A little introduction, my name is Heather Vincent, I’m the Development Officer here at Bridges Community Centre, Monmouthshire and we have just taken on the Welsh Assembly Government’s Climate Change Challenge.

We are so excited to have been chosen to take part in this year’s Challenge. We will effectively be competing against two other community centres across Wales to reduce our carbon footprint and educate our members, volunteers and, fingers crossed, you, the local community.

The other week we kicked off the Challenge with an afternoon of meet and greet, not only with the other centres but also with Environment Minister, Jane Davidson.

The afternoon gave us an insight into what to expect from taking part in the Challenge especially when speaking with last year’s winners, The Grove Pub. They gave us not only plenty of tips but they also spoke about the positive effects it has had, and continues to have even now.

Mike Batt from The Carbon Trust also gave us a talk on carbon saving opportunities which left us yet again feeling positive about the changes we can make. We are now really excited to get started, the next steps is to get our carbon footprint measured and think of creative ways to reduce it. We have over 54 different groups that meet at our centre so the possibilities are endless, if you have any ideas in ways to lower our footprint we’d love to hear from you.

Top Tip: Be open for change, because as we are about to find out, even the smallest changes will make a difference to our carbon footprint