Environment and Climate
Reducing carbon, protecting local landscapes, and adapting to a changing climate are some of the biggest challenges facing Cumbria today. Climate action works best when communities, local organisations, funders, land managers, volunteers, and public bodies bring their knowledge and energy together. Sustainability is part of how thriving rural communities plan, adapt, and care for the places they share.
Whether a village hall is exploring renewable energy, a community is planning for flood resilience, or volunteers are working to protect local water quality, progress depends on shared effort. ACT’s role is to listen, connect people with practical support, and help local groups and partners turn ideas into action.
How We Support Community Climate Action
We work alongside communities and partner organisations to share practical tools, local learning, research, and guidance so each place can shape an approach that fits its needs, strengths, and ambitions.
We support the creation of Community Led Plans that reflect local priorities, including environmental action. The Sustainable Communities Workbook offers a shared discussion tool for exploring local environmental impacts and agreeing practical next steps together.
We support village halls and community buildings to take practical action on climate change and environmental sustainability by providing advice, resources and specialist guidance on improving energy efficiency, reducing carbon emissions and planning low-carbon building improvements.
Getting around Cumbria without a car can be difficult, and transport makes up a significant part of the local carbon footprint.
We work with communities and transport partners to explore practical, community-led approaches to low-carbon rural transport, including volunteer-run services such as the Fellrunner and Western Dales buses. These kinds of services can help reduce isolation, improve access to essential services, and offer lower-carbon ways for people to travel.
Our environment is more than carbon numbers; it is rivers, lakes, woodlands, wildlife, soils, and the places people value every day. Practical environmental care depends on local knowledge, community action, and collaboration with partners who bring different expertise:
Water Quality: The Toolkit for Community Action on Water Quality??????, developed from grassroots work around Windermere, helps volunteers and local groups contribute to catchment monitoring and support wider efforts to protect fragile freshwater ecosystems https://www.windermerewaterqualitytoolkit.co.uk/
Energy Shifts: As communities work towards net zero, practical transition matters. We help groups share learning, coordinate local action, and explore options such as oil-buying syndicates, collective switching, and longer-term alternatives with relevant partner organisations.
Across the county, communities and partners are already showing what shared local action can make possible:
Community
Greening Staveley
The Project
Parish-wide climate action
What Shared Action Made Possible
Brought local people together to understand their climate footprint and develop practical green initiatives.
Community
St Anne’s Church, Ings
The Project
Heat pump retrofit
What Shared Action Made Possible
Enabled the church community and partners to replace an outdated fossil-fuel system with an efficient air source heat pump.
Ready to take action?
Rural communities are vulnerable to climate change, but they also hold the local knowledge, relationships, and creativity needed to shape resilient solutions. Get in touch with the ACT team today if your group would like to explore an environmental project, connect with partners, or find practical support for the next step.
Futureproof Cumbria
We work with Futureproof Cumbria to promote projects for community sustainability.
