Nøtterøy starts Norway's first 'Going Carbon Neutral' project - with our support

Last Tuesday (27 October) Prof. Roy Alexander, Kate Harrison and Garry Charnock went from Ashton Hayes to Nøtterøy in Norway to launch the country's first community 'going carbon neutral' project. The launch was planned using the Ashton Hayes toolkit and involved all aspects of the island community which is home to 20,000 people. Janet Gullvåg has been the inspiration behind the project with cross party support from the Mayor Roar Jonstang, the Town Council and Climate Group and local businesses (Jonathan Hall coordinator) and several schools. The British Ambassador also expressed his support for the initiative as it supports Norway's ideals of becoming a carbon neutral country by 2050.

The three day visit involved a series of presentations from the Ashton Hayes delegates, newspaper, radio and TV interviews. All expenses for the visit were kindly covered by the Town Council.

Ashton Hayes will be helping Nøtterøy to make a film about its journey and the Parish Council has twinned with the Nøtterøy Council on a carbon neutral basis.

Thanks to everyone in Nøtterøy for their fantastic hospitality.
 

Parish Council votes to apply for Low Carbon Communities Challenge funds

At last night’s Parish Council meeting we had a unanimous vote in favour of registering our interest in applying for capital funding as a ‘first mover’ community under the recently announced Low Carbon Communities Challenge 2010-2012. The Ashton Hayes Going Carbon Neutral Project team, an official sub group of the Parish Council, will lead the application in due course.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), is offering a total of £10m to 20 'beacon communities' that are in the forefront when it comes to fighting climate change. Each community will have the opportunity to obtain £500k towards captial expenditure on items such as renewable energy, retrofitting houses and electric car charging points. Full details on the fund can be found on DECC's website.

Microgrid feasibility report published

Could our village and others like us produce community renewable energy? The report asks the questions. See 'Technical Stuff' section on Microgrid to download the full 6MB file.

Chester Chronicle features Ashton Hayes

COMMUNITY LEADERS of a pioneering energy initiative are ready to make rural village life a lot greener, writes Ben Coulbeck.

Project leaders of Ashton Hayes Going Carbon Neutral have finished a 12-month study and are considering creating a renewable energy system for the village’s school, neighbouring houses and buildings.

More...

View the 2009 survey results

Go to the 'Technical Stuff' section to find the results and analysis of our 4-year journey. We seem to have reduced our footprint by 23%. Well done everyone.