July Newsletter
Happy July and welcome to another jam-packed Highlands & Islands Climate Hub Newsletter! We’ve been basking the sun and getting out & about in nature. We’ve also had the pleasure of meeting lots of community groups & hearing about their climate action work.
It’s T-minus 2 months now until the Highlands & Islands Climate Festival kicks off! Read on to find out when you can hear more about the Festival.
Stick the kettle on, sit down & enjoy!
Hub Highlights - top moments of the month from the Team!
Shetland Climate Festival
Joan & Ashleigh had the pleasure of attending Shetland Climate Festival, hosted by Shetland Islands Council. The Festival offered a great opportunity for the Hub to connect with the many community groups & organisations in Shetland who are taking climate action. It’s always great for us to see the members we don’t get to so often, and established the ways we can best enhance their work.
Shoutout to one of our newest members, North Yell Development Council, who we got to meet for the first time at the Festival!
Mhairi’s Podcast Debut!
We are backing the Running Out of Time Relay as they take the climate fight all the way from Ben Nevis to Big Ben. Along the way their baton message calls for action to cut emissions, restore nature, and support those hardest hit by climate change.
Mhairi joined the movement for their first podcast - the Start Line - to share how communities can make a difference. Listen here!
Photo: Lochaber High School, credit: Mike Brogden
Royal Highland Show
The Highlands & Islands Climate Hub was proud to be a part of the Community Showcase in the Scottish Government Tent at the Royal Highland Show! Organisations supporting communities across Scotland with rural living, enterprise, travel, island living, and the environment came together to highlight their brilliant work. We attended to represent the Highlands & Islands Climate Hub, and the wider Climate Action Hub Network across Scotland.
We also came together with Climate Cafe® to host a bunting making workshop, with the theme 'For the love of'. Check out a few of the flags with their inspirational messages, made from scrap fabric & materials.
A massive thank you to everyone who made the Community Showcase happen, it offered an invaluable opportunity for the community sector to shine a light on how they can assist the agricultural sector for mutual benefit!
Did you miss it?
Catch up with all our news from the last month.
What’s coming up?
Join us at any of our upcoming events!
Member’s Networking featuring the Highlands & Islands Climate Festival: 2nd July 2024
Join the Hub for our July Networking Session, come and catch up with us and share your summer plans. Learn more about the Highlands & Islands Climate Festival - a month-long celebration of localism, taking place in September 2024.
Regional Networking in Lochaber: 10th July 2024
Come along for a cup of tea and catch up with other Highlands & Islands Climate Hub members in Lochaber. We'll be joined by Harper Loonsk, Climate Resilience Manager for Highland Adapts.
Skillshare: Sustainable Event Planning with Ullapool Unpacked CiC: 22nd July 2024
Join the Hub for a skillshare session with Evie from Ullapool Unpacked CIC. Ullapool Unpacked CIC is a social enterprise based in Ullapool, who run a pop-up refill shop with the aim of reducing waste in their community.
Insight into Environmental Standards Scotland: 28th August 2024
Who ensures that Scotland has high environmental standards and strong systems to maintain them? Come along to our Insight into Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS), where we will be joined by their Team to discuss their work in protecting the Scottish Environment. ESS are keen to make it easier for communities to raise concerns and get the answers that could help them progress projects which benefit people and place. Join us to learn how we as a community can connect with ESS to protect and enhance our environment.
Funding News
Check out the latest funding opportunities.
Funding Finder
June saw our biggest Funding Finder yet! With over £3.2 million worth of potential funding included.
Holding a wide variety of funding types, from local to national levels - there is something for every community group regardless of size or age.
Stay tuned for the July Finder coming to your inboxes.
Climate Action Fund
Our Climate Action Fund is officially open for 2024-25!
This year our fund will be open EVERY month on a rolling basis with decisions made each month. Funding opens on 1st day of each month, and closes on the last day.
Grants of up to £500 up for offer.
For new community organisations or new climate action projects.
Exclusive to members of the Highlands & Islands Climate Hub
Projects funded must be able to complete and report on the impact of their project by 31st March 2024.
Training & Development
Take advantage of the resources the Hub can offer you to expand your knowledge.
Food Hygiene Training
We are offering fully funded Level 2 Food Hygiene for Catering courses to our members! If you are involved in a a refill shop, community fridge, or working with food in any capacity we would love to support your work with this training. Apply here.
Past Event Recordings
Campaigning for Change with Less Waste Laura (April 2024)
Meet the Funder: Foundation Scotland (June 2024)
Community Woodlands Skillshare (June 2024)
Spotlight on our Members
This part of our Newsletter is dedicated exclusively to celebrating the successes of our Members over the last month and getting excited for their upcoming plans!
