Parish councils and community groups can submit an application for a project under one of 2 themes:  

1. Carbon emission reduction or locking up carbon 
2. Community engagement on climate change 

Please also consider:

• your organisation can apply for more than one project, but please bear in mind that we try to spread the funding across the district and different groups
• we will give scores to your project proposals, based on how well your application meets the assessment criteria for each theme.  
• for projects requesting more than £5,000, we’d encourage you to seek part funding/in kind contributions from other sources in order to score highly
• we cannot award a grant for work that began before receiving funding. 

The Zero Carbon Communities Grant has now provided over £500,000 of funding, this video celebrates some of the projects funded since the grant began in 2019.

Here are the projects we have already funded through the Zero Carbon Communities Grant scheme.

Download the PDF of case studies for previous projects [PDF, 0.8MB].

Hope Against Poverty 

Received £15,000 to replace a diesel van with an electric vehicle for its mobile food bank.

Cambridge Carbon Footprint 

Received £15,000 to expand their network of repair cafes. The grant will also set up new cafes in South Cambridgeshire. They will also use the grant to train volunteers to run cafes and provide them with support and resources to thrive – including a new toolkit supported by local businesses. 

They also received £11,095 to help people upgrade homes and reduce energy use. They will provide thermal camera loans, free tours of low-carbon homes, and a Home Energy Officer to guide people in reducing energy consumption and retrofitting their homes. 

Hardwick Parish Council 

Funded £5,292 to set up an e-bike rental scheme with Cambridge Electric Transport.

On Monday 6 July we held an online briefing and Question and Answer session for details of this year’s Zero Carbon Communities Grant Scheme and how to apply. We are delighted that PECT and Cambridge Electric Transport was also able to join us. 

If you were interested in attending but couldn't, please take a look at the presentation [PPTX, 27.5MB] and free feel to get in touch using the details below if you have any further questions.