Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Centre for Alternative Technology
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1973-
History
The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) was founded by Gerard Morgan-Grenville and Diana Brass in 1973 on the site of the disused Llwyngwern slate quarry near Machynlleth, in Mid Wales. It began as a community (largely made up of volunteers) dedicated to eco-friendly principles and committed to developing and testing new ideas and technologies. The first CAT workers arrived in 1974, living and working at the quarry where conditions were very basic and challenging. The Visitor Centre opened in the summer of 1975, to provide a permanent exhibit explaining CAT’s work and to help generate interest in alternative technology in general. The site grew to eventually include engineering workshops, a forge, a cliff railway, shop, information centre, and a restaurant.
Work at CAT relied on large numbers of staff and volunteers, with most of its members recruited through its Alternative Technology Association. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s CAT pioneered new methods in areas such as timber-frame building and composting. During this time they set up two companies – Dulas Engineering and Aber Instruments.
CAT has grown to become a leading eco centre, receiving around 65,000 visitors every year. They host school visits and group residential visits, run short specialist courses, run a graduate school with a range of postgraduate degrees in environmental architecture and renewable energy, and continue to research new approaches to environmental challenges through their flagship Zero Carbon Britain project. CAT operates as a public limited company (CAT plc, no. 1459589) which is governed by a Board of Directors, and also as a registered charity (CAT Charity Ltd, no. 265239), which is governed by an independent Board of Trustees.