The Green Finance Community Hub was set up in May 2022 as a Community Interest Company (CIC), to make the ideas within the Green Investment Plan happen. As a CIC, we have an asset lock and our objectives are to –
- Support and help develop local community projects to become more investable so as to speed up the flow of green finance locally.
- Amplify local green finance opportunities in decarbonisation and nature-based solutions.
- Convene community and investor participation so community wealth building can be enhanced.
Projects are diverse in terms of size and diverse in the type of financing required from institutional investors, banks, public finance institutions, and community finance institutions. We focus on stakeholder engagement, research, feasibility studies, and incubating projects with potential.
SOME PROJECTS WE ARE WORKING ON –
In 2024, the Hub’s work has mainly been focused on incubating Project Collette and this includes working on an initial feasibility, finance model, community finance structure and community engagement work.
In 2022 -2023, on a minimal budget, we explored the realities of developing various transformative net zero opportunities from our Green Investment Plan Cumbria report. In particular, we focused on developing ‘Project Collette‘ which aims to be a community-owned offshore wind farm. We also worked on a pioneering community-centric ‘Ecosystem Warehousing’ financing mechanism, that our Hub created, in partnership with local, regional and national nature groups. We also started developing an innovative community-led financing scheme for EV charge points in rural areas.
DIRECTORS
Ciara Shannon is the founder of the Hub. Born and raised in Hong Kong, she now lives in Cumbria and has ties to the region, with her great-grandmother coming from Bowness-on-Solway. Her varied sustainability career has taken her in many directions – up the fell and yonder – including being recognised as an Outstanding Earth Champion for her leadership work in initiating and running the Climate Change Business Forum. In 2021, she spearheaded the development of the Green Investment Plan Cumbria to catalyse investment in the region’s green economy. She’s currently leading the development of Project Collette, including its community finance report that outlines a bold vision for shared ownership and community benefit. Ciara is also the Green Finance Lead for the North West Net Zero Hub.
Peter Head CBE FREng FRSA, joined as director at the start, and is a champion of sustainable development. He advocates that changing how we invest public and private money in the built environment could be much more effective if the public and private sectors adopt sustainable development principles. Peter is a civil and structural engineer. His work on the Dongtan Eco-city planning project was voted by Chinese developers in 2005 as the most influential development project in China. Peter has received many awards including the Award of Merit of IABSE, the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Silver Medal and the Prince Philip Award for Polymers in the Service of Mankind.
Ian Callaghan – is an investment banker by background, has been involved in investing for social and environmental impact for more than 15 years and has specialised in climate finance since 2015. He is the originator of the Climate Finance Accelerator (CFA), a multi-million-pound capacity building programme funded by the UK government, and acts as adviser to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) on the operation of the programme in 9 larger emerging markets. He also remains active as an adviser and consultant in sustainable finance in various roles.
Bruce Davis – is a co-founder and Non-Executive Director of Abundance Investment, an FCA regulated crowdfunding platform focused on green investment. He is also Chair and Director of the UK Crowdfunding Association representing more than 20 regulated crowdfunding platforms. He provides advice and consultancy for community led finance organisations and is developing new models of community finance for biodiversity. He co-authored a book in “Crowdfunding and the democratisation of finance” (BUP 2021) and is a regular writer and speaker on green finance.
Associate
Matthew Bleasdale, Director, Poseidon Project Services Ltd. Matt studied aeronautical engineering and started his offshore career in sub-sea engineering. For the last sixteen years, he has worked in the offshore wind industry across all stages of project development from identification to finance and construction, for developers, suppliers, and certification agencies, to non-governmental bodies such as The Crown Estate. In 2014, he set up OWLC to reduce the cost, impact, and risk of offshore wind while accelerating the deployment of it and he has a detailed commercial and technical understanding from origination to decommissioning. In 2024, Matt set up Poseidon Services Ltd.
HISTORY
THE GREEN INVESTMENT PLAN PROJECT – 2021-2022
In 2021, Ciara Shannon approached Prof Nick Robins (Grantham Research Institute, LSE), and together they co-founded the Green Investment Plan Project. The Green Investment Plan showed how Cumbria [and many other regions] could become the first climate-positive county through a credible financing strategy. To support our strategy, we outlined some transformative net zero projects that responded to the ‘place’ and the needs of the local community.
The Green Investment Plan simply would not have been possible without the collaborative spirit of all the local and national organisations we worked with. To name a few – Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfS), LSE and ARUP for partnering with us. The Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership (CLEP), Cumbria Wildlife Trust, Lake District National Park, and the Green Finance Institute (GFI) for their early encouragement. We were also lucky to get funding from the Quadrature Climate Foundation.
Cumbria’s Green Investment Plan has since been downloaded tens of thousands of times (and still is being downloaded – much to our amazement) globally. We are delighted that our research is serving as a wider public good and is a useful resource for place-based green financing.
TEAM: Prof Nick Robins, Grantham Research Institute, LSE (Chair). Ciara Shannon, EdenWorks Green (Project Lead/Her company sponsored the project). Michael Osborne, Arup, Adrian Anderson, Arup. Anne Chapman, independent consultant. Ian Callaghan, Ian Callaghan and Associates. Ian Dickie, economics for the environment consultancy (eftec). Alistair Kirkbride, Gridsquare, independent consultant. Peter Head, Resilience Brokers. Charlotte Eddington, Abundance Investments. Phil Davies, CAfS. Charles Callaghan and Rhiannon Thorpe.
PARTNERS: EdenWorks Green, Grantham Research Institute (LSE), Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfs) and Arup.
ADVISORY PANEL: Rob Allison (Lake District National Park), Adam Briggs (NFU), Simon Crichton (Triodos), Tim Gale (Zero Cumbria Carbon Partnership), Andy Gouldson (Leeds University), Ingrid Holmes (GFI), Jo Lappin (Cumbria LEP), Andy Kerr (Climate-KIC), Karen Mitchell (CAfS), Steve Sankson (Nat West), Camilla Toulmin (member of Cumbria Local Nature Partnership and Lancaster University) and Ian Wheeler (Cumbria LEP).
WITH THANKS
In 2024, the Hub gratefully received two grants for incubating Project Collette from the Climate Change Collaboration and a stage 1 grant from Community Energy England. These grants paid for an initial feasibility study, finance model, community finance report and community engagement work.
In 2022/23, the Hub received a small development grant from the Friends Provident Foundation and in 2021, we were funded by the Quadrature Climate Foundation.