Projects

Our current projects

Through the Megawatt Fund, we are currently running a project that aims to help link up the different communities and community groups in BS3 around climate action. We are aware that many people are left out of the conversation about the climate crisis and how Bristol can get to carbon neutrality by 2030. Responding to the climate crisis will need all of us to work together and support each other, and through this project, we aim to:

• build better connections with other community groups in BS3, so we can link up our activities, reach different communities, and hopefully collaborate on future projects around reducing carbon footprints and energy usage.
• take the talks we put on in Ashton and Southville on the road, and have them set up in community venues across all of BS3
• create a map of community assets that others can access - for free - to support their projects and activities around climate action.

To help us deliver this project, we've recruited our first part-time co-ordinator - Ceilidh Jackson Baker. Ceilidh will be helping us one day a week, up to the summer period.

Project ideas for the future

In the next couple of years, we hope to be helping local residents set up small scale solar and renewable energy installations, so that they directly profit from low carbon energy whilst helping the City of Bristol meet its 2030 ambitions. We're also working with Bristol Energy Network to find ways of funding this work through Bristol's City Leap initiative.

Our past projects

BEST Project (2018-19) - We wanted to understand how BS3 residents felt about the energy efficiency of their homes, and which measures they were interested in the most. This would help us focus our future efforts on these energy-efficiency measures. We used a previous assessment of the types of housing within BS3 to select a few representative streets, and our volunteers did a lot of door-knocking on cold evenings to ask residents about the energy effiency of their homes. As part of our engagement work, we also hosted energy-efficiency stalls at the Tobacco Factory Sunday Market and distributed leaflets at the BS3 Lantern Parade. From all this, we were able to identify LEDs, draught-proofing and solar photovoltaics (PVs) as the three energy efficiency measures we should focus on, and were able to work with local suppliers to offer discounted LEDs and draughtproofing measures. In all we hosted 12 events, including:

• one focused on LEDs with presentations from Ablectrics and Bristol Energy Network,
• one draught-proofing event with presentations from Make Your Home Eco and CHEESE
• one PV event with presentations from Solarsense, Ecocetera and Pure Planet as well as a BEG volunteer.

As part of the project, we also delivered free LEDs to over 80 households in BS3, helping lower their energy usage, bills and carbon footprint!

LED project (2018-19): we worked with BS3’s senior citizens to help them switch from traditional to LED lighting. Each new lightbulb saved a small amount of money on their electricity bill, but more excitingly, and as a surprise to both us and them, the better lighting meant the seniors enjoyed the lighting in their homes in a way they hadn’t before. Warmer colours and better for eyesight were some of the comments we had back.

Other projects:

• we helped BS3 residents access government funded insulation for homes, and trusted suppliers to fit it, which meant a warmer winter and lower fuel costs.
• In 2012 BEG was awarded government funding under DECC’s Local Energy Assessment Fund (LEAF) which was a huge boost for our energy efficiency projects in the Greater Bedminster area and meant we were able to pay for some large pieces of work we couldn’t have carried out as volunteers.
• In 2013 we ran more activities in BS3, linked to a Green Deal pilot, Bristol Home Energy Upgrade, which was offering grants for insulation and new boilers.