2025 Award Finalist: Collaboration in Community Energy: Carbon Co-op 

The Levenshulme Area Based Retrofit Scheme, led by Carbon Co-op, is a trailblazing collaboration that shows how communities, local authorities, and social enterprises can work together to make home energy upgrades more accessible and affordable. Partnering with Manchester City Council, B4Box, Progress in Practice, and others, Carbon Co-op coordinated a £300,000 street-by-street retrofit programme for homes in an area of high fuel poverty –  combining grants, loans, and resident contributions through a unique blended finance model. The project put householders at the heart of the process and fostered a genuine culture of collaboration across all partners. Judges praised Carbon Co-op’s exhaustive, community-centred approach and commitment to sharing learning, noting its potential to shape national policy and finally “crack the nut” of delivering place-based retrofit at scale.