Report prepared by Tom Hargreaves on behalf of the Community Innovation for Sustainable Energy research team
Carbon Conversations is a community-based and community-led series of six facilitated meetings in which groups of 6-8 participants discuss the practical and emotional challenges of low-carbon living and design strategies to reduce their carbon footprints. Founded in Cambridge in 2006, Carbon Conversations groups have since spread across the UK, being run also in Oxford, Norwich, London and Scotland (including Edinburgh, Callendar, St. Andrews, Iona, Stirling, Argyll and the Highlands). In 2009 the Guardian Newspaper declared Carbon Conversations as one of the 20 ʻmost promisingʼ ideas for solving the climate crisis. This innovation history traces the development of Carbon Conversations from its earliest origins in Cambridge in 2005 (and before), through its replication in Norwich, to its current status (in December 2011) as one of the UKʼs best-known low-carbon ʻbehaviour changeʼ initiatives.