About us
We want members of our local community to have a secure, sustainable, and democratic energy future. The transition from fossil fuel to renewables creates opportunities to re-think how energy is generated, stored, and used, including preparing local housing and commercial buildings to cope with the energy demands and sources of the future, and even finding ways in which energy generated locally can be fed back into the grid. We think all of that is incredibly exciting – but it’s not (yet) straightforward.
CATSA was born in 2019 when some local Thornbury residents were inspired by the recent climate change protests, and International Panel on Climate Change report, to set a target of reducing Thornbury’s emissions to zero by 2050. As an informal interest group, we explored different initiatives aimed at becoming carbon free, including wildlife and diversity, home energy projects, community energy projects, food systems, and transport. We learned a lot, and realised we needed to specialise in the area that would have the greatest impact… on both carbon emissions and equipping our community to thrive through a period of transition away from fossil fuels.
Fast forward to October 2024, when we launched as a fully-fledged community interest company focused on sustainable energy. We’ve made it our business to understand the energy needs of our own community, the emerging technologies and changes in government policy, and the opportunities afforded by our local geography and industry partners. Our primary purpose is to form a bridge between local needs and opportunities, and national funding and projects.
Our success depends on the rest of our community – we can’t do this without you. If you’d like to know more, share your knowledge and experiences with us, or find out how you can get involved then please sign up to our mailing list or come and speak to us at one of our upcoming events
Our Team
Jilly Huggins
Jilly has lived in Thornbury since 2020, and became involved with CATSA to deepen her connection with the local community and support a just and sustainable energy transition for the area. With a background in corporate governance, finance, and project management, she has helped to launch CATSA as a community interest company and scale us up to deliver more ambitious projects with our partners. When not working on CATSA projects, Jilly enjoys walking in the local area and swimming in the lakes and sea near to Thornbury and Bristol.
Melinda Evans
Melinda has lived near Thornbury for over 15 years, when she moved from busy Bristol to the beautiful countryside of South Gloucestershire with her young family. Melinda is an environmental scientist with a background in contaminated land risk assessment. She currently leads a local parish nature and climate working group and has been a member of Sustainable Thornbury since 2018, becoming Secretary in 2020. Driven by a desire for sustainable, locally-led climate action, Melinda is eager to help accelerate the transition around Thornbury through community energy projects that will create lasting benefits to communities and the natural world. She is also a mum to three children, loves a good book, playing hockey and always has time for a cuppa.
Andy O’ Brien
Andy moved to Thornbury in 2010. He’s a co-founder of Bristol Energy Cooperative, which has funded and developed over 20 clean energy projects. These include rooftop and ground-mount solar, battery storage and microgrids.
Before moving into community energy he worked in teaching and IT.
Gillian Pollard
Gillian moved to Thornbury in 2018 and joined Sustainable Thornbury to help make a positive difference in the local area. Gillian is a structural engineer working in offshore wind and has a civil background in the wider energy sector. She has two young children and is keen to engage all ages in the community in creating solutions that work for everyone. In her spare time she enjoys running, playing music and sewing.
Subtitle for This Block
Title for This Block
Text for This Block
Contact us
Email: info@catsa-cic.org
Areas We Cover
Our community includes residents and business owners within Thornbury and the surrounding parishes. The area we cover is shown on the map.