Glasgow Community Energy

News

Three reasons businesses should partner with community organisations in 2020

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With 2020 well under way and everything from Brexit to COP26 on the agenda, we thought our next Glasgow Community Energy blog post should come from one of our newest partners, DMG Environmental Consultancy. A Glasgow-based business committed to helping businesses meet their sustainability goals who we’ll be working with later in the year when our Community Share Offer launches. Take a read as Founder, Daniel shares his top three tips on how businesses can work with community groups.

Supporting community organisations may feel like a drain on your company finances or time, or both. However, there are significant benefits to forming strong, social and holistic partnerships with your businesses’ local community.

1. Become part of the community

Community organisations can make a real difference in the area your business operates. By supporting them you not only build your local business network but also build community loyalty to your business. In the minds of many local people supporting community projects means supporting the community, making them more likely to support you when you need it most.

Having your business recognised as part of the community gives you a lasting legacy in your area and can make you more successful. Gaining recognition and support from the local community can take years for businesses to build up. Partnering with community organisations fast-tracks this process and increases the longevity of your business.

Some of the Glasgow Community Energy team at Seven Lochs as part of a community litter clear up. Two truck loads of litter were removed.

2. Offset emissions and benefit society

Partnering with a community organisation that focuses on renewable energy, rewilding, tree planting or any other climate positive activity generally has a double benefit. Every business can make significant changes that reduce their climate impact. However, many businesses will still produce some emissions from their activities, even after adaptation. This is where offsetting comes in.

Offsetting is a process where a company can invest in a project that reduces emissions (e.g. a community renewables or reforestation organisation), contributing to the fight against climate change. That company can then use this reduction in emissions to counteract (or offset) their own remaining emissions, bringing them closer to net-zero carbon emissions or even making them carbon positive (preventing more carbon from entering the atmosphere than they emit).

This gives the company the double benefit of improving their Corporate Social Identity, showing their commitment to ethical and trust standards, as well as protecting the environment and allowing the company to tap into the growing number of climate-conscious customers.

The community often has a double benefit from this partnership as well. In the case of community renewable energy projects an aspect of urban or community regeneration can be included and the profits from the renewable electricity produced will support further community projects.

3. Stand out from the crowd

Partnering with community organisations can differentiate your business from your competitors. 89% of consumers think businesses should support charities and their local communities and 82% said they would choose a company engaged with its community when deciding on equivalent products or services over one that is not.

Supporting your local community can also improve employee engagement – and engaged staff means a more efficient, profitable business. Many individuals want to volunteer or raise money for charity, but don’t have the time in their busy schedules. Offering your employees the opportunity to do this as part of their work is very fulfilling and can increase engagement, employee retention and workplace happiness.

Want to partner with a community organisation?

Find a project that inspires you and reap all of the personal and business benefits that come with supporting what you believe in. When companies support communities both become better places to live, work and do business.

To find out how to offset your emissions by working with Glasgow Community Energy get in touch and let’s work together to make business and communities come together for good.

Guest blog by Daniel Musenga-Grant
Director, DMG Environmental Consultancy

A community-led solution addressing the climate emergency

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Jim Lee, Claire Williams and Ellie Harrison from Glasgow Community Energy at the Climate Strike in George Square on 29 November 2019.

We’ve been developing the Glasgow Community Energy project over the last four years as a community-led solution addressing the climate emergency. Inspired by the successful Edinburgh Community Solar Co-operative, launched in 2015, Glasgow Community Energy is a new community-owned renewable energy co-operative for the city of Glasgow. Over the next few months, we plan to install solar panels on the roofs of up to nine large public/private buildings across the city and to launch a ‘Community Share Offer’ so that people all over Glasgow can get involved.

In April 2019, Scotland’s First Minister declared a ‘climate emergency’, recognising the urgent need to decarbonise our economy in order to fight climate change. On 16 May 2019, Glasgow City Council also voted to declare a ‘climate emergency’, and on 26 September 2019 the Council’s City Administration Committee approved the Recommendations of its Climate Emergency Working Group, which brought forward the city’s target for carbon neutrality from 2037 to 2030. Recommendation 4.5 explicitly supports the Glasgow Community Energy project, stating that:

Local communities should be able to invest in low carbon solutions through mechanisms such as co-operative business models. There is a good opportunity to develop partnerships which will enable residents to support renewable energy in the city and to get local benefit from these resources. We recommend that the Council’s business support and planning services are made available to support community investment in renewable energy, including the Glasgow Community Energy Co-operative.

