Big Green Challenge

Take action!

Vicki Costello — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:07:08 +0000

Last night I was lucky enough to attend the Ashden Awards. The evening celebrated the achievements of the shortlisted entrants and generated much inspiration (congratulations to one of our Big Green Challengers - Global Action Plan, who won the UK community project category). The finalist businesses, local authorities, schools and community projects from the UK, Africa, South America, India and China all demonstrated incredible passion and commitment to persisting in their efforts to move the world towards a low-carbon future. Passion and dogged persistence were two of the crucial traits Nobel Prize winner Wangari Muta Maathai spoke of as being required to make the kind of ambitious projects seen in both the Ashden Awards and the Big Green Challenge work. She also spoke about the small things everyone can do, and urged everyone to take action everyday. This sense of urgency was also stressed by Sir David King, who painted a powerful and uncomfortable picture of what rising temperatures and sea levels might feel like. He also called for a more consistent and prolific approach to sustainability - urging politicians and businesses in particular to commit to building a sustainable future across all their activities. I left the Awards with renewed concern about the scale and urgency of the issues we are facing to a greater degree (if you’ll excuse the pun) every day. I also left with a feeling of hope, inspired by the finalists. I feel this sense of hope too as I read through the detailed plans from our Big Green Challengers. There are people, out there with the foresight, ideas, passion and persistence to make change happen. Now that these people and their ideas are being found and slowly recognised, governments, businesses and communities need to work together to understand how these ideas can be scaled - quickly and effectively.

Detailed plans are in!

Vicki Costello — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:44:54 +0000

Congratulations to all the Big Green Challengers who submitted detailed plans on Monday. All the groups have worked incredibly hard over the last month or so, getting to grips with honing their ideas, clarifying their aims, and mapping the people, skills, timescales and finances needed to make their projects successful. This is a very exicting moment for the Big Green Challenge team. We’ve really enjoyed meeting the Big Green Challengers at our support events over the past month, and can’t wait to get to grips with their ideas in more detail - both for the judging process and also so we can work with these groups to can better understand the potential impact these new forms of community led action.

Low Carbon Communities

Vicki Costello — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:54:32 +0000

The Low Carbon Communities Network, which several of our Big Green Challengers are members of, are hosting a free Low Carbon Communities conference on 4th October 2008 in Llangollen. Prior to the event you can follow developments on the lowcarbondiary on twitter and contribute to the website or the blog.

Sharing resources

Vicki Costello — Fri, 23 May 2008 07:40:34 +0000

We’ve updated the links page on this website as a resources page. Use it to find information to help you with your climate change action projects , whether or not you are a Big Green Challenger in our competition.

Please also share your tips for good resources. What are the best sites for up-to-date information on commuity action, energy saving, community engery generation, sustainable communities, finding funding or investment, learning about how to monitor the impact of your work… any resources relevant to making the most of community-led action on climate change.

Comment on this blog to tell us about the websites, tools and reports that you find most useful.

Big Green Challengers

Vicki Costello — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:14:47 +0000

Today we can announce that we have invited 100 competitors through to the next stage of the Big Green Challenge. We’ve chosen the groups with the most innovative ideas and who we think really stand a chance of reducing CO2 emissions in their communities.

Picking the groups wasn’t easy, and we hope those who aren’t going through to the next stage keep working on their ideas and taking action. Climate change presents us with some big problems. It also presents us with an opportunity to think differently about the ways we organise our lives. If the enthusiasm, commitment and creativity shown by all the Big Green Challenge groups across the UK is anything to go by, we really have a chance of using this opportunity to create postitive change.

Looking through our list of competitors, I hope you’ll find an idea you can be inspired by, or a group to support. All the entrants have the potential to make an important impact on tackling climate change, and anyone supporting the Big Green Challenge will contribute to the success of the projects.

Getting ready to announce our Big Green Challengers!

Vicki Costello — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:49:15 +0000

On Friday we will be announcing which of the 359 applications to the Big Green Challenge we have invited to stage 2 of the competition. The stage 2 competitors will be looking at how to make their ideas reality by putting together detailed projects plans, with advice from UnLtd, Cred and others. Each of the stage 2 competitors will have a chance of becoming one of our 10 Finalists. We’ll be listing the Big Green Challengers on this website, so check out the list from Friday.

People Power

Vicki Costello — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:30:38 +0000

Both climate change and the role of community were frequent themes in the speeches at the recent Capital Women conference, which saw over 5,000 women from London gathered at the event to talk about issues that matter to them.

I thought Maria Adebowale, Director of Capacity Global made a powerful case for people getting together to create change. Quite rightly I think, she positioned climate change very strongly as a social issue, not just an environmental one. She highlighted some of the links between climate change, poverty and health, and the positive impacts on wider social issues that could emerge through us engaging with the difficult circumstances generated by climate change. These are themes echoed in some of the applications to the Big Green Challenge. Maria also higlighted for voluntary and community organisations Every Action Counts and the Third Sector Declaration on Climate Change.

Social Justice Activist and scholar Angela Davis made a plea for people to continue to build connections (and ways of connecting) within diverse communities and to harness the strength that comes from working together for positive social change. Nicky Gavron, Deputy Mayor of London talked about the need for collective action to creative positive change for our environment. Nicky Gavron, Samantha Heath from the London Sustainability Exchange, and performer Ife Piankhi talked about some examples of community and regional government led action in London. Harriet Bulkeley, Associate Director of the Centre for the Study of Cities and Regions, talked about the power of disruptive innovation and of community responsibility, believing that collectively we can do something about climate change.

The overall message was definitely one of people power, and as I look through some of the Big Green Challenge applications I’m encouraged to see real evidence of this growing across the UK.

Over 350 applications received!

Vicki Costello — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 18:27:25 +0000

Thank you and well done to everyone who managed to submit an application to the Big Green Challenge. We were delighted to see so many groups of people across the UK with the enthusiasm and commitment to work together to find new ways to tackle climate change.

We will be working hard over the next month to read all your applications in detail and select up to 100 competitors for stage 2 of the competition.

We hope that all of you who have shown an interest, regardless of whether you submitted an application or not and whether you are selected as a finalist or not, will continue to work together to develop your ideas and make them happen. For more ideas and support whatever your position, keep an eye on our links page.

We’re looking forward to announcing the competitors in early April, so watch this space!

Take a dip into our blog archive

Joanna Tidball — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:44:53 +0000

Now that initial applications for the Big Green Challenge have closed, I thought it’d be good to look back at some of the key themes we’ve covered on the blog over the past few months.

1. What is the Big Green Challenge? Our launch video with Sarah Beeny is a good place to start if you’re looking for an overview of the competition.

2. Community. We explored what community means and Dick Strawbridge gave us his tips on getting your community organised.

3. Innovation. We looked at what innovation is and Doug Richard shared his advice on coming up with ideas. We also had some great comments when we asked where people come up with their best ideas.

4. Inspiring case studies. Get inspired by other groups and communities that are already taking steps to reduce their carbon emissions - check out our case studies from around the UK and from developing countries.

The tags and monthly archive links in the sidebar are a good way to browse the rest of our content - and remember you can keep up to date with future blog posts by subscribing to our web feed.

Last chance to enter the Big Green Challenge

Joanna Tidball — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:20:25 +0000

Don’t miss your chance to be a part of the Big Green Challenge - get your application in by 11.59pm tonight!

If you have any last-minute questions on how to apply, we’re here to help. Call the helpline on 020 7438 2664.