The Green has opened its refurbished state of the art pavilion. 

It has extensive insulation, solar powered heating, water saving and many other sustainable improvements.  Plus adaptable changing rooms and other EDI future-proofing.

Thanks to all Building Bond holders and Aviva for their match funding. 

A few weeks behind schedule - but hey, what software project isn't? - the all-new Climate 20 (C20) Cricket game is launched to EAGCC members.

Designed to engage and motivate individuals at club and community level, it uses the latest ideas from gamification.  

This unique app was developed by Neutral Territory with Net Zero Innovation funding from Suffolk County Council.  Thanks both.

EAGCC reduced, measured and offset its carbon emissions in 2024.

This was done through the World Land Trust Carbon Balancing programme. 

This is the 10th year we have done this. 

EAGCC's green credentials were featured in a great article in the Colchester Gazette this week.  

This covered our recent crowdfunding success and future development plans. 

Click here to read the full article. 

The Green has launched its Carbon Champions 2024 Crowdfunding Appeal.  

Everyone who donates £25 or more joins the Porky Pig Building Bond Club with badge and listing in pavilion.  Please give more as donations are doubled by Aviva!  Donate the maximum of £250 to join PPBBC Prime! 

Click on this link to go to the Aviva Community Fund page. 

Eight Ash Green has unveiled its 2024 Net Zero Action Plan. 

This sets tough 25% reductions including new carbon sources kit, clothing and data. 

Click here to download a copy.  

Eight Ash Green continued its long association with The World Land Trust and offset its 2023 carbon emissions as part of their Carbon Balanced programme.  

We look forward to finishing the job this decade by reducing emissions by 90% and hitting Carbon Net Zero in 2030.

The Green's Carshare Scorecard initiative saved 1.1 tonnes of carbon in the summer of 2023, that's a 15% saving in just 3 months! 

Eighteen games were featured and members are shown in the 2023 pics gallery. 

This scheme will be used for indoor games and training and widened to include all sections and all games next season,.      

The Green achieved another world first in June when it launched its Carbon Champion recruitment drive.  

Champions have to complete 9 Missions and in the process score over 1,000 runs.  

Carbon Champions borrows ideas from gamification, and is based on the club ethos of Fun, Skills, Winning. 

EAGCC further refined its Less is MOR model with sponsor Neutral Territory committing to offset all the club’s emissions until 2030. 

The 50 tonnes of offsets required are being bought NOW to protect natural resources. 

Eight Ash Green offset its carbon emissions for 2022 through World Land Trust.  This is the 10th year we have done this.

This is not certifiable carbon emissions, but goes instead to managing and protecting existing natural resources.  

EAGCC Clubhouse Manager Luke Coppin is the new proud owner of a  Neutral Territory sponsored bike as part of the club's push to Carbon Net Zero. 

Luke lives just a mile away, and will use his new environmentally friendly means of transport for his frequent trips to the ground.   

EAGCC reduced emissions in 2022 by 22% (to achieve cumulative 90% by 2030) but this was largely due to the club not providing teas.  This is a new development and needs further thought. 

Energy and transport are being reduced further.   New sources of emissions are planned for the 2023 season.  

The Green's campaign to make car sharing the default option started BRILLIANTLY on Saturday with our sponsored Driver Fiver offer being taken up by ALL THREE weekend teams!   

The offer applies for this weekend too, so to paraphrase Strictly … Keeeeep Sharing!  Car Share Corner pic shows Sunday XI taking action to fight climate change.   

EAGCC were delighted to be runners up in The Cricketer's inaugural 'Greenest Ground' award for 2021.  

Worthy winners were Whalley Range CC who own their ground and were able to do much more. 

It's just the start and we look forward to doing even more in the coming critical years.
 

The Carbon Centurions XI with players representing Cirencester, Coggeshall, Copford, West Bergholt, Kelvedon & Feering, Colchester & East Essex, Old Chelmsfordians, Eastons, Dulwich Lawnmower, Bicester & North Oxford and East Rainton cricket clubs. 

The game turned the world’s first Carbon Balanced cricket club into the world’s first Carbon Balanced cricket community.

Occasionally short of runs but never short of ambition, Eight Ash Green is leading the way to make the amateur cricket the world's first carbon net zero national sport!   

The Carbon Champions project runs from 2021 to 2030 and The Green are the first club to join up.  To find out more and find out how you can help contact Richard Parker.

