Possible is all about bringing people together to do positive, practical stuff that helps tackle climate change. That means we couldn't do anything without the amazing people who give up their time to cut carbon with us. Here are just a few of them, but there are hundreds more.
The Repower Balcombe team
Uniting the 'fracking village' with solar power
The Repower Balcombe team volunteered their time to make the story of the 'fracking village' going solar a reality. Many of them hadn't been part of an environmental project before, like the first Chair Julian, and they all put in hours and hours learning about solar and co-ops, drafting share offers and getting their neighbours and friends behind the idea. Current Chair Tom was the one who got things going on the technical side, and Joe was the spokesperson who made sure Balcombe's inspiring story was heard. They were all supported by Jane, Charles, Jackie and others in Balcombe and beyond.
Ruth Atkins
Helping her school go solar, and making sure others could do the same
Ruth spearheaded the Solar Schools campaign for Mabe primary school - raising over £12,000 for their solar panels. Then, when the government announced cuts to the support for solar, she and her family wrote to them explaining why they love renewables, and went all the way to London to hand-deliver their letter. And then when 25 community energy groups were racing to beat the cuts, she went above and beyond publicising them and invested in a bunch herself.
Richard & Karen Ecclestone
Getting stuck into his schools' solar fundraising
Richard and Karen are governors at Ludwell Primary school and led their Solar Schools team. They helped them raise £12,000 in nine months. Richard was on the local radio and in the papers, and got students to present to the Parish Council to secure funding. When the feed-in tariff cuts rolled around, they wrote to their MP, and when further cuts threatened to hit solar schools they wrote again and to Green party MP Caroline Lucas. To celebrate the successes of Solar Schools, Richard and Karen came to our solarbration and brought the students who had presented to the Parish Council, along with their parents, and the headteacher. And they all had a sunshine painted on their faces.
Karl Handy
Changed his school logo for Solar Schools
Mr Handy is a teacher at Holy Trinity Primary school. They went solar in 2016, and to help them get there, he changed the school logo, the background of the school website and all the school email accounts to incorporate solar into them. He totally championed the project at his school, and got the kids and parents really excited about it.
““From a personal point of view, I’ve loved it, running it, organising it, it’s been different. I look back on it with a lot of satisfaction. I don’t normally do that kind of thing, as a teacher I normally rock up, plan lessons, do them go home. I almost wish I had another school to do. If I moved school and had to do it all again I’d enjoy that. It’s been very rewarding.””
Mike Smyth
Helping the world of community energy go round
Mike has given up huge amounts of his time to help Possible, and he regularly offers masses of support and expertise without us even asking. In 2015-16 he made sure that a bunch of our Solar Schools were still able to get their panels, and incorporated some of them into his own Schools Energy Cooperative at Energy4All. He worked tirelessly to help other struggling schools and there was never a request too far fetched or too annoying. He also advised us on the structure for our new campaigns and his advice was invaluable in helping Balcombe set up their own community energy co-op. He's GREAT.
Feimatta Conteh
Cut her theatre's carbon emissions by 10%, and that was only the beginning
Feimatta was sustainability projects manager at Arcola Theatre in London. In 2009 they signed up to Possible to cut their carbon emissions by 10% over a year, and they managed 32%! Then, when they moved to a new building, they upped their game. Arcola is probably the only theatre with a science lab on the top floor (they're testing using waste cooking oil as a fuel), as well as solar panels on the roof and a host of other carbon cutting tricks throughout the building. Feimatta stayed in touch with Possible and helped us out testing our new app Look Up (just imagine the bugs if she hadn't helped!) and she sent a message to Decc when they proposed cutting the feed-in tariff, hand delivered by our own Dan the running man.
Mechteld Blake + the Pendock team
Hidden hero of Pendock primary school
The indomitable Mechteld and her team pioneered the Pendock primary school solar success story. Pendock had just 43 pupils, and Mechteld and the team worked incredibly hard to raise £9,000 in just five months. Together they organised a fun run around the village to raise money, and the whole community came out to cheer the children on. Mechteld got her son involved too, and he wrote probably the best Solar Schools blog post of all time. Hitting their target was amazing, with one typical child commenting "Thank you, you solar person". Mechteld won a WWF Hidden Heroes award for her Solar Schools work.
“The last three days I felt like a film star winning an Oscar with people stopping their cars in the middle of the road to shout “Congratulations”. Admittedly it was only one car but we are a very small community so in proportion to a place like London it would be the equivalent of thousands.”
Dan the running man
Fighting for the feed-in tariff
When we were campaigning against the in feed-in-tariff cuts, Dan stepped up with a bold idea. He wanted to deliver messages to the Department of Energy and Climate Change from different community energy groups. Seems reasonable right? Except he wanted to do it by hand, running from each group's HQ to Whitehall every day for a week! By the end of the week the delivery guy at Decc knew Dan and the head of community energy met him in the reception area to take his final message.
Chris Jardine
Solar superstar
Chris, founder of Joju Solar, has made a lot of Possible’s solar ambitions happen on the ground... or on the roofs. Joju worked with us to install solar on lots of the Solar Schools, and Chris went above and beyond to help the schools (not to mention the Possible team) understand the whole process of solar installation. He's been an expert helping us develop new projects too.
Richard Craft
Being climate friendly in Bradford on Avon
When he came across the Solar Schools project, Richard Craft signed his grand children's school up straight away. He led the project at Fitzmaurice primary school along with a great team of volunteers. He made sure everyone in the village knew about the project - leaflets, banners, business sponsors and local organisations were all involved. Together, they raised £17,000 in donations in just nine months. The school installed 46 solar panels, and Richard is still cracking on with tackling climate change with Climate Friendly Bradford on Avon.