City's green lifestyle schemes win awards

Pioneering schemes to help Manchester residents cut their energy use and live more environmentally friendly lives have received awards.

Prizes went to Manchester City Council's Housing Energy Team, as well as to the Low Carbon Communities' programme - run by Manchester charity Action For Sustainable Living with support from the City Council - during the North West Climate Leaders' Awards on Tuesday 2 November.

The Housing Energy Team manages home insulation schemes in Manchester, aimed at eradicating fuel poverty and reducing carbon emissions. To date, these have resulted in the installation of insulation measures in more than 10,000 homes.

Residents are invited to the team's eco house in Miles Platting, where they can see demonstrations of energy efficient heating systems, low energy appliances and low energy lighting, and find out about renewable energy and solid wall insulation.

The Action for Sustainable Living Low Carbon Communities' project won the Supporting Communities And The Third Sector award.

The project was aimed at training residents across the city in skills to help them live more environmentally friendly lifestyles, such as clothing swap shops and growing their own fruit and vegetables, before passing those skills on to others in the community.

Both schemes won prizes worth £2,000, funded by the North West Improvement and Efficiency Partnership and the North West Development Agency, which will go towards future projects to help make Manchester more environmentally friendly.

Manchester's far-reaching plan to reduce the city's carbon emissions by 41 per cent over the next decade was launched last year. The plan, entitled Manchester: A Certain Future - Our Collective Action On Climate Change,was coordinated by the City Council but written by more than 100 organisations.

Councillor Nigel Murphy, Manchester City Council's Executive Member for the Environment, said: "I'm delighted to see the city as a whole is continuing to make progress on cutting Manchester's carbon emissions, and fulfilling the ambitious objectives set out in Manchester: A Certain Future.

"These awards show that the efforts we are making towards helping residents reduce their own carbon emissions have received recognition."

Annabel Bradbury, of Action for Sustainable Living, said: "Working to assist people, communities and organisations to become more sustainable is fulfilling in itself, but acknowledgment like this really makes it clear we're doing a great job.

 "We thank Manchester City Council for supporting us to help the city become more sustainable and for nominating us for the award."