Case Studies

Stella’s Voice visit to Cunninghame Furniture

Mattress cleaning and reuse exchange

A group of people observing mattress cleaning

Stella’s Voice and Instant Neighbour are about to start a mattress cleaning project with Aberdeenshire Council. By learning from Cunninghame who have run a similar project for a few years, we will be able to start with maximum efficiency and minimum disruption. By being able to effectively clean and reuse mattresses there will be be less waste and landfill – a saving to local authority budgets, more mattresses available for people – we never have mattresses to meet demand for them and ultimately, less situations where children, for example are sleeping on the floor.

Those that went on the visit expressed ideas such as how this could be expanded to include sofas and other soft furnishings, thereby increasing what can be diverted from landfill and put into good use. The trip also was a good time for Instant Neighbour and Stella’s Voice to talk through, learn from and discuss other challenges currently going on in the sector. We also got a chance to sit down with the leadership team at Cunninghame and discuss wider sector issues relating to reuse – an opportunity that is rare and was only made possible because of the grant from the Learning Exchange which enabled this trip in the first place.

 

Learning Outcomes

  • Correct use of the cleaning machine – There are several techniques to using the cleaning machine and the chemicals that are used along with the cleaning machine. There are several different cleaning chemicals – the correct use of the different chemicals for different mattresses and the amount of each chemical required.
  • Correct handling and storage of the mattresses – ensuring the mattress don’t get damp, are dried correctly, etc. Cunninghame have a system worked out that maximises space but ensures quality and drying are not compromised.
  • Labelling and communication to the general public so that they can know using a cleaned mattress is safe and giving them the confidence to do so. Cunninghame Furniture have developed an effective system/process and the visit will allow us to see, understand, partake in all of this and develop our procedures to run a mattress cleaning project. 

Community Organisation:
Stella's Voice & Instant Neighbour

Exchange Host Partners:
Cunninghame Furniture

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Circular Communities Scotland

"Being on site and seeing first hand how the project can work was invaluable. Theory is one thing, but the practical is another. Our team have come away with a real world working knowledge of how to clean mattresses. Learning the 'do's' but also the 'do not's' from the experience of a project that has now been running for a few years. Being able to observe, document, photograph and video all of this will enable us to setup a really good working model that will allow many mattresses to be diverted from landfill and ensure many more people have a bed to sleep in. We now have a launch date of June 2025 to get the project up and running."

Case Studies

Creative Dundee exchange

Using ancestral and creative tools to connect with nature.

A group of people standing outside a thatched cottage

During our day at The Scottish Crannog Centre, we discovered more about the ways of living and sustainable practices from our ancestors 2,500 years ago – how these resonate with and can inspire our current ways of living, making, growing, sharing and connecting with the land beneath our feet, and how we make sense of the world through experimenting and storytelling.
In the village, we also had the opportunity to feel a slower pace of time and get our hands on ancestral tools. We chatted with staff who were demonstrating ancestral making, weaving, cooking, blacksmithing etc. We also had time to reflect in small groups about our own ways of living and connecting with others and nature, how these ancestral ways of being and doing could be applied in our everyday lives, practices and the ways we work together. In the afternoon, we heard more about  Bioregioning Tayside, their past and present actions and projects, their impacts and challenges, and how we need to expand our ways of thinking and care for the natural environment that nourishes us literally and creatively. Through the presentation and discussions afterwards, we gained a better understanding of our natural surroundings and ways to re-inhabiting them – for example, the natural boundaries that define the Tayside catchment area should be more relevant to us than the arbitrary political lines.

Both The Scottish Crannog Centre and Bioregioning Tayside have radical approaches in the way they engage with (and outreach) partners, audiences, and their local communities, making sure that their voices and stories are woven into their work and advocacy for better ways of live together with people from different heritage and cultures, and with nature.

Learning Outcomes

  • Develop and exchange creative, environmental and leadership knowledge and skills within a network of peers.
  • Learn from and make new connections with radical and innovative community-rooted and climate-focused
    actions and projects across the region.
  • Explore and share understanding of community engagement and creative climate work.

Community Organisation:
Creative Dundee, Dundee Change Makers Hub,

Exchange Host Partners:
The Scottish Crannog Centre, Bioreging Tayside

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Creative Lives Scotland

This learning exchange has generated a sense of hope for many participants, and revealed the importance of storytelling. We also had discussions on how to become ‘good ancestors’, what we are leaving behind, and what future generations will carry on or learn from us. It has given us the space to understand what climate action means and to connect with others who are sharing my values and drive for change. The size of our world, what makes up our life, changes how we value things. We need to better connect with the small parts and nature around us!”

