For individuals
The Toolkit captures information about the carbon reduction actions that individuals, businesses, community groups and schools in your local community are taking and planning to take. It also records what actions can’t be taken, and why.
The Toolkit:
- Inspires you to take carbon reducing actions
- Shows your progress and your commitments
- Anonymises your data to build a powerful picture of what’s happening locally, to inform local council policy making.
We have ranked every action’s typical carbon reduction impact according to the following system:
- Low: this action saves up to 100 kg of CO2
- Medium: this action saves between 100 kg and 1 tonne of CO2
- High: this action saves over 1 tonne of CO2
Based on research, we ranked the typical cost of each action as follows:
- 0 – inexpensive or free
- £ – less than £100
- ££ – £100 – £500
- £££ – £500 – £1,000
- ££££ – over £1,000
Your personal information is stored securely and never shared or sold.
It is anonymised and summarised with everyone else’s information to create a powerful picture of what’s happening locally. That picture is shared with your local council. Only the anonymised, summarised picture is shared, never an individual’s information.
The picture is used to help local councils create their own Carbon Reduction Plans. These are therefore based on specific, detailed local information.
As use of the Toolkit increases, the local council pictures could be summarised at county and national levels to support and develop policies county-wide and nationally.
For local councils
The Toolkit is a means for local councils to engage with their local communities. To inspire carbon reducing actions by everyone. Above all, it it is used to gather information about what’s actually happening locally.
With that specific, detailed local information, local councils can formulate policies to support what’s needed in their community. For instance to support applications for funding, and to drive carbon savings in their area.
As use of the Toolkit spreads, it will increasingly support the development of policies and actions at county and national levels, too.
There’s a whole library of support available to help local councils adopt The Great Collaboration Toolkit. It is structured into four sections:
- Declare: a template document for the council to declare a climate emergency and link its community engagement actions to the Toolkit.
- Promote: a wide range of resources to help councils promote the use of the Toolkit to their communities. Ready-to-go social media campaigns, posters, videos, photos, a marketing plan and so on.
- Plan: a template Carbon Reduction Plan document linked to the actions defined within the Toolkit. Councils can use this to define the specific actions they will take to support what’s happening locally.
- Report: a report format for local councils to see what’s happening locally.
The Great Collaboration Toolkit is a partnership project between Herefordshire Green Network, Caplor Horizons and Fownhope Parish Council. The toolkit has been funded by the MCS Foundation.
It has involved collaborations with with HALC (Herefordshire Association of Local Councils), NALC (National Association of Local Councils), the Centre for Alternative Technology and Herefordshire based national sustainability experts.
Significant research by the Herefordshire Green Network has gone into formulating the actions within the Toolkit. Furthermore we are very grateful for the scrutiny this work has received from expert reviewers. Reviewers including the Zero Carbon Britain team at the Centre for Alternative Technology. Where appropriate we have collated additional background data and information to demonstrate sources of advice and information.
The Toolkit is based around an easily accessible list of actions that are applicable to everyday life. It covers the areas of Buildings, Transport, Food and Waste, Land Use, Energy, Money and Use Your Voice.
People interacting with the Toolkit (as individuals, business or groups) will navigate through these themes. They can indicate if they have already done them, are going to do them or need help to do them.
That information is captured so that data can be provided about what people are doing, committing to or need help with.
The data will be presented in a series of graphs and reports showing local council level information. A valuable ‘snapshot’ of current and planned carbon reduction actions. This can then be further analysed as the Toolkit develops in the future.
However, the Toolkit also allows people to explore the reasons why actions are needed. For instance, local level actions and initiatives, other impacts, and co-benefits (such as social or ecological). There are also lots of links to further sources information. Each action also gives an indication of its cost and carbon impact.
We researched the 10 – 15 most carbon impactful household / individual actions for each section, broadly categorised as:
- 3 – 4 that might have a high impact on a household / individual’s carbon footprint
- 3 – 4 that might have a moderate impaction a household / individual’s carbon footprint
- 3 – 4 that might have a low impact on a household / individual’s carbon footprint (but still have relevance for behaviour change and engagement)
We ranked those actions for their annual carbon reduction impact (based on a variety of sources):
- Low: Up to 100 kg (e.g. anything from boiling a litre of water to buying a pair of shoes)
- Medium: 100 kg to 1 tonne (e.g. switching a London to Glasgow return journey from car to train saves 210kg)
- High over 1 tonne (e.g. solar PV saves 1.8 tonnes/year)
Based on research, we ranked the costs of the actions:
- 0 – inexpensive or free
- £ – less than £100
- ££ – £100 – £500
- £££ – £500 – £1,000
- ££££ – over £1,000
Above all, significant research by the Herefordshire Green Network went into formulating the actions within the Toolkit. We are very grateful for the scrutiny this work has received from expert reviewers. Reviewers including the Zero Carbon Britain team at the Centre for Alternative Technology.