Greener Kirkcaldy Project
Greener Kirkcaldy is a highly effective community group undertaking practical projects in Kirkcaldy, in the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland. Their four aims are to promote environmental sustainability; to reduce fuel poverty; to build social capital and to increase awareness of environmental issues.
Project Aims
This project aims to help people make cash savings on energy bills, to allow people to be comfortable in their own homes and to help people not fall into fuel poverty. It also aims to draw out people who, through pride, might not admit to fuel poverty.
The project could potentially help up to 2,600 households save up to £569,370 over the lifetime of the project and up to 2879 tonnes of CO2 emissions over the same period.
It will leave a legacy of long-term financial and carbon savings, plus increased awareness in Kirkcaldy of fuel poverty and solutions to it. The project will work with groups such as carers, low-income families, pensioners and families with children, and will also hold open drop-in surgeries for anyone who wants to reduce their energy use or is in, or at risk of, fuel poverty.
Feedback on the project
Between April 2010 and March 2011, Greener Kirkcaldy ran an Environmental Advice Centre, saving the community £147,509 in energy costs in one year. The project engaged with 2,300 local people and saved 733 tonnes of carbon (note: all figures are annual savings, but the savings will continue in future years). Greener Kirkcaldy has raised the profile of climate change and energy saving in the town and surrounding area. The centre’s High Street location is key to reaching a wide cross-section of local people. They are seen as friendly and welcoming, and as a trustworthy source of reliable, useful information. Participants have given the centre great feedback:
- “...we were given lots of useful advice and have now had cavity wall insulation put in and that's making such a big difference to the warmth of our home.”
- “I'd never really done anything environmental before, but am now completely converted! I'm spreading the word to everyone I know.”
- “I can now work my heating controls, and the house is warmer.”
- “I loved the energy monitor. And we got a new heating system and cavity wall insulation through the Energy Assistance Package.”
The Ebico Trust is funding the project for 1 year. The Trustees recently visited the project and a blog on the visit can be read here.
See the first quarterly report here.
See the second quarterly report here.