Sustainable Co-working: Head | Space Nethy is open!
An exciting new business premises has opened in Nethy Bridge! Offering a co-working space which is fully powered from on-site and grid renewables.
To celebrate their launch, Head | Space is offering free working space all of this week, Monday - Friday (1st-5th July). Come and try it out for a day, test the internet, check the coffee, visit the moor, tune in to the hum of the forest at your toes!
Partnerships for Wellbeing at Clean Air Day
In June, Inverness celebrated Clean Air Day at Falcon Square, and Partnership for Wellbeing’s Walks & Events team were there showcasing their Free group health walks, our interactive walking and cycling route and let passers-by try out one of our new folding electric bikes. Once again, their orange ice cream bike proved to be the show-stopper but, sadly, they weren't giving away free ice creams that day :(
They also announced the winners of their schools arts competition! 25 Inverness Primary schools were invited to design a poster promoting safety for walkers and cyclists using shared paths. How good do they look?
Lochbroom & Ullapool Community Trust x Ullapool Unpacked Re-Love Fashion Fair
LUCT & Ullapool Unpacked collaborated once again for the fifth Re-Love Clothing Fair! Lots of beautiful clothing, shoes & accessories were to choose from & 170 items found a new home. People also learnt how to make a rug out of odd socks & enjoyed soup & cake raising money for the local Community Benefit Fund and Medical Aid for Palestinians.
Transition Black Isle: Repairing & Reusing
Lots have been happening through June with Transition Black Isle as part of the Highland Community Waste Partnership!
They were delighted to support the Black Isle Repair Cafe event on Saturday 1st June in Avoch Community Centre, where people celebrated 2 years of repairs! As well as the usual repair stations and a chance to learn some new skills from the volunteers there was also had some live music and kids activities, it was a great afternoon out for the family.
The Repair Cafe will be taking a well-earned break over the summer but will return for the Highland Climate Festival Event on Saturday 7th September - keep an eye out for more details!
A ‘Library of Things’ is being developed across the Black Isle, the idea being that there are lots of items across the area that could be shared with others. Currently, Transition Black Isle e-bikes are being trailled so keep an eye out for developments across the area. This should be a great way for people to hire larger, more expensive items that it isn’t necessary to own. If you’re a community group based on the Black Isle and have items you’d like to make available for community use please do get in touch with Transition Black Isle.
Venture North this Summer!
This summer, the Venture North team will be hitting the road again to attend some of the fantastic Summer Shows and Games held across Caithness and Sutherland. The team would love to chat about representing tourism for the region, our autumn Taste North food and drink festival, the upcoming Visitor Levy, sustainable tourism, including transport options, and more! Look out for them at:
Sutherland Agricultural Show - Dornoch, Saturday 20th July
Durness Highland Gathering, Friday 26th July
Mey Highland Games - John O'Groats, Saturday 3rd August
Growing at Raigmore Community Residents Association!
They’ve had a busy and fulfilling June! Their new WellBeing Garden for Children's Services staff in partnership with NHSHighland Raigmore Gardens project has been providing salad troughs, aromatics and herbs for 'pick your own lunch', & scents to enable calming mindfulness and invigoration.
Their GrowingPlace (a plot of land provided & protected for Community food growing in 1950's) is now being used for its intended purpose with fruit trees and planters for Soup & Salad. A WildSpace for local youth groups to spend time in Nature and plans for a polytunnel with pallets for peppercorn rent so local residents can grow their own. Lastly, but by no means least, they were the only group in Highland to be shortlisted by TPAS and won the Scottish Award in recognition of their FoodForest!
Free returnable packaging pilot launches for Highland Businesses
The Highland Community Waste Partnership has launched its latest intervention to reduce packaging waste and promote more #CosnciousConsumption. Building on the success of the Highland Cup Movement, this pilot will give businesses the chance to try a returnable food and drinks packaging scheme for free.
By allowing customers to access reusables at the point of sale, schemes like this make it easier than ever to #ChooseToReuse and reduce the waste and litter created by single-use packaging.
11 billion items of packaging are generated each year in the UK by our lunch on-the-go habits.
55% of sites in Scotland are littered with food and drink packaging.
83% of people in Highland said they are likely to choose to avoid packaging when the option is available to them.
The pilot is available between now and December 2024 and Highland businesses are invited to sign up, on a first come first served basis. Learn more here.
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Membership is free and open to organisations and individuals.
We look forward to working with you soon!