February saw parish councillors and young carbon champions fight both the cold and the urge to run away from an incredibly dull speech from EAGCC club president at a tree planting project on our ground at Fordham Heath.

Six trees were planted to represent the six decades since Sir Len Hutton opened the club's pavilion in 1960.  

Committing to Carbon Net Zero builds on EAGCC's earlier commitment in two ways. 

First by quantifying the reduction needed – 90% of current emissions - and second second by putting a deadline on when this has to be done - 2030. 

It’s a massive challenge, but by working together one our club can achieve .

This year's Cricket Week is special.  After nearly a decade of positive action on climate change, our work in measuring, reducing and offsetting our carbon emissions is launched to an unsuspecting (and, regrettably, largely uncaring) world. 

Our Carbon Centurions programme launches on President’s Match on Friday 2 July (Pictured left, All Hail El Presidenté!). Our aim is to help 100 cricket clubs become Carbon Balanced in 100 days. If it works, the concept will be extended much wider.

Thanks to their outstanding efforts to make our cricket club more green, Sam Collins and his daughter Anna have built on and gained recognition for the work started years ago by El Presidente Richard Parker in this article in the Guardian.

The article covers being the first Carbon Balanced cricket club and a whole lot of other environmentally friendly initiatives.  Read the article here. 

Many thanks to the Jack Petchey Foundation which has supported The Green's carbon neutrality programme from the start with Young Leader award funding.  

Likewise Neutral Territory which loaned their Defender to support car sharing on away trips.  Not many miles to the gallon, but a lot of players can be crammed in! 

EAGCC is pleased to be marching at the front of the Carbon Centurions project that aims to help 100 clubs become carbon balanced in 100 just days! 

For more information about how YOU can take positive action to combat climate change, and help save the future of cricket visit Carbon Centurions.   

Built in 1960, extended in 1988 and again in 2002, the George Porter pavilion has provided a wonderful home for EAGCC for the last 60 years. We planned a Diamond Jubilee Cricket Week to celebrate the opening by Sir Len Hutton in June 2020 but Covid-19 had other ideas.

But it takes more than a global pandemic to halt The Green's celebrations and we'll be doing it all again in 2021. This includes launching a Pavilion Upgrade programme to reflect current requirements, repair tree subsidence damage and incorporate the latest sustainable building technologies.

Thanks to all at the brilliant BBC for their support of our Carbon Centurions project last Friday, July 2. 

Thanks to particularly to Jonathan Park from BBC Look East and Victoria Polley at BBC Radio Essex for support.  

Click image to play.  

Eight Ash Green retained its carbon neutral credentials again this year by measuring, reducing and balancing its carbon emissions for the 2017 season. 

Other initiatives included ending the sale of drinks in plastic bottles from the bar and encouraging members to bring their own re-cyclable drinks containers.    

Is it possible for a small organisation to become carbon neutral by 20.30 in the evening, rather than 2030 in the future? Yes it is. And that’s why we’re sharing our simple MBR model with anyone who wants it.

Measuring carbon is straightforward if you focus on the few things that matter. Balancing is delegated to friendly professionals at World Land Trust.  Reducing is fun when you work with others in your community.

We launch with club sponsors Neutral Territory soon. Watch out on for details.

The Green have used the World Land Trust to help measure and balance their carbon emissions since 2013. 

They're now providing analyses of where our carbon emissions are coming from and transport accounts for over 80%. 

We're widening the scope to include food and equipment from 2021.   

Reducing carbon emissions is a key part to the Measure - Reduce - Balance model adopted by EAGCC.   We were fortunate to secure help with this through the Low Carbon KEEP project delivered by Anglia Ruskin University in 2015.  

This helped fund replacing old and very inefficient bar fridge, an old diesel roller for a modern (but re-used) petrol version and change all lighting to LEDs.  The balance of costs and funding of interns was provided by sponsor Neutral Territory.  

Eight Ash Green led the way again this year by measuring, reducing and balancing its carbon emissions with the World Land Trust.  

Thanks to those who did the calcs that get easier every year! 

Thanks too to sponsor Neutral Territory for paying the offsetting charge. 

Launched to support the Music Festival and Cricket Week, the appropriately named  'The Green Cup' is available for safely taking drinks outside. 

Sadly modelled by Ex Pres, Green Cups are zero plastic, fully compostable and can be used multiple times.  It’s a fantastic addition to The Green Initiative.    

Visit The Eco Coffee Company for more info. 

Improvements to the George Porter Pavilion started in January and were completed in April.  

