CAGs won two categories at the Oxfordshire Community Voluntary Action (OCVA), Charity and Community Awards on 11th November 2010. Over one hundred nominations were received by OCVA and the award ceremony took place at North Oxford Golf club to honour the best of the county's community groups. Low Carbon West Oxford (LCWO) won 'Best Charity' for their work with renewables and 'low carbon living' programme, and were shortlisted for 'Greenest Group'. CAG and Oxfordshire County Council Waste Management won the award for 'Best Statutory Authority use of the Voluntary Sector' for their work on waste reduction.
Oxfordshire County Council Waste Management Team invests significant resources into building capacity in the voluntary sector. The Community Action Groups organise events, over a hundred so far this year, and initiatives to raise awareness and take action on sustainability. Their swap shops alone have diverted over 20,000kgs of waste from landfill, but their activities also inspire people to reduce their carbon emissions.
LCWO has been running for three years and was set up following the floods of July 2007. They encourage residents to live more sustainably. Their target is to reduce CO2 emission by 80% by 2050. LCWO works in partnership with West Oxford Community Renewables (WOCR), which last year was awarded £800,000 by the Government to fund green community projects, after being named among 22 winners in the Low Carbon Communities Challenge, run by the Department for Energy.