Life Cycle UK

How they have supported collective climate action in their community or citywide?
Life Cycle has been delivering innovating projects to support people in the community to reduce their carbon footprint since 2000.  Life Cycle’s dual mission is to transform lives and the environment through cycling. They achieve this by providing practical support that helps people overcome the barriers to cycling and inspires them to make it part of their everyday lives.  
Their activities include:
•    Teaching prisoners at HMP Bristol skills to refurbish old bikes for local people; 
•    Teaching 4000+ people a year the skills needed to cycle confidently on road
•    Supporting Over 55s, people affected by mental health issues, and people with disabilities to get cycling through their innovative inclusive cycling projects. These help people who are worried or anxious about cycling to build their confidence on group rides. 
•    Supporting individuals in the local community to make everyday journeys by bike by pairing them with a local “cycle buddy”

What action they have taken to contribute to the target of a carbon neutral Bristol by 2030?
Since 2011, Life Cycle has supported 33,000 individuals to cycle through a range of projects and services. Assuming each of these 33,000 cycles just 5 miles/week and displaces an equivalent car journey, this will have saved an incredible 18,219,000 kg/C02. Of course many will travel much further than 5 miles, making a much greater contribution to carbon reduction. 
Life Cycle is excited to see growing demand for its services from people of all ages and backgrounds who want to cycle.   They recently launched The Bristol Women’s Cycling Charter, calling on women who already cycle to share their passion with female friends and colleagues and stimulate interest.
This year Life Cycle will support a further 9,000+ individuals to travel by bike, emitting ZERO emissions and making a significant contribution to Bristol’s 2030 target.

Bristol Food Network

How they have supported collective climate action in their community or citywide?
Bristol Food Network CIC supports, informs and connects individuals, community projects, organisations and businesses that share a vision to transform Bristol into a sustainable food city. Working with Bristol City Council and Bristol Green Capital Partnership, BFN is coordinating a city-wide effort to make big and lasting improvements to the way we grow, buy and eat food in Bristol, and be recognised as a Gold Sustainable Food City by autumn 2020. Everyone in Bristol has a role to play, it's all about collective action. The Going for Gold website is designed to help us all to take action by registering and pledging to make changes (https://www.goingforgoldbristol.co.uk/).  BFN provides a separate website (https://www.bristolfoodnetwork.org/), aimed at helping Bristol's food movement to share information and resources with free regular e-news updates to which anyone can subscribe. BFN’s annual Get Growing Trail showcases some of our most inspiring community growing projects in the city.

What action they have taken to contribute to the target of a carbon neutral Bristol by 2030?
BFN works with Bristol City Council and Bristol Green Capital Partnership to ensure that action to create positive change within the food system is part of the carbon neutral by 2030 plan for Bristol. BFN has helped ensure there are food-related targets in the One City Plan. BFN is on the BGCP board and has presented on food to the new Environment Sustainability Board that is overseeing the One City Plan environment targets. The two highest priority food action areas of the Gold SFC effort - reduction of food waste; and improved purchasing for better catering and procurement - have both been identified as the most important areas on which cities must act in relation to the climate and ecological emergency. How and what we farm and fish, eat and dispose of are some of the biggest contributors to dangerous climate change and precipitous loss of nature.

The C.H.E.E.S.E. Project CIC (Cold Homes Energy Efficiency Survey Experts)

How they have supported collective climate action in their community or citywide?
The C.H.E.E.S.E. Project works with local ‘anchor’ community organisations, and meets regularly with their members, to shape and deliver its twin aims: “Warmer Homes Cooler Planet” by reducing energy losses from homes:
•    to improve the homes of disadvantaged households
•    to reduce carbon emissions from domestic heating
Both at low cost, and not-for-profit. 

It has developed innovative, thermal imaging equipment, software and internal home-survey techniques - using pressure reduction - that reveal precisely where domestic heat is lost. This enables, in turn, closely-targeted, cost-effective remedies. A third of energy loss can be through draughts alone, and these can be remedied for under £100. 

