The toolkit draws on our experience in Bristol of developing community energy by and for communities, and on our knowledge of council-led approaches to sustainable energy. The focus of the toolkit is on how community and municipal energy can support each other to tackle the climate emergency and create sustainable, inclusive and socially just energy systems with citizens at their centre.

The aim of this toolkit is to help support community groups and local authorities develop their shared journeys to local energy. With limited resources, collaboration is key; identifying how community groups and the local authority can help shape and deliver objectives together makes us all stronger and more effective.

Bristol Energy Network (BEN) has developed this toolkit for community groups and local authorities to help them understand each other better and to provide ideas for how best to work together.

The toolkit draws on our experience in Bristol of developing community energy by and for communities, and on our knowledge of council-led approaches to sustainable energy. The focus of the toolkit is on how community and municipal energy can support each other to tackle the climate emergency and create sustainable, inclusive and socially just energy systems with citizens at their centre. 

The aim of this toolkit is to help support community groups and local authorities develop their shared journeys to local  energy. With limited resources, collaboration is key; identifying how community groups and the local authority can help shape and deliver objectives together makes us all stronger and more effective.

Focusing on the development of local energy in Bristol, the value of a network such as BEN is clear: acting as a strong voice representing the diversity of local communities and making connections between the grassroots and policy. In this role as a trusted intermediary, BEN supports existing and new initiatives and brings community energy into wider projects run by Bristol City Council (BCC) and others. In turn, BCC is committed to facilitating community energy, engaging with groups and finding ways to incorporate community approaches in their own projects. Other local authorities take a different approach appropriate to their local needs and these are also discussed and illustrated by case studies. 

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