Community Benefit Fund
Low Carbon Gordano Ltd. (LCG) is registered as a community benefit society. One tangible expression of this commitment is the Community Benefit Fund (CBF).
LCG has a Community Benefit Fund Policy which requires the Board to recommend an amount of money to its membership at each Annual General Meeting. Once approved, the Board top-slice a sum to be given as a grant to a carbon-saving project in the global south. The remainder is used to grant aid to local carbon-saving projects.
Since 2019, LCG has contracted with Quartet Community Foundation, a charitable body in Bristol, which advertises, administers and then follows up the grant aiding process in return for a fee. That same year, LCG combined its fund with that of Bristol Energy Co-Operative to form The Megawatt Fund and the two organisations now share the responsibility for selecting the local projects.
We also support Mend the Gap, a North Somerset charity that sponsors education projects in the Masai Mara region of Kenya, and The Mwezi Foundation: a small UK-registered charity which provides free portable solar lights to rural primary schools in the Kilifi and Kwale counties of south-east Kenya.
From 2026, we are running a new initiative called “Watts On The Roof” which is a scheme to gift a 10kW solar array to a community building in Nort Somerset each financial year, ensuring that CBF funds are used for the benefit of communities in our area.
Summary of Community Benefit Fund Payments to date
| YEAR GRANT PAID | LCG FUND CONTRIBUTION £ | GLOBAL SOUTH GRANTS £ | LOCAL PROJECTS GRANTS TOTAL * £ | No. OF LOCAL PROJECTS GRANT AIDED | WATTS ON THE ROOF |
| 2016 | 27,500 | 2,500 | 25,000 | 7 | |
| 2017 | 25,000 | 2,500 | 22,500 | 6 | |
| 2018 | 15,000 | 1,500 | 13,500 | 4 | |
| 2019 | 20,000 | 1,500 | 18,500 | 14 | |
| 2020 | 15,000 | 1,500 | 49,717 | 14 | |
| 2021 | 15,500 | 1,500 | |||
| 2022 | 21,170** | 1,750 | |||
| 2023 | 18,000 | 1,800 | |||
| 2024 | 19,300 | 1,930 | |||
| 2025 | 19,300 | 1,930 | |||
| 2026 | 22,222*** | 2,222 | 10,000 | ||
| TOTALS | 217,992 | 18,754 | 129,217 | 10,000 |
*Year money set aside (not necessarily spend in that year) for Global South grants
** Includes £3,670 to HET onto of the allocated £17,500 initially allocated.
***Includes the Watts On The Roof £10k.
Examples of Beneficiaries
Pretoria Road Allotments
For the installation of water harvesting units to reduce the use of mains fed water to the site and reduce the sites carbon footprint.
Community Trees Wick
Toward planting fruit trees in Brockwell Park Community Orchard to provide a source of local produce and increase carbon sequestration.
Southmead Development Trust
To reestablish walking groups in the Southmead area and produce a walking map that will contain information about energy saving and climate change issues.
