We would like to raise awareness and promote discussion about climate change through thought provoking film, lived experience and information sharing by delivering a monthly programme over the next year. This programme would include topics which relate to the criteria identified by the Green Living Fund.

In order to be able to do this in the current climate, with no barriers, we would like to make this programme available at little or no cost to participants.

To facilitate this we propose joining an organisation called Take One Action –

“Take One Action nurtures communal exploration of the stories, ideas and questions at the heart of positive social change. Through film screenings, conversation and enquiry, we bring people together to inspire a fairer, more sustainable and more fulfilling world, in Scotland and beyond our borders”

This enables us to access a film catalogue and screen 6 films in a year without a license.

After each screening we propose to have a discussion on the topic, have information available and refer participants to other organisation locally that they can contact to take action locally – or nationally if relevant.

We have piloted this idea with a film called Riverwoods  - at the end we asked if any of those attending were interested in volunteering for a local rewilding project to leave their contact details. We checked with the project organiser recently and they were delighted by the number of folks who volunteered to help them.

Rattray Community Garden has 23 raised beds for planting and growing fruit and veg locally to help with the circular economy and cost of living by making more food available locally. 

Collecting water from main building and greenhouse:

3 x water butts £134.97

3 x Rainwater Diverter Kits £29.97

To support cultivation: wheelbarrows, watering cans:  £43.99 and £20.97

Progress/Activity chalkboard: £88

Signage: 3 signs @ £95 each - total £285

Installation costs £250

50% Running costs for 2024 - £960 water, £400 electricity 

Total request is £2,576

Impact

Implementing water collection and supporting running costs and equipment will bring the use of the garden to fruition alowing us to put it to full use which will include:

• planting fruit and vegetables in our 23 riased compost beds, involving locals and demonstrating how to plant, nurture and grow our own food
• working with schools and local groups/organisations on growing food locally - the garden volunteers, Blair in Bloom, Biodiversity Blair, SCYD etc
• offering the fruit and veg to volunteers, locals and selling some to help with on-going costs
• hosting events, food fesitvals, food demonstrations etc 
• demonstrating ways of collecting and using rain water which can be replicated at home thus potentially reducing water bills

All of the above is taken from the original business plan created back in 2019/20 and is aimed at providing food and knowledge to locals to reduce their food purchase costs by growing their own, allowing those without garden space to grow items and sharing the cost of growing locally. This will have a direct imapct on the local Cost of Living with the fruit and veg being made available and will have the longer term benefit of sharing the knowledge and ideas of growing your own food with the community and can be a stepping stone to create a wider, larger community farm where locals can grow and access home grown food thus reducing their food bills.

Kinross-shire Climate Cafe is proposing to set up a Repair Cafe, video link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvIvvJl09dg.

This initiative would be the first of its kind in Kinross-shire, based on the experience of the Repair Cafes in Crieff, Pitlochry and Aberfeldy.

Our aims:

- encourage local people to reduce waste through repair of their broken items with a positive outcome of waste reduction and mitigation of climate change,

- reduce living costs as it is usually more cost effective to repair a good quality old item than to buy a new one,

- develop community links and exchange of expertise in the practical setting of Repair Café,

- strengthen our community in climate change adaptation with a supportive popup climate café,

- provide a swap shop facility to further reduce living costs and promote sustainable fashion.

Kinross-shire Repair Cafe would be a community-led project run by Kinross-shire Climate Café volunteers. The events would take place on four different weekend days in 2024 from 11 – 3pm in the local town halls. The format of the Café would be informal: a walk-in café where people come and bring their broken items to be repaired. Clients would not pay for the repairs but would pay for parts and materials used. There are two possible locations that we envisage for the location to widen the area of provision: Kinross and Milnathort. But the Repair Café would also be providing repairs and working with a wider Kinross-shire community with the total population in excess of 11,000.

The events would be advertised through the local press, leaflet distribution at Kinross Farmers Markets, social media and Loch Leven Community Library. The project will support the local economy by involving small local businesses with repair expertise, links with the future Repairers have been made. It will create opportunities for people with skills currently out of employment or retired who are experts and craftsmen. The repair Café would involve 10 volunteers for each event, which amounts to 200 volunteer hours.

