National awards ceremony recognises ELREC’s efforts to tackle climate change
Community-led organisations from across Scotland gathered in Edinburgh on Wednesday to celebrate the first ever Climate Challenge Fund Awards, organised by environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful on behalf of the Scottish Government. The ceremony, which took place at Dynamic Earth, recognised the work undertaken by groups supported by the Fund that have taken local action to tackle climate change – including the efforts of Edinburgh & Lothians Regional Equality Council’s (ELREC’s) Communities for Conservation project.
The Communities for Conservation project received the Energy Category Award for engaging diverse ethnic minority communities in Edinburgh to help improve home energy efficiency, reducing carbon emissions, fuel bills and fuel poverty.
The project undertook a number of home energy efficiency advice visits and managed to reach out to a wide audience through workshops and running a drop-in centre. Communities for Conservation made a real difference to the lives of community members and the Awards Panel noted the project had collected good evidence to demonstrate this. This project used an approach that allowed them to engage with hard to reach groups and diverse communities, breaking down cultural and linguistic barriers. The project ran an impressive number of events to raise awareness on climate change, keeping a sense of community and fun at the heart of everything they did.
ELREC runs multiple projects to promote equality of opportunity for all, fight discrimination, promote a culture of human rights, foster good relations and encourage sustainability in the communities.
Communities for Conservation Project Co-ordinator Jean-Matthieu Gaunand said: “We are honoured to win this award as the other nominees have impressed me enormously with their work. We hope to set a benchmark going forward for future nominees to exceed in order to win this award and contribute to shaping a more sustainable Scotland.
“A great benefit of these awards is that they bring publicity to community initiatives occurring throughout Scotland and so will enlighten and inform more people about ways they can participate in many projects that exist throughout the country. We are inspired by the recognition from the Climate Challenge Fund to continue improving our delivery and helping communities of Edinburgh and Lothians to reduce energy consumption through behavioural changes. I would like to extend my gratitude to the Scottish Government Climate Challenge Fund for awarding our project“.
ELREC Chair, Foysol Choudhury MBE, added: “I am very proud of the work of Jean-Matthieu and all involved with the Communities for Conservation project. We believe a culturally diverse workplace brings with it many advantages and I am confident that this in part contributed to the success of our project. At ELREC we aim to have the highest standards and provide individuals with the tools and the freedom required to be successful and I see the Climate Challenge Fund award as ample recognition of the good practices within the organisation that we endeavour to build upon in the future.”
The Climate Challenge Fund is a Scottish Government grants programme, managed and administered by Keep Scotland Beautiful, which provides funding and support for community groups to tackle climate change through community-led projects that reduce carbon emissions.
The hugely successful Climate Challenge Fund (CCF) has awarded grants totalling £85.8 million to 986 projects in 622 communities since its introduction in 2008, with projects involving energy efficiency, sustainable travel, local food and resource efficiency. The first ever CCF Awards ceremony recognised the work of funded projects which ran from April 2016 – March 2017.
Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said: “It was great to see these inspirational projects getting the recognition they deserve, and I’d like to extend a big congratulations to all of those nominated.
“They are amongst the best of more than 100 local projects which benefitted from £9.5 million of Scottish Government grants through the Climate Challenge Fund last year. That is money very well spent, as these projects have made a real difference to their local communities, and helped to drive change on a national level – to help combat a problem that affects all of us.”
Elizabeth Leighton, Chair of the CCF Awards Panel added: ““On behalf of the CCF Awards Panel I would like to commend all the projects that entered the awards and congratulate the award winners.The level of nominations for the Awards was of a high standard across the board and I thank the members of the CCF Awards Panel who worked together to select the award winning projects.”
The awards were presented by Dr Lindsay Montgomery CBE, Chairman of Keep Scotland Beautiful and Dave Coleman, Managing Director of the Carbon Literacy Project.
Dr Lindsay Montgomery commented: “The Climate Challenge Fund helps support communities from across the country to take much-needed local action to tackle climate change by making their climate change project ambitions a reality.
“Keep Scotland Beautiful is delighted to celebrate the commitment of all award nominees and present Communities for Conservation and The Edinburgh Creative Reuse Hub with the Energy and Waste Category Awards. I would like to commend them on their efforts.”
Dave Coleman added: “It was fantastic to meet so many community-led projects that have taken positive local action to tackle climate change: I congratulate all the award entrants and winners.
“We have worked closely with Keep Scotland Beautiful which has developed a two-day Carbon Literacy for Communities course for representatives of community-led organisations across Scotland, particularly those running Climate Challenge Fund projects. I was delighted to hear that a number of the award nominees have directly applied this training to help increase understanding of climate change in their communities and successfully identify ways to tackle it.”
Awards were presented for five categories; energy, travel, food and waste, plus a CCF Awards Panel Choice.
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