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Carbon Co-op
South Manchester residents making a difference
Friday, November 25th, 2011
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Tags: Carbon Co-op, EnergyShare, Greater Manchester, People's Republic of Energy, Retrofit
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Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011
Tags: Carbon Co-op, EnergyShare, People's Republic of Energy, Retrofit
Posted in Events, Funding | Comments Off
Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
The People’s Republic of Energy is Carbon Co-op’s entry into energyshare, a competition to win £100,000.
You can vote for us here: http://www.energyshare.com/voting/
Closing date is 5pm, Saturday 3rd December 2011
About the project
The energy crisis is real and upon us. Faced with rising bills, growing energy insecurity and the requirement to tackle climate change it is time to organise, educate and take action! Carbon Co-op propose The People’s Republic of Energy, a campaign to democratise, popularise and role out a low carbon renewables and retrofit programme for Greater Manchester and beyond.
Using a campaign of people’s assemblies, popular education, direct democracy, carbon literacy and energy assessment training, we will equip an army of energy ambassadors with the skills to seed local self supporting groups and gather information on household energy usage in their neighbourhoods. Ultimately we will create a series of community energy plans and use EnergyShare funds to deliver a number of eco retrofit and renewables show houses around Greater Manchester.
This project builds on four years of work from the Carbon Co-op, a Manchester-based mutual organisation created to bring street, neighbourhoods and communities together in a bulk purchasing co-operative for low carbon, household technologies. With over 300 supporters the organisation has a track record of delivering retrofit work, creating innovative new community finance models and pioneering community engagement based around renewables and energy efficiency.
In more detail
Our project is divided into four discrete stages
STAGE 1: PEOPLE’S ASSEMBLY
The People’s Republic of Energy will convene a day long assembly of over 300 delegates: individuals, organisations, businesses and social landlords at a venue in Manchester. The objectives of the assembly are to educate and inform attendees through the delivery of carbon literacy work, to engage in debate and discussion on how household renewables and retrofit work could and should be delivered and to train a series of community ambassadors in the Carbon Co-op’s Whole House Assessment Profile tool.
STAGE 2: COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT
We will develop the Carbon Co-op’s Whole House Assessment tool to enable community assessors to simply and easily gather information on a household’s energy usage and process this data using an easy to use, database-driven online tool.
After the assembly volunteer community energy assessors will work in their own streets and neighbourhood, seeding satellite groups and mapping out where energy is used in homes and communities. The Carbon Co-op’s Big Red Bus will tour Greater Manchester, acting as a mobile exhibition space to host information, talks and films, supporting the work of the energy assessors. We will facilitate Carbon Co-op workshops in these satellite areas, bringing friends and neighbours together in order to understand current energy usage and how this could be reduced. These volunteers will use hand held tablets to input information, with data centralised via the Carbon Co-op energy database.
STAGE 3: CREATING A COMMUNITY ENERGY PLAN FOR GREATER MANCHESTER
At a second People’s Assembly, using the data collected through energy assessments and using Carbon Co-op’s community action planning workshop, we will build up a house-by-house retrofit action plan for streets and communities in Greater Manchester.
Together, assembly delegates will make decisions on where best to deploy the EnergyShare resources, which areas will provide the best return on investment and what factors to prioritise.
STAGE 4: DEPLOYING RESOURCES
Based on decisions made at the second People’s Assembly, EnergyShare funds will finance four retrofit and renewables household projects in Greater Manchester. Forming a key part of the Carbon Co-op’s larger retrofit programme, these homes will act as eco-show homes, showcasing the latest energy saving technologies and hosting regular open days to inspire other households and communities.
Information from the assessments and retrofit work will help build and develop the Carbon Co-op model and Green Deal Pilot. Data will be used to inform the Greater Manchester Retrofit role out and build a housing archetypes pattern book to inform future retrofit roll-out work across the city region.
The whole project will be supported via a panel of retrofit practitioners and experts, providing up to date and practical advice on the decisions being made throughout the project relating to technologies, contractors and finance.
