Zero Carbon Guildford is an award-winning Charity which facilitates action on restoring our local environment and tackling climate change by providing local solutions that everyone can get involved in. We've made amazing progress in just 2 years, but there's a very real risk all of this critical work will stop unless we can fund our transition away from our current home - and that's where we need your help!
Through collaboration within the local community, we've saved a whopping 582 tons of CO2e from behaviour change projects and events in our town centre premises, ZERO - that's not counting all the carbon and money savings we've facilitated through free energy surveys and small business support out in the community.
What's So Special About Zero Carbon Guildford?
Earlier this year we were awarded the Innovative UK Community Project award by the Climate Coalition for our work on reversing biodiversity loss, ending throwaway culture, reducing energy use, river quality testing, and engagement of Surrey residents through our talks, cinema events, and solution-focused projects such as ZERO’s Library of Things and Community Fridge.
On top of all that, we’ve also supported over 40 groups from across the UK who want to recreate their own version of ZERO. But now it’s us who need help!
With our community, we’ve built a fantastic home for ZERO in our premises on Friary Street, but our lease ends in September, and so our time in our first - and much-loved home - comes to an end. It’s a sad day for many of us, but we’re all looking forward to the new opportunities this transition brings with it - not least the chance to explore how we make community-led climate projects an integral feature of towns and cities across the UK.
We are hugely proud of how much we've achieved as a volunteer-run charity. But to maintain our level of ambition, we need a long-term sustainable solution, and ZERO cannot continue without financial support to continue to run projects, events and climate education - that’s why this crowdfunder is absolutely vital to our ongoing survival. And beyond this, the funding will be used to establish ways that we can make our position and operation more secure well into the future, as well as delivering proof of concept for a more permanent model for others across the country.
If you're interested to see exactly how we've delivered 582 tons of CO2e savings, as well as saving over 60 million litres of water, check out our latest blog for a breakdown of how each of ZCG's projects has contributed.
ZERO Wants To Help Pave The Way for Other Projects
Currently, most of the 15 - 20 existing climate hubs in the UK have short term leases and are volunteer-run. This insecurity limits the ambition of community-led projects.
As such, we’re excited to use this transition as a way to pioneer another first for community climate action, by exploring pathways to permanent or long term tenure. None of the options for a long-term lease are simple, but projects like ZERO have demonstrated to local authorities the key role community groups can play in climate change delivery plans. In Surrey, for example, 97% of the council’s Climate Change Delivery Plan’s emissions fall into the ‘Communities’ section, reinforcing exactly how important on-the-ground education and engagement around shared local values is to building secure and healthy futures for the places we call home.
An ENORMOUS and Heartfelt Thankyou
So, if you’ve enjoyed being part of we’ve been doing for the past 18 months, or even if you've just stumbled across us, now’s your chance to help protect the future of ZERO! Please share this campaign as widely as possible, give us some love on social media, and if you can, donate to our Crowdfunder to help finance this transitory phase.
This project is match-funded, which means donations up to £250 are doubled! Plus, as a charity we receive gift Gift Aid...
- So a £100 donation actually = £225 to the Charity!
- A £250 donation = £562.50!! 🎉
Some of ZERO's project teams will also be doing fundraising projects for our move within their own groups, so if one of your relatives or pals has asked you to support them, then please do send us the info and we'll try to share it on our 'Updates' page. We even have a fish-themed fancy dress River Run for those of you who like combining the great outdoors with fundraising!
Finally, everyone at Zero Carbon Guildford would like to say a huge heartfelt thank you to you for helping us get to where we are today. We couldn’t have done this without you, our fantastic local community and all our supporters across the UK, and we can’t wait to start this new chapter with you by our side.
If you can help in other ways then please do feel free to get in touch - [email protected].
See you in ZERO 2.0!!