The concept behind a Low Carbon Village is to work closely with a local community and its leaders in the developing world to identify and develop a range of carbon saving and environmental projects that will enable the village to reduce its carbon footprint, as well as assisting village inhabitants socially and financially.
The Low Carbon Village enables one client to be the sole offset provider or sustainability partner for a village, implementing multiple technology solutions in one geographic location with additional benefits to the village inhabitants.
We work with our clients to look at additional projects that would benefit the village – such as putting both solar panels on, and IT equipment into, local schools. The Low Carbon Village thus becomes a self-sustaining project, with huge local benefits.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Whilst carbon reductions are made within the villages and these are measurable, the Low Carbon Village concept is designed to work “Beyond Offset”. The Low Carbon Village delivers a project that is more broadly defined under a company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) agenda. This wider concept allows the installation of low carbon technologies that would be uneconomical as an offset but which have a positive impact on the every day life of local communities.Locations of the Low Carbon Villages
Whilst we work mainly in Africa, we are also in the process of emulating this process in other developing regions, such as parts of India and South America, so if you are interested in another part of the world just let us know as there is a high chance we could accommodate.Benefits of the Low Carbon Village
Our clients get full ownership of a dedicated project which is created solely from their funds. This generates excellent marketing and PR potential, both for internal employee relations and external client purposes. co2balance will supply photos and video footage of the village to use on websites, newsletters, brochures and any other marketing material.co2balance can assist with client visits to their Low Carbon Village Project, offsetting the journey, as well as arranging for the client’s staff to work at the village to assist with the Project as part of the client’s own staff engagement programme. Additional benefits are:
- Details on location and name of the village (a Google Earth coordinate of village location)
- The opportunity to help on the ground with the implementation of the technologies if desired (this could be employee or customer engagement)
- The knowledge that the projects are planned to be implemented within three months of project sign off
- Clear definable additionality – that the project could not take place without the funding provided by our clients
- Excellent local benefits
- An opportunity for an ongoing relationship with the village
- Further opportunities to take this project beyond carbon reduction with other sustainable development related benefits to the communities
- High levels of input and involvement from clients and locals
Projects carried out with the Villages:
The types of equipment and technologies that are implemented are bespoke to each village and client. These include:- Installing energy efficient stoves
- Supplying solar ovens
- Biogas capture facilities to create cooking gas from biodegradable material such as animal waste
- Converting/replacing kerosene lanterns to solar power or wind-up technologies
- Supplying energy saving light bulbs
- Installing solar panels on community buildings
For more information on the Low Carbon Village Project, contact co2balance on:
Tel: 0845 094 2620 or Email: enquiries@co2balance.com