Collaboration is key to scaling up climate and nature action at the community level. Across the UK, local networks are bringing people and groups together to share their knowledge, skills and resources and learn from each other’s experiences. By working together across a range of issues, they are accelerating progress towards zero carbon and biodiversity restoration. Here are some inspiring examples happening right now.

Civic Square

For the past two years, CAT has been working with Birmingham-based community organisation Civic Square, which is exploring and sharing how the climate transition of our homes and streets can be owned by the people who live there.

Civic Square is doing this through three interconnected projects:

• Neighbourhood Doughnut – focused on downscaling the Doughnut Economics framework to the neighbourhood scale. This involves finding ways for communities to flourish without continuing to exceed our ecological ceiling.
• Neighbourhood Transitions – demonstrations of carbon, energy and ecological built-environment transitions. CAT joined Civic Square in delivering its Neighbourhood Trade School, to exchange local knowledge and improve access to the skills we need to transform our homes, streets and neighbourhoods. We also hosted the Wales leg of its Retrofit Reimagined festival, an inspiring series of events bringing people together to explore neighbourhood and community-led retrofit.
• Neighbourhood Public Square – cobuilding and democratising access to the spaces, tools and resources for the climate transition, held in common for the neighbourhood.

Find out more about Civic Square

Herefordshire Green Network

Herefordshire Green Network is a hub for sharing resources and knowledge to address the climate and ecological crisis. Its ambition is to support people in Herefordshire to take climate action and develop an ecologically rich zero carbon future for the county.

The network has been active for more than 10 years. It is made up of local individuals, community groups, environmental organisations, and town and parish councils. The network plays an important role by sharing information about and promoting the activities of its members in areas including transport, community hubs, food poverty, energy efficiency, and community engagement.

CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain team contributed to the network’s Great Collaboration project, bringing together communities on their path to a low carbon and sustainable future. From 2020 to the end of 2023, the project was busy producing the Great Collaboration Toolkit, a useful resource now being used by local networks across the UK.

Find our more about Herefordshire Green Network

Cumbria Action for Sustainability

Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfS) promotes and facilitates low-carbon living and its benefits, inspiring and supporting individuals, communities and organisations across the county to decarbonise their lives and businesses.

The group has been running for over two decades and is now a charity with more than 40 staff. For many years, CAT’s Paul Allen has been a regular speaker at CAfS events, sharing our latest Zero Carbon Britain research and being inspired by the group’s many and varied activities.

CAfS projects include:

• Retrofit Advice Service, providing advice and resources for people who want to adapt their homes to lessen their impact on the planet.
• Community Renewable Energy, supporting local councils and action groups to bring renewable energy to their community with advice, consultancy and grant funding.
• Going Green Together, which supports voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations and communities to take climate and nature action.
• Greener Schools Project, with the joint aim of helping schools reduce their carbon footprint and empowering students to learn about sustainability.
• Zero Carbon Cumbria, bringing together local people and organisations to reduce Cumbria’s carbon emissions to net zero by 2037.

Find out more about Cumbria Action for Sustainability

Zero Carbon Dorset

Inspired by CAT’s Zero Carbon Britain reports, volunteers in Dorset have produced their own zero carbon report for the county, exploring how Dorset could get to net zero.

The Zero Carbon Dorset report, published in 2021, focuses on 10 areas or ‘dynamics’ that need to change (for example, power up, travel better, improve land use). It assesses these areas against a set of qualitative measures set out in five categories to get a clearer picture of the current situation and what needs to change.

Compiled by the volunteers, with input from the public, academics and sustainability professionals, the report highlights the issues, potential solutions and more than 120 local stories of positive steps already taking place across the county.

Following the publication of the report, the project continues to explore ways to raise awareness and inspire action, including the publication of annual reviews of progress.

Find out more about Zero Carbon Dorset

Are you involved in local networks where you are, joining up community-level climate and nature action? Get in touch to share what you are up to at members@cat.org.uk.

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