Glasgow Community Energy has a key role to play in our city’s efforts to urgently decarbonise. Once up and running, we aim to generate up to 320,000kWh/year of clean, green energy for Glasgow saving us 82 tonnes of carbon every year. But because we are a co-operative, we are also helping fulfil the Council’s aim to ‘devolve power to residents’. Our project is founded on the seven co-operative principles, which will ensure it remains an open and inclusive initiative that anyone can join and get involved.

Please do join our newsletter so that you can be the first to hear when our ‘Community Share Offer’ is launched and to find out about other exciting ways to get involved.

Ellie Harrison
Chair, Glasgow Community Energy

Community Energy Workshops

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Community Energy Workshops

Glasgow Community Energy’s autumn workshop series is free and open to all. Come along to learn more about renewable energy cooperatives, local energy plans and community activism.

Benny Talbot

Monday 26 August 2019, 6-9pm
Community Energy: What, Why, How?
Benny Talbot, Community Energy Scotland

Claire Williams

Monday 9 September 2019, 6-9pm
Community Action Projects
Claire Williams, Community Organiser

Calum Watkins

Monday 23 September 2019, 6-9pm
Energy and its Uses
Calum Watkins

Zoe Dickson

Monday 7 October 2019, 6-9pm
Financing Community Projects
Zoe Dickson, Energy4All

Fraser Stewart

Monday 21 October 2019, 6-9pm
Energy, Politics and Grassroots Action
Fraser Stewart

Join our Team

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We’re seeking a Community Organiser

We’re seeking a highly self-motivated and well-connected Community Organiser based in Glasgow, to join our team in developing the Glasgow Community Energy project over the coming year.

Glasgow Community Energy

Community Organiser

8 month contract (with potential to extend to 12 months)
Commencing January 2019

£6,400 fixed fee (with potential to extend to £9,600)
Working on a freelance basis (averaging 1-2 days per week), plus £400 towards travel/expenses across the year (fee paid on a weekly/monthly basis as preferred)
Working from home or at shared premises in Glasgow/Easterhouse area (TBC)

• Are you passionate about the transition to a low carbon economy in order to fight climate change?
• Do you understand the interconnectedness of social, environmental and economic problems across our city?
• Do you want a join a small team developing an exciting new initiative for Glasgow which aims to address all three at once?
• We want to hear from you!

Glasgow Community Energy

We’re seeking a highly self-motivated and well-connected Community Organiser based in Glasgow, to help us build an ambitious new community-owned renewable energy project for our city. Glasgow Community Energy was founded in 2018 with plans to install renewable energy generation on vacant and derelict land and the roofs of public buildings across the city. We intend to use proceeds from the sale of our energy to help inspire and sustain community activism in Glasgow.

We have secured funding from Local Energy Scotland to begin exploring the feasibility of several sites in the Easterhouse area. Alongside this technical work, we are seeking a Community Organiser to help build relationships with residents, community groups, associations, businesses and public bodies across Glasgow (with a specific focus on the Easterhouse area) and to encourage their active involvement and support for the project as it develops.

You will be working alongside a small voluntary board, including artist and activist Ellie Harrison, Jim Lee from our partner Energy4All, as well as the renewable energy consultants undertaking the feasibility work. You will largely be working independently and will report to Ellie Harrison with weekly/bi-weekly meetings.

Your Key Objectives

• To hit the ground running; quickly catching up with the development of the Glasgow Community Energy project to date and building on and developing our existing relationships with Glasgow City Council, the Seven Lochs Wetlands Park and other key partners in the Easterhouse area
• To amass widespread support across the city, by:
o building a communication strategy to raise awareness of the project over the contract period (activities will include coordinating social media campaigns, hosting community engagement events and developing membership schemes and ‘community share offers’ with our partner Energy4All)
o meeting regularly with residents, community groups, associations, businesses and public bodies across Glasgow to develop the project and increase ‘energy literacy’ amongst communities
o building a network of local supporters engaged in popular education and creative activism addressing social, environmental and economic issues
• To meet with local credit unions to develop affordable plans for local people to invest in the Glasgow Community Energy project and become actively involved our renewable energy co-operative
• To recruit relevant people – community activists and renewable energy experts – to the Glasgow Community Energy Board
• To work with our team to develop a Project Plan for delivering our Easterhouse pilot and identifying new sites to expand to in other parts of the city over the coming years
• To fundraise for a continued programme of community engagement events and the continuation of the Community Organiser role beyond the end of the contract period
• To attend Board meetings every 2-4 weeks and report on a weekly/bi-weekly basis to members of the Glasgow Community Energy team

Person Specification

Organisational skills and literacy
• Self-organised and with high level of self-motivation;
• Flexible. Available to manage own time effectively and work anti-social hours (evenings, weekends) as necessary;
• Functionally literate, able and willing to keep written and electronic records;
• Financially literate, with ability to read, write and understand complex budgets and investment plans;
• Competent computer user including email, word processing, social media and Excel spread sheets;
• High attention to detail.

