Our Aims

Our 2024 sustainability project builds on our members’ incredible work to measure, offset and reduce our club’s carbon emissions over the past decade (see The Green Initiative).  It will improve our grounds to manage increasingly extreme weather, and our pavilion to dramatically reduce energy and water use.    

Above:  The Eight Ash Green XI at our Carbon Champions match in 2021. 

Our project is both important and urgent.  Cricket is the pitch sport most affected by climate change, and we have already lost two months of games due to increasingly wet weather.

Above: Our Carbon Champions  opposition from local clubs in 2021. 

Our project prevents further damage to our environment by minimising our use of water and energy.  It prepares our grounds for increasingly extreme weather by draining water during winter and storing it for summer.   It protects recreational cricket at Eight Ash Green for members, opposition and locals for another 75 years.

Our Story

Eight Ash Green Cricket Club aka ‘The Green’ was formed in 1948 and provides recreational cricket for three men’s teams, two women’s teams and four youth teams. We play on the village green and our pavilion was opened by Sir Len Hutton in 1960. 

Above.  England's Reece Topley presents our first Carbon Balanced certificate in 2014.

The Green has been at the forefront of fighting the climate crisis for over a decade.  We became the world’s first Carbon Balanced cricket club in 2014, and are working hard to achieve Carbon Net Zero in 2030.  We have won multiple awards and media coverage for our environmental actions.

Our Champions 

All club members are encouraged to become Carbon Champions to help achieve our sustainable goals.  A good example is reducing emissions from transport using Carshare Scorecards to show the vehicles saved. These ideas are being steadily developed and expanded and can be used by any voluntary organisation (see Carbon Champions for a cure for insomnia).  

Above: EAGCC Women's XI save 5 cars against Colchester & East Essex in 2023.  

Our Project

We estimate that we will need to invest nearly £100k in the coming years to ensure the survival of cricket at The Green.  A proposed list of actions is provided below.  This first phase addresses the first two items and will cost £25k 

• Install on-demand showers, taps and smart-flush toilets
• Install effective outfield drainage   
• Replace single glazed windows and doors 
• Harvest drainage and grey water for use later
• Install solar panels and battery storage
• Insulate and clad existing single-skin walls and loft

Above: Proposed improvements to the George Porter Pavilion.

Your Reward

We're re-purposing the 'Porky Pig Building Bond Club' * idea from our first pavilion project way back in 1987.   This rewards donors now with badges and recognises them in perpetuity in our pavilion later.  To join the club  you just have to make a donation of at least £25. Donate the maximum £250 to join PPBBC Prime!  

As your donation is being DOUBLED (thank you Aviva) we hope you will contribute as much as you can afford. Only one donation per person can be matched, so if you want to recognise family members make one big donation and name people in comments.  EAGCC is a charity so please apply Gift Aid if you can.  

Our appeal closes on Sunday 25th August.  We hope you can support us.  Porky Pig awaits your donations!   Thank you.  Richard Parker EP, Club Carbon Champion. 

* Porky Pig Building Bonds are donations not loans (it's just a name we came up with forty years go). All donations plus Gift Aid, less platform fees go to EAGCC irrespective of whether our target is achieved or not.