One of the aims of the project is to reduce the living costs as through repair you lower your spendings in the long term especially if items that are broken are of better quality. This helps to reduce the effect of inflation on your household budget.

Finally, as part of Repair Café we would also hold a swap shop to reduce textile waste and a pop-up climate café to have friendly chats on different aspects of climate change adaptation and how to cope with the climate change crisis.

Our congregation is carrying out a major refurbishment of the church sanctuary to create a new flexible space available for community use, with an Air Source Heat Pump heating installation to improve comfort levels in the building.

The current heating system is approx. 100 years old, lacks flexibility of control and is inefficient. Using renewable technology will improve energy efficiency, be environmentally friendly and be more versatile in its control.  The new space will allow larger community gatherings and activities to take place, with direct access created to our existing kitchen facilities.

The new flexible space will increase the capacity available to support the various Warm Space initiatives and Youth Drop In that we have started in the last year.  The building will be more accessible, less damaging to the environment and provide an improved public space for community use.

The community will benefit from our ongoing activities tackling social isolation and providing groups with a warm and comfortable place to meet.

Earlier in 2023 we ran 6 sessions with local people showing them how to plant, nurture and grow their own fruit and vegetables and would like to repeast that again in 2024 to extend the reach and knowledge. The project provided the containers, compost and seeds and participants came along each week to learn how to plant their own which they took away to look after at home, complete the growing to fruition and ultimately enjoy the fruits of their labours! Costs cover all of the items for 20 people:

Compost & Growbags  - £250

Equipment (planters, potato bags, canes and sundries like gloves, twine etc) - £200

Seeds &Plants - £170

Admin £60

Total £680

On the Mend is a learning and skills based upcycling project where the positive impacts of making and mending, on building self-esteem, good mental health, and a connected community are promoted.  The project has no barriers to participation and encourages creativity, trying a new skill, repairing, reusing or repurposing rather than buying new.  On the Mend works in partnership with the CATH Shop on the High Street.  The CATH Shop is Revolve certified (a Zero Waste Scotland quality standard for reuse) and last year customers prevented 48,000 items from going to landfill.  Between our existing shop on the High St and our new premises we want to highlight the journey donated goods take to being upcycled and all the environmental and personal benefits that can bring.  This project will pave the way for a changing city centre and developing a resilient stronger greener economy that is accessible to all.

The On the Mend project has operated from various locations across Perth but our most recent, along the Ladeside had no heating and was damp.  We were lucky, alongside other CATH projects, to be offered a vacant shop on the High St at a greatly reduced rent.  On the Mend moved to our new home at the end of November.  We have with little to no budget created a warm and welcoming upcycling space and true to the spirit of the project have completely furnished the space with reuse furniture.  

Funding from the Community Investment Fund has meant we are able to offer upcycling groups on Wednesday 1-3 and Friday 1-3.  These have been well attended and have generated interest with individuals wanting to volunteer to share skills in upholstery, sewing skills, upcycled clothing, knitting and crochet.  We have also been approached as a venue for repair cafes and other community groups booking workshops to support wellbeing.

The On the Mend project proposal for the Green living fund would support us to

1. Continue to rent a property on Perth High Street with a focus on reuse, waste reduction and recycling, putting reuse and engagement with recycling at the centre of the community.  Help to breathe some new life into a depleted city centre environment and make reuse the norm on the High Street.

2. Engage the community in recycling by offering open to all and free/low cost upcycling/crafting and making and mending opportunities.  Many shoppers in Perth see the benefit of buying donated items during the cost of living crisis and this project would promote creative uses for items that would go to landfill.