Case Studies

Dunnet Forestry Trust

Meadow management, invasive species & forestry signage with Culduthel Community Woods

A group of people in woodland

On our arrival at Culduthel Community Woods (CCW) we saw the newly installed forest signage and the construction of their interpretation board, they also shared their ideas and thoughts to the content of the interpretation board. This was really impressive and led to thinking how we can make improvements at Dunnet Community Forest (DCF). The discussion and seeing new signage helped to realise how import it is for us to revisit our own signage, keep it updated and relevant for our forest community. To this end we have scheduled time to inspect DCF current signage, document this and any improvements that may come to light. This information will be passed up to my Board of Directors with recommendations for changes/replacements.

Invasive species were a large part of the conversation between CCW and the group, all of us in the group from different woodlands across the country had different plants and species that take time and thought to remove. I had a number of conversations with different group members which helped understanding on how they are dealing with their invasives, the challenges they face with terrain or using chemicals, what has worked or not for them. Learning from these conversations that a more scientific approach with mapping and monitoring the areas that we have invasives could help us to see how much we are actually achieving, rather than feeling down hearted at how much further we have to go.  If we can find a method of visualising the amount of our particular invasives we are removing and sharing this information with our volunteers it will have positive benefits and hopefully encourage more of us to tackle the invasives more often.

Meadow management – it was very interesting to hear about their meadow journey, the research they have done and what they have taken from that research which has led them to the plan they have in place for mowing, raking and planting. CCW’s site is quite different from DCF as we sit on a SSSI we have different restriction even down to the time of year we can mow, but there were a lot of similar issues such as the importance of raking for the meadow fertility and the plants that they are choosing to incorporate in their meadow. It was interesting to see the petrol scythe they have purchased and how well it works, this is information to take back to our Directors as we will need to invest in new equipment in the not too distant future.

Learning Outcomes

• our very recent work on installing signs and interpretation boards.
• our work to remove invasive species, especially rhododendron and
snowberry
• our approach to meadow management, supported by the Nature
Restoration Fund
• our partnership work with local charities to promote education and
awareness of the woods and to help get people more active
• our plans for path and general access improvements


Community Organisation:
Dunnet Community Forest

Exchange Host Partners:
Culduthel Community Woods

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Community Woodland Association

"The learning benefits from this exchange are wonderfully varied from direct information gathered on how to do a specific task for example to discussions on alternative methods of working, making connections and building friendships though a shared passion. The information that was covered on this visit was all encompassing they covered all the different issues and topics to do with running and maintaining a community woodland. It was a fantastic visit and I don’t think there is anything they could have added or done better."

Case Studies

Linlithgow Community Development Trust

Visit to Edinburgh Remakery

Three women standing smiling in a room with shelves of material around them.

The exchange let us see first hand how the Remakery engage with their community – we discussed social media presence and ways of raising our profile. Running workshops/repair cafés – we learned about how they respond to demand for specific skills workshops and the ways they interact not just with individuals but with local business too. We also learnt about the things that did/did not work out for them e.g. furniture upcycling and sales. Being able to tour their workshop where donated digital devices are refurbished and made ready for reuse means we’re able to speak more knowledgably about this with our community.

Learning Outcomes

  • Expand our audience for repair activities in Linlithgow, saving them money and reducing waste.
  • Explore ways the Remakery engage with their community
  • How the Remakery run workshops, repair cafes and their social media.

Community Organisation:
Linlithgow Community Development Trust

Exchange Host Partners:
Edinburgh Remakery

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Circular Communities Scotland

"The exchange went very well and we got answers for all of the questions we came with including the possibility of collaborating on projects in the future and seeking out joint funding."

Case Studies

1st Step Development Ventures

Visit to Lang Toun Cycles

Numerous styles and sizes of bikes stacked against a fence

By spending the day with the Lang Toun Cycles Team, we learnt about the history and growth of the social enterprise. This was a key outcome from the exchange. We were able to discuss pricing strategies for products and services and also the scope for introducing new products to our range. We also identified a new source to purchase bike tools and equipment from that is saving us money and so reducing our costs.  Toun Cycles shared their volunteer policies, which have been useful in developing our own systems. Toun Cycles shared their refurbishment and quality assurance checklist documents, which we have used to develop our own records. Their documents have been fine tuned through trial and error and sharing these documents has meant we have saved time and potential mistakes.

This was a new contact for us and as well s sharing buying contacts and other cycle networks with us we feel that as an organisation we would be able to reach out to Toun Cycles in the future if we needed a critical friend to discuss something with. The sharing of ideas and discussion of common solutions will enable us to develop our enterprise more efficiently because we have been able to tap into the knowledge acquired by a relevant partner organisation. As a result of the visit our team of staff and volunteers that took part were strongly motivated to put into practice the learning and come back to the shop with lots of new ideas and inspiration. The face-to-face visit has enabled a stronger partnership of support and sharing which we hope will be long term.

