Grassroots action in Lambeth that’s tackling climate change

Posted by Steve Reed, Leader of the Council, Lambeth Council on March 1st, 2010

Lambeth set up a Green Community Champions programme to support local people who want to take action against climate change. As part of that, we launched the Big Difference Fund in January 2010. The fund offers up to £500 per bid to kickstart small projects. Grassroots action is a big part of the fightback against climate change and we have a role as a council to support our communities to do this. The Big Difference Fund has been inundated with applications and its success is down to the simplicity of the application process and the fact that most of our community groups need only a small amount of funding to get their projects going. Even £500 is a lot for a small group to raise, making it available to them has cleared away a big hurdle in getting things moving.

The appetite for grassroots environmental action in Lambeth is huge. Over 300 people have registered as Green Community Champions. We also have the support of Environment Secretary Hilary Benn MP and celebrities such as Dizzee Rascal who has endorsed the Brixton Low Carbon Zone, another environmental scheme in the borough. When we set the scheme up we hoped to get 6 local groups established in the first year. But the response from local people has been so strong there are now 50 groups being set up. The public demand to get involved has been so huge we are now aiming to have one Green Champion for every street in Lambeth – a big aim but the scale of interest shows it’s achievable, and we believe it has the potential to bring sustainable living within the reach of every community in Lambeth.

The various groups are in constant dialogue with our Green Community Champion Co-ordinator who supports and guides the groups, not dictating what they should work on but listening to them and helping them get their ideas working. For instance the demand for ‘draught busting Saturdays’ organised by the Hyde Farm Climate Action Network is outstripping supply and we are now exploring the idea of setting up a social enterprise to cope with the demand. The Big Difference Fund shows how determined we are to work with our local communities to tackle climate change.

Lambeth’s Sustainability Action Plan 2010-2013 was approved by Cabinet on 8th February 2010 and sets out as a clear goal the ambition that ‘Lambeth’s community and businesses have the capacity, networks and support they need to help reduce their own carbon footprint’. By creating the Green Community Champions programme and making small pots of funding available we are empowering our communities to tackle climate change.

This is not a reward scheme; the approach is more carrot than stick and aims to embed good environmental behaviours. The scale of funding is relatively small, but the level of demand is huge and the way the programme harnesses the enthusiasm of local people ismaking a real difference to our borough’s efforts to tackle climate change.

For more information, please log on to www.projectdirt.com or www.lambeth.gov.uk


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