Engaging community with climate action grants

Local councils who have declared a Climate Emergency generally know exactly where to start with actions to reduce carbon emissions from their own operations. But those emissions make up only a tiny percentage of the overall emissions from their community. The bigger challenge is devising ways to engage their entire community to achieve the big climate gains that come from inspiring community-wide action.

Surf Coast Shire Council (Victoria, Australia) have adopted a mission of engaging their entire community in Climate Emergency action. As one strategy, they are offering small grants towards local projects which reduce emissions and encourage community involvement in climate action.

At their PitchFest on 5 June 2022, schools, groups and individuals will pitch their idea for climate action to the community. The community will then vote for their favourite project, with the top two projects walking away with $5,000 each.

What a great idea! Holding a public PitchFest, rather than just offering grants, is a great way of showing off the ideas being pitched and encouraging residents to think up an even wider range of community action projects.

Read more at https://www.surfcoast.vic.gov.au/Community/Grants/Climate-Emergency-Grants-Pitch-Fest.

You can see some of the novel solutions being adopted by other local councils here.


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