A really brilliant benefit was the huge uplift the visit made to our staff and volunteers. Being able to go and visit another organisation was very good for morale and for reinforcing our team spirit to build a stronger more resilient team!

Learning Outcomes

  • Detailed understanding of how the Toun retail model has developed.
  • Stronger understanding of how their learning (what has worked well and how they have overcome challenges) can support our own retail enterprise development.
  • Expanded partnership networks and valuable peer support.

Community Organisation:
1st Step Development Ventures

Exchange Host Partners:
Lang Toun Cycles

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
The Community Health Exchange (CHEX)

"It was valuable to share their pricing structures for work to ensure that we are pricing/pitching ourselves at the right point in the market. We had quite extensive discussions around working with diverse volunteers and some of the mutual challenges we have experienced. It was comforting to share these experiences and share some of our own ways of supporting vulnerable volunteers with often high support needs."

Case Studies

Kinross-shire Repair Cafe

Visit to Stirling Re-use Hub and Tool Library

Shelving and boxes containing tools

In October, members of the Kinross-shire Repair Café had the opportunity to visit the Stirling Re-use Hub and Tool Library. The visit was both informative and inspirational, providing valuable insights for the future development of our own repair café and potential re-use initiatives in Kinross-shire. The hub houses a variety of creative spaces, including an area for twenty makers, a repair workshop, a weaving demonstration space, and office facilities. The thoughtful design and layout of the space promote sustainability, with seasonal displays greeting visitors as they enter. During our visit, the team was already preparing for the upcoming holiday season, creating sustainable Christmas decorations as part of their seasonal initiatives. It’s unfortunate that we are located some distance from Stirling, as the hub truly embodies the principles of the circular economy. The team introduced us to the Revolve Scheme and the Warnum Model, two excellent tools for advancing sustainability initiatives. Additionally, we gained useful insights on insuring re-use projects and estimating the carbon savings achieved by reducing waste through repair and reuse.

The most beneficial part of the visit was our time spent at the Stirling Tool Library. The library’s manager shared invaluable information about their tool lending system, which we found highly relevant to the future development of our own tool library in Kinross-shire. Upon joining, members sign an agreement outlining the terms for tool lending, which includes a card transaction guarantee for lost or damaged items, deposits for more expensive tools, and cleaning fees for tools that require maintenance after use. Tools are marked with invisible ink for security, and laminated instruction cards are provided to ensure safe usage. We were also informed about the plans to implement new software for inventory management and the creation of a dedicated website for the library’s operations.

Learning Outcomes

  • Things to consider when setting up a tool library
  • How to organise tool sharing- recording, insurance, finance
  • Data protection issues?

Community Organisation:
Kinross-shire Repair Café

Exchange Host Partners:
Tool Library Stirling

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Circular Communities Scotland

"This visit has been a source of great inspiration for our team, helping us to understand the scope of work involved in developing a repair café and tool library in Kinross-shire. While we recognize that this will be a long-term project requiring substantial effort, especially in securing the right space and financial resources, the insights we gained from Stirling will guide us in taking the next steps. We are now better equipped with the knowledge and resources to build a sustainable re-use hub and tool library in our own community."

Case Studies

Greener Kirkcaldy visit to Dundee Botanic Gardens

Exploring the gardens, their purpose and their projects

green and brown acorns

We are better equipped to describe and measure the benefits of our wildlife/biodiversity projects and spread the skills around nature based solutions to other local gardeners.  Garden volunteers have been inspired to come up with new projects and try out new ideas at our community space in Kirkcaldy and visiting the whole site has provided additional practical ideas and discussions on how the larger Botanic gardens manages our more extreme climate (storms, drought) to help us solve some of our own problems.

Learning Outcomes

  • Gain ideas and learn from the projects already running around rewilding, biodiversity and nature based solutions. What can we take away to do in Kirkcaldy?
  • Improve our public engagement to get more people involved in rewilding type activities, how can we get people to accept and embrace untidiness, wildness and get tips on what’s worked and not worked in Dundee.
  • Team building and new projects for our volunteers.

Community Organisation:
Greener Kirkcaldy

Exchange Host Partners:
Dundee Botanic Gardens

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Scottish Communities Climate Action Network

"We had an inspirational and enjoyable trip to hear all about what goes on at Dundee Botanic Garden. Much of what was shared gave everyone ideas that could be taken back to our community space, including how the garden is adapting to changes in climate and more regular storms."

Case Studies

Greener Kirkcaldy Active Travel exchange visit to Forth Environment Link

Finding out about the operation of e-bike library schemes and active travel projects.

A group of people using a range of e bikes.

