Welcome to our new community groups
We are delighted to announce the addition of four new community groups bringing our total community membership to 36!
At the Low Carbon Hub, we work with community groups across Oxfordshire which have a focus on low carbon and sustainability actions. Many of these groups join the Low Carbon Hub and become CIC (Community Interest Company) community shareholders, giving them access to advice, support, and grant funding.
Over the past few months, we have been excited to welcome four low carbon community groups as Low Carbon Hub CIC community shareholders.
Chinnor and Thame Friends of the Earth
Chinnor and Thame Friends of the Earth are a long established group that formed in 1989. They campaign for change in the community to make a positive difference to the environment at a local, national, and global level.
They worked with Chinnor Parish Council to develop an Environmental Policy in response to the climate emergency and produced an infographic to explain the policy to the village.
They partner with several other local community groups and have worked with Greening Chinnor on supporting the Chinnor Community Orchard. They are part of the Solar Streets initiative with Thame Green Living and helped to run a plastics reduction campaign with Plastic Free Chinnor.
Cholsey Environment Champions
Cholsey Parish Council declared a Climate and Environment Emergency and have employed an Environmental Coordinator to oversee the activities and events taking place in Cholsey to reduce carbon emissions in the area.
Cholsey Environment Champions (CHEC) formed with the purpose of
working towards significantly reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and promoting the protection and restoration of the natural world to prevent widespread biodiversity and species loss.
Five main activity groups have been activated, including:
- Food and Growing
- Transport
- Wildlife
- Carbon Footprint education
- Community Renewable Energy
Greener Great Coxwell
Greener Great Coxwell is a newly formed low carbon community group in the beautiful village of Great Coxwell. They have plans to create a solar energy project and are investigating a collective heating system for the village from renewable energy sources.
They would like to generate renewable electricity for the parish from solar pv. They would also like to supply houses in the village with heating that comes from a renewable source such as a ground source heat pump. They are investigating whether its possible for the solar energy generated to power the heat pump so that the village receives the benefit of the power they generate. Both projects together should significantly reduce the local carbon footprint and reduce dependency on fossil fuels.
Thame Green Living
Thame Green Living is one of the Low Carbon Hub’s most recent groups but they have lost no time in carrying out impressive town-wide actions on climate change identified in their extensive and strikingly designed Green Living Plan. The plan outlines actions and projects that involve the whole community, from individuals and families to schools and businesses and includes suggestions for longer-term infrastructure changes.
The Green Living Plan is a ten-year plan for a cleaner, greener Thame that was unanimously adopted by the Town Council in July 2020.
The plan has over 180 recommended actions that can be taken from 5 broad categories:
- Green spaces and bio-diversity
- Water and flood protection
- Lower emissions and cleaner air
- Renewable energy, energy efficiency and electric vehicles
- Waste reduction and recycling
We are really pleased to welcome these groups to the Low Carbon Hub community and look forward to seeing their exciting projects in the future!
Go to this page to read more about all our community groups and check out our CIC shareholder map.