North Howe Transition Toun - creating greener communities

The Greenshoots Fund was established to invest in projects that deliver strong community and environmental benefits. And in 2010, it took its first step in fulfilling its commitment to creating greener communities.

North Howe Transition Toun (NHTT), a community interest company focusing on climate change issues at a local level, applied to the Greenshoots Fund to assist with its CaRB Project.

NHTT represents four small villages in a rural area of Fife, around 40 kilometres from FMC Technologies' Dunfermline plant. NHTT's CaRB Project targeted households which had been previously classed as 'hard-to-treat' - due to their traditional construction materials and design - under the Energy Saving Trust's Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and similar grant schemes.

The Greenshoots Fund made £26,103 available to NHTT which was used to support 57 different

energy-saving measures to households e.g. insulation and draught proofing. The measures

resulted in 43.35 tonnes of annual CO2 saved - with an estimated lifetime saving of 1563 tonnes

over 40 years.

In addition to CO2 savings, the reduction in energy usage by householders will result in a combined reduction in fuel bills of around £12,687 per year and a lifetime total of £180,984.

NHTT also allocated funds to vulnerable groups which were known to be in fuel poverty, helping

local people, who had previously been unable to access alternative grant schemes, to improve their standard of living.

Tom Morton, NHTT's CaRB project manager, said: "The Greenshoot Fund was a key element in our project's success - allowing us to achieve things we otherwise could not. A major barrier we faced was that most people living in the NHTT area could not access the common CERT subsidies

for energy effi ciency measures. The Greenshoots Fund allowed us to level that imbalance and

cut fuel bills and increase thermal comfort for a significant proportion of our community."

North Howe Transition Toun CaRB Project:

. Exceeded its original carbon saving target on application to the Greenshoots Fund by 9%

. The Greenshoot Fund investment cost £483/tonne of CO2 saved, 26% lower than original target of £653/tonne. Lifetime carbon saving is £13.40/tonne.

. Higher than expected community engagement, delivering 57 energy-saving measures to individual households

www.fmctechnologies.com/greenshootsfund

greenshootsfund@intl.fmcti.com

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