We learned a lot about the trackers they use for their bikes (Power Unity Bike Trax modules) which we had hands on experience of how easy they are to fit and how useful the app is for accessing usage data for the e-bikes . This will be invaluable for monitoring and evaluation of our own scheme as well as being able to more accurately plan servicing and repair of the e-bikes in future.

We also had the added benefit of finding out more about FEL’s wider Active Travel Projects, in particular their work is anchored in various secondary schools in the Forth valley area which are bases for a whole range of community engagement, not just active travel.

Of special interest to us was their Bike Buddies, Community Skills Academy and Healthy Minds projects which engage with and support children and families in the communities around each secondary school to have access to active travel opportunities and resources as well as engaging with wider environmental, health and wellbeing opportunities through food, growing, walks, bushcraft and many other outdoor activities. This kind of cross organisation work is a great example and would be a great fit for Greener Kirkcaldy to bring together our Food, Community Engagement, Outdoor and Active Travel work in a more joined up way.

Learning Outcomes

  • Be better positioned to secure funding to expand our own e-bikes for NHS scheme- find out how their e-bike hire management for NHS system works
  • Better understand the materials, knowledge and staffing required to run a larger scheme- find out the costings for running a scheme of similar scale.
  •  Share learning to understand which e-bike systems work well in long term and which to avoid
  • Find out how their e-bike delivery and maintenance processes work and are staffed

Community Organisation:
Greener Kirkcaldy Active Travel

Exchange Host Partners:
Forth Environment Link (FEL)

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Circular Communities Scotland

"Our main aim was to find out more about the operation and background of their e-bike library scheme. We learned a huge amount, especially the behind-the-scene admin of the various parts of the scheme and how they have found their booking system (Hub Tiger) to be better than the system they previously used (Bike Rental Manager) and which we are also currently using with our own Fife Easy E-Bike subscription scheme. This has helped us make a more informed decision to switch to Hub Tiger for our own purposes following the upcoming end of our current contract with Bike Rental Manager."

An e-bike workshop showing an organised workbench with tools
An e-bike workshop showing a range of bikes
A group of people in discussion sitting round an office table.

Case Studies

Get Growing Scotland Digital Exchange

SCA network to network exchange

There are live and urgent opportunities for food security and our future. Community growing groups prefer and choose to secure use and share, not own land. The learning exchange gave an opportunity to discuss these potential policy conflicts and look at the ways planning systems can provide both blockages and pathways for working together.  Increased support for the roll out of the National Planning Framework 4, particularly in relation to Community Owned Land Banks.

Learning Outcomes

  • Capturing and sharing knowledge and experiences, from communities, partners and landowners across Scotland.
  • Help@ service is unique and valuable, saving time, money and aggravation, and helps navigate policy.
  • It also gives insights on other topics and structural, system challenges and opportunities.
  • SCA networks have insights to share, partnerships to develop to make the most of combined knowledge.

Community Organisation:
SCA network members

Exchange Host Partners:
Get Growing Scotland

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Get Growing Scotland

"Places and people will not be left behind if there is more awareness, and opportunities to provide earlier and long-term support. Community led food growing, and nature and climate activities, are relatively low-cost and risk, and often kickstart other community led developments. The movement continues to grow."

Case Studies

FEL Scotland Climate Action community group exchange

Sharing climate mitigation and adaptation practices

The banks of the River Goil on a bright day.

This exchange explored how to build and create habitats to replicate in other areas of work. It highlighted the need for adaptation practices such as river revetments along banks to help with bank erosion, including native tree planting and green revetments methods, which has led to an increase in the salmon and trout population over the last few years.

Learning Outcomes

  • Identification of local areas that require assistance with flood management – local flood resilience group able to identify areas that natural flooding techniques could be replicated, especially burn flow coming off the Ochil Hills
  • Identify need for training or assistance in setting up flood management systems in local area, possible funding to help manage this and organisation who are able to help – problem identified by local council about funding natural technique projects. This is where charity organisations such as Forth Rivers Trust come in. Charites should be able to supplement council work
  • Education on nature based solutions for flood management that increases biodiversity – Houses at Pool of Muckhart have had flooding problems for a long time. The FRT project has changes the path of water flow from the hill, slowed it down and created a pond space for it to flow into. this stops the houses from being flooded and creates a microclimate at the bottom of the Ochil Hills. Natural techniques used include: overflow channels, scrapes, living willow leaky dams.

Community Organisation:
Forth Rivers trust, Clackmannanshire Council, Aberfoyle Community Trust, Lochgoil Community Development Trust, local flood resilience groups

Exchange Host Partners:
Forth Rivers Trust & Lochgoil Community Development Trust

SCA Endorsing Network Member:
Scottish Communities Climate Action Network

"Continuation of River Goil as well as other locations within the local area require funding and keen volunteers to continue the work!"