www.northfieldecocentre.org 0121 448 0119Owned by Central England Area Quakers, Registered charity no. 224571

Annual Report 2013

1www.northfieldecocentre.org 0121 448 0119Owned by Central England Area Quakers, Registered charity no. 224571

OverviewWe became a Green Deal Accredited Organisation and completed our 1,000th

home visit energy assessment, successfully crowdfunded £10,000 to run UrbanHarvest and worked in partnership to help win £50,000 through the People’sMillions to set up a bike hub, Cycle South Brum, in Northfield.

We developed and strengthened partnerships with community organisations,schools & local businesses, and worked directly with almost 3,500 people.Responding to the rapid development of our services we revisited our strategy tomake sure we remain focused on our key aims. We concluded we are delivering thework we set out to do but needed to tweak some of aims to be more specific andrelevant to our community. These aims reflect the ambition, vision and values of theEcocentre and this report is set out to demonstrate how we are achieving them.During 2013 we updated our strategy:

1. Build strong communities with the skills, resources andlearning to affect a long term cultural shift to sustainablebehaviours.2. Develop the Ecocentre as a trusted hub for all aspects ofsustainable living.3. Develop the Ecocentre as an exemplar sustainablecommunity, making best use of available assets andopportunities to achieve all our aims4. Research & demonstrate the impacts of the Ecocentre’swork and activities on the environment, our communities andinspiring lasting behaviour change.

5. Support the Religious Society of Friends towards their commitment tosustainable living as set out in The Canterbury Commitment.

We hope you find this report interesting. Please do get in touchif you have any questions and hopefully we will see you at anEcocentre event soon.

Georgia Stokes -Ecocentre Manager

Contents1. Overview2. Aim 15. Aim 27. Aim 39. Aim 410. Finance

Welcome to our Annual Reportfor 2013. It has been a busy andexciting year.

Harriet Martin - Clerkto Management

Committee

2www.northfieldecocentre.org 0121 448 0119Owned by Central England Area Quakers, Registered charity no. 224571

Aim 1: Building strong sustainable communities

Community Food Growing Projects

Masefield Community Garden: is flourishing now with:an outdoor classroom, polytunnel, plastic bottlegreenhouse, earth oven, forest garden, wildlife area &soon a compost toilet. Open every Wednesday until2pm to visit or volunteer. Courses include building anearth oven, beginners gardening, composting, fruittree pruning and building raised beds.

The Ecocentre garden: is a highly productive smallspace. Our volunteers grew apples, pears, currants,gooseberries & even grapes.Royal Horticultural Awards: both our communitygardens won awards. Masefield was awarded Level 3Developing, the Ecocentre garden won Level 5Outstanding.

Urban Harvest: £10,000 crowdfunding success to pickunused fruit across south Birmingham and put to gooduse in the community. We picked 3 tonnes of fruitsupplying free fruit , encouraging healthy eating, to 9children’s centres, 2 nurseries, 4 schools, 2 food banks,4 children’s clubs, 4 community events & one homelessproject.

Northfield’s Woodlands & Orchards: Project Success!In 2012 we set out to plant 1,400 trees by March 2014.We exceeded this target & planted 1,600 creating 20community orchards. We were awarded a furthergrant to plant 2,300 trees in the next 2 years & createa community fruit tree nursery at MasefieldCommunity Garden as a sustainable resource.

All achieved through the help and support of ouramazing team of volunteers. Thank you.

3

Check out our website to find outwhat’s happening in 2014

EcoKids: our holiday programme was verypopular with parents & children. We wenton nature treasure hunts, made junkmodel pirate ships, and got creative withmud. All sessions have a sustainabilitytheme, handouts to take home and providelots of fun. EcoStars: We piloted our new interactive

classroom activities programme exploringa wide range of sustainability &environmental themes. Sessions link toKS1 & KS2 curriculum. Pupils exploredissues, have fun & learn together.

Family Forest Schools: In 2013 weintroduced Forest School activitiesbuilding confidence, learning aboutnature & having fun outdoors. Sessionsincluded den making, knot tying, musicalinstruments & some magic!

Masefield After School Club: After anti-socialbehaviour at the community garden we invitedlocal children aged 4 to 12 to the garden Theyplanted tomatoes, salads, potatoes &strawberries learning about healthy eating. Theanti-social behaviour stopped.

Growing Together: Workingwith home school groups,nurseries & local familieschildren & adults have funexploring our gardens &learning to grow food together.Nappuccino: discussing the

benefits of real nappies with new& expecting parents.

www.northfieldecocentre.org 0121 448 0119Owned by Central England Area Quakers, Registered charity no. 224571

Green Generations: Exploring ourenvironment together.

4www.northfieldecocentre.org 0121 448 0119Owned by Central England Area Quakers, Registered charity no. 224571

The Big Lunch - Sharing Food, Building Community

In July we launched our partnership project on a zero budget, Cycle South Brum, withNorthfield Community Partnership, Northfield Pool & Fitness Centre, & NorthfieldBusiness Improvement District. Be Active donated 9 bikes for free hire to get peoplecycling.In November almost 3,000 people voted for Cycle South Brum to win £50,000 on thePeople’s Millions to establish a bike hub in Northfield offering bike maintenance,group rides & more bikes for hire.

