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Big Green Challenge blog

New year new awards

Vicki Costello - 06.01.2009

Happy New Year!  It's going to be a busy one for our Finalists as each group gets stuck in to delivering their projects.

Happy New Year!  It's going to be a busy one for our Finalists as each group gets stuck in to delivering their projects.

Good to see some more awards coming up to recognise community action and ingenuity.  The first, by order of deadline, is the Future Friendly awards.  Future Friendly is a partnership between brands Ariel, Lenor, Fairy, Waterwise and Flash along with the Energy Saving Trust and Waste Watch.  It provides tips on reducing energy use and waste, and is also running an award scheme to reward 'everyday heroes' who have promoted sustainable living.  "This could be an individual, a community or a group that has made some positive change to their everyday lives - and even better, reached out to others to help them change their lives too."  You can nominate someone, get someone to nominate you/your group or community, or nominate yourself.  There will be five Finalists, who will have the chance to have a film made of their work, and an overall prize of £20,000 (50% as funding to continue the work and 50% consultancy time on next steps).  The deadline is 23 January.

The other upcoming awards are the Government's Homes and Communities Academy Awards, previously known as the Deputy Prime Minister's Award for Sustainable Communities and Creating the Future.  There are 9 categories, and it looks like you might need to complete a form per category.  Case studies and short films of each winning entry will be produced and placed on Showcase - a website for the sustainable communities sector.  The submission deadline is 11 February 2009.  The categories are:

  • Empowered communities (Supporting local people to improve their neighborhoods)
  • Investing in young people (Developing tomorrow's active citizens)
  • Leadership of place (Developing strong local partnerships for better homes and communities)
  • Low carbon development (Creating a sustainable future through building innovations)
  • New ventures (Delivering growth and renewal in challenging markets)
  • Outstanding commitment (Demonstrating community spirit and encouraging involvement from others)
  • Places for all (Strengthening communities through culture and heritage)
  • Reducing carbon (Improving sustainable living in existing homes and communities)
  • Skills for better places (Investing in the workforce to improve delivery).