Low Carbon Gordano Community Benefit Fund
Annual Report
September 2016
1. Introduction
Low Carbon Gordano (LCG) is a community renewable energy company based in North Somerset and is an Industrial Provident Society for the Benefit of the Community. Its purposes are to help communities in North Somerset to become more resilient in energy terms and to reduce the area's carbon footprint. Every year the LCG Board will decide how much money it can allocate to the community benefit fund. 10% of this money will be given to a project that invests in renewable energy schemes in the developing world that have recognised community benefits. The remainder is to be used to help community organisations in North Somerset (and any close to the company's major installations) invest in schemes which will help meet the Society's purposes.
It has been agreed that locally the available funds will be donated to a charity, Transition Portishead (TP), whose aims are congruent with LCG's. TP will be responsible for the distribution process and for insuring that LCG's intentions for the funds are met in this process. To this end TP has created a Community Benefit Fund Committee (CBFC) to carry out this responsibility and has provided Terms of Reference (ToRs) to guide its work.
This is the first annual report of the CBFC, covering the year to September 2016.
2. The Community Benefit Fund Committee
In line with its ToRs, the CBFC has this year had a membership of 8 people: 2 are representatives of the Transition Groups that originally worked together to set up LCG – TP and Sustainable Pill & District (SPAD). Others are members from the North Somerset Transition Network and communities close to LCG's major installations. The Committee is responsible for electing a Chairman and Treasurer, and is supported in its work by an administrator who is entitled to a fee for the work.
The membership of the Committee during 2015-16 has been:
Richard Bate ( Treasurer) / Mike SewellErvin Bossanyi / Chris Stuart-Bennett (Administrator)
Steve Cayser / Paul Thurston
Bob Langton (Chairman) / Dave Tudgey
3. Funds Available in 2015-16
At its AGM in September 2015 LCG agreed to donate £25 000 to the Community Benefit Fund, of which £2,500 was set aside for a developing world project, and the remaining £22,500, given to TP for the work of the CBFC. This sum has been enhanced by the donation of money received by directors and supporters of LCG for work done in domestic energy surveys, for speaking engagements and for work on the Board of Mongoose Energy. As a result, rather more than £25 000 has been available. Of this a total of £23 063 has been awarded in grants to 7 organisations. The remainder will cover the fee due to the administrator and provide a reserve to meet any initial costs in the next financial year.
4. Process
An online bank account has been set up: this requires any payment to be set up by the treasurer and confirmed by another committee member.
The Committee has met on 4 occasions, with much of the detail being confirmed by email in the intervening periods. At the first meeting, held on 19 November 2015 officers were elected, the ToRs considered, and the process to be followed for advertising the fund's availability and considering applications agreed. An application form for applicants to complete, which had been prepared by the administrator, was modified slightly. The treasurer undertook to consider due diligence issues that we should consider in the grant awarding process.
At the second meeting, in February 2016, the timetable for the application and awarding process was finalised, along with the process of due diligence to be followed. Applications were considered at a third meeting on 6 June 2016. 7 applications were received. They were appraised against criteria that were informed by Charity Commission guidelines and which helped identify the gaps in information which required further investigation via the follow up visits: all appeared worthy of support. The total sum asked for was £23,063 and since this was within the budget it was agreed that all should be met in full if the organisations involved met the due diligence requirements. Committee members agreed to accompany the administrator to meetings with the relevant organisations to investigate their suitability. In total it is expected that well over 50 MWh of power will be saved annually, with parallel savings in excess of 12 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
At the final meeting of the year, held on 18 July 2016, the reports from these meetings were considered and it was agreed that all of the organisations involved met our requirements. All of them had also agreed to be involved in publicity when their schemes were completed, to provide information to show actual carbon savings (where possible) and to submit progress reports in due course. Subsequent to the meeting the organisations involved were informed of the decisions. The process that had been followed was reviewed and agreed to be fit for purpose, with some minor amendments.
Some minor changes to the LCG Community Benefit Policy, and the ToRs set by TP have been agreed in the light of the initial experience.
5. Schemes Being Supported
See table overleaf
6. Conclusions
The first round of awards has been a considerable success. Whilst a greater number of applications might have been anticipated, the quality and range of the schemes that came forward was very encouraging and it was very gratifying to be able to meet in full each of their requests. The Committee anticipates that the example set by this first round of applications will encourage others to come forward in future and will work to ensure that the potential for publicity that the schemes present will be effective in this respect.
Bob Langton
Chair of the Community Benefit Fund Committee
August 2016
App. No / Organisation name: / Organisation Address: / Project Aim / Total Project cost £ / Grant Request £ / Estimated energy saved p.a MWh / Est. carbon saved p.a (kg CO2)1 / RE:MISSION / Arden House, 33 Cambridge Road, Clevedon BS21 7DN / Replacement boiler in Andrew House, Victoria Road, Clevedon / 27000 / 5000 / 46.2 / 8 500
2 / 1st Crockerne Scout Group. / 4 Briar Court, Pill, Bristol, BS20 0JG / Replacement of 14 x inefficient and obsolescent lighting @ Scout Hut / 1298 / 650 / 0.24 / 70
3 / Long Ashton Growers / 2, Heath Ridge, Long Ashton, BS41 9EW / To complete set-up of plot by: extending polytunnel; establishing soft fruit; giving one-off manure fertility boost; providing more crop protection. / 1686 / 1686 / n/a / 250-310
4 / Pill & Easton-in-Gordano Parish Council / The Resource Centre, 4 Baltic Place, Pill, BS20 0EJ / To replace street lights owned by the Parish Council with LEDs, to save both money and carbon / 80 000 / 5000 / 3.31 / 1 650
5 / Transition Gordano / Gordano School, St Mary's Road, Portishead, BS20 7QR / Increase plastic recycling in Gordano School / 730 / 730 / n/a / 320
6 / Transition Gordano / Gordano School, St Mary's Road, Portishead, BS20 7QR / Reduce energy consumption at Gordano School with the use of LED lighting in the Humanities block. / 4997 / 4997 / 5 / 1 300
7 / Ambition Lawrence Weston / Lawrence Weston Youth Centre Long Cross Lawrence Weston Bristol BS11 ORX / Create an Energy Learning Zone and Internship Programme / 14800 / 5000 / unpredictable / unpredictable
TOTAL / 23063 / 54.7 / 12 100