Vicki Purewal - 15.06.2009
The Ashden Awards ceremony provided much hope and inspiration, through both the ethos of the Awards themseleves and the winners and runners up.
Last week I attended the Ashden Awards ceremony. As ever the evening provided much hope and inspiration, through the ethos of the Awards themseleves and through the winners and runners up. Do take a look at both the national and international projects.
The key note speaker for the evening was Prince Charles, who stressed the importance of not pinning all our hopes on big technical fixes and praised the humilty, courage and long term thinking of the winners. He gave a strong nod to innovation in saying that we have very little time to respond, and must move away from our tendency to stick to the norm despite the urgency of the challenge.
He warned that despite the opportunities presented by the challenge of climate change to tackle economic problems, there is a danger that people will still pursue a short-term focus, which in turn will create even bigger future problems. He also stressed the importance of highlighting good practical examples in order to help build the confidence necessary to enable greater ambition. Finally, he advocated a different, more holistic look at the way we live - something that we know that community-led solutions do well.
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