Sustaining the future in Assynt

Situated amongst some of the wildest and most remote scenery in the North West Highlands of Scotland, the parish of Assynt is dominated by spectacular mountain landscapes.

Pioneers in the past, leading the first community buyout of land in 1993 ( through the Assynt Crofters Trust) the community of Assynt are again seeking to pioneer approaches to sustaining their future. This time, they are tackling the challenges of climate change through the newly established Assynt Renewables. With support from the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund they are seeking to reduce the carbon footprint of the Assynt Parish area through an energy efficiency project and to secure a more sustainable future through looking at what natural resources can be used for energy.

Chairperson for Assynt Renewables, Alastair Macaskill commented:
“ We are delighted to have been awarded this grant. We will use the £74,220 to employ a project officer for two years and meet project costs. This will be a challenging piece of work as we have housing dispersed throughout a large area along with minimal access to public transport. Looking to the future we know we need to use less energy and find ways to be more sustainable. We know that some 28% of carbon emissions come from householders. This is something we can start to tackle.”

Mark Lazzeri, Development Manager of Assynt Foundation and a member of the board of Assynt Renewables explained:
“ We will start with small steps encouraging householders to take part in an energy audit then look to what solutions we can find as a community to reduce our energy usage. We will investigate ways to make the most of the resources we have around us from food to fuel sources.”

Another board member Chris Chant added:
“One of the exciting possibilities we are exploring is how to reduce our fuel for transport so we investigating options such as electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles. Transport is a real issues here and we had a taste of what happens when the price of oil rocketed last summer. We want to be at the front of change rather than on the receiving end of it in the future.”

The specific objectives for the project include:
· Establishing the baseline carbon footprint of the area.

· Carrying out an energy audit of houses, community buildings and businesses

· Supporting a programme of insulation and efficiency measures to reduce the carbon footrpint

· Investigating the feasibility of local microrenewables schemes which could serve clusters of houses and community buildings

· Assessment of options to reduce the transport miles and food miles in the parish through greater use of local food products and greater quantity of local food processing as well as looking at options for electric and/or hybrid power vehicles

· Looking at possibilities for greater use of wood as a fuel


The project is being supported by Changeworks (Energy Saving Scotland Advice Centre for the Highlands and Islands ) and the John Muir Trust. It will work also with Community Energy Scotland in terms of auditing of some community buildings and looking at community run renewable energy options .

Warm Homes - value for money

In this credit crunch climate - value for money takes on a new imperative. How to make that pound go further? Saving energy in the home is one place to start. In doing so we not only reduce our carbon footprint but we get lower energy bills. One council in England - Kirklees has taken on the need to do this is serious way. EVERY household is being offered FREE insulation through their warm homes initiative .

The Green Party has called for a similar initiative in Scotland. This has the support of the John Muir Trust. This video link on youtube brings the Kirklees initiative to life as well as telling you more about the Green Party Proposal. The is vote is tomorrow - so maybe we too will all soon have warm homes!

Do you know what percentage of the total carbon emissions in the UK come from our homes?

Our homes in the UK are responsible for some 28% of the total UK carbon emissions. Staggering but it is possible to significantly reduce if not eliminate emmisions from homes.

According to the Energy Savings Trust simple energy saving measures can reduce the emissions by two thirds (from six tonnes to two tonnes). Of course we are talking averages here and many houses in the Highlands and Islands are 'not yer average'. Solid walls, no loft to insulate... The technical term is 'hard to heat' and when the wind is blowing - that becomes very clear.

Meantime some communities have decided not to wait for wholesale Government action and are pressing ahead and tackling issues for themselves ( often supported by the Climate Challenge Fund - which is Government money) .

A number of communities are looking at doing energy audits as a starting point for taking action and working out how best to produce carbon savings. So what does an energy audit involve?

With help from the Energy Savings Trust, each household can complete a form and get a report on how energy efficient their home is and what measures can be taken to make the home more energy efficient. This is marked on a scale from one to ten. This is a FREE service.

I took part in an event recently and heard about three different approaches from three different communities to energy auditing. One community was going for delivery of Energy Savings Trust forms to every home with the offer of help to complete it, another community was going to have fun events and approach people to get their interest first and the third community was going to devise their own form to suit their community.

And tackling those 'hard to heat' houses? Changeworks (who have the local Energy Savings Trust contract for the Highlands area) have produced helpful information on resolving some of the problems including underfloor insulation. Historic Scotland also have more helpful information.

Assynt plans

Leaving Lochinver as the sun crept over the snow capped mountains and the day broke was stunning. The journey was peaceful, swift and smooth – I was the only passenger on the bus. We followed the school bus ( with spaces on it) and I admired the scenery whilst pondering the poor use of resources – a warm bus shared with school children would not have been a hardship - for me anyway.

I have just returned from meeting people in Lochinver. Transport was one of the issues raised by the people of Assynt during discussions about their bid to the Climate Challenge Fund. People are aware that the resources are not always used to the best.

It is hoped through the Climate Challenge Fund to; employ someone locally to support an Energy Audit and insulation programme; look at the feasibility for renewable energy for clusters of housing; and ways to reduce food miles including processing more food locally.

The other issue raised was how to maximise a natural carbon neutral resource on their door step - wood.

Most of the communities that JMT is involved with have at least some wood available to them. Planning now for the future means planting trees that can then be coppiced thus providing a long term sustainable source of fuel. 

One issue to consider is plans contained in the Climate Change Bill to lease out 25% of the forest estate to private investors.  If you are concerned about this write to liz.kirk@forestry.gsi.gov.uk BEFORE 27th Jan 2009 or sign the petition here

Meanwhile – congratulations to the communities that have successfully bid for Climate Challenge Funds through Community Energy Scotland's Powerdown initiative. They are Knoydart Foundation and Galson Community Trust.