At the beginning of May we brought 3 expert speakers together to run a pratical workshop on greening personal finances, the 5th workshop in our ACT Now series.   A copy of the zoom workshop is now available here to watch as a video and to be shared as a resource.  Of course, it is evidently a recording of a zoom workshop, so nothing beautiful, but hopefully offers a good overview of things to consider.  Below, you can also download the slides from two of the speakers, and we hope to add the third set soon.

About the workshop

Ethex’s Rachel Mountain sets the context for the workshop, introducing the idea of a green recovery from COVID-19 and #buildbackbetter.  She then covers 5 areas where individuals can have impact through their financial choices: banking, pensions, ISAs (savings), funds & greenwashing, direct investing (covering equity bonds, loans and more).

The Low Carbon Hub’s Saskya Huggins talks about opportunities for direct investing locally, with a brief overview of West Oxford’s cutting edge work on this front.

Al Chisholm from Fossil Free Oxfordshire then covers the flip side of investing: divesting, and specifically, opportunities to get involved with divestment in Oxfordshire.

The video:

 

In its formation, LCWO pioneered the idea of the double cut model.

In 2009, we set up West Oxford Community Renewables (WOCoRe) with the plan to establish community-funded renewables projects to reduce carbon emissions whilst similtaneously funding further carbon reduction projects (like LCWO!) in the community.  Read more about our groundbreaking model here.

In 2010, LCWO won a grant from DECC with Oxford City Council to set up other low carbon groups in Oxford, as well as the Low Carbon Hub, to support an enable Oxfordshire-wise renewables investment and other carbon-cutting activities.  The Low Carbon Hub continues to lead the way in powering up (increasing renewables), powering down (promoting carbon-cutting activities) and running innovating pilots around energy.

We continue to work closely with the Low Carbon Hub on a variety of projects.

The Low Carbon Hub’s impact to date, July 2020

Our involvement in divestment campaigning to date has been limited; however, we endeavour to provide our members and supporters with information about how to take effective action and participate in existing campaigns.  In 2019, our Lead Programme Manager was part of a small team of National Trust members who introduced a successful AGM resolution for the Trust to divest its £1.3 billion worth of investments from fossil fuels over the next two years, encouraging our Trust-member supporters to write in support of the resolution.

 

 

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