APPENDIX
ABOUT THE CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
The Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) is a
charity and company limited by guarantee that started life in
1979 as the Urban Centre for Appropriate Technology. Based in
Bristol, we have 34 staff and student placements and a turnover
of £1.3 million earned from 60-70 projects funded variously
by government agencies, local authorities, charitable foundations
and private business.
Our mission as a charity is to advance sustainable
energy policy and practice, engaging people and communities in
meeting real needs for environmentally sound and affordable energy
services. We believe this mission is best achieved through a combination
of:
— innovative local energy efficiency
and renewable energy projects—mainly in the Bristol and
Somerset area;
— activities to empower and support
effective action by others across the UK; and
— research and analysis to use
our experience "on the ground" to influence policy and
practice at local, regional and national level.
We focus, possibly uniquely amongst UK charities,
on both the social and environmental aspects of energy. Sustainable
energy is not just about cutting the pollution which damages future
generations. It is also about ensuring that people today can meet
their basic needs for affordable warmth.
Our local activity means we are delivering sustainable
energy solutions directly to people—and it provides a "test
bed" for new ideas and approaches. It also grounds in real
experience our activities to support the work of others and our
research and policy analysis.
Empowering others through education, training,
advice and support unleashes their potential to become sustainable
energy activists in their own families, communities and organisations.
This extends our reach, embedding sustainable energy in the learning
of thousands of school children and the work of hundreds of organisations.
We believe we must follow through our own direct
experiences "on the ground" with effort to change policy
and practices more widely, regionally and nationally. That way
the exceptional and innovative—sustained features of our
work—can transform the mainstream and make a genuinely sustainable
energy future a reality.
Over the last 26 years, CSE has developed several
nationally significant initiatives, many of them innovative and
ahead of their time.
— We established the first phone
and software-based energy efficiency advice service, which became
the model for the national network of 52 Energy Efficiency Advice
Centres. Our own advice centre continues to reach more than 18,000
householders in the Bristol and Somerset area each year.
— Our major energy education programmes
like Energy Matters have reached tens of thousands of school children
and proved that children are effective energy advisers for their
families.
— CSE's training modules have
built awareness of energy issues and capacity, engaging with some
10,000 experts and non-experts over the years.
— Working with the University
of Bristol, we developed the Fuel Poverty Indicator, a unique
tool to enable local targeting to tackle fuel poverty and now
widely used by local authorities and regional government.
— Our innovative processes for
engaging stakeholders in the development of policy, strategies
and action plans are securing new support for sustainable energy,
and renewable energy in particular.
— CSE's research is improving
understanding of consumer experiences of energy markets and the
need for stronger protection of their interests.
Centre for Sustainable Energy
September 2006
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