Climate Challenge Fund Awards, Round 3
Environment Secretary Richard Lochhead announced on January 15, 2009 the award of a total of £4,376,541 to 24 projects in the third round of grants from the Scottish Government's Climate Challenge Fund, to help Scotland play a leading role in the international fight against climate change.
The projects offered grant are:
Community Power Down - to recruit community project officers to assist 27 mainly remote and rural communities develop proposals to reduce their CO2 emissions. Examples of such projects include energy audits of local houses and buildings, local food allotments and markets, and investigating sustainable transport options - £1,494,579
Strathpeffer Community Council - Strathpeffer to Dingwall All Abilities Community Link, to assess the potential for an off-road track to provide a carbon-free, safe travel option for commuters and local residents and link into the national cycle network, between Strathpeffer and Dingwall - £12,000
Greener Leith - Active Leith project to make a sustained cut in the transport-related carbon emissions of 53,000 Leith residents by an average of 15 per cent per person, with trained volunteer mentors, recycled bicycles, personalised travel packs, innovative marketing and regular community involvement events to help make the shift to a low carbon, healthier lifestyle - £282,935
North Edinburgh Trust - Community Climate Change Initiative (3Ci), North Edinburgh, adopting an anti-poverty approach in an area with high levels of deprivation, an initiative to support people to take collective action to reduce carbon footprint, with awareness raising, thematic action groups and a community action plan - £245,104
Linlithgow Climate Challenge - Sustainable Solutions for Linlithgow, to secure a full-time project co-ordinator to promote sustainable lifestyles and taking positive ecological action. Seven projects will focus on saving energy, researching options for renewable energy, engaging community and business groups, and developing local food, waste, recycling and transport strategies - £93,845
Fife Diet - to build a mass network of people sourcing their food locally, working closely with local farmers, aiming to shorten the supply chain, reduce food miles, innovate around distribution and re-localise production, and exploring sites for collective growing as well as co-operative purchasing on a larger scale - £144,060
Moffat CAN (Carbon Approaching Neutral) - public engagement, education and enablement, with a public information drop-in point with displays on carbon reduction, towards a first year modal shift from car to public transport, walking and cycling - £98,415
PIPER, Edinburgh - funding for this environmental group established by Currie Community High School Parent Council for a full-time consultant and office space for two years to raise awareness of the impact of climate change and provide educational resources and practical solutions to cut climate change emissions in schools, homes and the wider communities of Currie, Balerno and Juniper Green, in the catchment area of Currie High School - £98,874
Tarbert (Loch Fyne) and Skipness Community Trust - Big Green Tarbert, to reduce community carbon footprint across 17 different activities, with encouragement, help and advice, and partnership with Argyll Community Housing Association to tackle fuel poverty, and working towards installing a community-owned wind turbine - £128,605
Ailsa Horizons Ltd - Girvan Community Windfarm, to carry out a feasibility study for a £4.5 million windfarm in the vicinity of a local industrial estate, to be part-owned by the local community, arising from a strong community interest in renewable energy that has grown as a result of windfarm developments in the area and from a planning application by the community for a town-centre turbine, which received outline approval in 2007 - £55,000
Sustaining Dunbar - Zero Carbon Dunbar, two years of intensive community engagement to produce a vision of what Dunbar could look like as a zero carbon, locally resilient community, using this to plan the action needed to get there, and employing a team of energy surveyors to survey 1000 homes per year, with personalised home energy reports and follow-up support to enable householders to cut drastically their home energy usage - £271,530
Fyne Homes - Towards Zero Carbon Bute, development of a programme of carbon reduction measures across the island - £213,000
Sustainable Communities Initiatives - Climate Change and Our Lives, in Kinghorn and Burntisland, Fife, workshops, practical training and local promotional events, culminating in community Action Plans for carbon reductions - £140,876
Ecology Centre - Planning for a Sustainable Future for Kirkcaldy and Kinghorn, a community project, in partnership with other local organisations, to work with Kinghorn residents to reduce the carbon emissions of the burgh and, in creating a new environmentally sound base for the Ecology Centre, using the opportunity to inspire individuals and groups to look at how they can contribute to reducing their impact on the planet - £186,175
Lochaber Environmental Group - Household Renewable Energy Network, a Lochaber Micro Generation Project to pool local experience and establish a network to provide support for those who want to minimise their dependence on fossil fuels and generate energy at a household level - the aim is to benefit from local expertise and offer people unbiased practical experiences of their neighbours to supplement official information available - £100,985
Energy Action Westray, Orkney - Biofuels and Fuel Poverty: to gather and provide further information on the community's attitude towards the issue of climate change by hosting an event on the topic early in the New Year, and developing a detailed action plan - £8,225
West Carse Public Hall, Perth and Kinross - Public Hall Insulation Project, for the hall which has been at the hub of the community for over a century, an air source heat pump and associated wet central heating system, a full insulation programme to the walls, ceiling and floor, and adding the most energy efficient lighting available, so that the hall will be not only ecologically friendly but also user friendly - £31,939
Islay Energy Trust - Islay Community Carbon Saving Project, funding for a full-time development officer, to raise awareness within the local community of the importance of carbon savings, implementing energy conservation and use of renewable energy technologies, with the target of generating carbon savings of 600 tonnes over two years - £117,000
Lamancha and District Community Association, Scottish Borders - Wood and Wool, working with the neighbouring villages of Carlops and Howgate to cut carbon emissions by helping people insulate their homes using sheep's wool insulation and by installing or improving wood-burning equipment to reduce use of heating oil. The project will also build local capacity by creating a 'green' apprenticeship - £135,350
Falkland Heritage Trust (Falkland Centre for Stewardship) - Climate Champions at the Big Tent Festival, Fife, promoting the reduction of carbon emissions through the Big Tent Festival, Scotland's top Eco Festival, and one of the country's leading family-friendly events, this will host a Climate Champions Zone, develop the local food village, provide a debate programme and introduce sustainable and low carbon ways of travelling to the festival, measuring carbon emissions and seeking a year-on-year reduction with dissemination of findings - £50,000
Fallin Community Enterprises - Recyke-a-Bike Sustainable Transport, Stirling, in the Forth Valley area to increase the numbers of reused bicycles for sale and encourage people to travel to work using reused bicycles, and offer bicycles for community use throughout Forth Valley, offering employment and training - £182,350
Pitreavie Amateur Athletics Club, Fife - Pitreavie Carbon Reduction Project, energy audit and development of appropriate plans for emissions reduction, aiming to set records in energy efficiency by getting members on board with plans to reduce individual car use dramatically and prevent waste at its Dunfermline clubhouse - £4,200
Blairgowrie and Rattray Regeneration Company, Perth and Kinross - River Ericht Hydro Scheme, for a full feasibility study by the company - established to regenerate the local economy in the twin towns of Blairgowrie and Rattray - of a tourist attraction incorporating a hydro-electricity generation scheme to lower the carbon foot print, with income which would be used to fund community projects and create local employment opportunities, with the aim of applying for planning permission in the spring of 2009 - £138,494
Tayside Foundation for the Conservation of Resources, Dundee - Carbon Reduction Action and Information Centre (CRAIC), engaging with the local community to tackle the over-consumption of material goods and food in Dundee, moving towards zero waste and beginning the transition to a post-oil world, and working in a "fun" way to encourage local food growing and community gardening, and with the local authority to recycle commercial and domestic food waste - £143,000