Eco Teams

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Project type:

Behaviour Change

Foundation funding:

£8,220

Total project value:

£10,220

Lifetime CO₂ savings:

57.10tonnes

Riversmeet Community Cooperative has launched Eco Teams, a pioneering project that is training 20 enthusiastic volunteers from Cockermouth, and surrounding villages, to become the green leaders of their local community and implement changes that will cut carbon emissions and save people money.

The green leaders are using their new skills to recruit teams of neighbours, friends, work colleagues and community groups to follow a step by step programme that will measurably reduce energy, water and transport use in a fun and informative way. The Eco Teams training is being delivered by Global Action Plan (GAP) and past results of the initiative have been impressive with the average household achieving a 16.6% decrease in CO2 emissions and an annual fuel bill saving of £170.

“We decided to set up the project after a series of ‘coffee house challenges’ where we ask local environmental enthusiasts what they wanted to do,” said Riversmeet’s Frank McGrath. “There was a group of people who wanted to take practical action, but needed a way to do this and Eco Teams fitted the bill.”

Teams get together monthly to tackle a series of action-focused topics, looking at key green issues and deciding what changes they can make to help reduce their impact on the environment . With the help of GAP’s online resources the teams start to measure and record their progress in reducing household waste, energy usage and unnecessary travel.

At the end of the project, each team will be presented with its results including how much carbon they have saved individually, as a team, and across the whole EcoTeams initiative.