About Us

What we do

We share information about the activities of member groups and promote their work.
We are a hub for resource & sharing.
We host events (called our Gatherings) and workshops on the issues of importance to our members such as:
- local transport
- community hubs
- food poverty
- retrofitting energy efficiency measures
- community engagement techniques
We create a stronger voice by speaking together on areas of common interest and concern of member groups

Our constitution, policies and meeting documents can be found here.

Herefordshire Green Network has been active in Herefordshire for more than 10 years. Formerly the Herefordshire in Transition Alliance, Herefordshire Green Network is made up of local green, environmental and Transition Town groups, activists, environmental organisations & businesses, local community groups, town and parish councils and interested individuals

Our groups are active in many areas of interest right across the county, including:

Food
Energy
Housing and Buildings
Transport
Agriculture and Land Use
Waste and Resources
Community/network groups
Parish Councils (Great Collaboration)

Click here to see who they are.

How we work

The core function of our lively, resilient and respected local Network is supporting our Membership. The Network is maintained by a part time paid administrator and a volunteer Steering Group. HGN staff and Steering Group operate according to the aims and objectives of HGN, in support of HGN Members.

As some of our sources of grant income to support our core costs have been diverted due to the Covid 19 situation, we increasingly rely on the generous financial help of our member groups and individual supporters.

Where we are going

Spring 2021: our ambition for the coming year is to support people in Herefordshire to step into action on climate, and to develop a shared, inclusive and empowering vision of an ecologically rich zero carbon future for our county.

Why?

Because in March Herefordshire Council will be launching their Carbon Reduction Action Plan for the county with a new website – and we want to increase the involvement of local people in the development of the plan.

Because technical approaches to achieve net zero carbon are increasingly well documented, but if our work as a county is to be successful carbon reduction must feel meaningful in the context of our day to day lives, and supportive of the wellbeing and work of all people in Herefordshire.

Because people in Herefordshire are motivated to act on climate issues, but need support to make it happen.

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HGN is a lightly constituted, not-for-profit organisation.

Our Vision: Herefordshire thriving, and collaborating to address the climate & ecological crisis.

Our Mission: Energising People for a Zero Carbon Herefordshire.

THE FULL HGN CONSTITUTION CAN BE READ HERE.

Herefordshire Green Network Themes

We are working on 2 main themes across our activities as a network:

Low Carbon
Get Active

Low Carbon

This is the core of all our work in Herefordshire: reducing our personal use, abuse and the county’s emissions of carbon – in order to support in whatever way we can the global decrease of carbon in our atmosphere.

Under our Low Carbon theme for 2018 we are supporting global efforts to reduce single use plastics… Click here for our #PlasticActionHere list of inspirational ideas & actions that you might want to make in your personal life to reduce unnecessary plastics.

Get Active

Our Awards for All funded ‘Active in Community’ Project provides a package of support for the work of our membership in towns and villages around Herefordshire. This includes the provision of workshops and website resources alongside the development of materials to ensure the replicability of the inspirational local projects.

We are very grateful for our current funding from Awards for All (the HGN ‘Get Active’ project) and for local sponsorship from Wye Valley Brewery. Herefordshire Community Foundation (Glencora) have been a vital source of support for our work over the past year, and this HGN website was originally paid for via sponsorship from Herefordshire Friends of the Earth.

Thank you all 🙂

… and if your local business would be interested in sponsoring us, please do get in touch!

Steering Group Members

Beth Williamson

Beth Williamson is a former Secondary School teacher of English now working as coordinator for ‘The Great Collaboration- towards Zero Carbon Herefordshire.’

In 2016, having worked in Education for 10 years, she moved to Herefordshire to have a family and pursue a more sustainable lifestyle.

She has set up and solely run The Green Schools Project in Herefordshire where she has been able to work alongside Herefordshire Council, Spring Greens Educational Days and The West Midlands Sustainable Schools Network. Beth is secretary for The Herefordshire Green Network and sits on Leominster council.

Connie Orbach

Connie has a Masters degree in Science Communication and previously worked as a Content Developer at the Science Museum in London and a Radio Producer for The Naked Scientists, podcast and radio show. Connie recently returned to the area to rejoin her family business, Shepherds Ice Cream and now lives just over the border in Abergavenny. In 2019 / 2020 Connie was the HGN Events Coordinator and helped to deliver phase 1 of The Great Collaboration.

Gareth Williams

Gareth Williams has a deep rooted and evolving passion for the sustainability agenda. This has led him to develop from his family farming roots into a diversified rural business that includes a renewable energy business, property rental and farming activity based from Herefordshire. Three generations of the Williams family have operated from Caplor since 1923.

A wide range of skills and expertise are rooted around his passions and experience based on sound academic input and ongoing personal development. An agricultural graduate in 1990, ongoing development centred on; leadership, management, counselling, financial, public speaking, environmental, local council, UK and overseas energy and sustainable based consultancy. Latterly including Goldman Sachs growth programme at Aston University leading to a position of Visiting Fellow.

Caplor Energy – From personal passion and evolving practicality using experience within Caplor’s building and renovation enterprise, CE was established in 2007 and specialises in the design and supply of renewable energy systems for businesses, communities and home owners. Caplor Energy is proud to be one of the region’s leading installers by both reputation and market share. Caplor has offered innovative community schemes that have allowed a significant number of community organisations to benefit from renewable opportunities and in recent years has spread that experience into the commercial sector with its own expanding networks of systems. Caplor actively engages within the renewable industry through various channels including; board membership of the UK Solar Trade association, Trustee at MCS, chair of Hereford Futures forum and Hereford Green Network. Since 2015 Gareth has worked with Govt dept BEIS on Solar Policy development in the UK. He also contributed to Malawi renewable policy in 2016.

