The Community Carbon Exchange SUMMARY The Community Carbon Exchange (CCX) started out as an experimental carbon rationing project that aimed to encourage participants to reduce their carbon footprint by working as part of a group to develop practical projects and change behaviours. By adding participants carbon footprints together to create a community total, the CCX aims to instil a common purpose amongst the participants to reduce their own and communities carbon emissions. Smaller projects that develop from living within the ‘ration’ can range from food to transport to home energy and waste – its up to the community to decide on the best way that their groups carbon footprint can be reduced. The CCX used a range of techniques to measure and collect data on carbon emissions and also engage participants including use of IR imaging, door knocking and workshops. THE PROBLEM The two interrelated issues of climate change and peak oil mean that we have to make some significant changes to our lifestyles if we are to avoid environmental and social catastrophe. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for the assessment of climate change and their report highlights areas of concern as: Sea Level rise Bio-diversity Glacial retreat Food Security Water shortages Acidification of oceans Infectious diseases Migration and conflict With the choices that make everyday accounting for over 40% of our carbon emissions behaviour change project like the CCX have an important role to play in tackling our national Carbon reduction targets. SOLAR CITIES SCOTLAND Dundee Sun City Demonstration House, Whitfield Primary School Whitfield Drive. DD4 0DP MEASURING SAVINGS We used a number of techniques to measure and track carbon savings. Our first aim was to create community carbon footprint from which to instil a common purpose amongst participants. Measuring Carbon Footprints gives us an accurate baseline from which we can plan change. The CCX’s main tool for collecting carbon footprints was the “REAP petite” which used a consumption based model. Trials showed that a 1-1 interview would take around 30 minutes per person. Whilst this was quite lengthy it did include the collecting of pledges relating to carbon reduction in a limited way and also provided a facility for analyzing the communities carbon footprint. This community footprinting was one of the main aims at the outset to the project as we thought it would engage people in tackling their footprints together. There is some evidence that this works when the group is known to one another but it’s difficult to sell when the participants are only linked through the project. Community Carbon Footprint = tCO2e After Pledges= tCO2e Scotland Footprint= tCO2e Average savings = 1.36 tCO2e Total Pledged= t CO2e Highest = 24 tCO2e Lowest = t CO2 We collected footprints across communities and recorded postal addresses with the data which enabled us to look at geographical information like SIMD classification. TARGET AREAS The CCX started work in the wards of Maryfield and Coldside in Dundee—home to around 34,000 people. Our marketing strategy started by asking what an ideal community might look like before working on the message and the marketing techniques to get people involved. Set the scale – not to big and not too small (100 households or people would operate on a human scale) Map the community and identify market segments Understand what others are doing and make use of partnerships and opportunities – join up environmental issues and messages Develop a social marketing strategy and develop a friendly, locally identifiable brand Find some local opinion leaders Keep participants and the wider community informed of progress With limited time and resources we worked with the easy to reach groups that expressed an interested in the project whilst providing the best chance of success. As part of our mapping work we identified over 100 groups, including schools, voluntary groups, sports organisations and faith groups, in the Maryfield and Coldside area and sent out tailored letters of introduction a selection of these including community hubs, faith groups and Scout groups. SUMMING UP After our first year of work we have learnt changed our approach to make it much easier and quicker for people to take part in carbon reduction activities. Our future approach will look to work with more people in a clearer and more coherent way. This will allow more people to participate and lead to greater overall carbon savings than the previous methods used in the CCX. The CCX will develop its format of meeting with groups and individuals, running short presentations and workshops or 1 to 1’s before guiding them through a directory of Carbon Saving behaviours from which they can select a few to work on over a set period leading to a target of at least 10% carbon savings. These carbon challenges will be linked into a new online Carbon Reduction Starter Pack (CRSP) and allow easier monitoring of the progress made. Another element to this engagement work will be in supporting the group in tackling some of the other barriers to carbon reduction such as advising on insulation, solar panels, car shares etc. A further two workers have been employed to help with the engagement and to increase participation to an ambitious level that could lead to a predicted ‘tipping point’ being reached in the population. Further information on the CCX and a 60 page Toolkit can be found at