The BWCE Fund has awarded £31,706 in funding to 11 projects to help them reduce carbon emissions and tackle fuel poverty

This makes it 80 grants worth over £238,000 that the  BWCE Fund grant programme, administered by Quartet Community Foundation, has awarded since 2015 . Those grants have all gone to local organisations doing vital work to benefit our local communities as well as the environment. In this decisive decade for climate action, Sophie Hooper Lea, Chair of the BWCE Fund said the trustees were “delighted to support these 11 fantastic organisations in reducing their own carbon emissions and helping local people to live in a more environmentally friendly way”.

Last year Quartet Community Foundation published the Vital Signs report that focused on the impact of climate change on local communities and the actions needed to reduce consumption and carbon emissions.  Quartet CEO Suzanne Rolt said “against a backdrop of Covid, we’ve seen that as the demand for services provided by local charities has peaked, these same charities have had less capacity to address the climate emergency. It’s through the additional and focused support of the BWCE Fund that they can continue to work towards the achievement of a fairer, greener society in and around Bath.

Here are the successful projects with comments from a couple of them below

£1,800 to First Steps (Bath) for work toward the replacement of a boiler heating system with a sustainable alternative.

£1,725 to FACE – Families Acting on Climate Emergency – toward building the FACE community in schools and other settings across the B&NES area, and researching needs, opportunities, barriers and triggers for climate action amongst local families.

£4,000 to Carers Centre B&NES (Care Network) to create a food garden for carers to learn to grow food and to provide food for carers to increase sustainability and food security.

£1,500 to Zero Carbon Compton for Energy Efficiency surveys for households in Compton Dando, including social housing tenants.

£1,801 to Bath Share & Repair toward the Carbon Footprint Project which will help younger children to understand how they can repair, reduce and reuse to reduce carbon emissions.

£1,000 to Percy Community Centre for additional insulation to enclose the parts of the community centre’s boiler room infrastructure that are currently uninsulated.

£5,000 to Bath City Farm towards an air source heat pump and ventilation system for the new purpose-built community hub and cafe.

£4,000 to Middle Ground Growers CIC toward the cost of building a solar-powered barn to power the group’s farm – charging tools, delivery bikes and cold storage for crops.

£5,000 to Freshford Village Memorial Hall to replace the hall’s old oil-fired boiler, oil tank and controls with a highly thermally efficient air conditioning system.

£4,000 to Trowbridge Environmental Community Group toward the cost of delivering four repair-and-reuse cafe community events during 2022, to encourage members of the public to become more engaged with their lifestyle choices and learn how they can live more sustainably.

£1,880 to Corston Community Orchard & Garden to establish a rainwater harvesting, storage and distribution system to ensure there is a sustainable and sufficient water supply so that the newly planted trees and hedging can thrive.

“We know that changing behaviour should start as young as possible, and this grant will allow us to present ideas and concepts to primary school children about how to reduce their impact on the environment in a sustainable way. We are incredibly grateful to the BWCE Fund for helping us to test the water in this area and define the best way to make a difference to our community. Thank you!”

Lorna Montgomery

Bath Share & Repair

“Bath City Farm is due to open its new purpose-built cafe in April 2022. The grant from the BWCE Fund will enable us to install an air source heat pump to supply the building with low-carbon energy, helping us reduce our impact on the environment. Thanks from everyone at the farm!”

Brendan Tate Wistreich

Director Bath City Farm