Tags: Carbon Co-op, competition, EnergyShare, People's Republic of Energy
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Thursday, October 6th, 2011
Carbon Co-op’s bid for the £100,000 EnergyShare competition is entitled ‘People’s Republic of Energy’, a campaign to democratise, popularise and roll out community-driven, low carbon development in Greater Manchester.
If successful, the project would see a series of People’s Assemblies, community assessments and retrofit pilots. This work would feed into our wider project to develop a community-driven green deal model.
Our bid was submitted on Friday 30th September 2011 and we’ll find out soon whether we’ve been shortlisted. If we have been there will be a further public vote.
Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far, you can add your support here: http://www.energyshare.com/users/CarbonCoop/
Tags: assessment, Carbon Co-op, Community Green Deal, EnergyShare, Greater Manchester, Green Deal, People's Republic of Energy, Renewables
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Wednesday, June 15th, 2011
On 11th June 2011, prospective members gathered for the Carbon Co-op’s inaugural meeting at Zion Arts Centre, Hulme, South Manchester. The day long session outlined the ground work carried out over the past three years as well as plans for the future such as an investment co-operative and retro-fit programme.
Participants then discussed how they might be involved in the co-operative and how it might be structured. The Carbon Co-op will now go through an incorporation process with a number of the attendees from Saturday acting as founding members. A formal launch will take place in the next few months when all the documents are signed. We’ll be signing up members from July and look out for our community share launch sometime in August 2011.
Tags: Carbon Co-op, Green Deal, Hulme, incorporation, Manchester, members, Retrofit, Zion Arts
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Monday, May 9th, 2011
Please support the Carbon Coop’s application to EnergyShare – it just takes a few minutes!
We are very excited to announce the Carbon Coop’s submission to the innovative Energyshare programme and I am writing to ask for your support, by voting for our bid, to help us start putting co-operatively owned solar panels on our City’s roofs.
The Carbon Co-op is hoping to secure support and funding (up to £100,000) through the programme.
The selection process involves people registering support for their favourite projects and we are urging everyone we know to support this application. It takes just a few minutes and you will be enabling one of Manchester’s most exciting energy initiatives to get started.
Supporting our application involves a few simple steps:
1) Visit: http://www.energyshare.com/carbon-co-op/
2) Click on the red button: Support this Group in the top right hand corner of the Carbon Co-op graphic.
3) A white box appears, click on the blue Sign Up button and register – it takes 30 seconds to generate a password and add your email address, postcode etc.
4) You are then sent an email with a link back to the Energyshare website. Click this & it will confirm that ‘your energyshare profile has been activated, and you’re now a supporter of Manchester Carbon Co-op‘.
5) You are then also free to access the great information, resources and online tools available to help you cut your own energy use.
Manchester’s Carbon Co-op has been developed with partners including URBED Co-op, Kindling Trust and lowwintersun. It is a way for people to collaborate together in a bulk purchasing co-operative in order to purchase low carbon technologies.
If you like what we do and what we are planning for the year ahead, please show you support.
Thank you!
The Carbon Co-op team
Tags: Carbon Co-op, competition, EnergyShare, Greater Manchester, Green Deal, Retrofit, support
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Thursday, May 5th, 2011
Carbon Co-op have been collaborating with Kindling Trust to run a series of networking sessions for community renewables in Greater Manchester entitled, Fuelling Manchester. The events are purely social and the next one takes place on Thursday 26th May 2011.
This fifth gathering is for all those of us involved in community renewable projects, be that: water turbine co-operatives; bio-mass and woodland management enterprises; waste-to-energy projects, solar energy collectives or those involved in community-focused.
We will be meeting at the Bulls Head Pub (on London Road in Manchester City Centre) for early evening drinks. There will be no agenda and no structure to the evening except we will be having a-go-around to introduce each other to our work. The evening is simply an opportunity to meet with like-minded individuals and complimentary projects from across Greater Manchester and beyond.
Some of the projects who have been invited include: Greater Manchester Tree Station; Torrs Hydro; Energy Savings Trust; Fairfield Materials Management; MERCi, GMCVO; URBED; Co-ops UK.
If you are interested in attending please get in touch or just turn up.
