The Low Carbon Hub is a social enterprise that’s out to prove we can meet our energy needs in a way that’s good for people and good for the planet.
It is made up of two organisations. The Low Carbon Hub IPS Limited owns community energy projects in Oxfordshire. Surpluses from the IPS are donated to the Low Carbon Hub CIC to support further local carbon-cutting initiatives.
The Low Carbon Hub IPS Limited is a Registered Society that’s owned by its investor Members and run for the benefit of the community.
33 low carbon community groups each hold a share in the Low Carbon Hub CIC. These groups are based across Oxfordshire and help ensure its operation is totally transparent and is guided by those it is set up to serve.
The Low Carbon Hub currently has 7.3 million shares in issue and is looking to issue a further 1,500,000 shares in this investment round of the Community Energy Fund.
The Low Carbon Hub IPS Limited is the investment vehicle for their capital projects. The Low Carbon Hub Community Interest Company (CIC) holds the staff team, develops projects and works with communities to develop new approaches to community energy. Each is governed by a Board of Directors. The majority of Board Members sit on both Boards. However, two Board members act independently to vote on issues where there is a conflict of interest between the two organisations: these are Steve Drummond for the Low Carbon Hub IPS Limited and Sue Halliwell for the Low Carbon Hub CIC.
CEO, Director Low Carbon Hub IPS Limited and CIC
Barbara Hammond
Barbara’s 25-year career in sustainable development and energy, including stints in local government, central government, the private sector and academe, gives her a very unusual ability to network across all of those sectors to build ‘coalitions of the willing’ to make projects happen. During her time in central Government she was responsible for the UK’s £350m renewable energy programme and the delivery of the UK’s first offshore wind farm, large-scale PV field trials, biomass generators and wave and tidal research programme. She is a pioneer in developing local, collective responses to climate change being founder and Director of Low Carbon Oxford, a city-wide partnership of leading corporations committed to reducing carbon emissions and founder and director of West Oxford Community Renewables Ltd and Osney Lock Hydro Ltd which together have raised around £1.5m for a range of community-owned solar and hydro projects. She advises UK Government as part of DECC’s Community Energy Contact Group and is Chair of its Community Hydro Working Group. She was awarded an MBE in 2015 for her services to the development of community energy.
Operations Director
Adriano Figueiredo
A Civil Engineer and highly experienced manager, Adriano has held senior positions in commercial businesses in the UK, Continental Europe, and Latin America in sectors as diverse as industrial property development, heavy construction, and private equity backed M&A. An entrepreneur at heart, he has set up, developed, and managed subsidiaries of UK businesses in Spain, Mexico, and Brazil. He used this experience to co-found Oxford North Community Renewables (or ONCORE) and has been with the Low Carbon Hub since 2013. As the Director of Innovation for the Low Carbon Hub, Adriano has a leading role in the continuous development of the Hub’s zero carbon strategy.
Chair of the Board of Directors
Tim Sadler
Tim Sadler has a wealth of experience both in environmental programmes and social enterprise. He is currently the Transition Director at Oxford City Council where he provides the officer lead and advice on the City Council and Oxford achieving net zero carbon. Tim is also the non-executive chairman of the council’s social enterprise Oxford Direct Services, a building, engineering, and services company with a turnover of around £60m a year. Tim has recently worked with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to advise the nascent social enterprise sector in Russia.
Tim joined the Boards in January 2012 and became their Chair in June 2019.
Treasurer
Luke Marion
Luke is a Chartered Accountant and the Finance and Commercial Director of the Oxford Bus Company and its sister companies Thames Travel, Carousel Buses, and City Sightseeing Oxford. In 2013 he helped Oxford Bus Company become the first local business to partner with the Hub, which led to a 140 kWp solar PV array being installed on the company’s depot premises in Cowley. In 2019 the partnership was extended further, with a 50kW PV array being installed on the Thames Travel depot premises in Didcot. Luke started his career with Ernst & Young before joining Reckitt Benckiser, where he spent seven years in various commercial finance roles in the UK.
He joined the Low Carbon Hub as non-executive treasurer early in 2015. Luke is currently working to introduce Oxford’s first electric double deck buses for his City Sightseeing business, and through this has been able to assist the Hub with local demand management work under Project LEO. The first electric bus went into service in March 2020.
Investment Committee Chair and IPS independent
Steve Drummond
Steve has extensive experience in the energy sector. Starting as an engineer and then moving into finance, he has spent nearly 30 years working in nuclear, conventional and renewable energy power generation. Roles include power station design, operations and development in the Central Electricity Generating Board and its successors, Partner of Corporate Finance at PwC, and emissions trading, finance and global project development at Cantor Fitzgerald. Steve is now MD of Bainton Capital Partners Ltd, a boutique advisory firm that helps develop and finance renewable energy power projects around the world. Back in Oxford, he was one of the founding directors of Oxford North Community Renewables (or ONCORE) and developed the structure of the enterprise and the financial model to install community renewable projects in North Oxford.
Non executive board member
Tom Hoines
Tom heads the Commercial Renewables Department within Opus Energy, the sixth largest business supplier in the UK, who purchase power from over 2000 renewable generators across the country. Tom has worked on the supply side of the energy industry for 6 years, first with Co-operative Energy before moving to Opus in 2014. Tom joined the Low Carbon Hub as a non-executive Director early in 2016.
Oxfordshire County Council and CIC independent
Sue Halliwell
Sue is Service Manager for Strategic Infrastructure and Planning Resources at Oxfordshire County Council overseeing strategic and policy development for a number of areas including the environment, low carbon community engagement and green infrastructure. Previously Sue has been involved in developing energy and resource management strategies both locally and nationally and established a centre of excellence for local authorities sharing best practice in business resource efficiency.
CIC Community Director
Al Kitchen
At the 2020 AGM, CIC community shareholders elected Al Kitchen to be their representative on the CIC Board. Al works in climate change, at Climate-KIC, where their vision is to create a prosperous, inclusive, climate-resilient society with a circular, zero carbon economy.
Before this, he studied at the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership completing a Business Sustainability Management Course to develop his professional skills and impact. The course provided a strong background in sustainability and how best to represent it on the broad business agenda. Al is a founding member of Deddington Environment Network, a low carbon group committed to pursuing multiple angles of environment work including energy, resource use, biodiversity, and transport.
Directors offer their services voluntarily with the exception of Barbara Hammond and Adriano Figueiredo who are employed by the Low Carbon Hub CIC.
The founding members hold a nominal shareholding of £1 each.
2 of 8 directors are female.
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