Urban and rural regions are responding to inadequate actions at national and international level by initiating their own action plans. Community based projects may have an important role to play in promoting the ideals of sustainability and sustainable communities. Community based projects have been shown to have a greater ability to engage and empower local actors and stakeholders than top-down initiatives which, in many instances, have failed.
Ballynagran in Ireland serves as a rural case study. A material flow analysis of the community, alongside questionnaire data on energy consumption was used to calculate the potential of the community to generate their energy requirements from resources available within the community. Other community initiatives involve reducing energy consumption through energy upgrades and building retrofitting. The aim is to become a zero CO2 community by 2025.