Low carbon villages
LCV project video
Starting your own low carbon community?
We've put together 5 key recommendations for setting up your own project. Read our insight into why and how people are motivated to take part in community projects, following research...
What is a Low Carbon Village?
Turn on the TV or pick up a newspaper, and you can hardly escape alarms about spiralling energy bills and stories of how climate change is already having an impact on our lives. But understanding what positive actions you can make in your day-to-day life, and being motivated to actually take them, is trickier.
In the Low Carbon Villages (LCV) project, along with energy partner npower who provided £600,000 of funding, the National Trust worked with two Trust owned villages (Coleshill in Oxfordshire, and Cambo on our estate at Wallington, Northumberland), to tackle the disillusionment and helplessness that many people feel about climate change. Through a process of engagement over a three-year period, LCV aimed to develop positive and practical solutions that could set villagers on a journey to low-carbon living.
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The LCV report
Download the Low Carbon Villages report here
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Supported by npower
This project was funded by our energy partner, npower.
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National Trust Green Energy
Take the first steps in a low carbon lifestyle when you sign up to National Trust Green Energy.
Carlos, orchard volunteer, Coleshill
'Speak to people individually and as a group, get their feedback and input into the project, that helps communication and keeps a sense of community. It's good to keep everyone involved and gives them ownership about the sustainable future of their village.'
Jo, Project Coordinator, Coleshill
'You will never get everyone involved in a community but that's ok, work with the people who are keen and others will follow.'
Celia, Project Coordinator, Cambo
'It's important to find the people already interested in environmental questions, they can be good advocates for the message you are trying to get out there.'
Other UK initiatives
The LCV project is not a lone venture, but part of a wider learning process. More and more good community work is being done these days on low-carbon living, all over the UK.
Sources of funding
A list of useful websites to help find funding for your low carbon community project.