The Gruffalo Came to Northfield

We held our third Big Lunch at MasefieldCommunity Garden. Over 60 peoplebrought amazing food to share, weavewillow, & meet neighbours. We launchedour Forest School programme.

We had a special guest at our first fundraisingevents. Lots of families came to meet theGruffalo, make character masks & hear thestory. We even went on the road with TheGruffalo to local schools, libraries & children’scentres.

Home Energy Make Over One Year OnLaura Jackson won our competition in 2012 for a freehome energy makeover worth £9,000. She received freeexternal solid wall insulation, a new damp proofmembrane on her wall, new heating controls on herradiators (TRVs) and room thermostat to help regulate the heating more efficiently. Inspired by the work, shealso installed a new boiler herself.

“Before the work was done, with single brick walls itwas quite cold in the winter and damp as well,' said Laura.'We knew that the heating was just going straight out ofthe walls and the loft... Even before they’d finished theoutside wall insulation we could tell there was a massivedifference in terms of the warmth of the house.”

5www.northfieldecocentre.org 0121 448 0119Owned by Central England Area Quakers, Registered charity no. 224571

High Quality Professional Services

During 2013 we developed the quality & standard of our energyadvice services. We became a Green Deal Accredited Organisation.Our staff are trained as Green Deal & Energy PerformanceCertificate Assessors. We continue to offer free advice at theEcocentre and hundreds of fact sheets.

Aim 2: A trusted independent advice hub

The Ecocentre conducted some research this year and foundthat households that had received a visit from one of our energyadvisors were able to save, on average, £113 per year on theirbills just by changing the way they use energy at home. That’swithout having anything installed at all.

Advice Services for the Home

We work with a wide range of partners to deliver energy advice across the city. Ouradvisors make homes warmer, lower energy use, reduce bills & of course carbonemissions. During 2013 we worked with:

6www.northfieldecocentre.org 0121 448 0119Owned by Central England Area Quakers, Registered charity no. 224571

Professional, Quality Services for Businesses & OrganisationsFrom early 2013 we were able to offer professional consultancy services ataffordable prices to non-domestic customers including Green Deal Assessments,Energy Performance Certificates & Display Energy Certificates. We also providefull environmental assessments & develop plans to increase resource efficiency.

Non-Domestic Consultancy

Shakespeare Birthplace TrustWe assessed the historic buildings controlled by the trust.A range of cost savings were identified to allow SBT toreduce costs and environmental impacts. SBT are nowconsidering expanding the programme to consider a widerange of environmental impacts. Future investments inthe historical assets will also include the consideration ofenergy efficiency.To compliment the building work we ran a series ofbehaviour change workshops with Trust staff to furtherreduce energy use.

Housing AssociationsWe delivered tenant advice services with Optima HousingAssociation. We developed a range of approaches includingsurgeries in community spaces, interactive workshops and homevisits. All tenants reported lower energy bills as a result, for somesavings were as much as £250.

Accord Housing wanted to establish the current level of cavitywall insulation within sheltered housing. We provided thermalimaging services which allowed Accord to target insulation &bring down the heating costs of residents.

Kings Norton Boys SchoolWe assessed the School to consider  how energy wasbeing used on site identifying inefficiencies & offeringadvice to reduce consumption. Our report prioritisedactions to allow KNBS gain from easy zero cost changesfirst, then outlined potential investments and paybacktimes for energy efficiency improvements.

7www.northfieldecocentre.org 0121 448 0119Owned by Central England Area Quakers, Registered charity no. 224571

Aim 3: Our People Are Our Assets

We can only achieve all this because of all the wonderful people that support theEcocentre. Our staff, volunteers, supporters and visitors are incredibly committedto the success of the Ecocentre because they believe in our vision.

“We inspire and support communities to take positive action to achievesustainable living.”

Our SupportersDuring 2013 people showed their support for the Ecocentrein many ways from funding Urban Harvest, voting for CycleSouth Brum to win the People’s Millions, running for theEcocentre in the Great Midlands Fun Run and theBirmingham Half Marathon, and becoming a Friend of theEcocentre with a regular donation.

Our Volunteers

We have fantastic volunteers who help us with everythingfrom gardening to fundraising to governing the Ecocentre asour Management Committee. We hold at least an annualcelebration for our volunteers, and work together to developtheir skills through activities and training.

Volunteer Teams

We’ve had fantastic support from the community withvolunteer teams giving up their time from local businessesincluding Wilkinson’s & Mondelez, and groups such as TheChallenge & The Prince’s Trust. They’ve been involved withfruit picking & harvesting, building a polytunnel & loads more.

Our Staff

We have a committed, dynamic part time staffteam who deliver fantastic results. In 2013 wehad an apprentice, work experienceplacements, youth group work days &sessions, and a member of staff took part inPioneers into Practice.