Amongst lots of changes were new insulated windows, roof insulation and other sustainable improvements. 

Thanks to SDE Contracts for a great job and everyone who contributed to the Porky Pig Pavilion Fund last summer. 

Preparations for increasingly adverse weather were underway in both the long and short terms. 

Colin Gwynn from J S Wright is exploring planting willow trees to provide natural drainage and ultimately willow for bats. 

Groundsman Mick Purser was supervising verti-draining to improve drainage and reduce the risk of last spring’s flooding.

It’s EXACTLY ten years since England’s Reece Topley awarded our first Carbon Balanced certificate on 22 November 2014.

Reece is pictured with Ollie Stovell and Luke Keeble (Matt Parker wasn't up in time). 

The work goes on, and the Carbon Champions model is being offered to all cricket clubs in Suffolk for the 2025 season. 

The Green smashed it's Crowdfunding target and raised nearly £30,000 for its Phase1 sustainability project.  This will help us prepare for climate change in coming decades. 

A massive thanks to all our donors, we will be starting work soon.  This is just the start and further initiatives will be rolled out between now and 2030.  

EAGCC has announced a range of projects designed to prepare our club for climate change, take action to prevent emissions and protect our grounds from extreme weather events. 

These total nearly £100k and will be delivered over the next two years.  Watch for project updates and funding details out soon.  

EAG hit its target carbon emission reduction in 2023 but mainly due to players providing their own teas at weekends. 

It will get harder from now on and need more member action and capital investments such as EV chargers at opposition grounds.  Read the full report here.  

Carshare Scorecard numbers reflect the number of cars a team saves by carsharing. 

It's a habit players have gotten out of during lockdown and is the quickest way we can reduce carbon emissions from transport. 

Pictured on July 29 was Ethan Wyatt when the 2s took only 5 cars to Maldon. 

Carsharing is the easiest and quickest way we can cut carbon emissions, so well done to our senior teams who launched Carshare Scorecards last weekend.  

Our carbon calculator assumes we take 11 cars to every fixture, and we score a Single for every car shared. Pictured are the Women's XI who scored a 5 against Colchester. 

Eight Ash Green continued its long association with The World Land Trust and offset its 2022 carbon emissions for the tenth year as part of their Carbon Balanced programme.  

Our club looks forward to finishing the job this decade by reducing emissions by 90% and hitting Carbon Net Zero in 2030. 

Growth in Indoor Cricket means changes to our carbon calculator i.e. more template flexibility to reflect smaller team sizes, and a neutral venue. 

All been done for The Green and on offer to clubs in the Colchester’s Northern Gateway Indoor League.  This is separate to our involvement with North Essex Cricket League but there is a lot of crossover between the two.

The Green is delighted to win the Tackling Climate Change category of the regional Grass Roots Cricket awards.

Chairman Tim Chambers and President Richard Parker received our certificate from cricketing legend Graham Gooch and CEO John Stephenson as guests of Essex CC at Chelmsford.

Following on from its commitment to Carbon Net Zero by 2030, EAGCC is recruiting youth players to complete NINE Missions and become Carbon Champions. 

We need one champion per team so only have spaces for THREE at this stage of the season.  Contact El Pres for more details.

Chris Smith from The Cricketer Magazine recently presented The Green with our certificate for finishing runner-up in the UK Greenest Cricket Club competition.

This award celebrates the amazing work done by our club over the past decade to reduce its carbon emissions whilst also finding innovative ways to support our green ambitions.

EAGCC measures  carbon activity from energy, transport and food. Cricket teas don't sound like a big issue but potential savings from cutting air miles or avoiding meat are enormous. 

The Green enjoyed its first meat-free summer with barbeques using plant-based alternatives.  Nobody complained and many said how good they tasted.  Small steps lead to big change!  

In another historic moment for The Green, Chairman Tim Chambers committed our club to becoming Carbon Net Zero by 2030. 

This followed the unanimous decision to tackle climate change at the Committee Meeting on 11 July, 2022.

 

Eight Ash Green CC have again offset our 2021 carbon emissions for energy, transport and food. 

This was done through World Land Trust who invest in the natural resources needed to absorb 11.2 tonnes of carbon emitted. 

The battle goes on to reduce these further. 

As the World's First Carbon Balanced cricket club, our Green Initiative has been at the forefront of measuring, reducing and offsetting carbon emissions for nearly a decade. 

Thanks to all the clubs that supported the launch of our Carbon Centurions project on FRIDAY 2 JULY as part of Cricket Week. 

