2025 Recipients: Archway Community Energy Neighbourhood (CEN) project
Power Up North London & Community Energy London
A Community Energy Zone is characterised as an area identified as having significant potential for a community energy group (or groups) to develop within that zone a range of energy projects to support the production of renewable energy, as well as demand reduction initiatives from retrofitting buildings, the provision of energy efficiency advice to residents and businesses and also ‘smart energy’ actions through load shifting, the use of energy storage and potential local electricity supply options. Local discussions have been started with Islington council regarding a CE zone in Archway. There are a series of community centres and educational establishments in the area, as well as a number of fuel poor communities, and PUNL already has a flagship project in the area which form the hub for the zone. The funding will support a number of workshops to promote the concept to local residents, community groups, and businesses; education awareness raising project in schools; and pay for a local resident to lead on the work in the Zone.
2024 Recipients: Energise Your Career: Home Energy Skills Training Course - Power Up North London
This project is a pilot project that trained 13 residents from Camden (particularly Somers Town) and Islington in energy efficiency and home retrofit skills, helping them progress into green careers.
Power Up North London (PUNL) and Think & Do collaborated to design and run a pilot programme on domestic energy efficiency advice and retrofit jobs for a cohort of adult learners based in Camden. The programme is called Energise your Career: Home Energy Skills Training. It was designed by PUNL, the community engagement work was delivered by Think & Do, and the training given by Tanuja Pandit from PUNL and Nadia Smith, an independent community energy consultant. The programme was funded from Solar SOAS’ Green Community Fund.
The main focus was to attract local residents to support the “green skills” sector by providing them with a rich and engaging programme that would make energy advice work more accessible and show them some clear pathways to employment. The training programme was hosted by the Euston Skills Centre who are a construction skills venue and have well-equipped classrooms and a workshop in which renewable energy solutions can be demonstrated.
The pilot was a huge success judging from the feedback received from participants and their level of engagement in the classroom exercises and out-of-classroom actvities such as the scenario exercise and site visit. Thirteen participants completed the programme and four have subsequently signed up for a follow-up NEA Level 3 Training programme on Energy Awareness for which PUNL had already obtained funding.
Since the programme we have set up a Whatsapp group to support the participants by sign-posting suitable jobs and we plan to run a follow-up jobs-focussed event in the autumn that will include CV writing and a potential employers’ fair. The success of this pilot programme has led to the Euston Skills Centre offering us funding to re-run the training in October 2024.
We designed the programme with a mix of short presentations and interactive sessions where parGcipants were encouraged to ask quesGons and parGcipate in quizzes. On the first day we also had a building firm, TF Energy, discuss their retrofit project in Camden and a Retrofit Advisor from South East London Community Energy shared her personal career journey with parGcipants. On the second day, parGcipants paid a site visit to the retrofit site at 5-7 Belsize Grove and then worked in groups on a scenario exercise related to an energy efficiency job of their choosing.
Thirteen adult learners living in the London Borough of Camden completed the pilot programme. This was a very engaged group that participated whole-heartedly in the course. Participants enjoyed the learning process and were very complimentary about the quality of the training and the training faciliGes as seen from their feedback scores and qualitative comments.
2022 Recipients: Patch Up
After a break due to Covid, 2022 saw the project Patch Up receive a chunk of funding. Check out their pitch here:
All clothes have a lifespan. The length of that lifespan depends on the wear and tear the garment experiences and how soon its owner falls out of love with it. This project aims to teach the SOAS community how to mend and upcycle clothes in order to lengthen their lifespan
The first part of the project will consist of two 2-hour workshops serving approximately 20 people per class. Each workshop will be held once a month. The first workshop will teach basic hand and machine sewing whilst providing an opportunity to practice mending woven and knitted fabrics, using various techniques. The Second workshop will focus on upcycling garments and will teach basic hand and machine techniques for altering and embellishing clothing. Both workshops aim to reduce fashion waste by treasuring and elongating the life of garments.
The second part of the project will be a drop-in session held bi-monthly. It will be an opportunity for community members to bring their own piece of clothing that needs repair. In this space they will have access to expert advice and skills, sewing equipment and a sewing machine.
The project aimed to:
To teach basic hand and machine sewing skills to the wider SOAS community.
To provide accessible, free classes and resources to the SOAS community that enables and empowers them to practice fashion sustainability.
To teach mending and upcycling techniques to elongate the lifespan of garments and reduce clothes waste.
The money was spent on the equipment needed to run the workshops and drop-in sessions as well as leaflets to advertise the sessions. A small fund was set a-side to compensate the projects sewing tutors and guest Speakers with mending expertise to speak at the workshops.
2019 Recipients: SOAS Swap, SOAS Community Garden & Nue: Nude
2019 saw three societies split the Green Community Fund! The projects were given an initial round of funding before being put on hold due to Coronavirus in March 2020.
Nue: Nude: This project aimed to inspire students to re-imagine recycling and reusing and integrate a more sustainable approach more broadly in their day to day lives, through home-made skincare projects out of food waste. All of us use skincare products daily but unlike with food waste or one-way plastic, there is little widely known information about how to take personal responsibility to be less damaging to the environment. This project aimed to build a community of invested people through the workshops, who would be able to disseminate their knowledge to their circles.
SOAS Community Garden: The SOAS community garden brings people who are interested in gardening, crafting, and sustainable solutions to pressing environmental challenges together. This project aimed to invigorate this existing SOAS community hub by reconstructing and renewing its infrastructure and appearance, to help get prepared for the next growing season.
SOAS Swap: Good, functioning things do not belong into trash but deserve to get a second life. This project aimed to create a small space within SOAS where students can share and swap second-hand products and other goods for free. Everybody can contribute items no longer used that others in the community may have a need for. Instead of ending up in the garbage, these products make someone else happy.
2018 Recipients: SOAS Cycle-Op
“We are a campus society that promotes sustainable transportation by repairing student bikes, advocating for bicycle infrastructure, and giving workshops on maintenance, repair, and safety. By helping the SOAS community purchase and maintain their bicycles, we hope to promote sustainable transport for London. Currently, more than 500 students and staff cycle to campus every day. We believe that by showing people how to repair their own bikes, and advocating for more parking, we can increase ‘ridership’ and make London a safer and more environmentally responsible place.”
Check out this blog post from May 2020 with an update from them on how things have been going!
