The Scottish Government offered Solar Cities Scotland a Sustainable Action Grant of £36,971 in 2006-07, £26,015 in 2007-08 and £39,706 in 2008-09 for the Dundee Sun City project, a participative awareness-raising campaign to engender culture change and collective responsibility towards energy efficiency and renewable energy, enabling Dundee to become Scotland's first Solar City - developing a strategic approach to maximise use of renewable energy technologies, in conjunction with improved building thermal performance and carbon emissions reductions from the built environment.
The aim was to work with the public to find ways in which they could reduce building energy use, in an approach which could be adapted and promoted to other communities throughout Scotland. There was funding also from Dundee City Council and energy efficiency agency SCARF. The campaign was publicly launched in April 2007.
The project began to establish a carbon baseline for the city of Dundee, undertaking a comprehensive carbon footprint audit of individual households, public and voluntary organisations and businesses, using an on-line and community-based carbon calculator tool. 800 household carbon footprints were gathered by 2008 indicating an annual total of CO2 emissions of 31,330.75 tonnes.
The website with the carbon calculator tool went live in June 2007 coinciding with publicity activities. Supplementing the online library of renewable and sustainable technologies, a Technologies Library at the Sun City House provided information which visitors could browse and take away relevant to their needs.
Sun City House
Solar Cities Scotland in partnership with Dundee City Council and SCARF developed a demonstration house in the Whitfield area of Dundee, which became the hub for the Dundee Sun City campaign. Funding for the house came from Dundee City Council, SUST (the Sustainable Architecture project), the Improvement Service and the UK Government's DTI through the University of Strathclyde, and there were also donations of goods and services from the private sector.
Unlike most "eco-house" type demonstration projects, it was not new build, but a major refurbishment and remodelling of a poorly-constructed and thermally inefficient janitor's house built in the 1960s. The major challenge lies in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from existing housing stock, and the house offers ideas to everyone, on every income, to help them reduce their home's impact on the environment.
After opening in November 2008 the house attracted visitors from many sectors including local community councils, Dundee City Council departments, private housing developers, university and college students. As a result of their visit the Whitfield Parish Church group sought to increase the energy efficiency of their properties and install renewable technologies for heating.
The Tayside office of the Energy Saving Scotland advice centre North East, managed by SCARF, is based at the Sun City House, and energy advisers are able to offer advice on adopting some of the measures demonstrated in the building.
Other project activity
As part of the Sun City Launch in April 2007 Dundee Sun City held an energy debate, with representatives from political parties and interactive audience voting. Almost 200 people from Dundee and surrounding areas attended. Dundee Sun City sponsored the weather slot on Radio Tay between June and August 2007, with a 15-second advert encouraging listeners to calculate their carbon footprint.
There was attendance at - or organisation of - local community events. There were presentations to a range of audiences - from the Dundee Civic Trust to sustainable housing students at Dundee College. The Dundee Sun City logo and colourful leaflets, brochures and postcards were featured in many local public areas including libraries, council office receptions and leisure facilities throughout the city. Dundee Sun City jute shopping bags were produced in 2007 to help people reduce their requirement for plastic shopping bags.
Solar Cities Scotland, SCARF and the Energy Saving Trust organised and paid for a doors open "free entry" day at the Sensation Science Centre in Dundee to promote the Sun City campaign. The estimated attendance on the day was 800. Two very positive press articles were generated as a result.
Although not a formal element of the campaign, the annual Solar Cities Scotland conference brought together Dundee's voluntary, public and private sectors as well as people from elsewhere. For the 2007 conference Dundee Sun City put in place a "no excuses" transport structure for the conference to encourage delegates to travel sustainably to it, and only 26 parking permits were requested and issued.
The two-day 2008 conference had the title, "Becoming a low carbon community," with, on the second day, visits to renewable energy installations across Dundee, including the Michelin wind turbines and the St John's High School's solar array. The 2009 conference had a conference day and a community energy festival on the second day.
Conclusions
There was anecdotal evidence that citizens became more aware of the campaign, but little empirical evidence that it was as successful as envisaged at the outset. Though attendance at community events and giving talks and presentations, promoting the carbon footprint calculator tool, were useful activities, it became increasingly apparent that they had little real impact on behaviour change on a scale necessary substantially to reduce carbon emissions.
The Dundee Sun City House was a successful resource because it presented something tangible to the public, but the delay in opening had an impact on the extent to which Solar Cities Scotland could use it to increase the effect of the Dundee Sun City Campaign.
The Sustainable Action Grant enabled Solar Cities Scotland to lay strong foundations for genuine community engagement in reducing carbon emissions from the built environment, and increasing familiarity with the Dundee Sun City brand making future activities easier to promote.
The project enabled the board of Solar Cities Scotland to identify tangible initiatives with a more direct impact in reducing carbon emissions through community and individual action. This formed the basis for a successful Climate Challenge Fund bid to develop the work of the Dundee Sun City initiative further through a project with two elements: Sustainable Energy Promotion Scheme and Community Carbon Exchange.
Further information: solarcitiesscotland@googlemail.com
www.dundeesuncity.org.uk