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Written by Philip Foster
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Wednesday, 09 January 2008 |
 The National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts (Nesta) has launched The Big Green Challenge, a contest giving finalists a chance to showcase their 'Eureka moments' for reducing carbon emissions.
Those in the top 10 will be provided funding to turn their ideas into reality while the team with the most imaginative and successful idea will obtain a large chunk of the £1m prize money, to be awarded in 2009.
The competition is open to community groups and charities who can come up with a way of cutting carbon emissions by 60% or more.
Finalists will be given £20,000, mentoring and support to put their ideas into practice. Aside from achieving a measurable drop in carbon emissions, the finalists have to involve the whole grop and community as well as show that their idea can be used in different settings.
Applications open today and initial competition ideas must be submitted by the end of next month.
Four out of five people in a recent survey held that the ideas of ordinary citizens could make a big difference to problems such as climate change issues. 90% said they had come up with an idea that could have an impact on other people's lives.
According to the YouGov poll of 2,045 UK adults men were twice as likely as women to come up with big ideas over a drink at the pub. However, the survey also found that the majority of ideas never see the light of day because people do not know where to go for help or funding and many lacked confidence in developing their ideas.
Jonathan Kestenbaum, Nesta Chief Executive said, "The findings suggest that many of the potentially great ideas out there that could have a real impact on our big social problems are going to waste."
Mr. Kestenbaum said he believed that by providing support and financial help communities could "come together to tackle climate change". THE END.
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