Our latest survey shows that eight of ten people think they’ve had an idea that would have a positive impact on people’s lives, but few people follow up on their idea beyond that initial moment of inspired thinking.
The Big Green Challenge is all about unleashing new ideas for reducing carbon emissions in communities. If you’ve already got an idea at the back of your mind, sharing it with other people in your group or community could be the first step to making it a reality.
You probably have some questions about entering the Challenge, which we have tried to answer in the FAQs. Please also make sure you think about the criteria and read the application instructions before you submit your application. You have until 29 February 2008 to apply. We’re looking forward to seeing some really exciting ideas coming in!
If you have any questions about the Challenge that you can’t find answers to on this website, please contact us.
Apply for the Big Green Challenge
Newcastle – CAfE Conference – 29th November
The Energy Savings Trust has an offshoot, the Community Action for Energy, Café, which does exactly what its name suggests. I went to its annual conference in Newcastle in November and had a great time (while telling the delegates about the Big Green Challenge).
Mark Lynas sketched why he thinks humanity is now writing a collective suicide note – but we should not sign it. Instead we take much more radical action to reduce emissions. So we should have the maximum emissions around 2015 with steep declines afterwards. To get there, we need to take a wide range of measures, from tradeable carbon quotas to widespread use of electric cars powered from renewable sources. He was optimistic because there was now more local activity around climate change, such as Ashton Hayes or the 250 groups working on climate change in the South West of England. To make a big difference all that was needed was to mobilise a critical mass in a community. It wasn’t necessary (or possible) to get everyone to sign up.
We then heard from three inspirational projects, Sanford Housing, Ashton Hayes, and Community Buildings. Jim Noble of Sanford talked about their mutual housing cooperative with 130 members where they had renewed kitchens, installed solar water heating, and a biomass boiler. Tracey Todhunter gave us the Ashton Hayes experience. This is a community of 1000 people who announce their household carbon footprints in their front windows! For Tracey it was important to show how people could live a good life and have a low-carbon footprint. It was definitely not about wearing hair shirts.
Arthur Scott from National Energy Action described how they helped to save energy in community buildings. An important knock-on effect was that any cost savings were then likely to be spent in the local area. We then heard about Personal Carbon Trading from Simon Roberts, Centre for Sustainable Energy, Bristol. (See his and Joshua Thumin’s report for Defra, (A Rough Guide to Individual Carbon Trading )
It’s a complex topic. But Simon did a terrific job of explaining the advantages and the disadvantages. The principle is simple. Everyone gets a set carbon allowance every year. Each time they pay for fuel, or a utility bill, or buy a travel ticket (bus, train or plane) they surrender part of their carbon allowance. So if you want to use more carbon than your allowance one year, you have to buy the extra you need from someone who is using less.
The beauty of the scheme is that it provides a mechanism for reducing overall carbon use. The Government sets a total for everyone in the country, and divides that by the population to get an amount of carbon that each person can use. The next year, the Government reduces the overall amount and carbon use comes down. But while personal carbon trading is a great idea, would it ever work in practice? What’s needed, according to Simon, is a large scale trial to see if it could work. A group of people sets a carbon allowance for their members. Those that needed more could buy extra from other members and the money that’s raised could go into energy saving measures or renewable energy kit. Maybe some entrants to the BGC could be testbeds for these ideas.
Roadblogs 2
London – 28 November
At the London Launch Sarah Teather, Liberal Democrat MP for Brent, urged people in London and the South East to apply. Then Susan Sheehan from Hyde Farm, Balham explained how she planned to inspire her local community to take action through activities such as Draught Proofing days. She’s had her own house draught proofed and one weekend will get her neighbours and friends in to see what she’s done. But she’ll also get in a supply of the materials and tools you need for draught proofing on sale or return so people can take them away and do it themselves. Then they will all go to the local café for a meal because they’ll have been so busy draught proofing that they won’t have had time to cook. So they’ll all have a nice time as well as saving carbon. So plenty of food for thought – and lots of interesting entries in prospect.
Norwich - 30 November
The East of England launch took place in the Zicer Building of the University of East Anglia. This is a particularly energy-efficient building so it was an ideal setting. Dr Ian Gibson, Labour MP for Norwich North, got things off to a rousing start. He suggested the UK should have a target for 100% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. To get there he wanted a big programme of carbon sequestration and lots of renewables. Jonas Grist, Babergh District Council, then explained some of the interesting things that local people had been doing as part of a CRed (Carbon Reduction) programme. One great idea was the Lightbulb Library. We all know we should use low-energy bulbs. But which one do you want to use?
The Lightbulb Library helps you work that out. It’s a suitcase filled with different types of bulb. You take it home, and try out the different bulbs. That way you find the one you want. Then you fill in the order form in the suitcase and soon you have your lightbulbs. The question from the floor were particularly searching. Not surprising considering we were in a building that housed members of the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA. UEA is also the home of CRed, a charity that works with local communities to reduce their carbon footprints (see http://www.cred-uk.org/ ), and working with us on the Big Green Challenge on carbon monitoring and auditing. So we should get a strong set of entries from the East of England.
Learning about energy efficiency with the Energy Bike
This photo was taken at the London launch event for the Big Green Challenge. The lime green contraption is the Energy Bike - an exercise bike that enables people to power electrical appliances with their legs.
The concept behind the Energy Bike is that the more energy an appliance uses, the more difficult it is to pedal, giving people a very physical lesson in energy efficiency!
We’re used to seeing facts and figures about how much energy can be saved through small actions like switching to energy efficient lightbulbs and leaving appliances on standby, but creativity and fun can also play a role in educating people about energy efficiency. I think the same principle applies to putting carbon savings into practice, so if you’re thinking about entering the Big Green Challenge, think creative!
A New Year’s resolution
I’ve just joined the Big Green Challenge team and will be posting here over the next couple of months, hopefully providing some inspiration so that lots of groups of people put their thinking caps on and enter the competition!
Over Christmas and New Year I’ve been thinking about what community means, in particular the local definition of community, in the sense of where you live and the people around you. Most of the communities I belong to are based online and don’t have a local aspect – the exception being Freecycle which is a great example of how an online group can make a real difference at a local level.
I’d like to make more of a contribution to my neighbourhood, and my New Year’s resolution is to get together with other people to help make my community a greener and happier place to be. I also have a fledgling idea about setting up a group where people can get together to talk about their ideas, since talking about ideas is the first step to making them happen!
It’d be great to hear about how other people have gone about getting more involved in their local community, so please leave a comment if you’ve got any experiences or tips to share.
