Background
New Leaf is a Herefordshire based organisation, whose aim is to promote sustainable development in Herefordshire and beyond. The charity was originally set up formed by Herefordshire Council and the Herefordshire Environment Partnership in 2010 to stimulate and coordinate actions by communities, businesses and public sector organisations across the county to reduce the County’s carbon emissions.
NEW LEAF is a not for profit co-operative, whose aim is to promote sustainable living in Herefordshire and beyond. As a small charitable co-op initiated in 2010, New Leaf works collaboratively with many communities, public sector organisations and businesses across the county. We seek to support and encourage people, locally and internationally, to demonstrate that the pursuit of a flourishing ecology, human wellbeing and a prosperous local economy are worthwhile and inter-related objectives with multiple benefits. New Leaf Sustainable Development Ltd is an exempt charity and is a not-for-profit co-operative (BenCom), no. 31282R
Richard Davies MBE, formerly Chief Executive of Marches Energy Agency, who worked in at least 25 counties across the UK on climate change mitigation programmes described New Leaf as the most successful orchestrator of actions across the voluntary, public and business sector and hailed Herefordshire as having the most effective and integrated carbon reduction programme he was aware of.
Our achievements in have included:
● Co-writing the County’s CO2 reduction strategy
● Coordinating the delivery of a number of annual carbon reduction action planswhich achieved the required targets
● Co-authoring the Re-Energising Herefordshire publication (a public facingdocument subtitled “Reducing our energy use, changing where our energy comes from …and how we all benefit”) which sets out our integrated approach to climate change mitigation and adaptation
● Securing the commitment of a range of organisations to the Re-Energising Herefordshire Charter (which commits key parties to working together to reduce carbon emissions in sustainable ways with economic and wellbeing benefits) .
● Securing, by Community Asset Transfer (in partnership with Herefordshire Wildlife Trust) a 99 year lease to manage Queenswood (see below) to create an exemplar of conservation and sustainable living
● Running an annual festival in Herefordshire called h.Energy, celebrating opportunities to live more sustainably. Now in its tenth year, h.Energy has attracted a combined audience of over 35,000.
● Catalysing the formation of the Herefordshire Green network (originally the Herefordshire in Transition Alliance) and helping to coordinate knowledge exchange, co-operation and mutual support amongst the county’s environmental groups
● Advising and supporting Herefordshire Council’s carbon reduction programme on its own activities, which has been very successful and has achieved above target reductions
● A number of lottery funded projects engaging hundreds with sustainability, climate change and the natural environment, with Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund and Awards for All.
International
New Leaf are working with the Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3) using the most up to date climate change science research on the causes and consequences of climate change. Led by Prof. Maria José Sanz, BC3 produce multidisciplinary knowledge to support decision making towards sustainable development at the international level. With a multidisciplinary team, connected to the main scientific institutions, networks and socio-economic agents, for a decade, their contribution to research of climate change and to the science-policy interface puts them (and us) in a unique position to offer knowledge, tools, new methodologies and cross-cutting proposals, that they lead towards action in a collaborative framework with stakeholders, to design and help implement policies aimed at sustainable development.