The project recruits Energy Tracers™ to conduct surveys in their own communities, offering comprehensive free training and paid work, supported by dedicated local volunteers to build trust. This is the fifth winter the project has operated, achieving over 330 Heatview™ surveys, one quarter of them delivered for free.

What action they have taken to contribute to the target of a carbon neutral Bristol by 2030?
Of all energy used in Britain, 23% is to heat homes. The largest homes waste the most energy, and these are targeted for paid surveys - to save carbon, and to be able to keep surveys free for those in need. (Robin Hood style.) 
The coloured temperature differences shown by the surveys are extremely effective in stimulating energy-saving retrofitting and behaviour change - seeing is believing. Two paid interns from the University of Bristol Q-step programme analysed outcomes.
By one month:
•    Two thirds of those surveyed had undertaken remedial action
•    Half said they had changed their behaviour to save energy.
After one year:
•    87% of those surveyed had taken remedial action
•    Half the free-survey householders had taken remedial action
•    The median DIY spend was £40.
•    Half the householders who paid for a survey had taken high cost >£250 remedial action that will substantially improve the energy efficiency of their homes.
 

Bristol Energy Network

How they have supported collective climate action in their community or citywide?
Bristol Energy Network (BEN) has been supporting its members over the last 10 years collectively taking climate action in a broad and diverse range of communities right across the city, from Hartcliffe to Lawrence Weston, from Bedminster to Lockleaze. Supporting groups and organisations at the early stages of development through to delivery and giving communities a voice to take action on Climate Change & End Fuel Poverty. By bringing communities together to share learning; disseminating knowledge through open meetings, workshops, newsletters and online. Supporting the network – establishing new groups; helping members access support; funding; mentoring; and project development such as:
 
• Bristol Green Doors 2010
• Bristol Energy Cooperative 2011
• Local Energy Assessment Fund 2012
• Bristol Community Strategy for Energy 2013
• Cold Homes Energy Efficiency Survey Experts 2014
• Ambition Lawrence Weston Solar Farm with Bristol Energy Cooperative 2015
• Supporting Communities access funding and develop projects via Bristol Community Energy Fund 2016 – present and now developing partnerships for future funding.

BEN is currently publishing a 2-part toolkit of how community and local govt can work effectively together on energy.

What action they have taken to contribute to the target of a carbon neutral Bristol by 2030?
BEN now hosts Energy Transition Conference annually to track energy/carbon saving pledges made by individual communities and organisation with the ambition of matchmaking pledges to solutions and promoting and tracking success stories. 

BEN coordinates a programme of award-winning Energy Champions in Ashley, Easton and Lawrence Hill. Ultimately the vision is for every neighbourhood in Bristol to have a local person to turn to for energy advice, a person who would champion energy saving in their community.

BEN working with its members plans to expand this across the city in the New Year with an energy champion co-design workshop to develop projects across the city. For example:

BEN with the C.H.E.E.S.E plan to build local capacity for thermal imaging, recommending measures and signposting. The CHEESE project aims to expand to train communities in Bristol to deliver thermal imaging surveys to help fuel poor households understand how to improve the efficiency of their homes and develop local skills. The scale of activity in this area will need to be significantly increased to achieve the aim of no cold homes by 2030 alongside decarbonisation of housing by 2030. 

Cold Homes Energy Efficiency Survey Experts (C.H.E.E.S.E.) aims to reduce domestic energy losses, at low cost: surveys start at just £100 and are free to people in poor housing conditions and in fuel poverty.  BEN has been involved since the start providing materials and funding, meetings spaces and advice.

The WHAM Project (Warm Homes and Money) provides support for low income families, unemployed, single parents and others who struggle to afford to heat their homes. BEN provides workshops and outreach activities and involves energy champions in supporting households.

BEN partners with CSE on Futureproof, which seeks to find supply chain installers of energy efficiency retrofit measures and homeowners who might want to retrofit but don't know where to start. Champions will be trained to take part in assessing homes and supporting householders.