8www.northfieldecocentre.org 0121 448 0119Owned by Central England Area Quakers, Registered charity no. 224571

Aim 4: Ecocentre Impacts

Environmental

ElectricityWe had our first complete set of readings for our 11 solar photovoltaic panels in2013. The total amount of electricity produced was 1531kwh. This is 38% of allelectricity used.The charts below show our electricity consumption over the past 5 years and thecorresponding degree days. 2013 was a cold year and as our heating is electric ouruse increased slightly. We use an electricity supplier that has 100% renewableelectricity.

Waste: Reduced overall from 378kg in2012 to 252kg in 2013 made up as below.

Our impact on the environment is complex. We continually measure the impact ofthe Ecocentre building & are working on ways to measure the larger positive impactof our advice. If just a small number of our recommendations are implemented ouroverall positive impact far exceeds the negative impacts of the Ecocentre itself.

Aim 5: Supporting Quakers

We have welcomed a number of Quaker groups to the Ecocentrefor activities & tours. We provided an energy assessment toBarnt Green Meeting House to develop a low carbon strategy.

We attended Britain Yearly Gathering and gave a special interesttalk on energy efficiency.

9www.northfieldecocentre.org 0121 448 0119Owned by Central England Area Quakers, Registered charity no. 224571

Impacts: 2013 in Numbers

We started Urban Harvest picking wastefruit saving almost 4 tonnes.

We communicated regularlyto 4,000 people throughnewsletters & social media.

We developed our work withlocal schools & families,

inviting them to MasefieldCommunity Garden to explore

nature together.

2013 was a big development year formany of our projects. Overall weworked with 3,477 people directly in2013. We

took our activities out intothe community over 2013 to meet

people where they feel comfortablerunning workshops, stalls & food

growing.

Ourenergy services increased

dramatically with over 2,000 homevisits to reduce energy use through

behaviour change advice & technicalrecommendations.

10www.northfieldecocentre.org 0121 448 0119Owned by Central England Area Quakers, Registered charity no. 224571

Income 2013 2012 Grants from Trust s 32350 38500 Central England Quakers 15000 22500 Project funding, Grants, Consultancy 119332 152834 Donations from Members and visitors 6666 9833 Bank interest & other 611 83

 Total Income 173959 223750 Resources expended Employment costs 156684 126470 Project costs 24520 40445 Operating costs 8346 41450 Maintenance & Equipment 2829 2402

 Total Expenditure 192379 210767 Income less expenditure -18420 12983 Balance brought forward 1/1/13 70599 57616 Balance carried forward 31/12/13 52179 70599

Incredible Edible Northfield projects havevarious funding streams: Masefield Communitygarden (NIACE), Urban Harvest (crowdfunded)& Northfield’s Orchards (Big Tree Fund).Green Generations: adults & children learntogether with EcoKids, group & school visits, &forest schools. Participants pay a contributionbut we fundraise this work. Sources include:grant applications, individual & Quaker meetingdonations, half marathon runners, and Friendsof the Ecocentre.We were VAT registered in 2013 as our energyadvice work increased. The national GreenDeal, launched in 2013, didn’t take off as thegovernment hoped. Some of our partnercompanies went into liquidation. We wrote offbad debt totalling £2,772. We ended the yearwith £10,370 worth of invoices outstanding.

We started2013 with abalance of

£70,599, somerestricted. Thisallowed us to

developcommunity

projects withcore funding

i.e Cycle SouthBrum.

We ended theyear with abalance of

£52,723

Finance

 Balance Sheet 2013 2012 Current assets Debtors 10370 2585 Short termdeposits 9600 46868

 Cash in bank & inhand 34819 21146

 Total currentassets 54790 70599

 Current liabilities(due within 1 year)

 Creditors due 2611 0 Net current assets 52179 70599 Creditors due after1 year 0 0

 Reserves as at31/12/13 52179 70599

Find Us:

NorthfieldEcocentre

Northfieldeco

Northfield Ecocentre53 Church Road

NorthfieldBirmingham. B31 2LB

0121 448 0119www.northfieldecocentre.orgenquiries@northfieldecocentre.org

General Opening TimesTuesdays to Fridays 10am - 3pmFor group visits call to arrange

This report is also available to downloadfrom our web site

Thank You

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our staff, management committee,financial supporters and everybody that volunteers for us. Without your ongoingsupport and hard work none of this would be possible.

StaffGeorgia Stokes Luke Olly Stuart Bowles Anne DasguptaLuke Pearson Jane Baker Sunny Qayyum David Chapman

Jackie Green Kara Moses Margaret Hannah Damien Bennett

Management CommitteeJudith Jenner (Clerk) Stephen Holt (Ast. Clerk) Harriet Martin

Peter Ullathorne (Treasurer) Tom Greeves (Ast. Treasurer) Peter CarterDuncan Miller Nigel Harris Ali Jeffrey Steve Wigzell Susan Steadman