Carbon Action Plans
Working with community groups in Swansea, to develop a road map to reduce their carbon footprint.
We need a plan to avoid catastrophic climate change.
All over the world governments, businesses, organisations and individuals are making plans to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to zero. These plans range from ambitious structural changes to our energy and transport systems, through to ethical consumer and behaviour changes by individuals, businesses and organisations.
At the Environment Centre, we work with community groups in Swansea to help them develop a road map, to reduce their emissions as low as they are able to go.
What are carbon action plans?
We have been researching different community carbon reduction projects that have taken place in the UK since 2005, and one thing they all have in common is some kind of carbon action planning.
In Stirling, Scotland, in 2008, a flagship Scottish government initiative took place to reduce the carbon footprint of the entire city by changing the way people behave. One of the methods central to this process was what the project team called ‘Carbon Cutter Plans’. The project team would work with community groups by focusing each month on a specific issue in a group session, where they would discuss trying out different approaches to doing things they normally do. For example, choosing the bus instead of the car, having a vegetarian meal one night a week, changing electricity supplier, and so on. Each month the groups would trial different actions, with regular reviews to monitor how each action has progressed. Over the course of 6 months, by embedding one low carbon action a month into their routine, the groups were able to reduce their carbon footprint.
On the other hand, since 2016 the Bournemouth Transition Town group trialled a less resource-intensive approach to carbon action plans. They brainstormed all the potential actions people could take to reduce their footprint and worked out the amount of carbon that would be saved if people took that action. In this way, they developed a list of actions that people could choose, along with the associated carbon saving, that was placed on their website. They also developed an online counter so that every time someone came to their site and made a pledge to undertake one of their prescribed actions, the amount of carbon saved would be added to the counter. The Count On Me initiative was a great way to motivate lots of people to take action to reduce their footprint, and for everyone to see the cumulative effect of what they were doing.
Perhaps the most intensive carbon action planning of any community project took place in Ashton Hayes from 2005 until 2010. In this influential project, known as Going Carbon Neutral Ashton Hayes, a group of committed residents got together and launched an initiative to get the whole village to commit to going carbon neutral. One of their focuses was to go door to door asking residents to complete a survey. On the basis of the survey the residents received a carbon footprint of their home, along with advice on how they can reduce it. With the information gathered from all the surveys, the project team were able to design a series of events throughout the year geared at providing the residents with the information and support they needed to act on advice they were given.
What carbon action plans will be taking place in Swansea?
For the next 5 years of The BIG Climate Leap we aim to combine all three of these practices into one, so that individuals and groups can choose their level of commitment. We are in the process of developing our own framework, and are already starting to connect with groups who expressed an interest following our BIG Climate Leap project launch in July 2023.
We will also be looking for ideas and suggestion from groups for other ways of working, and fully expect that our approach over the next 5 years will evolve in response to the feedback we get from all those involved.
As far as we are aware, this is the first time this approach has been trialled in the UK, and so we are very excited about its potential. We hope you are too, and that you choose to add your groups energy and enthusiasm to this project and help us gather real momentum to push the project and the vision of a sustainable Swansea forward by a giant leap.
