by Karen Arbuckle | Jul 10, 2015 | News, Top Stories
main photo: Jo Bird, Co-Operative Alternatives & NICE Member & Peter Caldwell, Manager YMCA Londonderry. Just before the bank holiday weekend NICE appointed installers arrived at YMCA Londonderry as scheduled and have mounted the 12kW solar pv array! Wiring and commissioning will take place after the bank hols. This is NICE 6th installation, free of charge to this Northern Ireland 3rd sector community organisation. As with all our organisation members this is a great facility which has just commenced doing some updating and extension work. This busy centre will undoubtedly utilise the energy their array will generate and their energy cost with Payless Power by generating and savings benefits are already being reinvested in their community building! WIN WIN. Thanks again Jo for climbing the scaffolding with Peter for these great aerial photos done again by Jack Farrell, Hive Studios, Derry – much...
by Karen Arbuckle | Jul 10, 2015 | News
photo left to right:- Nigel McKinney, Building Change Trust; Jo Bird, Co-Operative Alternatives; Laurie Davies, Lacada; Karen Arbuckle, NICE; Tiziana O’Hara, Co-Operative Alternatives; Matthew Dick, Boundary; James Orr, Down to Earth NI. Co-Operative Alternatives invited NICE to join in their Community Shares in Northern Ireland Showcase Event which was held at Boundary Brewery on Thursday 25th June 2015. This event was a celebration of the benefits of community shares and what had recently been achieved by newly established local co-operatives. Showcasing were Boundary Brewing, Lacada Brewery, Down to Earth NI and Northern Ireland Community Energy – NICE which have raised more than £350k and attracted hundreds of new members. It was a great opportunity to meet, share and learn from the experiences of other local co-operatives. Whilst the initiatives differed from breweries, burial alternatives to community energy the one we thing we all had in common was a passion for working together in our social enterprises. A fantastic networking event one which will hopefully be replicated again. As previously reported NICE (and the other co-ops mentioned) has been supported by Co-operative Alternatives, a co-operative commissioned by the Building Change Trust to run its Community Shares, Ready! pilot project to increase awareness of Community Shares in Northern Ireland. Their advice and support was invaluable in helping NICE come to be. A new video featuring interviews with Nigel McKinney from Building Change Trust and Jo Bird and Tiziana O’Hara from Co-operative Alternatives which was shown at the event and can viewed online CLICK HERE the video incapsulates the services they can provide to new enterprises or developing existing...
