Lake District grants scheme helps local businesses cut carbon

Sarah Smith is the Operations Manager at the Lake District Foundation and is excited to be working with businesses and community groups on the Low Carbon Lake District Grant Scheme. The scheme aims to deliver 86 tonnes of CO2e savings, by funding low carbon projects in the Lake District. Here she tells us about the first six months delivering the scheme.

With the Climate Emergency on our minds thanks to the recent COP26 summit, it seems like the perfect time to reflect on the project so far; its achievements, what we have learnt and the things we still don’t know.

Green Grants

The project kicked off in April when we opened round one for registrations. We received 59 registrations from organisations spanning a variety of sectors from all corners of the county, and we were pleased to see such an interest in local action on climate change.

Organisations were looking for funding to support a variety of projects including:

• Solar PV,
• heat pumps,
• biomass boilers,
• insulation,
• LED lighting
• energy efficient appliances

Handy tool to help calculate carbon footprint

A Carbon Footprint Calculator developed by CAfS has been a great tool for applicants as they start to think about how energy use translates into CO₂ emissions.

What carbon savings will these projects have?

Based on the applications we’ve received so far, we can start to build up a picture of the typical costs of projects, and carbon savings we might expect.  This is information can help to assess what will be needed to enable the Lake District to reach its target of net zero by 2037.

Across the Lake District and Cumbria:

• Average low carbon project cost is £16,200
• Average cost per metric tons of CO2e saved is £4,110
• CO₂e saved per £5000 invested is 5.27
• Solar panels are a popular option with applicants and save 1-2 tonnes per £5000 invested

These figures are based on one year of operation and we know that many of these projects will continue to save carbon year on year.

The grant panel have been meeting to assess applications monthly, and have so far made funding offers to 12 organisations.

A Lake District success story

One of these organisations, Rookhow Quaker Meeting House in the Rusland Valley, is using the grant to install an air source heat pump (ASHP), rather than installing less efficient and less environmentally-friendly electric heaters. As well as heating water, the ASHP will be used to power the building’s underfloor heating and radiators. As the system works best in a well-insulated building, the grant will also support improved loft insulation to ensure maximum energy efficiency.

Development Manager at Rookhow, Sue Nicholls, says, “The support we have received is helping to create a ‘living space’ for future generations and has come at just the right time for us. These changes will help preserve this historic building and make it much more usable and comfortable for a range of community groups, including vital mental health services, forest therapy and forest schools training.”

Round two recently opened in October and we received 35 registrations, and I am looking forward to finding out more about the proposed projects. Working on this project has been extremely rewarding; meeting real life businesses and groups that are taking practical action today, taking an idea and make it work is very inspiring.

The outputs of this project take us closer to achieving the Climate Action outlined in the Partnership Plan and I am really interested to explore how we can scale this up, share learning and even become a show case to other areas.

The next round for registrations will likely open in spring 2022, organisations who are interested should sign up on the Lake District Foundation mailing list to be notified when the next round opens.