Caplor has been recognised with over 20 local and national awards for their contribution to the community, small business and the sustainability agenda, national accreditations such as an NFU approved supplier.

Following a ‘triple bottom line’ approach, Caplor uses its values to guide development to deliver on the long term vision. Inspired, sustainable improvement.

Caplor’s vision – ‘’Develop, diversify and positively contribute towards enhancing a sustainable community ‘’

Learn more at – http://www.caplor.co.uk/ and Caplor Horizons

Follow industry comment and news at – https://www.caplor.co.uk/caplor-news/

Current groups engaged with include:

Board member UK Solar trade association

Trustee MCS charitable foundation

Environment Advisor BEIS Science team

Panel Uk Institute Apprenticeships + Tech Education

Chair Business Futures Forum

Retiring Chair Hereford Green Network

Co-Chair Marches Business environment network

Board member Hereford Business Board

Member Marches energy strategy steering group

Member Hereford Council climate emergency SG

Co- Founder Caplor Horizons (registered Charity)

Councillor Fownhope Council (17years)

Contributor Bank of England West Midlands Agency

Visiting Fellow Aston University

Director (X) Woolhope wood heat co-operative

Board member (X) Sustainability West Midlands

Organisations

National Farmers Union

Solar trade association – MCS

Nuffield Scholarship, Goldman Sachs (10K) Alumni Aston University

Jackie Jones

Jackie joined the Steering Group in autumn 2019, having worked in the sustainable energy field since the mid-1990s. She is former editorial director of a leading international magazine on renewable energy (read in 120 countries), alongside directing publications on sustainable waste management, decentralized energy, and energy in buildings – all for a worldwide professional and policymaking audience. In her 12 years in that role, one of her big objectives was to get rid of the phrase ‘alternative energy’ and have renewables take their place in the mainstream. She has written extensively about renewable energy policy and technologies, and has run and chaired renewables conferences in Europe, USA and Asia, plus specialist solar energy conferences in the UK. She has been on the judging panels for both international and national awards (renewable and decentralized energy projects).

Eventually she got tired of suitcases and flights, so decided to focus nearer home, especially working on home retrofit. She moved to Herefordshire in 2015 but while in London spent two years on (then) Carbon Leapfrog’s Project Steering Group, assessing community energy projects for support. She was member of Haringey Council’s 40:20 Homes retrofit working group, and set up large home energy events for the London Borough of Camden, as well as starting and running a local community group promoting domestic retrofit through community outreach events.

Since 2015 she’s been a director of Pomona Solar Co-op, a community energy scheme that runs a 300kW solar plant in Herefordshire and has about 100 members, and is a non-exec director of a couple of other related organisations. She lives near Hay-on-Wye and is a Trustee of Hay2Timbuktu, as well as doing occasional waitressing at her local community cafe. She has carried out low-energy home retrofit on three houses and her current home runs on solar PV, solar thermal/wood pellets combi system.

Nick Read

Nick Read is an Anglican Priest and an Agricultural Chaplain with Borderlands Rural Chaplaincy. He combines chaplaincy with being Director of the Brightspace Foundation, a charity focused on supporting Herefordshire’s future sustainable development. He has a degree in Agricultural Science a Masters’ Degree in Forestry, an OBE for services to agriculture and is a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society.

Former roles include: Research Fellow with the Technical Change Centre, looking at technology transfer in the biosciences; national Food Policy & Research Adviser for the NFU; Co-founder and Director of the Rural Stress Information Network, a charity supporting farming families suffering from stress, and Chair of the West Midlands Rural Affairs Forum.

He is currently Co-Chair of the Herefordshire Green Network, Chair of the Herefordshire Local Nature Partnership and he is also Chair of Farm Herefordshire which consists of 12 organisations working collaboratively to improve soil and water management within the county.

Temi Odurinde

Temi is a sustainability and water poverty alleviation advocate. He is the
founder of Hope Spring, a small Hereford-based water poverty alleviation
charity, that works in West Africa. He has a degree in Computing and
Psychology, and a Masters degree in sustainable development advocacy.

He is currently a member of the Herefordshire Green Network steering group
and the chair of Hope Spring’s board of trustees.

He is passionate about natural beekeeping. He is currently working on a
book that introduces aspiring beekeepers to a more natural way of helping
bees and other pollinating insects.

Toni Fagan

Toni Fagan has lived, worked and raised her family in Herefordshire since 2005. In 2019 Toni was elected to Herefordshire Council as a Green Party councillor for Birch, to the south of Hereford.

Initially studying and working in journalism and then travelling Toni became interested in community development while living in the West Highlands of Scotland. Since then she has been involved in many community based projects and environmental campaigns. Toni’s involvement in the council includes the Planning Committee, Pensions Committee, and the Climate and Ecological Emergency working groups for Scrutiny and the Worcestershire Pensions Fund environmental, social and governance working group. Toni is a partner in a small, extremely ethical and low carbon, catering business.

Wendy Cotton

Wendy Cotton is a former finance professional now working in the environmental sector.

In 2016, having worked in public finance and school business management for nearly 30 years, Wendy left her role as Business Director of an Academy Trust running six schools in Bristol to pursue her interest in environmental management.

Wendy completed an MSc in Environmental Management in 2019, is an associate member of the Institute of Environmental Science and a graduate member of the Institute for Environmental Management & Assessment.

Wendy is the honorary Treasurer of HGN and New Leaf Sustainable Development and recently co-authored an article about plastic pollution in rivers which was published in an international peer-reviewed academic journal.

She has been an Associate of New Leaf Sustainable Development since 2017 and, alongside her role as HGN Administrator, she works part time as the Sustainability Lead at Queenswood Country Park.