Strategy Day

What activities should we focus on as a South Gloucestershire Community Energy Network?  This was our key question on our first strategy day on the 15th March 2025. 

As a newly created network organisation, it felt essential to find out what our key stakeholders thought, as well as getting inspiration from what others around the country are doing. 

We invited representatives from active community energy and climate action groups in South Gloucestershire, town and parish councils, South Gloucestershire Council, Bristol Energy Network and Bristol Energy Co-operative.  

We spent an afternoon at St Michael’s Community Hall in Winterbourne, with South Gloucestershire maps of demographic information and renewable energy potential, post it notes, and different moments of discussion, thinking and writing.  

Through a staged process of prioritisation, the group felt that our main activities should be: 

• Public communication about energy, including linking energy with positive outcomes for nature, disseminating information in wider community etc
• Networking between the active groups (such as yourselves) – ‘speed dating’, capacity building, training and knowledge-sharing
• Energy schemes focused on town and parish council and community buildings and car parks with direct community benefit

There was also some priority given to lobbying government for better policy on sustainable energy, which we felt is best done collaboratively with other community energy organisations in the area and with the national body Community Energy England. 

Thanks so much to everyone who came and shared your ideas and views!