Origin Energy – A Community Interest Company based in Yorkshire & Humberside, UK.
Our aim is to bring the benefits of renewable energy and sustainable living to communities. We believe that community structures are a positive way to bring prosperity. Communities can be a focus for change – and a change for the better. Our team consists of environmentalists, engineers and planners. We work with other organisations whose aim is also centred on the benefits of local solutions.
Origin Energy was established as a Community Interest Company whose aim is to help communities and local governments in Yorkshire and Humberside to live a more prosperous and sustainable life-style. We are a not-for-profit organisation. Our strategy is to raise funds on behalf of communities through the sale of renewable energy and to establish ways in which this revenue can be spent to promote longer term prosperity for the community.
Its aim is to:
- Encourage communities to be responsible for their own energy creation and management
- To foster the requirements for communities to live sustainably within their own environment
- To support the up-take of sustainable construction and refurbishment
- To enjoy community living
Origin’s model is based on a democratic approach whereby every household is invited to participate in community decision making. The usual community energy model entails only engaging those people in the community who have the financial resources to participate. Origin believes that it is only when everyone has a sense of ownership of their own immediate environment will any real change be affected.
The tools for achieving these goals include:
- Assessment of local renewable energy resources, sized for the needs of the particular community
- Providing and establishing an autonomous community structure to oversee investments in local sustainability needs from the energy revenues
- Raising capital funding for communities to build their projects
