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Report

Community businesses and climate action

Research and practical resources to support community organisations, charities, social enterprises and community businesses to tackle climate change, including an assessment of different approaches, business models and examples to help take climate action.

Community organisations and climate action

Community organisations are taking decisive and impactful climate action. Such action is made up of a multitude of activities, which are often motivated by goals to improve people’s lives or the places where they live rather than explicit goals of reducing carbon emissions. This report:

  • outlines what climate action looks like among community organisations (which we term community businesses), whether climate-focused or otherwise
  • considers what makes such action or business models viable and replicable, presented in such a way as to be readily used by community businesses
  • considers the climate impact of these actions and models, setting out a framework that can aid in measuring and maximising impact.

This research, delivered by IPPR North and Locality for Power to Change, involved an extensive evidence review, developing a list of
diverse case study community businesses, and engaging these organisations and other stakeholders in roundtables.

This research includes two key outputs:
– a framework for measuring climate impact across nine typologies and 10 examples, which can be used to assess impact (see example graphic below)
– a Climate Opportunity Map that identifies potential opportunities and barriers for different climate-focused business models, and how they might be replicated.


A framework for measuring impact across nine different types of climate action