Carbon Centurions launched on Friday 2 July, when a team of players representing clubs supporting our initiative played the world’s first Carbon Balanced cricket club, Eight Ash Green. 

To our knowledge this is the first game of its type anywhere in the world. The meat-free barbie was certainly a first for The Green!   

Support for the ground where Eight Ash Green plays goes back a long way.  Pictured is the planting of twenty-five trees to celebrate our Silver Anniversary of clubhouse opening back in 1985. 

Resplendent in natty acrylic anorak is club president John Hutton.  Behind him is current president Richard Parker, who has even less dress sense but marginally more hair.   

Many thanks to Hannah Parker who recently stepped down as our Carbon Champion for the past four years.  As Champion, it's been her job to measure The Green's key activities in and then pass them over to the World Land Trust to calculate and offset our carbon emissions. 

After nearly a decade of carbon balancing, we've got this down to a fine art now, and Hannah produced our 2020 measurements whilst working in Australia!  It still took less than an hour from start to finish, easily keeping to our '20:30 NOT 2030' promise! 

Top-down action on climate change hasn’t worked and isn’t likely to in the time we have available.  That’s why action at grassroots level is so important. And preferably by young people whose lives are going to be impacted most. 

It’s great news then that Anna Collins has taken over as The Green’s Carbon Champion to continue carbon reduction and wider sustainability agenda.  Anna is helped by dad Sam as our club’s Carbon Sponsor.  Watch out for details soon.

Pleased to report that World Land Trust has awarded The Green its Carbon Balanced Certificate for 2020. This marks the eighth successive year for the world's first Carbon Balanced cricket club! 

Emissions were our lowest ever due to a reduced season during lockdown and reduced average energy calculations from renewables. 

Pleased to report that EAGCC has measured and submitted figures for carbon balancing for the 2020 season in record time.

Despite Covid we played SIXTY matches all within ECB guidelines including Dulwich Lawnmowers led by Low Carbon Legend Andrew Woodhouse! 

Even better, we're now working with our partners at World Land Trust to widen and deepen the scope of measurements in future years.  Food and equipment will be included and backdated to 2014 when we first started this journey. 

EAGCC continued its carbon neutral commitment by balancing its carbon emissions for 2019.  This marks our seventh year balanced year since the initial project in 2013. 
 
The question remains why other cricket clubs, or other sporting clubs don't do likewise?  Club sponsor Neutral Territory aims to try to find out.  Watch this space! 

In 2015, the EAGCC's Green Initiative Team (Luke Keeble, Steve Nunn, Ollie Stovell and Matt Parker) were invited to Lord's Cricket Ground by the ECB to talk to them about the greatest achievement the club has reached since Matt Parker hit 43 at Clacton - becoming the first Carbon-balanced club in the country (and the World?) to our knowledge!

The team was invited to Lord's by the ECB and BASIS to discuss the work they have done.  They even managed to get a tour of the Home Of Cricket at the end of it.
 

Eight Ash Green retained carbon balanced status again this year by measuring, reducing and balancing its carbon emissions. 

Reduction work focused on car sharing which accounts for 80% of the club's emissions. 

Thanks to everyone who made a real effort this year to cut down travel. 
 

This year, The Green built on our low carbon credentials by working with the Low Carbon Keep project. 

This helped replace an old diesel roller with a more efficient petrol model, all lighting with LED and retire an old and very inefficient bar fridge. 

Thanks to Carole Randall and all at Anglia Ruskin University. 

EAGCC is incredibly grateful for the support it has received over many years from the Jack Petchey Foundation.  Ollie Stovell won our Autumn 2014 Achievement Award for his work leading the Carbon Champions team. 

This helped secure Eight Ash Green's award as the world's first carbon balanced cricket club. Ollie is pictured getting his award from England's Reece Topley.       

The Green lived up to its name when Essex & England star Reece Topley confirmed it as a World Land Trust Carbon Balanced organisation in 2014.

This capped two years’ work measuring, reducing and offsetting carbon emissions and was presented to the team of Luke Keeble, Ollie Stovell and Matt Parker (absent, still in bed).   

The initiative exemplifies the positive action approach that underpins our progression to a sustainable society. 

Chairman and Kenneth Branagh stunt-double, Tom Lissimore, commits Eight Ash Green Cricket Club to a sustainable future by signing our carbon-neutral policy in 2013.

It was his greatest ever achievement on the club's pool table.