotland.org/about/