Tags: Carbon Co-op, Community Renewables, Fuelling Manchester, Kindling Trust, social
Posted in Events | Comments Off
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
Save energy – cut bills – help the environment
In March 2010 The Carbon Co-op launched its Moss Side project with the Carbon Co-op Manual offering advice on saving energy in the home. Now we’re inviting you to take the next steps by joining us for a free workshop and tour of local green projects.
*Moss Side Carbon Co-op workshop*
6pm-8pm, Tuesday 22nd June 2010
Greenheys Centre, Gt Western Street, Moss Side
How do you use electricity and gas in your home?
What simple ways are there to save energy and cuts bills?
How might local people club together to make savings cheaply and simply?
Come along to this free workshop to pick up some practical hints and tips and share
experiences with other Moss Side residents.
Arrive 5.30pm for complimentary food and refreshment
*The Big Red Bus Tour of Green Projects*
Midday-4pm, Saturday 19th June 2010
- See energy saving projects up close
- Meet people who have transformed their houses and hear how they did it
- See renewable energy projects from the top deck of a red London bus!
Departs midday from Greenheys Centre, Great Western Street, Moss Side, returns 4pm.
Complimentary food and refreshments available
Book spaces
Both events are FREE! To book a space on the workshop or the Big Red Bus tour call 0161 408 6492 or email info@carbon.coop
In collaboration with Great Western Street Residents Association and Peace FM.
Supported by Manchester City Council’s Manchester Carbon Innovation Fund
Tags: Carbon Co-op, ecohome, green homes, Manchester, Moss Side, Retrofit, sustainaibility, workshop
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Friday, April 9th, 2010
This offer has been re-opened.
Get in touch if you live in Manchester* and want to receive one of the 150 next generation internet-enabled, SMARTER energy meters we’re giving away free of charge.
They enable you to monitor your energy usage and you can also log on to a personalised web page and measure your performance against other people’s. These monitors are a great way of identifying how much energy you use and finding ways of saving money and reducing carbon emissions.
Installation
The monitors are really simple to install, just clip them around your existing meter cable – no need for wires or messing with the fuse board. You then link the monitor up to the internet using your broadband router using a cable provided.
Compare data
Then it’s just a case of logging on to our SMARTER website and you get an instant reading showing how much energy you’re using including the cost. You also get graphs showing your performances over the last few days, weeks or months which you can compare against other people in your area or around Manchester (all data is anonymised).
To receive a free SMARTER monitor just email us at info@carbon.coop to sign up. We have 150 to give away so if you’re interested you can invite friends and neighbours to sign up to.
Conditions
* To take part you must be living in the Manchester City Council area and have a broadband connection. The connection must always be on – many people like to turn their router off at night to conserve energy but studies show using a SMARTER will help you make energy savings that more than make up for this.
Carbon Co-op
The Carbon Co-op aims to make it simple, cheap and easy for households, streets and neighbourhoods to come together to buy low-carbon and energy-saving equipment. Discounted products including energy monitors, ‘A’ rated domestic appliances, whole house insulation products, boilers, burners and solar panels. It is a not-for-profit, social enterprise project. http://carbon.coop
Funding
The project which is being jointly funded by Manchester City Council’s Carbon Innovation Fund and the Northwest Regional Development Agency’s (NWDA) Carbon Challenge Fund is being delivered by the Commission for the New Economy working in partnership with the Greater Manchester Environment Commission. Read more about the project’s launch.
Trouble finding the right cable?
Here’s a really useful guide from the Open University on how to to find the right cable on your meter for the monitor:
http://tscp.open.ac.uk/t152/docs/T152install
Tags: Carbon Co-op, energy monitor, SMARTER
Posted in offers | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
At the end of March the new Carbon Co-op Manual was launched at an event in Moss Side. It contains hints and tips on saving energy as well as an outline of how people can work together to achieve bulk purchase savings.
A PDF version can be downloaded here: http://www.carbon.coop/manual.pdf
Tags: Carbon Co-op, Carbon Co-op Manual, Moss Side
Posted in Carbon Co-op Moss Side | 1 Comment »
