South Shropshire Climate Action
What can you do as a Town & Parish Council?
Book some carbon literacy training
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Parish and Town Councils are at the heart of our communities and ought to cascade that understanding to people - to change diets, how we heat and light our buildings, how we travel, and what we buy so we reuse and recycle.
Save Our Shropshire (SOS) run inspirational and practical courses for Parish and Town Councils to help them engage with their communities. It is based on the Carbon Literacy Project’s material and can lead to Carbon Literacy (CL) certification. It helps turns learning into local action.
Click here to find out more: Parish/Town Council workshops - Save Our Shropshire
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Use the Impact Community Carbon
Calculator to assess your community's carbon footprint
The Centre for Sustainable Energy has developed the online Impact Community Carbon Calculator tool It calculates the total amount of greenhouse gases produced directly and indirectly as a result of everyday human activities (heating homes, using electricity, transport, producing and distributing food, disposing of waste, etc.) at the level of parishes, wards, district councils and unitary authorities. It helps communities target their resources to gain the greatest impact in reducing emissions.
Use this toolkit to identify actions councils can take
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Stay Green is a website and toolkit designed to help Town and Parish Councils identify and implement sustainability policies. The toolkit identifies sustainable actions, and provides step-by-step guides on best practice across all areas including buildings, transport and community engagement.
Write a Town or Parish Council Climate Action Plan
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To help you:
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Use the Impact data to guide the priorities you set in your council’s climate action plan.
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Read some of the plans Shropshire Town and Parish Councils have already devised:
o See Bishop Castle’s Climate and Nature Action Plan update 2024-25
o See Clun's Climate Action Plan update 2023
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A simple proforma was developed for Wem Town Council’s climate action plan.
A blank template for your Climate Action Plan can be found here.
Make your community buildings more energy efficient and save money
The Centre for Sustainable Energy has a Community Action Plan guide on how to retrofit a community building
The Marches Energy Grant (MEG) scheme offers free advice, energy assessments and grants for energy efficiency and renewable energy measures to SMEs from all sectors. The funding is also available to support community buildings. The project also provides networking and webinar events for SMEs and other organisations.
​Sign up via: www.marchesgrowthhub.co.uk/marches-energy-grant for a free energy efficiency audit to assess equipment, premises, processes and performance and identify opportunities for improvements in energy usage. Grants are available for projects worth up to £20,000 (some match funding is required)
This Leaflet on Energy Advice and Support for Community Buildings in South Shropshire contains further advice on the support that is available.
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Share your successful local projects with Carbon Copy
Carbon Copy is a national charity offering ideas and motivation to drive local action to protect us from climate breakdown and defend Nature.
The Carbon Copy network includes climate action stories from over 1,000 UK organisations (including some in Shropshire) and area-specific information about the changing climate and Climate Action Plans. Add your success story here.