The Pathfinder Project is aimed at improving the local environment in the economically deprived areas of Oldham and Rochdale. Old and unsustainable housing will be improved or replaced, to help improve quality of life and reduce environmental impacts. A range of financial assistance is offered, to make sure local residents can access the new homes. This 15-year project will spend over £2 billion in the Oldham and Rochdale area over this time. Since 2004, more than 1600 existing homes have been improved, including improving the insulation. Many new sustainable developments have been built, including the award winning homes at Selwyn Street. Parking and community safety has been improved in some neighbourhoods.

The Kagyu Samye Ling Buddhist Monastery and Tibetan Centre was established in 1967 and is the largest of its kind in the Western world. The Monastery is located on the banks of the river Esk. As well as being a centre of Buddhist wisdom and learning, it also offers the highest standards of Buddhist teachings. It is also the a centre for the preservation of Tibetan, arts, medicine and culture.

The Samye Ling centre receives a standard 25,000 visitors each year including 2,000 – 2,500 school children and groups of teachers. The Ropka Trust has made a main concern that centre become carbon-neutral in respect of its energy use as soon as possible as oil, LPG and electricity being the current energy uses.

Constructed with environmental sustainability high on the agenda, the Terry Farrell-designed Green Building is located in the Macintosh Village, in Manchester’s ‘Southern Gateway’, just off Oxford Road. Every aspect of the construction and maintenance of the building has been aimed at providing the highest environmental standards, with energy efficiency of the highest priority. Day-to-day energy consumption is minimised ‘passively’ through the design of a highly energy-efficient envelope wrapping the structure of the building, and ‘actively’ through installing highly efficient plant and equipment for heating, ventilation and light.

The scheme consisted of external improvement works to 12 properties within a maisonette block built during the 1950’s, situated at Ranby Avenue in the Charlestown area of Manchester. The maisonette block is of a ‘Wimpey no-fines’ construction, (solid concrete walls) with a pitched roof. The block was in need of major modernisation to both the external and internal areas. There are two communal staircases serving the upper properties which benefit from a communal lighting system. The single glazed windows were in poor condition throughout. The rear area of the block was quite poorly lit and considered to be a security risk by the residents.