The BWCE Fund

The BWCE Fund is funded from surplus income from BWCE renewable energy generating projects to provide grants to local community projects that aim to reduce carbon emissions and alleviate fuel poverty. 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

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu

Read More

Apply to The BWCE Fund

The BWCE Fund is now open with a deadline of 31st October 2024 for applications. You can find out more by clicking on the button below which takes you to the BWCE Fund page on the Quartet Community Foundation website.

If you are considering applying please make sure you read the guidelines which you can find on the Quartet page.

If you wish to discuss your application before you apply there are contact details listed in the guidelines. Please mention that you are enquiring about the BWCE Fund.

Find out more

Previously funded projects

The BWCE Fund has supported a variety of projects since 2015, including initiatives around fuel poverty, food & growing, biodiversity, energy efficiency in community buildings, re-use and recycling, low carbon transport, energy audits and advice, environmental education and water conservation.

BWCE Fund news

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.

Alex Jones

Position: Trustee

Alex has a decade of operations experience, and has managed complex projects for charitable and commercial organisations. Her background is in education, and she has worked in partnership with universities, embassies and cultural organisations to deliver academic courses in Latin America which explore the social impact of the conflict in Colombia and the recent peace process there. As well as a first class history degree from University of Bristol, Alex has also trained in data law, policy and regulation at LSE.

She currently serves as Non-Executive Director at One Housing Group, a G15 Housing Association with a strong social purpose and over 35,000 residents, and as a Trustee at Children Change Colombia, a charity that defends the rights of children through community-led programmes.

Alex Jones

Trustee

 

Jane Wildblood

Position: Chair

Jane has over 35 years’ experience in the environmental sustainability, climate and energy arena.  After 17 years leading environmental campaigns at national and international level with Greenpeace, including the first campaign to promote solar power in the UK, she switched to local government, setting up the environmental sustainability functions first at Islington Council in London and then, from 2005, at Bath & North East Somerset Council, from which she has recently retired.

She led the Council’s strategic work, including running the area-wide Environmental Sustainability Partnership, developing the first Climate Change Strategy, the Community Energy Strategy and the response to the Climate Emergency, whilst facilitating action by the community, for the community.  She enabled Bath & West Community Energy to get off the ground and is a passionate advocate for a truly sustainable local energy system, with community energy at its heart.

She is also a Trustee of the West of England Rural Network.

Jane Wildblood

Chair

 

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: Trustee

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

Trustee

 

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