Thanks to close links between Creetown Initiative and the Crichton Carbon Centre, Creetown residents along with the communities of Gatehouse of Fleet and Dalbeattie will be benefiting over the next twelve months from a fully-funded programme of help and advice aimed at reducing the community’s carbon footprints by over 20%.
Leading the programme for Creetown is Kevin Dodd together with Fiona Blaen, both Creetown residents who share enthusiasm for harnessing community effort in the fight to contain global warming.
The programme will aim to cover every household in and around Creetown, including where possible holiday homes. Through a home visit residents will be invited to discuss their own situation as it concerns energy use, including home insulation and heating, travel, recycling, transport (personal and public), and lifestyle issues such as purchases and consumption of goods and service, with a view to establishing a base carbon footprint.
There is no pressure on households to sign up to anything, simply an opportunity to look at and suggest improvements. Kevin and Fiona aim to generate interest and enthusiasm at all levels of the community. Visits will hope to cover all households between March and October this year.
Advice will be offered to each resident on how they could improve their carbon footprint, with emphasis on changes which could save them money and improve their quality of life, often with very little effort. There will be support with practical information about grants to help lower-income families and advice for those who might consider investing in new energy-efficient technologies such as solar, wind power or heat pumps.
Between October this year and March next year there will be follow-up visits to assess progress on a house-to-house basis, with a final report at the end of the programme to reveal how successful the project has been.
The aim is to give a lead to other communities in the south-west who could then benefit from the Creetown experience.