♀️Bath and Somerset’s Most Inspiring Women 2026 | Sara Grimes
To mark International Women’s Day 2026, we’re celebrating Bath & Somerset’s most inspiring women.
Through our website and social media channels, we asked our readers which women in our community inspire them and created a list of 20. The list will be featured in our Spring magazine and every weekday throughout March we are profiling and championing each of these fantastic women online and via our social feeds.
Today we put the spotlight on Sara Grimes, Community Business Development Director at Bath & West Community Energy.
Tell us more about you/your work:
I’m Director of Community Business Development for the non-profit Bath and West Community Energy. We believe that ‘the future of energy is local’ and my role is finding resources, developing programmes and building partnerships to realise our vision of a fair, green transition to energy independence through renewable energy and reducing our energy demand.
So far I’ve focused on building up our Home Energy service. Our expert team now provide tailored free and paid advice on everything from listed buildings, heat pumps and insulation, to simple, low-cost ways you can make your home greener and more comfortable.
What are you most proud of?
I’m most proud (and lucky) to be part of the community energy movement in my hometown of Bath. Community energy is a different way of doing business, much like a community-owned pub.
Our main revenues come from our solar panels, mostly on local schools and biodiverse solar fields. We now produce power equivalent to the needs of 5,000 homes, whilst schools get cheaper power. The panels are owned by local people as member investors who get a solid interest rate and vote in our governance – do join us – BWCE is the ultimate ethical investment!
Since we are non-profit the interest to members is capped, and excess revenues go into our independent Community Fund. We have granted over £400,000 since 2010, supporting 110 community projects.
I’m also proud of our new Home Energy team who have done over 250 expert energy surveys and a range of free events and activities such as Green Open Homes in partnership with Bath & North East Somerset Council and Retrofit West. We are currently providing free home energy advice visits, so now is the time to get in touch if you want a warmer, more comfortable home but need advice on where to start.
How does it feel to be recognised as one of Bath’s Most Inspiring Women?
I am so honoured to be on this list. I often find myself on the go, so having the team nominate me for this recognition has given me a chance to pause and reflect on what we have achieved so far.
I’m most looking forward to meeting the other nominees. I love Bath’s perfect human scale, and the networks of great people that criss-cross it, and am keen to hear from the other nominees about their contributions to our beautiful city.
What does International Women’s Day mean to you?
One of my earliest memories is being on feminist marches with my mum. So, it means a lot to see International Women’s Day celebrated enthusiastically in my community, thanks to the hard work of past generations of women.
We can’t take for granted the progress that has been made and must strive for more. I am fortunate to be surrounded by many inspiring women in the energy and built environment sector, and we work to make sure our sector continues to become more welcoming for women.
This year’s IWD theme asks us to think about how giving benefits everyone. What’s an example from your work or community life where supporting another woman led to something meaningful in return?
Many of the projects supported by the BWCE Community Fund are led by women, such as Share and Repair, which lends out a huge amount of equipment at very low cost and runs a programme of repair events, Timebank Plus, which runs a host of positive community activities in Twerton, and the Climate Hub, with their physical centre for climate action at the Bus Station.
This sort of community benefit is ‘baked in’ to the community energy model, and I get a lot of satisfaction knowing that BWCE supported these inspiring organisations and the women that lead them.
What piece of advice would you share with your younger self?
My younger self lived all over America, doing community organising on environmental and social issues. I lived in fabulous places such as Albuquerque, Seattle, Santa Cruz and Boulder.
Looking back though, I didn’t see much of these places since I was working so hard. My advice would be to slow down a bit, let the world take care of itself for a while (!) and spend more time out and about in the wide and wonderful American West. I’m still trying to heed this advice now I’m back in the West Country!
To find out more about Bath & West Community Energy visit: www.bwce.coop
This feature is sponsored by Milsted Langdon accountants. Milsted Langdon is supporting this activity for a fourth consecutive year as they are passionate about supporting women in business and helping local communities thrive through their work with business owners, charities and not-for-profits.
