Power to Change chief executive Tim Davies-Pugh calls on local councils to empower community business to help achieve their climate goals.
Three-quarters of community businesses are driving climate action. These businesses – run for, by and with local people – are doing so in areas like community-owned renewables, retrofit, community transport, e-car clubs and bike repair shops, waste and recycling schemes, community farms, and veg box schemes. Strong local economies must be the bedrock of a shift to a national net zero economy and community businesses have a key role helping councils achieve their goals.
Over 300 councils have declared a climate emergency. The focus must now be on action and providing greater opportunities for communities to engage, participate in and benefit from climate solutions. Working with and enabling community business would be a clear route to do this, as they are exceptionally well-placed to drive climate action and maximise the benefits locally.
This potential is highlighted in new research from Power to Change, an independent trust that strengthens communities through community business. Our Community Businesses and Climate Action report reveals that such businesses are hubs for essential change – either directly, through clean energy projects, or indirectly, for example, by reducing agricultural carbon emissions through local farming initiatives. As such, they offer cash-strapped local government a uniquely powerful, cost-effective, and locally orientated opportunity for accelerating the vital transition to greener and fairer economy.
A grassroots approach is key. As we hurtle towards irreversible climate tipping points, local governments don’t have time to wait for big businesses to get involved in building local low carbon infrastructure or other environmental projects. Change is happening from the ground-up. Harnessing local people’s passion, expertise, knowledge and capital is a huge opportunity for local government.
Here's a few examples where small social businesses are already driving action. On the outskirts of Bristol, Ambition Lawrence Weston is a local community association in one of the most deprived areas of the country that has built England’s largest onshore wind turbine. It has the capacity to generate enough electricity to power the community’s homes, effectively cut the estate’s domestic carbon emissions by 35% and generate hundreds of thousands of pounds of income every year for the community.
In Leeds, Latch buys derelict and run-down properties for refurbishment to high energy efficiency standards. They’re then rented out as social housing, providing local people with eco-friendly homes with low emissions and running costs.
Community Energy Together is a collective of five community businesses across the country currently seeking to take ownership of seven solar farms through community shares. This will grow the community owned energy sector by one fifth, feed a c.£20m community benefit fund, and ultimately help to create better places, for people and planet.
Councils can help support such community businesses through a mixture of funding, partnership, expert guidance and enabling policy. And the landscape is changing. The Government’s levelling-up agenda means that devolution deals in England are evolving. They should provide local government with more powers for climate and community action, which will offer further routes to empower community businesses.
As well as speeding up climate action, community business brings so many other benefits – not least building resilience and raising wellbeing in disadvantaged areas, which also happen to be the ones suffering from the greatest impacts of the climate crisis. People living in poorer areas are already struggling with an array of climate-related challenges, like cold, leaky homes, unaffordable energy bills and dangerous levels of air pollution. However, our research shows that community businesses disproportionately operate in such areas. By backing and enabling them, local authorities can promote a fairer transition to a net zero society. It’s a way to tackle social inequality and the climate crisis simultaneously, which is what true sustainability is all about.
The reality is that community work is climate work. Climate action is inherently aligned with the values and objectives of many community businesses, which prioritise the health and well-being, empowerment and economic improvement of their local communities. Moreover, localisation can help to decrease demand for global transport, reduce waste and build resilience against future shocks. It facilitates climate adaptation.
Now is the time to embrace change. As the climate crisis escalates, with July the hottest month ever recorded and the chief of the United Nations stating that we’ve entered the ‘era of global boiling’, local authorities should prioritise climate action through innovation. We can’t stick to business-as-usual, as that’s what brought us here in the first place. We need to look for new ways of doing things – and empowering community businesses is a proven solution at a local level. Such businesses have the transformative potential to help build the fairer, greener and better communities that we all need.
