Big Green Challenge

New Department of Energy and Climate Change

Vicki Costello — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:13:59 +0000

The latest Government re-shuffle has some potentially big implications for those working to tackle climate change, in the guise of a new Department of Energy and Climate Change. The new Department will be headed by Ed Miliband. This is promising news for our Big Green Challengers, as he was previously Minister for the Cabinet Office, which included responsbility for the Third Sector. Let’s hope this means he will have the confidence to recognise the role community-led groups can play in tackling climate change, not just in raising awareness but in devising and implementing innovative, relevant solutions. The details, and the real potential impact, of the new Department are still to be revealed, but this is certainly a welcome piece of news.

Round up of opportunities

Vicki Costello — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:55:27 +0000

Quite a few opportunities that might be relevant to the type of people and groups that have been taking part in the Big Green Challenge have landed in my in-box recently so I thought I’d round them up here.

Before I do I also want to remind you about the Low Carbon Communities Network conference taking place this Saturday, which I blogged about back in June. This is a really exiting and growing network of like minded community groups, and the conference should provide lots of inspiration. The main events are taking place in Llangollen in Wales, with Hyde Farm CAN (one of our Big Green Challengers) hosting a linked event in South West London.

So about those other opportunities:

Mind has announced the launch of Ecominds, an open grants programme being run as part of the Big Lottery Fund, Changing Spaces programme. From the guidance: “The programme has £7.5 million to distribute to around 125 new and existing projects focusing on mental health and the environment around England over the next five years.”

The BURA Awards for Community Inspired Regeneration are seeking entries from grassroots projects making a difference to their local communities. Sounds promising! The closing date for these awards is 15^th October 2008 so you have just a couple of weeks to get entries in.

One Planet Culture (OPC) launched on 25th September on the Capacity Global website. It’s a new resource for ”armchair activists” with a passion for film, arts and media. From DIY film events to green reads and the latest news and reviews, OPC aims to offer inspiration and information to help people and the planet. The resources has been funded by Every Action Counts. Capacity Global was founded by one of our Big Green Challenge Judges, Maria Adebowale.

The UK Youth Delegation (UKYD) is now accepting applications to participate at the Fourteenth Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Fourth Conference of the Parties serving as Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP14 and COP/CMP4). Hmmmm. Luckily they translate this into real language and explain that they are looking for young people (age 18-26) to travel to Poland this December to help the first ever UK Youth Delegation have a strong voice in the negotiations. Deadline for applications is October 10th. There are a series of questions you need to answer to apply to join the delegation. For more information email ukydpoznan@gmail.com

The Centre for Public Policy at Northumbria University are hosting a public debate on sustainable development on October 7th at 7.30pm. To register contact Oliver Moss at Northumbria University: email: o.moss@unn.ac.uk; Tel: 07809213214.

Images and video from Finalists annoucement

Vicki Costello — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:47:10 +0000

Video of our Finalists being annouced on 11 September can be found on YouTube, and images are on Flickr.

Videos and audio of all the speeches from the evening are available on the NESTA website, including a typically rousing speech from Sir David King.

Finalists annouced!

Vicki Costello — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:15:09 +0000

We have now annouced our 10 Finalists, who will be putting their ideas into practice over the next year to compete for a share of £1 million.

The Finalists are varied in their location, the people they are working with, and the approach they’re taking. Despite their differences though they share a lot in common. The Finalists, and all the Big Green Challengers, are harnessing their ingenuity, practical thinking, and community knowledge to try to achieve their goal of moving their community towards a lower carbon future.

The value of the kind of projects being led by our Big Green Challengers is relatively unrecognised - community groups aren’t often called upon to reveal how to reduce fuel bills and increase energy efficiency. Over the next year we will follow the Finalists and work with them to understand the impacts of their projects, both for the purpose of judging the prize and to demonstrate to the very real impact that community-led action on climate change can have.

I spent time with all of the Finalists and several of the Big Green Challengers yesterday and was really inspired by their energy, imagination and tenacity. I can’t wait to see how the Finalists do over the next year, and hope we can also stay in touch with as many of the Big Green Challengers as possible to follow and understand their progress too.

You will be able to find updates on the progress of the projects over the coming year on this blog and on the Finalists’ pages.

More recognition for people power

Vicki Costello — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:30:08 +0000

The Green Awards is a scheme to recognise companies and brands that are successful in communicating green messages. This year they have also introduced a new ‘people-powered’ category. They are accepting applications for ‘Campaigner of the Year’, to recognise creative and committed individuals who get their message across using their own contacts, funding they raise or donate, and good old ingenuity - which we know exists in abundance in our Big Green Challengers! The deadline for entries has been extended until 17th September. You do have to pay £23.50 to enter though - I wonder, as an individual or not-for-profit campaigner, does this put you off applying?

£130m Grassroots Grants

Vicki Costello — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:42:28 +0000

The Office of the Third Sector have launched a Grassroots Grants scheme, through which they are making £130m available over the next three years. The scheme will be managed by the Community Development Foundation. A total of £80m will be available for small grants to grassroots organisations in grants of between £250 and £5,000. If you are a community group interested in trying to access some of this funding you’ll need to contact one of your local funders to find out more - I’ve just scanned the list and these are England only. The other £50m will be available to enable local funders to generate additional donations to invest in endowments, with a view to making the funds last longer and do more. It’s great to see this longer term thinking being planned into the fund, and it will be interesting to see how it works.

Ideas to help people to address public issues?

Vicki Costello — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:53:19 +0000

Are you someone with ideas on how to engage people in public issues? I’ve just been reading about Building Democracy - a government scheme set up to support new ways for people to address public issues. There is a total of £150,000 up for grabs to support the development of about 10 ideas. The deadline is 26th September. You can also float your ideas online before you submit a proposal, and look at other ideas coming in - they have over 60 already. There are some ideas that could relate to any issue, such as online tools for residents to suggest ideas to their local council and vote for other people’s ideas, arguement maps in public places to encourage debate on big issues, and new opportunities for citizen journalists. There are also some ideas related to specific issues, and it’s good to see one or two related to climate change. Have a look, and pitch your ideas…

21 Big Green Challengers pitch to Judges

Vicki Costello — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:38:54 +0000

21 Big Green Challengers recently pitched their ideas to our Judges for an opportunity to be considered as one of our Finalists. The Finalists, decided based on the pitches and their detailed plans, will be annouced in early September, so watch this space!

Held over two days, the pitches featured a chicken, school pupils, kettles, recycled materials, recycling bins, an MP! Most importantly though they were led by 21 committed, motivated and creative teams, all presenting ideas that all have the potential to have an impact on climate change.

We received 88 detailed plans during stage two of the competition, all of which involved a lot of hard work from the groups putting them together. Each was a group effort together by a committed team. It was very difficult for the Big Green Challenge team to select just 21 Competitors to pitch to Judges. I know the Judges had an equally difficult decision to make to settle on our Finalists.

All the Big Green Challengers are all driven to make a tangible different in tackling climate change and they now have detailed plans to back up their ideas. Each of the groups, including those who didn’t get to pitch to Judges, are in a strong postition to take their ideas forward. If you are interested in finding out more about these groups - whether it’s to get involved or to support their development - contact partners@biggreenchallenge.org.uk.

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.