Communication skills
Maturity and emotional intelligence
• Ability and desire to learn by listening deeply for facts and feelings, empathising with others and identifying verbal and non-verbal communication cues;
• Able to create and sustain meaningful conversations with those you might not usually speak to from a wide spectrum of backgrounds and perspectives: gently leading, encouraging and uncovering feelings and opinions;
• Respectful, open, and sensitive to others’ history and experience. Sensitive to local cultures and languages. Positively committed to anti-discriminatory practice and social justice;
• Able to develop an understanding of power and influence and willing to explore the root causes of (dis)empowerment issues in communities;
• Has personal integrity. Willing to be accountable and adhere to code of conduct, understanding confidentiality and Data Protection issues.

Enterprising mind-set
Strategic awareness and behaviour
• Dynamic, motivated, energetic and creative with a can-do approach to problem-solving;
• Able to motivate and inspire. Enjoys and values helping others achieve and develop their potential;
• Able to understand and deal with competing agendas;
• Understands the context and practice of community action.

A commitment to reflection – action
Relationship building
• Willingness to develop an awareness of own power and ego and able to put aside their own agenda to listen without prejudging;
• Reflective and self-aware: to be alert, adaptable and responsive and focussed in the moment; to reflect both in action and on action;
• Committed to self-development and learning: able to apply, transfer and build on what they do. Willing to support the learning of others – including the wider community;
• Able to work constructively in team situations;
• Able to relate to and connect with a wide range of different people

Resilience and robustness
Streetwise
• Able to take challenge and criticism;
• Able to overcome negative and apathetic attitudes.
• Shows persistence and tenacity to achieve outcomes
• Able to deal with setbacks
• Has a versatile and flexible approach to the work
• Demonstrates shrewd awareness, experience and resourcefulness

Useful Experience and Skills

Please tell us in your Covering Letter if you have skills or experience in any of these areas, which will be useful in undertaking this role:

• Being from or based in Glasgow/Easterhouse area or one of the city’s other peripheral housing schemes
• Knowledge and understanding of the local area and its complex interconnected social, environmental and economic problems
• Interest in and concern about climate change and the urgent need to transition to a low carbon economy
• Knowledge of and belief in the principles of the co-operative movement
• Knowledge of the privatised UK energy sector and where community-owned renewables sit within this
• Existing networks of contacts engaged in popular education, creative activism and campaigning in Glasgow and beyond
• Group facilitation
• Community development and social enterprise
• Project planning, development, budgeting and fundraising
• Negotiation or mediation (within voluntary, public and business sectors)
• Customer and public relations (social media expertise)
• Marketing experience (photo editing/design/video making skills)
• Social and market research
• Journalism and media

How to Apply

We are committed to equality of opportunity and encourage applications from women; black, Asian and minority ethnic people; people who identify as having a disability; people from the LGBT+ community; and people from working-class backgrounds.

Applicants must be eligible to work in the UK and registered as self-employed in order to make necessary income tax and National Insurance contributions through self-assessment.
To apply, please email Ellie Harrison at info@RRAAFund.org, marking the subject ‘Community Organiser’.

Your application should include:
• A Covering Letter explaining why you’re interested in the role and how you meet the person specification, giving examples of your previous experience and skills
• Your CV
• The names and contact details of two referees

Closing date: Friday 16 November 2018, 5pm

Interviews will be held in Glasgow on Wednesday 28 November 2018

For an informal chat about the role, please call Ellie Harrison on 07929 565 855 (Wednesday – Sunday afternoons)

Download Job Description

Website Launched

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The new Glasgow Community Energy website is now live!

Glasgow Community Energy

We’re very pleased to reveal our new Glasgow Community Energy logo, developed from the original Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund (RRAAF) branding designed by Neil McGuire in 2015.

The interlinked coloured circles of the new logo show the ‘zoomed-in’ centre of the RRAAF logo’s three ‘turbine blades’ (shown below). The three coloured parts could be seen to symbolise the inequalities in energy / power / wealth which our project addresses, with the three new colours they overlap to create representing the social, environmental and economic justice we seek to achieve.

The three primary colours are:
Blue (#009ee2) – wealth
Pink (#e84277) – power
Yellow (#f7a900) – energy

The three secondary colours (made by blending the primary colours) are:
Mid green (#00733c) – environmental
Red (#e43112) – social
Dark blue (#233c79) – economic

The final colour is a mix of all six colours, perhaps reflecting the complexities of the 21st Century city:
Dark green (#2e3a32)

Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund