EIGG Island Going Green

What a fantastic result to the Big Green Challenge! I admit it we have been a bit quiet since the results have been announced but it has taken us this long to recover from all the anxieties from the weeks previous to the announcement, travelling to and from the bright lights of London, catching up with the hundreds of kind emails and normal workloads and of course there might have been a celebratory drink or two in there!!

Isle of Eigg receiving our award!

Congratulations and all the very best for the future goes out to the two other groups sharing the joint 1^st prize of £300,000 pictured below is Household Energy Services, Ludlow, Shropshire & Green Valleys, Brecon Beacons, Wales.

The Household Energy Service is a community based energy service company that helps households to reduce carbon

Household Energy Service, Ludlow, Shropshire

emissions, improve energy efficiency and save money on fuel bills. They offer practical energy saving measures along with estimates of the financial gain households could generate. Since the Big Green Challenge they have managed to expand their services to other communities in Shropshire, Herefordshire, Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire – increasing its reach to 15,000 homes. If you would like further information on this organisation go to www.h-e-s.org

Green Valleys, Brecon Beacons, Wales

Green Valleys in the Brecon Beacons is aiming to make the region a net exporter of energy, by developing community renewable energy schemes and supporting communities to reduce their carbon emissions. All revenue from community-owned installations will be reinvested in community based carbon reduction projects such as electric bike sharing or community woodlands that provide managed wood fuel. For more information on this group please go to http://www.thegreenvalleys.org

The runner up prize of £100,000 went to Low Carbon West Oxford a network of local people working to reduce their individual and community carbon emissions by taking practical action on renewable energy, traffic, food and waste. For additional information have a look at http://www.lowcarbonwestoxford.org.uk/

Hopefully links will continue with all our fellow Big Green Challengers and we can all work together in some way in the future. As for the 6 finalist groups that may not have been prize winners but certainly deserve huge recognition to the endless voluntary hours and further examples of excellently, inspiring and innovative community work;

Hackney City Farm, Back2Earth, London, www.hackneycityfarm.co.uk

St Bede’s High School, Lytham – www.easy2begreen.co.uk

Meadows Ozone, Nottingham – www.meadowspartnershiptrust.org.uk

Global Generation, London – www.globalgeneration.org.uk

Waste Oil recycling in Prisons, Sussex – www.nesta.org.uk/biggreenchallenge

Faith & Climate Change, Birmingham – www.faithandclimatechange.wordpress.com

A huge thank you goes out to all you supporters that have sent cards and incredibly encouraging emails to all of us. It is exceedingly reassuring to feel the backing of so many supporters worldwide towards Eigg’s progress and path we are choosing to follow. The recognition we have now gained from being part of the Big Green Challenge is phenomenal and credit can only be given to NESTA in running a competition in this way.  

So, I hear you all ask the same question “where do we go from here now the Big Green Challenge is over?” The answer to that is still to be decided but we do know for sure our own Green Challenge will continue, building on everything we have achieved over the last year. We have nothing set in stone yet and the first Green Team meeting since our winnings is planned for next week for an initial stab at this years projects! At this stage it is also important for us not to rush into anything to fast and take our time on the appropriate direction to take in cutting our islands carbon long term combined with how best to initiate and extend the funds available.

I am delighted to announce that the first part of the process towards creating our community orchard has started! After finally deciding on a plot of land above Clanranald Bay in the shelter of some well established trees there is a natural clearing perfectly sized for the planned fruit trees we aim to get growing this coming year. Just last week the area was cleared from the fierce competition by the bracken and now lays open to envisaging what a fantastic space this will be and we look forward to seeing this progressing over the years.

THE energy and imagination of the islanders of Eigg has scooped them joint top honours in a national challenge to boost communities’ efforts to tackle climate change.

The 95-strong community was awarded £300,000 in the prestigious Big Green Challenge award run by the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts. (NESTA)

A delegation left the island on Monday to travel south for today’s award ceremony in London.

The day-to-day challenges of keeping warm, eating well, getting around and building a viable, sustainable future on a small Hebridean island lashed by the Atlantic elements are considerable.

But by coming together to find practical and creative ways to slash energy use and increase local resilience has made Eigg a beacon for communities across the UK and the globe.

Through creating a network of ‘green islands’ – small communities striving to reduce energy use  – the islanders of Eigg have inspired thousands to follow in their footsteps.

Being the only Scottish finalist selected from 350 was a huge achievement in itself and last year saw an ever strengthening ‘Green Team’ on Eigg hurl themselves wholeheartedly into a whirlwind of activity.

Solar panels were fitted to homes and public buildings and householders’ lives transformed through insulation  projects. More bikes appeared on the island, lift sharing increased massively and other measures taken to cut the amount of fossil fuels shipped onto the island.

And of course having fun – a crucial part of life on the island – is at the heart of the project, with the Giant Green Footsteps Festival drawing hundreds to the island to a cracking ceilidh, music and drama as well as to learn about ways to tread more lightly on the planet.

The forward-looking approach is bringing a huge range of benefits to the island. Eigg is bucking the trend of remote rural communities in having a growing population and increasing numbers of young people returning to the island.

“The Big Green Challenge has given me and many other younger folk the opportunity to get involved and work within the community on projects over the last year where we haven’t felt confident or lacked in experience to contribute before,” said 31-year-old project manager Tasha Lancaster, who was born and bred on Eigg.

“I feel the Big Green Challenge has brought us all together in a really positive way, making us closer through working together. The outward purpose of this project is tackling climate change but it’s also ensuring we continue to be a strong, vibrant healthy community to live in. These are very exciting times to be living on a wee small isle in the Scottish Hebrides!!”

Lucy Conway, one of the team of volunteers in London to receive the award added: “ It’s wonderful news – and a fantastic recognition of all the amazing hard work that people on Eigg have put in over the last twelve months and of the faith other people worldwide have had in us.

“The prize will really help us fufill our ambitions to go even further in reducing Eigg’s carbon footprint.  We’ve achieved a massive amount, but there’s still lots we’d like to do.  Eigg’s low carbon future has only just started.”

John Hutchison, chair of the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust, said: “There has been a great deal of hard work over the past two years and everyone deserves great credit. This puts Eigg firmly on the international stage.”

This is the moment we have all been waiting for and worked so hard for over the last year. Tomorrow the 13^th of January at NESTA’s head office in London an awards ceremony is being held to announce the winners of the Big Green Challenge competition that has 10 finalists in the running.

Leaving the island to the big smoke!

Five islanders have made the intrepid journey to attend the ceremony with fingers and toes crossed in returning with a share of the million pound prize. Win or loose we have gained so much out of the last year that all the hard work has certainly not gone to waste and no matter what the outcome for Eigg, we will continue to build on the projects and idea’s based on what we have learnt throughout 2009. At this point we would like to wish all the finalists luck for tomorrow and thereafter as everyone has tirelessly worked to reduce their carbon footprint within their communities and hopefully everyone will continue the good work to inspire other communities to follow in all our green footsteps!!

Over the last month we have survived some serious storms, had our fair share of some beautiful sunshine joined with a touch of frost and now all we await is a lovely sprinkling of snow for Christmas!

On Monday the 14^th we held the draw to pick our 3^rd household to get a solar water heating panel fitted. We have been running a pilot scheme to monitor fuel usage prior and post panel installation. We have already completed two households using coal and kerosene to heat their water with them being in the post monitoring stages and yesterdays draw was for a wood burning household. Wee Breagha picked a name from a hat and now the lucky winner is to monitor the wood consumption for six months and then it is planned to install the solar water heating panel in June. For a following six months fuel usage will continue to be monitored to then compare data at the end of the year.  

As was planned Tasha and Kathleen represented Eigg at NESTA’s reception in the House of Commons, which was a chance for finalists, key stakeholders and other similar climate change campaigners to meet, mingle and network. This

All finalists in the House of Commons

was all a little overwhelming for us with the amount of interest for Eigg and of course the fact we had been on the overnight sleeper that you don’t get any sleep on, getting caught in the morning rush of the underground where you share your personal space with three strangers, and getting to grips with the general fast pace of city ways like standing to the right on the escalator or else you have to run up the left to save emm, a minute!?! The reception was kicked of by encouraging speeches made by Nick Starr the Big Green Challenge judge that visited Eigg in September along with Paddy Tipping MP for Sherwood and David Kidney MP from the Department of Energy and Climate Change. They all expressed how inspiring the finalist’s projects have been and how stimulating and energising it is to see communities work together in such positive ways, wishing all groups the best in the competition and for the future.   After the reception all the finalists and a couple of people from NESTA were taken out to dinner and a well needed glass of wine for a chance to meet one another properly in a more relaxed environment. The following day we resisted shopping on Oxford Street and participated in a learning seminar in the NESTA offices. There was near enough two members from each finalist group and everyone gave very honest and informative feedback towards the trials and setbacks each group faced throughout the year. It was very refreshing to hear everyone had similar problems like excessive surveys that didn’t really benefit the community directly like the WWF Behaviour Change survey and the online household monitoring database not being ideal to measure co² savings effectively. All groups registered that we should have been in contact more throughout the year, although the point was raised that if we had made links it may have taken the competition element away.

NESTA has made it known that an awards ceremony will be held on the 13^th of January in the NESTA offices in London to announce the winners of the Big Green Challenge. Unfortunately it falls on a Wednesday so for us this will entail being away from Monday until Friday!! All finalist are encouraged to attend so a couple of us have signed up to take the epic journey and winners or ‘non prize winner winners’ we look forward to sharing a wee dram with all the finalists and congratulate everyone on the extreme commitment and hard work over the last year.

Emily and Tasha

 On the 23^rd of November in the Science Centre in Glasgow there was a conference, Human Rights and Climate Change organised by the Scottish Government, the Scottish Human Rights Commission, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and BTCV Scotland. Lucy did a fantastic presentation with an added mention to cutting out non essential air travel just especially for some of the main organisors of the event who had flown from London! The presentation generated much interest for Eigg from the audience and brought attention to our stall amongst other groups and organisations. Tasha, Ian from Eigg and Emily Read from Eco Drama manned the stall and many folk came chatting with numerous leaflets being given out and a few CD’s sold. It also generated much interest from school groups and universities wanting to take field trips to Eigg next year.  

Our woodfuel feasibility study has moved along a pace with the final draft being circulated for final comments and additions before bound copies are made. It looks positive stuff towards creating a small woodfuel business although how that might be structured is yet to be decided.  

The Car Club feasibility study is also on the move with a succession of meetings being held in Mallaig, Morar, Arisaig, Knoydart and the Small Isles throughout the last week in November to the beginning of December. Philip Igoe from Common Wheels hosted each meeting with all being well attended by residents to the area apart from Mallaig where no one turned up! However Philip has had positive feedback from those that did attend along with helpful and interesting ideas on how a scheme might work in this area. Without looking into the full figures he assumed with the level of interest shown that a car club could certainly be viable. Now we await Philips suggestions on pricing and basic rules of the scheme which will be circulated for suggestions and further discussion to see if it meets expectations.    

An idea that has been in the pipeline for awhile has been encouraging the wider public to take on a 5kw challenge. This has come up through the use our own electricity system and every household being capped at 5kw which we all find a comfortable and adequate amount to live within. We have drafted in the expertise of Osbert Lancaster from Footprint Consulting Limited to assist in the process. So far we have come up with, instead of us attempting to find willing participants, Osbert has suggested and agreed to organise a meeting with an invite to leading electricity providers to the Energy Saving Trust and similar bodies to adopt the concept and encourage their customers and the general public to take on the challenge. A meeting is planned in Edinburgh on the 15^th of January. In the meantime if any of you out there want to take on the challenge ahead of time please feel free to do so and tell us how you get on!

I would just like to take this opportunity in wishing you a merry wee time over the festive season, a huge thankyou for your support over the last year and all the very best for 2010!

Well that is our year up for the NESTA competition as our final report was lodged on the 9^th of October and now it’s a case of keeping our fingers crossed in waiting for the results to be announced some time in the New Year!! Of course just because the Big Green Challenge year is up doesn’t mean we stop with our greener habits and go back to leaving all the lights on, washing at 60^o and stoking the fires full of coal! Everything over the last year has been a learning experience and we look forward to continue building on everything we have learnt so far to keep on going greener! We have found some things that have worked and others that didn’t and then there was really exciting projects seeing solar panels going up and insulation being fitted. Then we have other projects that are only just beginning like the feasibility study for a car club based in Mallaig for the Small Isles and surrounding area and a study looking at woodfuel business on Eigg. These two projects if they prove viable on completion of the studies will be another exciting venture for the future. In the immediate future we are in the final stages of completing our solar panel pilot. So far we have fitted a solar water heating panel to a household that currently uses kerosene and another that uses coal to heat their water. Now to finish this pilot we need a household that uses solely wood. We will then be able to compare all fuel types and the saving that can be made through monitoring fuel consumption prior and post installation. We will hold a draw at the beginning of December to ascertain the lucky household.      

The insulation programme on the two largest households belonging to the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust, Laig Farmhouse and Crows Nest have been completed with both tenants looking forward to their first warm winter. Now the insulation programme will continue with the 6 other Trust properties with minor insulation work.

Over the year we have seen some exciting new builds, bringing our population to 96!!

      Straw bale build so far

 The arrival of the straw

     A fine bit of community spirit!!

 Renovation to a ruin by two Eigg born brothers.

