Sidmouth Carbon Challenge

The Sidmouth Carbon Challenge is helping residents of one Devon town to reduce the amount of energy they use and the amount of waste they produce.

The project, which is run by environmental organisation Global Action Plan, is turning local secondary school Sidmouth College into a hub for community carbon reduction.

Victoria Thompson, South West Schools Programme Manager at Global Action Plan, explains: "The students are taking part in our Action on Energy programme, while members of the wider community are able to participate in our EcoTeams programme. What's exciting about the challenge is that for the first time, we'll see what a community can achieve when it engages in both of these programmes at the same time."

Taking action on energy

The Action on Energy project is being led by a core team of nine students, along with staff and members of a local sustainability group. "We've trained the students to audit energy use within the school," explains Victoria.

"As well as taking meter readings, they'll look at habits and behaviours such as whether people leave lights and computers switched on when they're not needed. They're also undertaking a renewable energy feasibility study."

The students will use their findings to produce an action plan and targets for reducing energy use in school and then launch a school-wide campaign to implement the plan. They'll conduct a follow-up audit in summer 2010 to measure its impact.

Starting in January 2010 Sidmouth College students will also be visiting local primary schools to train younger students in how to conduct energy audits and develop their own energy action plans.  

Forming EcoTeams

People living in the local community can get involved in the Sidmouth Carbon Challenge through the EcoTeams project. "An EcoTeam is a group of between five and eight households who meet up once a month to talk about different aspects of energy use, measure their own energy consumption and come up with energy-saving actions to complete before the next session," says Victoria.

"We're recruiting 20 team leaders who'll attend training sessions in the school and then go out and find other households to join their teams."

Each EcoTeam member has access to the EcoTeams website where they can download useful resources, upload their energy use data and find out how much carbon they've saved. On average, members of an EcoTeam reduce their carbon emissions by more than 16 per cent and the amount of waste they produce by 20 per cent.