Community Fund
The BWCE Fund provides grants to local community projects that aim to reduce carbon emissions and alleviate fuel poverty.
Where The Fund Comes From
The BWCE Fund is funded from surplus income from BWCE generating projects. It is set up as an independent Registered Charity (official name The Bath & West Low Carbon Community Fund, charity number 1156710) with its own trustees. The fund is administered by Quartet Community Foundation
The amount of funding available is approved by BWCE members at each year’s AGM and the fund opens for applications between September and November, with grants announced in January of the following year.
To be eligible for funding a project must:
- Be a community, self-help or voluntary group, a community enterprise or a charity.
- Aim to reduce carbon emissions and/or alleviate fuel poverty. Carbon reduction covers a wide range of projects – see examples below.
- Be located in the BWCE area of benefit (see area of benefit map) or the area close to BWCE’s Crewkerne solar array at TA18 7NX. Applications from projects in the vicinity of existing BWCE generating projects are particularly welcome (see our renewables map for details).
Solar Roof Spotting
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Apply to The BWCE Fund
The fund is now closed to applications and will open again in September 2023. You can download the 2022 guidelines but please be aware these might be amended for 2023.
Our Funded Projects
The BWCE Fund has supported a variety of initiatives, including local food & growing, energy efficiency in buildings, energy audits and advice, re-use and recycling, sustainable transport, environmental education and water conservation.
BWCE Fund supports the Funder Commitment on Climate Change
In May 2021, the BWCE Fund signed up to the Funder Commitment on Climate Change, committing to play…
BWCE Fund awards grants to 11 community projects
The BWCE) Fund is pleased to announce that £31,505 in grants have been awarded to 11 local…
BWCE Fund supports sustainable food for carers
The BWCE Fund has supported the Carers Centre to create a food garden to enable carers to learn to…
Further information on all of our BWCE Fund Projects
Projects Funded by Year
2023
£31,505 awarded to 11 projects. Plus £5,000 to South Dartmoor Community Energy to fund local projects.
2022
£31,706 awarded to 11 projects. Plus £5000 to South Dartmoor Community Energy to fund local projects.
2021
£33,300 awarded to 11 projects. Plus £3000 to South Dartmoor Community Energy to fund local projects.
BWCE Fund Trustees
The BWCE Fund is independently run by a group of volunteer trustees. The fund’s board of trustees is supported by the Quartet Foundation who provide administrative support to the process of grant making.
Pete Capener
Position: Trustee
Pete has worked in the sustainable energy field for over 35 years. He led the early growth of the Centre for Sustainable Energy in Bristol where he was Chief Executive. Since resigning from CSE in 2002 due to family illness, Pete worked as an independent advisor on a range of energy efficiency, renewable energy and fuel poverty projects with a strong focus on community action at both local and national level. He is Deputy Chair of Community Energy England, a non exec director of RenewEV and a trustee of Centre for Sustainable Energy.
Pete Capener
Trustee
David Daniels
Position: Trustee
David Daniels lives and works in Bath and is the managing director of the MannionDaniels Group working on international health, social development and fund management. This includes managing global challenges funds on behalf of the UK and other European governments and Foundations, providing grants to civil society organisations working to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
David has worked for more than 30 years on international development and humanitarian assistance in Africa and Asia and is a great believer in locally led solutions to community development. With colleagues from around the world he recently co-founded AmplifyChange a challenge fund for advocacy on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
David Daniels
Trustee
Leigh Fairbrother
Position: Trustee
Leigh has spent the past 8 years developing and delivering renewable energy projects with measurable environmental, social and economic benefits. Having worked with, or for energy suppliers, price comparison websites, charities, Local Authorities, and Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) he has been able to increase energy switching rates and reduce fuel poverty.
In 2013, after becoming aware of the inequalities in the domestic energy market, he co-founded Community Switch, a price comparison service specifically designed to increase consumer engagement with RSL tenants. His work has helped over 50,000 households reduce their domestic energy bills and save several million pounds. Leigh has worked on projects for DECC and the NEA and is a mentor with ‘The Future Leaders – Utilities Mentoring network’, a volunteer for Raleigh International and is passionate about the transition to a smarter, greener, more sustainable energy future.
Leigh Fairbrother
Trustee
Simon Forsyth
Position: Secretary
Simon stumbled into environmental management in 1989 by offering to look after a paper- recycling bin. After that, things rather ran away with themselves. He helped set up Green Teams at Hewlett Packard in Bristol, ran them for five years, then became HP Ltd’s full-time environmental specialist. He left in 2000 to run a small consultancy, went on to run the Econet in-work training project, helped deliver the southwest-wide Envision programme, established a number of small business Resource Efficiency Clubs, trained a lot of Trading Estates, and now focuses on business linkages between cost-intensity, carbon-intensity, and profitability. To condense all this into something usable, he produces simplifying software, the dataCollator
Simon Forsyth
Secretary
Sheila Gundry
Position: Trustee
Sheila has been living in Bath and working for South West environmental organisations for 20 years. As one of the management team at Bath Environment Centre / Envolve, she worked on strategic & financial planning, and schools & youth work programmes. Subsequently, at the ethical consultancy Resource Futures, she managed a range of environmental education contracts, including the schools’ energy efficiency contract for B&NES Council and for Devon County Council.
She is a Fellow of the National Association for Environmental Education, a Director of the South West Learning for Sustainability Coalition and a core group member for Bath Orchardshare. Sheila has been a committed member of BWCE since its early days.
Sheila Gundry
Trustee
Sophie Hooper Lea
Position: Chair
Sophie Hooper Lea has worked for over twenty years as an independent consultant, adviser and writer on corporate responsibility and sustainability issues. Current work includes being Consultant Publishing Editor to the Institute of Business Ethics (IBE).
Recent experience includes strategic consultancy, advisory and sustainability reporting work for housebuilder Taylor Wimpey plc. This included working at senior management and Board level for over 10 years on strategy and policy development and implementation as well as sustainability reporting and benchmarking. Key areas of focus are strategy and policy development, project management, research, reporting and business writing.
Sophie Hooper Lea
Chair
Alastair Singleton
Position: Trustee
Alastair grew up in rural Scotland and has been passionate about the environment for as long as he can remember. He has a driving interest in renewable energy, and is a member of a several renewable energy cooperatives, including BWCE and Keynsham Community Energy.
In his early career he worked as a diplomat in the Middle East, and there followed a business career in consultancy, recruiting at senior level and building management boards for commercial and non-profit organisations. His trustee experience includes Keep Britain Tidy, VSO and CleanupUK, and he has been active in a number of local social and environmental groups. He served as a Magistrate in Bath for fifteen years.
Alastair is a former Member Advocate for Renewable Energy at B&NES Council.
Alastair Singleton
Trustee