The Hanover Centre Carbon RACE

The Hanover Centre Carbon Reduction Awareness and Community Engagement (RACE) project, is a Hanover10:10 Project based on a three-way partnership between the Hanover Community Association, the University of Brighton and Hanover10:10 (an action group of Hanover Action for Sustainable Living – HASL).

The focus of the project is centred around reducing the carbon footprint of the Hanover Community Centre building, which is located within 1.6 miles from the University of Brighton’s Cockcroft Building. The Centre has poor thermal performance resulting in high energy costs and associated CO₂ emissions, issues which it shares with a lot of the residential buildings in this area.  

We hope the project will achieve:
1. To provide volunteering opportunities for staff and students at the University of Brighton and the Hanover community to provide both the basis for knowledge exchange and promotion of local neighbourliness and mutual respect.
2. To establish the specific sources of energy used and consequent carbon footprint of the Centre, within a 5-10 year historical ‘script’ that highlights relative changes over time (usage, carbon, comparative energy costs).
3. To identify measures that can reduce the energy use of the community centre through a feasibility study that will enable the HCA to prioritise action and investment to reduce its energy cost and associated carbon footprint.
4. To identify the range of sources of funding to implement intervention measures identified in the feasibility study and overall community education opportunities.
5. In partnership with ongoing work in Hanover10:10 to further enhance community interest in practical building-based energy conservation in Hanover, via the focus on the Centre as a beacon, that illustrates challenges and solutions that could be similarly applied to local housing.
6. To develop teaching resources, and hands-on real-world student community-based projects designed to improving the sustainability of the Centre, ensuring that the partnering

The Project proposal promotes the exchange and dissemination of information from volunteer staff and students at the University of Brighton and the Hanover community. Some of our students reside in the Hanover community, so their input will be:
- putting back into their own community in a unique practical way.
- encourage the students to engage, interact and become part of the wider community.
- increase awareness of the diverse avenues for community engagement, and so help foster understanding, communication and mutual respect between all the communities of Hanover 

After more than six months’ joint work between the Hanover 10:10 action group and the Hanover Community Association, we drew in the University of Brighton to launch the Student Projects on 25^th February. These are key foundations in our efforts to improve The Hanover Centre building, and show users and local residents what can be done to reduce carbon/energy bills in their own homes. Six enthusiastic students from the University of Brighton, with lecturer Jon Gates, are working in the first half  of 2012 on a range of student work programmes to scope out the changes needed to the building and the way it is used.

Speaking of their project aims University of Brighton student volunteer Matt Jones said “I am very interested in developing my transferable skills and this project offers me the opportunity to experience the issues related with low carbon retrofit and to experience working within the community in promoting sustainability”. Hanover10:10 have been coordinating arrangements to ensure that this is the start of a new future for the aging Victorian community Centre building, and a demonstration of the positive impact in our community that the local students are providing. Dr Jon Gates, University of Brighton: “The project provided an excellent opportunity for our students to contribute to the wider community on the issue of sustainability which is a strong theme in their degree programmes”.

Please also see: The Carbon RACE at: http://www.hasl.org.uk/carbon-race.html

To read the project evaluation click here