Southwark Council’s climate action
A guest blog by Councillor Emily Hickson, Southwark Council Deputy Cabinet Member for Green Finance
In Southwark, we’re taking urgent action to tackle the climate emergency, but we know the scale of the challenge means we can’t do it alone. To transform our borough, we have an Everest-sized mountain to climb. But this challenge is also an opportunity– a chance to make our borough better for everyone, delivering improvements in health, raising the standard of homes, creating good green jobs and strengthening our communities. That’s why we’ve launched Southwark Green Investment — which is the UK’s largest council community investment scheme for green projects. We’re aiming to raise £6 million by 2030 through a series of raises.
This is your chance to help this ambitious work and accelerate local climate action that delivers for Southwark residents. Every investment, from just £5, plays a role in hitting our net-zero target and creating a greener, fairer, safer borough.
Our track record shows that when we have the funding, we are best placed to deliver positive local climate action. We are proud of the work we have done, from green upgrades at our libraries to moving thousands of council properties away from gas and towards renewable energy.
But we know there’s much more to do, and quickly. That’s why this spring we’re raising £1 million to deliver:
- More cycle hangars across the borough, ensuring everyone has space to store their bicycles safely. It’s a simple solution that can make a huge difference for residents.
- LED street-lighting replacements. With this extra funding, we’ll speed up the programme and replace all 17,000 streetlights by 2026, saving 318 tonnes of carbon per year.
- Green upgrades at our leisure centres. Since we brought our leisure centres in house in 2023, we have been looking at how we can invest and improve them whilst also making them more environmentally friendly. This includes everything from pool covers, to LED lighting and new building management systems.
- Renovations at our schools to make them greener. With this funding, we will be rolling out measures that can make our schools more energy efficient, and move them away from dependency on gas.
I’m excited to see these projects being delivered over the next year, showcasing how residents, businesses, and everyone else involved is helping urgent climate action in Southwark.
You can invest in the first phase of the Southwark Green Investment here.
RISK WARNING
As with any investment, there are risks when investing on Abundance. Your invested capital is at risk and any return on your investment depends on the ability of the company or council you have invested in to pay your returns. Investments on Abundance are generally long term and you should be prepared to hold them to maturity. The investments are illiquid and you may not be able to sell them if you need your money back earlier, and their value can rise or fall. Some investments may be secured, but this does not guarantee repayment or your return.
Quoted returns are no guarantee of future returns and past performance is not a guide to future performance. Specific risks will apply in relation to each investment. Please consider all risks before investing. The investments on Abundance include debentures or bonds and peer to peer loans — Abundance’s service in relation to loans is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
