Updates from Going Green Together - Issue #1

Hello, Going Green Together is a new initiative to support VCSE organisations in the North East on their journey towards NetZero.

Over the last few months VONNE and the other members of the VONNE Climate Action Alliance have been working together to talk to others in the North East VCSE sector about how we can create and support a movement of organisations to take climate action by learning more, making organisational changes and support conversations and climate action activities in and through their work. This work has been support through the Catalyst and National Lottery Community Fund COVID-19 Digital Programme. We have carried out lots of research with organisations, built a prototype website and carried out testing and conversations on some tools that we could develop to support the sector.

The majority of the organisations we spoke to said they need help to start to take their first steps to address the climate emergency and also that they wanted to learn more about the issue and how they could or should respond.

This work has culminated in a web-based engagement and action tool - Going Green Together that enables organisations to find and take their first steps in a variety of topic areas - office, travel, energy, food, engagement and waste. The website also encourages organisations to share and inspire others with the actions they have taken.

Why not take a look and see what you can share and get some ideas for action!

The climate emergency and climate change is a big topic and the science can be hard to understand. We have pulled together some quick and easy resources to help you learn more about the climate emergency and climate change to give you the motivation to take action and to talk to others about what you are doing and why.

🔗 Going Green Together - Learn

We are using Meetup as a way to build our community and to organise and share events, meetings and briefings. We’d love you to join our MeetUp group so we can keep you up to date with events. Our first meet up will be on 16th September at 16:30- a chance for everyone to meet each other and to find out more and shape Going Green Together.

🎟 Join us on Meetup

A new £2.5million National Lottery-funded programme has launched to support communities across the UK take action on climate change

The ‘Together for Our Planet’ funding programme is offering grants of between £1,000 and £10,000 to support local community projects, covering areas such as food, transport, energy, waste and consumption and the natural environment.

🔗 National Lottery Community Fund website

As part of activities relating to the UN COP26 conference being hosted in Glasgow in November, Carbon Copy are working with regional Energy Hubs to gather projects and case studies to be published online. This is a great opportunity for VCSE organisations to shout about what they’ve been doing in their local areas.

🔗 North East & Yorkshire Energy Hub

Funding covers up to 40 per cent of the total cost of a bike, up to a maximum of £2.5k for two-wheel models and £4.5k for three-wheel models. Applications will be capped at five bikes per organisation. Larger applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Applications may include more than one organisation.

🔗 Energy Saving Trust website

The North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership invite you to a short presentation and informal conversation to find out more about our one year Heritage lottery project A Landscape for Everyone.

This project is focused on two questions:

• How can we make the North Pennines, more welcoming and accessible to a greater diversity of people?

• Who doesn’t get the opportunity to visit and connect with the North Pennines, and why?

🔗 Join us on Meetup

Power to Change have joined forces with AimHi to deliver a Climate and Sustainability Leadership Course, designed for the community business sector. This solutions-focused, live and interactive 5-part course will be running free for the community business sector during Great Big Green Week, starting September 20th.

🔗 Visit the EventBrite page for more information and to register

Join the Going Green Together movement today – to learn, take your first steps in climate action, and share your successes with the community to help inspire others. Connect with us and others by joining our network.