Oxford,
21
September
2017
|
11:48
Europe/London

Another successful year for the Community Action Group in Oxfordshire

Summary

(above - click images to expand)

Community Action Group (CAG) Oxfordshire Project: Another year, another massive collective accomplishment by the network.

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The Annual Report for 2016-17 from the Community Action Group (CAG) Project Oxfordshire shows community-led environmental action is thriving throughout the county.

There are now 62 active groups in the CAG Oxfordshire Network, 16 of which joined just in the last year. Across multiple sectors including energy, growing, waste and transport the groups held over 2,000 events attended by approximately 80,000 local residents, all of which contributed to over 21,000 volunteer hours going into local communities. This equates to over £280,000 worth of volunteer time.

This broad climate-based activity led to 67 tonnes of waste being prevented and 52 tonnes of carbon emissions being avoided.

The total financial output of the project was over £1.2 million which equates to an impressive 13:1 return on investment for funder Oxfordshire County Council. As part of this, the project generated over £800,000 of income in grants, sales, donations and community-owned renewables.

Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for the Environment, Councillor Yvonne Constance, said “Oxfordshire County Council are proud to have supported the Community Action Group project for the last 16 years. It’s wonderful to see so many people volunteering their time to make Oxfordshire a greener, cleaner and better place to live. The CAG project has been really successful in bringing funding into the county for exciting new projects, but it is also inspiring to see that their actions on waste, energy and transport have helped residents to save around £120,000 this year”

Other achievements for the network include winning several awards at the 2017 OCVA awards ceremony at Oxford Town Hall and launching a new DEFRA-approved monitoring and evaluation tool, ResourceCIT, which the CAG network is utilising to measure its impact on waste and carbon reduction.

“These new figures demonstrate the incredible growing achievements of the Community Action Groups network. The transformative community-led projects are driving sustainability and social change in Oxfordshire – significantly impacting carbon emission reductions, saving on waste and energy and supporting wellbeing through community cohesion and skill sharing,” said Dr Kerry Lock, Community Engagement Manager at Resource Futures and project lead for The CAG Project in Oxfordshire.

The CAG network, managed by independent environmental consultancy Resource Futures, is also expanding the CAG model nationally with a new CAG project in Devon established in 2016. This two-year project is focused on waste prevention and reuse in mid-Devon.

About the CAG Oxfordshire Project

  • The Community Action Group Project is also known as the CAG Project or CAG network
  • The CAG Project in Oxfordshire consists of over 60 groups across the county, at the forefront of community led climate change action, organising events and projects to take action on issues including waste, transport, food, energy, biodiversity and social justice.
  • The full list of groups can be accessed here.
  • The project is managed by Resource Futures, an independent, ethical, environmental company with 25 years’ experience in environmental improvement.
  • It is funded by Oxfordshire County Council.

For more information on the Project,

About Resource Futures

  • Resource Futures is an independent environmental consultancy business.
  • The company works in partnership with a range of clients from local authorities and government bodies to small businesses and multi-national companies, as well as third sector organisations and community groups.

Resource Futures is an employee-owned, non-profit-distributing company with a 25-year heritage of environmental improvement, and is a certified B -Corp.

Web: www.resourcefutures.co.uk

Twitter: @resourcefutures

Facebook: /resourcefutures