Comrie Carbon Challenge

News UK November 2008

 * Perthshire town of Comrie launches community-led project to reduce its carbon footprint, November 11 topic

Remit of the Comrie Carbon Challenge

 * Sustainable development of Cultybraggan Army Camp - 90 acres of land brought into community ownership in Sept 07 for:
 * Ecological building construction methods
 * Information events for local tradesmen and architects in eco construction
 * Renewable energy sources for the site and village
 * Local food production including allotments
 * Food production programmes for local school children
 * Homes and workspaces for local people and enterprises
 * Biodiversity areas and woodland planting
 * Footpath and cycle ways to the site
 * Holding learning events in the village on all aspects of sustainable development


 * Wider village projects including:
 * A street-by-street energy reduction/insulation project
 * A village transport plan
 * Work with the school, local businesses and local organisations
 * Focus on personal responsibility (travel, energy use, shopping habits)
 * Energy audits and renewable energy sources in homes and community buildings.
 * Renewable energy schemes for our community buildings
 * Community composting, wormeries and recycling


 * Promoting Best Practice
 * Press launch of Comrie Carbon Challenge
 * National conference for rural communities on carbon challenge
 * Networking, advice and best practice for other Perthshire communities (including Alyth)
 * Publication of regular advice notes, toolkits as the Comrie work develops to be circulated nationally


 * Measuring progress
 * Benchmarking our carbon footprint
 * Agreeing indicators for measuring our progress
 * Establishing our monitoring and evaluation system.

Funding and expected savings
The Comrie Development Trust has received almost £300,000 from the Climate Challenge Fund, supported by the Scottish Government along with the Scottish Green Party.

Based on current estimates from the Energy Savings Trust the average household can expect to save £340 and reduce CO2 emissions by 1.5 tonnes a year by becoming more energy efficient. For Comrie, this amounts to potential savings of around £300,000 and 1350 tonnes of CO2.

Quotes

 * "This project is a crucial part of our plans for Comrie Carbon Challenge. Not only will it reduce the village energy consumption, but it will cut people's fuel bills and provide additional employment for local contractors to carry out the as much of the energy savings works as possible. What more could you ask of a project!" Cathy Tilbrook, chair of Comrie Development Trust.


 * "Where Comrie leads, we believe the rest of Scotland will follow. Properly insulating our homes is the best way to tackle fuel poverty, improve health, and beat climate change all at the same time. In particular, this kind of comprehensive programme brings real benefits for the community, is far more cost efficient, and has a much better chance of delivering savings than narrowly targeted alternatives. We're also delighted to see Scottish and Southern Energy playing such a constructive role in this project. They realise that energy companies will have to help deal with the three key problems of climate change, fuel poverty and our dependence on fossil fuels, and I am confident they will play their part." Patrick Harvie MSP of the Scottish Green Party.