Could you start by telling us a bit about who you are and your role in supporting environmental sustainability.

I have been concerned about environmental issues since the 1970s. In 1976 I started what was to become a career in gardening and discovered the concept of gardening organically, working with natural processes and caring for the whole environment rather than fighting against nature. It was a revelation. Everything that happened in my life developed from that. In 1986 I took a job with HDRA, now renamed Garden Organic, which brought my wife and I to live in Warwickshire. Through social connections and conversations with others I realised that all things are connected. Working on the land was showing me that the way we live, how we create and use energy, how we look after the land and landscape are all part of one approach to life, vitally necessary for the healing of our planet. This is what led to the origins of Harbury Energy Initiative in 2010. A group of us formed an informal but constituted group with the aim of cutting residents’ energy costs and at the same time reducing carbon emissions. In 2013 I retired from Garden Organic, giving me more time to focus on my new direction of energy related issues - but I kept on gardening!

One thing led to another. Whilst doing a number of projects in the village based on the energy efficiency of most of our village community buildings including the school, we became interested in the idea of a village car share scheme using electric cars. We successfully applied for a Department for Transport grant to start a car club in the village with an attached social purpose. This concept turned in October 2015 into Harbury e-Wheels, a free volunteer run social transport scheme for people in need referred to us by surgeries and social agencies. Whilst there was considerable excitement about the car share scheme, a village car share proved to be financially unviable for the company providing us with the cars. The electric car share scheme didn’t work out and closed after four years but by then Harbury e-Wheels was a registered charity and we were not going to let it fade away. It has operated successfully ever since, expanding to include delivering donations from villagers weekly to the main local food bank hub, surviving Covid restrictions and operating entirely on fund raising through events, donations and trust funds in order to keep it free. In 2022 we were awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

In 2019 we began two further initiatives, an EV charging station project incorporating some renewable generation and the Low Carbon Warwickshire Network. This Network would, we hoped, join up other groups in the county (without knowing at that stage who might be active) and stimulate new rural community groups to form. The Network now links over 50 groups and organisations with a range of environmental and energy related aspirations or responsibilities. Harbury Energy Initiative merged with the EV charging station project organising body to become Harbury Future Energy CIC (HFE). There is still a lot to do.

What lessons have you learned from working across organisations like Low Carbon Warwickshire Network and Harbury Future Energy CIC?

Working alone can be dispiriting and limited by what you know. You need to work with others. Not only do others bring skills and knowledge that you don’t have but also bring their energy and enthusiasm and, just as importantly, ideas. You achieve a lot more together. By working on community buildings we benefitted the whole community rather than individual households, although both are important. This approach also enabled us to build a bit of a reputation.

Our first project was quite ambitious and we were only able to succeed through the experience and knowledge of one of our members. It is better to start small and gain some understanding of how to develop a project and fund it. Fund raising is critical and is time consuming but exciting when you apply successfully. That excitement never fades. I have applied successfully since 2010 for over 40 grants of varying sizes for the different initiatives and still get enervated by a new success.

I never know when I start with an idea whether it will succeed or what direction it will take. The key thing is to start, talk to people about it to engage their interest and be open to changing direction if they have a better version of your idea.

What are the biggest barriers to delivering local green infrastructure projects, like EV charging?

Many infrastructure projects are complex and require good advice and support. You will almost certainly need planning consent, which is itself a lengthy and fraught process. The need for good support is especially true if you are innovating and working on an idea that hasn’t been tried before. For such projects, such as our plans for a village EV charging station part powered by renewables, costs can be high and funding very hard to come by. If you are working with a local authority to achieve your plans, you will probably find that they don’t work at the same pace as you want to. You have a single project to work on whilst they have a host of statutory duties to attend to. In addition local authorities - although not all are the same and there are great exceptions - are often not keen on innovation and on untried models as these present too much risk and complexity. Our project has been stalled for years.

What approaches have you found most effective in motivating individuals to change their habits?

Motivating individuals is not easy if they do not share your point of view. Climate change is, as Al Gore wrote as the title of his book, ‘an inconvenient truth’. There are very many people who are concerned about global warming and ecological collapse, especially members of the younger generations, but a significant number of these don’t feel able or emboldened to make the necessary changes to their way of living, even if we exclude those who simply cannot afford to make changes. It’s important to keep the topic in people’s minds and to show positive actions that provide exemplars and evidence of the benefits of various measures. We started talking about EVs in 2011 at which time there were only one or two in the village. We wanted to give people a chance to experience them and see that these were not toys but real cars. We felt sure that electric cars were the future. Now there are many electric cars in our village.

We have to be realistic. It takes time for people to be open to doing things differently and especially to accept doing without what is familiar.

What opportunities could the Great British Energy Local Power Plan (LPP) bring to rural communities?

The Local Power Plan is the biggest and best opportunity we have ever had for community energy to develop and expand. The aims are ambitious and the budget significant. But it won’t work unless communities step up and take advantage of the possibilities. Would it not be wonderful for your community to own its own energy generation? To channel profits from this back into the community? Although the final shape and scope of the LPP is not quite yet finalised, it looks as though there will be good local support for communities. Smaller rural communities could join together or be helped by inclusion within larger ones. We may not get another chance like this and it may not survive as a policy beyond this government if the government fails to be reelected.

What advice would you give to another village wanting to start similar initiatives?

Don’t be afraid. Look at the goal not at the obstacles. Just start; your project will not progress unless you start. There is a solution to most problems eventually.

Form a group, no matter how small, connect to your local parish or town council but remain independent. Councils at all levels have a lot to do, so it is important that you don’t have to involve them in decisions and actions at every stage.

Keep telling the community what you are doing and how it will benefit them.

What one message would you give to anyone concerned about the climate crisis?

Don’t talk, act.

Get together with some other people and make things happen. It needs more than lobbying; it needs practical measures at community level.