Held at the SouthBank Centre in Dean Lane on the 17th April we started with an update about the fantastic work of our co-hosts Bedminster Energy Group, including their MakeYourHomeEco Summer workshops.
Next, we carried out an asset mapping activity of Bristol to encourage people to think more widely and look at all the assets available to them, ranging from individual community activists and organisations like Springfield Allotments and Churches to large organisations like Bristol Water and the the Business Improvement Districts.
We then looked at how these assets could support the activities of Community Energy groups and also explored the difficulties in bringing different people and organisations together. Groups felt that their key roles were in awareness raising and local communication, improving energy efficiency, tackling fuel poverty and integrating community energy into local Community Plans. There was lots of discussion around how their assets could support different the aspects of this.
The meeting then shared updates from each of the local groups. We heard about Ambition Lawrence Weston incorporating community energy into the Lawrence Weston Community Plan, ab
out the work that the CHEESE project has been doing over the winter, including supporting low income families to identify poorly insulated places in their homes to enable them to fix issues and reduce their energy bills, about the workshops that Bedminster Energy Group has put on with minimal funding but support in-kind (ie a room!) from the Tobacco Factory and the exciting Owen Square Community Energy Cooperative based out of Easton Community Centre.
Find out more about the Owen Square Community Energy Cooperative when they co-host the NEXT Open Meeting on the 3rd July, see here for more information!