The Rethinking Parks Replication Award is seeking organisations and partnerships who are well placed to replicate and run some of the most promising and innovative operating models for parks. The work carried out in Manor Fields Park by Green Estate is one of a number of examples of promising models to build on and adapt.

Green Estate is a not for profit social enterprise, formed in 1988, with the purpose to create and maintain the green spaces in the Manor and Castle areas of South Sheffield in ways that turned them from liabilities into assets.The social enterprise has successfully combined volunteering, income generation, sustainable maintenance and dual use aspects to maintain the parks.

Over time it established a mix of commercial services and social initiatives that have helped deliver a much longer term local benefit. An example of its commercial activity is the sale of plants from its nursery to the local community, which helps to generate income for the park maintenance. Green Estate’s use of SUDS (Sustainable Urban Drainage System) within the spaces also provides useful flood management protection for adjacent communities.

The approach for developing Manor Fields park also involves a unique collaboration between social enterprise and local authorities, with Green Estate playing a key role in the selection of council staff who led the development of the park's regeneration.Their work shows how creative and locally beneficial procurement from public and private sectors through social enterprises like Green Estate can help parks like Manors Field.