What was the Big Green Challenge?
The Big Green Challenge was a £1 million challenge prize to stimulate and support radical new community-led responses to climate change in the UK.
The prize was awarded based on results; the ten finalists had to put their ideas into action for a year before the winners were selected and the prize awarded. Three winners and one runner-up received a share of the £1 million prize fund, based on evidence of reduced levels of CO2 and community engagement plus potential for further impact.
There were 355 initial entrants, with 100 groups selected to receive support to develop their idea into a detailed plan. 21 groups then pitched to judges, who selected the ten finalists. Finalists received funding of £20,000 plus additional support during the competition delivery year after which winners were announced in February 2010.
What did we learn?
- Outcome (performance) based funding has the potential to mobilise community resources and to accelerate change.
- Providing small grants to pilot the delivery of innovative ideas is a useful model for selecting organisations with the most potential; but the administrative burdens on those taking part need to be kept in proportion to the risk that they will get no further funding.
- Communities provide a resource for real and measurable change that can complement and work alongside ‘top-down’ interventions and behaviour change programmes.
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The finalists...
reduced CO2 emissions in their communities by between 10% and 46% in the Big Green Challenge delivery year
12% of entrants...
were brand new groups, with a further 49% having existed for less than five years before entering
Half of entrants...
were looking to take forward an idea they hadn’t previously had an opportunity to progress and 10% were developing completely new ideas
Impact of the Challenge
- Up to 5,800 people were engaged in the ten finalists’ work, probably around 2,000 of them in some substantive way.
- The Challenge revealed some notable innovations including new and more effective ways of delivering home energy checks; innovative use of behaviour change tools (such as pledges); entirely new measures to influence energy behaviour (e.g. a voluntary consumption limit); and new legal, financial and governance structures to support community ownership of renewable energy.
- The finalists cut CO2 emissions by at least 1,770 - 2,059 tonnes. The winners reduced emissions by at least 10% to 46% which is a notable achievement in the context of the UK target of a 34% reduction by 2020.
- Enhanced credibility from being part of the Big Green Challenge enabled Finalists to attract partners and leverage funding.