In this series of case studies, sector leaders outline some of the steps they have taken to drive climate action in their organisations. This doesn’t mean they have completed everything, but that they have picked a place to start, which unblocks fear and drives action in other areas. We hope this series gives you lots of ideas for climate action in your own organisation. If you would like to submit a case study to keep this series going, please email heloisa.righetto@acevo.org.uk.
This week, we hear from Gus Alston, the Stonegrove Community Trust CEO, a resident-led charity providing secure, buzzing, informative and fun spaces for all to enjoy while promoting community integration and reducing social isolation.
Areas of focus: measuring emissions and setting reduction plans; governance and strategy; funding.
Can you describe the actions you have taken? How did you identify the problem and implement a process?
The Stonegrove Community Trust is focused on community organising, led by residents, but this kind of model means change can take time. Identifying larger, broader areas of interest which the organisation can lead on encourages involvement, and in identifying areas which the local community and society cared about, climate action and equity and inclusion were identified.
We have focused on very practical areas, and looked at what other organisations are doing well to find inspiration and advice – we were particularly inspired by the great work of Power Up North London. Our first step was to seek funding from the City Bridge Trust to support our first eco-audit, but this was delayed by Covid-19. We eventually carried this out in August 2020, and published our results on our website along with our other key actions. Transparency is really important to us and identifying what we can’t do alongside actions we can take is important.
We were able to start from a fairly strong position, which made our practical journey easier; we have a modern building which was less carbon intensive than we expected. However, we still wanted to set ambitious targets, and in Autumn 2020 we discussed our net-zero by the end of 2022 with our board. This was signed off in January 2021. Our board were convinced by the fact that climate and local environment matters to the community we work with, and embedding this in our mission was vital.
What has been successful? What would you most like to celebrate from the action you took?
The biggest success has been working with other organisations and finding so many opportunities to collaborate. We worked with the brilliant community energy company Power Up North London, who supported us with some of our key practical actions and introducing us to suppliers. In Barnet, we were able to work with Barnet Together and form the Barnet VCS Environmental Network – a coalition of 65 members who meet monthly and form a monthly newsletter, sharing their learning and actions, which is now led by Inclusion Barnet.
The impact of this collaboration comes from inspiring others to act within our community, and as a community centre this has felt like a powerful way of having an impact. If many more organisations can learn from each other and then change things in their own spheres of influence we could see a huge amount of change.
What has been most challenging? Have you had to change your approach in any areas?
The main challenges have been – as ever – money and capacity. We have had to find staff time to devote to applying for money to support our work in this space, which has been really challenging during Covid. However it is possible, and especially at the moment we need to be asking funders to support this work wherever we have the power to do so, as the narrative around climate breakdown picks up pace. In small organisations, resourcing fundraising is one of the biggest ongoing challenges, and we really empathise with this as a challenge across civil society.
What did you learn from starting work in this area? What learning points would you most like to share with other leaders?
I was pleasantly surprised by the experience of taking this to our board. As a leader one of the hardest things is the nervousness around identifying the initial rationale, but actually a big learning point was how universal this is as an issue people can identify with, and the strength of interest. While it might seem initially challenging to find a link to your mission, flipping this on its head and thinking of a charity which would be entirely unimpacted by climate breakdown is impossible, and this helped us to find some of the more obvious low hanging fruit.
Reaching out to others who have started and asking what their experience has taught them has also been invaluable – people are happy to share, and being a CEO can be lonely without the support of others. The climate crisis working group at ACEVO has been a really useful vehicle for many of these discussions.
How could the sector more effectively collaborate or share knowledge in this space? Can ACEVO or other membership bodies support this work in ways which would have helped you?
It would be great to see some conversations across charity infrastructure organisations about this issue, especially after COP26. The sector needs to come together more effectively around this issue, as individual action won’t be enough to drive larger-scale change. Facilitating networking, connection and learning feels vital, and the convening power of our infrastructure bodies would be a very helpful place to start. Something like the brilliant Julie’s Bicycle for the charity sector could really help to drive this conversation.
