Big Green Challenge

A million reasons for communities to go green

NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) has launched a new competition to encourage people to come up with new ways to tackle climate change. Winners of the ‘Big Green Challenge’ have the chance of taking home a share of a £1 million fund.

Run over two years, the competition will see NESTA challenging people from across the UK to work together to demonstrate new ways to reduce their CO2 emissions.

These ideas could either be brand new or a fresh way of applying existing solutions. The group with the most imaginative – and proven – approach at the end of the competition will win the lion’s share of the £1m fund.

Channel 4 presenter Sarah Beeny, who helped launch the challenge, said: “This is a really worthwhile reason to get together with your neighbours, a local club or find like-minded people to join with. Climate change affects everybody, so having a prize that rewards communities and groups for working together to tackle it makes perfect sense.”

Commenting on the Challenge, NESTA chief executive Jonathan Kestenbaum said, “If we’re really to have an impact on major social issues like this, we need to work together and come up with imaginative solutions that work in the real world.  The research suggests the appetite is there for this approach and we’re confident the Big Green Challenge – the single largest prize fund of its type - will help stimulate people into action.”

Groups interested in applying should register their interest at: www.biggreenchallenge.org.uk