    New build with all the up to date technologies

Round House built from wood sourced on Eigg

Other things on the go is a few events on and off island. Here on Eigg we have a guest speaker booked to come and talk about Peak Oil on Friday the 13^th of November. We will be joined by Dr Mandy Meikle of Depletion Scotland who has been giving talks on peak oil for 5 years. Peak oil is the other side of the climate change coin – we talk about reducing carbon when we need to be reducing energy demand. Energy will become more expensive in the future and that means that everything will become more expensive. Communities need to be working on increasing their resilience to future economic changes. On the 23^rd of November in Glasgow there is a conference, Human Rights and Climate Change in the Science Centre. Lucy Conway will give a talk and Eigg has also been invited to have a stall for a chance to network. We will share our stall with Eco Drama an exciting innovative group providing educational shows and workshop to primary schools, high schools, festivals and community venues across Scotland. Uniquely touring in The Magic Van, a vehicle run on renewable bio diesel, Eco Drama aims to liven up core environmental topics and motivate children, young people and the community towards leading greener, healthier lifestyles. From recycling workshops to interactive theatre shows about sustainable living, we engage & educate in the values of caring & being responsible for the natural world.  Eco Drama can even help on your journey to becoming a top class Eco School! For more information have a look at www.ecodrama.co.uk

Two of us will also be going to London for the 19^th and 20^th of November. NESTA have organised a reception for all the finalists at the House of Commons to celebrate the end of the Big Green Challenge year. Joan Ruddock MP, Minister in the Department of Energy and Climate Change, has been invited to give the keynote speech, and the reception will be attended by Members of Parliament and other environmental and climate change stakeholders. There will also be a finalist learning seminar the following day to discuss everyone’s projects in full. It will be a first chance to meet everyone that has worked so hard over the competition year and exciting opportunity to discuss trials and tribulations!

 A few things we have researched for our newsletter on food waste we thought should be shared:

Waste Aware Scotland
Scottish householders throw out around a third of the food we buy and over half of this could have been eaten. Potatoes, apples and salads are dumped in vast numbers but also unopened pots and bottles. According to this campaign this amounts to £410 worth of food per year for the average household.  If we stopped wasting all this food, we could prevent the equivalent of 1.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year in Scotland. This is the same as taking 1 in 4 cars off the road. Go to: www.wasteawarelovefood.org.uk

WRAP
Another similar campaign, Love Food Hate Waste, helps make some easy changes in your home, and view a range of tips on how to plan, shop, store and cook your food in order to minimise what you need to throw away. The website also includes seasonal hints, tips and recipe ideas.
Go to: www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

The Fife Diet
The Fife diet is a local food experiment. A number of people from Fife have pledged to eat only locally produced food for a whole year. You can find out how they are getting on at:
Go to: fifediet.wordpress.com

BBC Scotland’s Out of Doors explores Eigg’s Big Green Challenge.  Saturday 24th October 0630, or for those of you who can’t be awake that early, on IPlayer HERE

Message from the Scottish Parliament – Eigg leads the way – say MSPs Dave Thompson and Rob Gibson. 

“The work of the Eigg community is both impressive and inspiring, setting a great example of what can be achieved through community cohesion and initiative.  I hope other communities are able to learn from their commitment to self sufficiency and continue to raise the standards of accountability on carbon emissions reductions and other green initiatives.”  Dave Thompson MSP

“I have long experience of working for communities revival. Eigg is like a ripe acorn. The island’s families have pooled their talents, they show others how to become carbon savvy, their newly won self-sufficiency in electricity is an example for many others and as the acorn fertilises new projects will ensure sustainable living in this climate change age. They will surely flourish on Eigg and from those who plant these fertile seeds themselves.”  Rob Gibson MSP

Just as we’re finishing our final report for the Big Green Challenge, the BBC have spotted us!

Residents of a tiny Hebridean island hope their five step web-based environmental project can help combat climate change and “save the world”.

Sign up to the Phone Co-op and support the Isle of Eigg’s Big Green Challenge

 When you sign up for phone, broadband and mobile services from the Phone Co-op 6% of your spend will go to supporting our community here on the Isle of Eigg.

Why the Phone Co-op?

 The Phone Co-op is the only real option for anyone seeking a more ethical and environmentally responsible supplier of telephone calls, broadband and line rental. Owned and democratically controlled by its customers, the co-operative is primarily concerned with giving customers what they want, namely good value, excellent service and a socially responsible, environmentally sustainable approach to business.

 Phone Co-op line rental and mobile services are both rated a ‘Best Buy’ by Ethical Consumer magazine.

What’s more, the co-operative was winner of the Green England ‘Best for Customer Service’ Award, so you can be confident that you’ll receive high standards of service as well as getting an excellent deal on price.

 QUOTE ‘Isle of Eigg’ and AF0437 to receive a £10 credit on your first bill

For further info: www.thephone.coop/eigg

For advice on which package best suits your needs ~ 0845 458 9040