Haringey Council funds supports the greening of Collage Arts

‘Any organisation that works with young people – must be working towards net zero. Otherwise, how can you look them in the eyes?’ Manoj Ambasna, Collage Arts

The impact of climate change around the world is irrefutable. However, it isn’t always clear what an individual or organisation can do to make a difference. As the borough has its Go Green week Collage Arts reflects on its recent journey towards net zero.

Manoj Ambasna, executive director Collage Arts, explains: “Reducing our carbon footprint is really important to us. The reality is that if you manage old buildings, it is very challenging to get to net zero. We would like to move away from gas boilers – but any other option requires us to fix heat loss from the building. But we have to make positive changes to reduce our carbon footprint.”

In early 2022, Collage Arts was awarded funds from a scheme supporting Net Zero promoted by Haringey Council. Collage Arts spent around a month exploring its carbon footprint. As a result of the detailed calculations two project emerged.

The introduction of low energy lighting throughout the building, and secondary double glazing. Manoj continues, ‘As we filled in the grant applications and did the complex calculations to arrive at our carbon reduction budget, I realised that most small businesses would really struggle to do this work. So, part of our grant had to be about helping other organisations develop their own plans.’

A plan emerged to recruit young people to be ambassadors for carbon reduction. Steve Medlin, head of Collage Voices explains: “when we talk to young people they are passionate about the environment. We thought that local businesses could benefit from this interest, and so we are planning to work with our partners to recruit two teams of investigators and presenters to make infomercials for local businesses to help them to implement greener working practices. This could help the business reduce fuel costs and access grants to make the transition to new ways of working.”

Helping young people understand the green agenda puts them in a strong position in the labour market. The International Labour Organization (ILO) predicts that if the right policies are put in place, 24 million new jobs will be created globally by 2030. We want the young people of Haringey to be at the front of the green revolution.

Collage Voices has recently produced a suite of infomercials designed to help families access compensation from the Windrush Compensation scheme.

Read more about ‘Green Economy could create 24 million new jobs’: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/04/green-economy-could-create-24-million-new-jobs/