3. Allow us to open this resource for longer hours to engage with more people.

4. Share skills across the community with increased volunteer involvement.

Letham4All operates Community Fridge Projects in the Letham, Muirton, and Moncrieff areas of Perth City, collecting good surplus food from local supermarkets and suppliers to prevent going to waste. All the food is distributed, free of charge in the 3 community fridges and also shared with partners such as Martha's Kitchen and Giraffe to be used and prepared in their kitchens for free distribution in the community. Around 350 people a week access food from our Community Fridges and last year we prevented 5.4 tonnes of good food from going to waste, saving 13.5 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Initially, Letham4All collected only ambient fresh food products, bakery, unprepared fresh fruit and vegetables, etc, however, we have been testing our ability to collect fresh prepared food products such as ready meals, meat and meat products, fish, and other prepared food products. To carry out this test we have been lucky enough to borrow a blast freezer from Giraffe Check-In Works and have all the necessary environmental health policies and procedures in place to allow this to happen. By being able to blast freeze food on the evening of collection we are preventing more good food from going to landfill, as well as providing valuable sources of protein into people's diet. All the Community Fridges have freezers where the food can be accessed free of charge by local people.

We now need to return the borrowed Blast Freezer and are seeking funding to purchase our own, now we know that we can operate the collection and distribution of fresh foods safely and that these products are valued by people who access the Community Fridges . Very soon, we will be operating our Community Kitchen in the new Letham Community Hub and we will also use the blast freezer to enable surplus food to be processed and frozen for future use, such as bread, vegetables, etc. 

Crieff Community Gardeners are a constituted community group based in Crieff Community Garden. We have an active community food larder within the community garden which offers free surplus vegetables harvested from the garden together with surplus dry goods from Crieff Coop. The has been a great service for locals suffering from the effects of the cost of living crisis. They can discreetly take anything food they require on a daily basis.

Unfortunately we have suffered severe vandalism which means that our current shed hosting the food larder has been severely damaged and is no longer lockable. Vandals have kicked in the door and kicked the walls from the inside out. 

This is an essential service which we need to continue, but being unable to lock the shed, our volunteers can no longer do evening deliveries as we cannot leave the food unattended overnight for health and safety reasons. They are therefore having to do early morning deliveries on a daily basis which is causing a strain on our volunteers.

We require a new sturdy shed, together with mini polytunnels to asisst our veg growing and some new bulbs. 

Crieff In Leaf has operated as a successful environmental group which will be celebrating its 30th Anniversary in 2024.  The group is comprised purely of volunteers who  enhance the environment of this historic tourist centre.  Their operating base is at Alichmore Road, where there is  presently a limited resource for composting.  The group are required to purchase  compost which is costly in terms of monetary value and environmental impact.  Given their environmental credentials and conscience, they use peat free compost which commands a higher price/cost.  Whilst they endeavour to compost some of the downtakings, it has been necessary to make up to 4 trips per week to the Crieff Recycling Centre on Broich Road, using  their Great Wall Stead vehicle which has a relatively high  emission rating of 200 g /km.  The distance from Crieff to the recycling centre is approximately 3km.  The distance fron Crieff to the Alichmore Road site is significatly less.  The needs of the group are to relocate  all composting to the Alichmore site and to become self sufficient in compost.  There is also a drive to more sustainable planting and to use the current polytunnels to overwinter plants etc; both  polytunnels  require re skinning. 

Should this application be successful, this will allow the group to purchase the following

4 x 189 litre rotating composting bins 

1 x Hyundai Chipper/Shredder 

4 x Standard Composting Bins 

Reskinning of Polytunnels and Associated Sundries 

Ember has introducd an all electric bus service between Dundee and Edinburgh, with the availability to alight/disembark in Bridge of Earn.  Zero exhaust emissions means it is good for the environment enjoying a smoother, more peaceful journey – no engine rumble or fumes.

This service has been well received by the residents with in the Earn Ward.  However, presently no bus shelter for a very exposed stop.  This service also offers the opportunity for disabled users to travel and likewise cyclists with storage available for chairs/bikes.  The success of this service is also attracting cyclists to use the service, and SUSTRANS now have a project underway for the provision of a bike rack nearby to leave bikes safely.

A bus shelter would compliment this stop and be most welcome by users.