Transition Scotland Support Case Study Series: Number 08 March 2011
Big Green Tarbert http://greentarbert.files.wordpress.com/ ABOUT BIG GREEN TARBERT Tarbert is a pretty and quiet fishing village on Loch Fyne. Tarbert and Skipness Community Trust exists to improve life in the local area, and to look after the natural and built resources in order to find a sustainable way for the community to thrive. In 2009, the Trust applied to the Climate Challenge Fund to start a project looking at various aspects of living in a more sustainable way. In April of that year, funding was granted and ‘Big Green Tarbert’ was set up. The project employed a coordinator and a community gardener to look at various projects over the course of the funding period. The project’s aims were to help local residents lower their carbon emissions and save money on energy bills. With rising fuel and food costs through 2009 and into 2011, Big Green Tarbert’s initiatives were welcomed. The project looked at ways to support local householders that did not need huge outlays (such as installing solar PV technology would take) and so promoted low cost energy efficiency measures. As well as encouraging people to cut down on their energy use, the
project also focussed on other areas that were important to the local area. Transport was a major factor, as Tarbert is fairly difficult to get to and from without road transport. Food growing in the local area and community orchards were other projects that BGT had success with, using some interesting communal spaces to do so. Tarbert’s geography, with a harbour to one side of it’s ithsmus and a pier to the other, also made marine litter a issue for action. Initially, BGT aimed to expand awareness of climate change issues, and the things that individuals could do to adapt their way of life to make it more sustainable. However, as the project has
moved on, the wider aim of making Tarbert a more sustainable place to live has flourished, culminating with a ‘Sustainable Communities’ conference in 2010.
TARBERT IN FOCUS KIND OF PLACE: Fishing village WHERE IS IT? On Loch Fyne, in Argyll. POPULATION: 1350 (Tarbert itself) INVOLVEMENT WITH TRANSITION: Tarbert is a Community Development Trust which is connected to the Scottish Transition network. FUNDING: CCF(until March 2011) , LEADER and Comic Relief funding.
ENERGY AWARENESS AND EFFICIENCY
TRANSPORT
ENERGY AUDITING
People living in Tarbert are often dependant on cars to travel to get the things they need, or for work.
BGT offered audits to householders to let them see what the current carbon and ecological footprint of their home was. They found that the majority of local people heat their home with electricity. The project then attempted to provide advice that helped to lower both bills and footprints in ways that were low cost and effective. Free energy saving light bulbs and a power down switch were offered as an incentive to anyone who signed up for an audit. People were asked to sign pledges for the things they thought they could and would do. BGT also commissioned a ‘Householder’s Energy Efficiency Manual’ covering different types of households and including three levels of
measure, from free and easy, to those requiring investment. The guide looks at the five main housing types on the West coast of Scotland, and measures applicable to each. The ‘Householder’s Energy Efficiency manual can be downloaded from Big Green Tarbert’s website.
BGT have been encouraging people to make more use of public transport, by providing timetables. They have also offered advice on driving in more efficient ways that use less fuel.
Why audit homes and lifestyles?
TRANSITION GATHERING
The project was looking at carbon savings and understood that people’s behaviour, from where they shop to how they travel, affects their ecological footprint. This wider view of activity would give a more accurate idea of the carbon savings that could be made.
In 2009, Tarbert hosted a Transition gathering. 35 people from across Argyle and Bute attended.
It also gave them an idea of how people live in the area, and so projects and further developments could be better informed by being relevant to the needs and wishes of local people.
The event looked at different issues that concerned local people and explored the response to these that Transition could offer.
PLASTIC BAG FREE TARBERT Marine waste is a big issue in Tarbert, with plastic bags often being washed up on shore. BGT have arranged beach cleans, and had Tarbert harbour registered for the Marine Conservation Society ‘Adopt a Beach’ scheme. They have designed and displayed an exhibition on marine litter and audited the local shops to find out about plastic bag use, and to see if the shops would use alternatives. Anyone who signs up to the ‘Plastic Bag Free Tarbert’ campaign is given a reusable bag for their shopping. This acts as an incentive, and as advertising.
Find a range of useful resources at www.transitionscotland.org
COMMUNITY ORCHARD
COMMUNITY GARDENS AND GROWING COMMUNITY GARDEN
through the development of a healing garden, also at the Medical Centre.
BGT put in a bid for funding for a community orchard. This took the form of trees planted in various locations across the village, to provide not only fruit for the people living there, but also to attract bees and other beneficial insects.
BGT were able to employ a Community Garden Coordinator to develop community gardens and encourage local growing.
The planning of the trees was such that a corridor was created for these insects to travel through, whilst also pollinating the trees, and adding to the biodiversity of the area.
An aim of the community gardens and growing project There is a community garden was to inspire people to grow beside the Medical Centre food and to provide them for people to grow food in with the skills they needed to raised beds. However, this also be able to do this. Although continues through the village, funding helped to get the with various beds which used project off the ground, there to house floral displays now was a clear feeling that the being turned over in part to effects of the project should food growing. In this way, continue to be felt even after the growing remains visible, the funding had ended. people become curious and ask questions, and can see In this way, people are enabled activity happening around to become less dependant on them. food which has had to travel large distances to get to a People are encouraged supermarket, and in Tarbert’s to think about the other case, having to then travel to beneficial uses of plants get that food.
Local volunteers were asked to help with the planting and some of the trees were planted outside the local housing association flats, with the partnership of the people living there and the housing association itself.
NEWSLETTERS Over the course of the project BGT produced five themed newsletters to inform people of what they were doing.
The project looked at different kinds of community growing and several different kinds of garden have emerged from this process.
There is also a garden for young people specifically to grow in, aimed at encouraging skills and knowledge through the whole population. Why community growing?
These were a combination of news, and useful information such as a seasonal food diary, and timetables for buses.
WIND TURBINE Tarbert and Skipness Community Trust has been looking into the possibility of a community wind turbine. Many of the implications of this type of initiative were discussed at the Sustainable Communities Conference .
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FLOURISH ARGYLE AND BUTE Following on from the Sustainable Communities conference and further inspired by a book discussed there by Tim Jackson called ‘Prosperity without Growth’, a group of interested people and ethical organisations have come together to form Flourish Argyle and Bute. This group is looking at how the people who live there can flourish within the limits of the local environment, and are considering how people can become prosperous without the need for growth beyond what the environment can sustain.
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES CONFERENCE BGT held a ‘Sustainable Communities’ Conference in November 2010.
energy was considered as having significant potential for future development.
This was a two day event looking at different, but related aspects of ensuring communities could sustain themselves in a low carbon future.
The second day looked at income generation through renewable energy.
150 people from across the region attended, with a range of backgrounds and interests, including community groups, land owners and farmers and people interested in transition.
People liked the practical advice given at the conference.
The first day looked at the way forward for sustainable communities. The challenges facing Argyle and Bute were discussed, and renewable
What advice would you offer from this event?
‘An issue that kept on appearing through the workshops on the second day was the need to consult often and early when considering a renewable energy scheme. Good relationships and communication can really ease the process of taking a project to completion. Some of the issues that were noted were a lack of experienced consultants and installers for large scale projects, and the inability of the grid to cope with the extra demand that exporting energy from Argyle would need. People were also concerned about how to ensure that the income from any kind of scheme would remain in Argyle.’ Adapted from Conference Report Hosting large events can be daunting, but if the theme is chosen wisely, then attendance will be high. Good organisation and support always help to make an event work and feel exciting rather than stressful.
Find a range of useful resources at www.transitionscotland.org