Big Green Challenge FAQs

We answer all of your freqently asked questions about NESTA's Big Green Challenge competition.

Definitions

What is ‘not-for-profit’?
By not-for-profit, NESTA means an organisation whose primary objective is to support an issue or matter of public interest or public concern for non-commercial purposes, and which is not capable of distributing profits. This definition also includes enterprises that do not have defined ownership interests which can be sold or transferred, and which operate entirely for social or community benefit.

What is a community?
The types of communities involved in the Big Green Challenge vary - both in size and what brings them together - eg. friendship, culture, faith, ethnicity, political commitment, colleagues or leisure interests.

These communities are often based around a local area, though in some cases are spread across large areas. For a formal definition of ‘community’ and for further ideas please visit the Community Development Foundation website.
We asked entrants to define their own communities as part of the Challenge. Communities were defined differently by each entrant, and the size and nature of each community varied.

What do you mean by innovation?
Through the Big Green Challenge we’ve been looking for fresh thinking about the way we live our lives, in order to find new and better ways to tackle climate change. This could involve coming up with a brand new idea, combining things in a new way, or finding new ways of making existing solutions work better. The best innovations need not be technical or scientific – they often involve re-organising processes or the way people interact for example.

What is meant by carbon saving?
When we use energy – switching on heating or lights, driving cars, or even eating food, somewhere carbon burns to become carbon dioxide (often written as CO2). For example, CO2 can come from the coal or gas burnt in power stations, the petrol in your car, from making the fertiliser used to grow your food and from the lorries transporting it.

This carbon dioxide from people ‘doing things’ is one of the causes of climate change. Carbon dioxide traps heat from the Sun and so average temperatures rise as the concentration of carbon dioxide increases. So to reduce the effects of climate change in the future, we need to produce less carbon dioxide – to ‘use less carbon’.

Some types of ‘carbon savings’ are easy to measure – eg. using your gas and electricity meter readings will show how much of these you use. Carbon savings that are less direct – eg. from car-sharing or composting – are more challenging to measure. During the prize we will work with experts to offer advice to competitors on ways to measure different types of carbon savings.

How do we emit CO2?
The amount of CO2 you emit depends on your lifestyle, for example:
•    The size and type of your house
•    How you heat your house and water.
•    Your household appliances. How often you use them, and how much energy they use.
•    Your behaviour. Do you leave lights on in an empty room, or fill the kettle when you only need water for one cup?
•    The transport you use. The type of car and the distance you drive it. Whether you use of public transport and/or walk, the number of flights you take etc.
•    The products and services you buy for example, buying fruit and vegetables that have been flown in from other countries.
There are many factors in your everyday life that contribute to your CO2 emissions. Your total CO2 emissions is often referred to as your carbon footprint.

How can we reduce our CO2 emissions?
Before starting to reduce your CO2 emissions it is a good idea to be aware of where they come from - your baseline emissions. This will enable you to pinpoint areas where reductions will be particularly effective. There are a number of tools that can help you estimate your current CO2 levels, including the Act On CO2 calculator provided by Government.

CO2 reductions can come from simple changes in behaviour or from new creative and innovative ideas. This might involve coming up with a brand new idea, it might involve combining things in a new way, or finding new ways of making existing solutions work better. We look at innovation very widely. The best innovations need not be technical or scientific – they might involve re-organising how people do things, for example.

There is enormous potential for CO2reduction in communities. Transforming intentions to reduce CO2 emissions into significant actual savings can be achieved through planning, organisation and community participation. The UK Government has set a target set of an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions (based on 1990 levels) by 2050.

Judging - who decided on the prize winners?

We brought together a high-profile panel of judges, whose combined expertise covered climate change issues, community action, and innovation.
The Judges decision was also informed by reports from our carbon audit team (CRed) to ensure that carbon savings achieved by finalists were measured as accurately as possible.

How can I find out more about the Big Green Challenge and the Challenger’s projects?

You can find out about the top 100 ideas, which were judged to be most promising based on initial submission to the Big Green Challenge, are listed on this website.  If you would like to get in touch with one of these groups please contact us at admin@biggreenchallenge.org.uk

You can also find out via this website what we’re learning from the Big Green Challenge - about the power of community solutions on climate change, the role of communities in innovation, and the way the challenge prize is working. If you are interested in talking with us about how this learning could be useful in your work please contact us at partners@biggreenchallenge.org.uk

What can I do in my community?

The Big Green Challengers are a good source of inspiration.  If there is a Big Green Challenger in your area you may want to get in touch with them.
The resources page of this website provides links to information, potential funding/support sources, and networks of other people working on community-led projects across the UK – such as the Low Carbon Communities Network and Project Dirt.

How can I support the Big Green Challenge or any of the Challenger’s projects?

For more information about how to get involved in the Big Green Challenge as a supporter or partner, partners@biggreenchallenge.org.uk

Why is NESTA running the Big Green Challenge?

NESTA is running the Big Green Challenge because we recognised that, while action within communities was becoming more recognised as crucial to tackling climate change, there wasn’t much in place to support communities to do this through their own ideas.

Innovation programmes for climate change have tended to focus on developing highly technical or scientific, and often commercial solutions. 

Through the Big Green Challenge NESTA is aiming to learn about:
•    How much potential there is for community-led solutions to tackling climate change,
•    Understand how these solutions work and what the barriers to them working might be, and about
•    The types of conditions that can work best to enable community-led solutions to grow and be increasingly successful.

The Big Green Challenge is part of NESTA’s Public Services Innovation Lab, which is testing new ways to deliver better services for less.

How is this different from other climate change initiatives?

The Big Green Challenge from NESTA is focussed on both innovation and grass-roots social action. It is unique in its focus on innovative responses from not-for-profit groups working with communities, and is the first prize fund of its kind set up to encourage this.

The Big Green Challenge is distinct from ‘traditional’ grant schemes, in that it is a prize that rewards actual CO2 reduction, and not just the intention to reduce emissions.

We are also working closely with other organisations, from government and beyond, who are working to either stimulate innovation or encourage action in response to climate change. We aim to ensure that:
•    we do not replicate what they have already done;
•    we build on their work; and
•    we make a positive influence on their future plans.

How can I find out more about NESTA’s Public Services Innovation Lab?

To find out more about The Lab, go to www.nesta.org.uk/areas_of_work/public_services_lab