Scouts go carbon neutral

Over the last few years energy prices have rocketed for everyone, this has brought forward our initiative to become the first scout group in the UK to go carbon neutral by using the energy we need as economically as possible, and reducing the energy required from the grid.

Each week we support 120 families in our scout group alone, along with being a home for over a dozen local groups proving a range of services and activities. Each year we host hundreds of birthday parties for local children and are considered one of the greatest community assets in the area.

We are the first purpose-built scout hall to be constructed in the last 20 years in the city, and we did this by raising funds for nearly 2 decades with huge community support. As we’re a charity and non-profit we re-invest any funds to continually improve our services, activities, and events for our community.

Now more than ever we’re feeling the pinch. Last year in winter our average energy bill was £500 per month. We rely on donations and hall hire, and we receive no other funding to run our facility. We recently signed a fixed price deal with EDF which saw our bills double to £1,000 per month, however EDF have now pulled out of the contact and a new “deal” will see our electricity rates at a whopping 84 pence per unit, which equates to slightly under £2,000 per month.

With this in mind, our expenditure is now massively over any income we receive, and our reserve funds are depleting rapidly. Our team of 30+ volunteers have come up with a plan. In conjunction with a local green energy firm, we replace our heating system with an Air Source Heat Pump and Solar Panels which will see a significant reduction in our energy consumption, getting us closer to our net zero carbon project.

Unfortunately, the first phase of this project comes in at £23,000, something we don’t have the funds for, so we’re reaching out to local businesses, grant schemes and the DMBC for assistance.

We’ve spent 20 years raising funds to provide our amazing facility which is always packed with people and really is the beating heart of our large community. It would be such a shame to lose what we have all worked for over these years for something such as an electricity bill.

The first phase of the carbon neutral initiative will see a 14kW Mitsubishi Heat Pump installed which will provide up to 4kW of heating for every 1kW of electricity, reducing our heating usage by up to ¾. To then further assist, an array of 20 solar panels will produce around 7,880kW annually. This will then see us being able to meet our reduced energy bills.

The second phase will see us use any additional electricity generated by the panels heat up our water system instead of re-selling back to the grid as the buy back rates are ever diminishing. It will also allow us to make savings so we can purchase a battery storage system to help store any power generated in the daytime for use throughout the night, and finally a bladeless roof mounted turbine to effectively achieve the project goal.

The completion of this project will allow the Phoenix Centre and home to the 58^th Doncaster Scout group to flourish for years to come. We have future plans to build an extension to store equipment, a plan to create a climbing tower for use by our members and public on open days, and a larger plan to acquire unused land adjacent to ours to start building an outdoor activity centre.

We’re asking local business if they would consider donating towards our cause and help prevent our facility from being closed down. We have a few people on board already and hopefully with enough donations we can reach the target.

For larger business donations we will happily consider a sign placement on our premises exterior to signify your generous help. We’ve done this with Sport England and the Lottery.

To learn about how you can get involved, please contact us. Alternatively, you can donate at https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/doncaster-scouts-carbon-neutral