Heritage Lottery Fund

Carbon footprint tool for assessing grant applicants

The Heritage Lottery Fund provides around £375 million of funding to projects across the UK every year. Although these projects provide lasting benefits to local communities, HLF acknowledges that they also have a carbon impact which can’t be ignored. It’s a significant challenge for many applicants who are awarded money to also minimise or reduce their carbon footprint.   

In order to quantify the scale of greenhouse gas emissions associated with HLF-funded projects, and to help reduce them, a robust carbon footprinting tool was needed that could be used by funding applicants. Following on from an initial scoping project, conducted in 2009, Best Foot Forward developed an innovative solution by customising its Footprint Reporter tool. 

HLF Footprint Reporter measures the impact of changes to building utilities consumption and visitor travel. Carbon reductions can be achieved through energy efficiency, better buildings and renewable energy and by encouraging visitors to switch to public transport, walking and cycling. Organisations can plan to mitigate the effect of project expansion, by reducing the intensity or absolute level of their footprint.

The tool was piloted with several applicant groups in the HLF major batch funding process for grants over £5 million.  Three successful applicants have now used HLF Footprint Reporter when applying for their grants: Britten 100, the Grasslands Trust and Whitworth Art Gallery.

In July 2012, HLF became the first major UK funding body to require all large projects to undertake carbon footprinting as part of their application. Announced as part of its new strategic framework for 2013 – 2018, HLF will now ask all applicants requesting funding above £2 millon to measure the carbon footprint of their projects. 

Read the press release.