Green Dragon's Den Winners

Last week's Hay on Earth Sustainability Workshops at the Hay Festival saw 25 short listed candidates pitch their best ideas to a panel of dragons and members of the public to win one of four £10,000 prizes that were up for grabs through the Welsh Assembly's Sustainble Development Challenge Fund.

The winners were:

Low carbon travel -  B-Bug. Prototype electric vehicles, intended to wean visitors in the Brecon Beacons National Park out of their 4x4s and mobile homes into something quiet and eco-friendly that's powered by renewable electricty from local hydro schemes.

Food  Agriculture - Schools Farmers' Markets. A delightful project that is setting up farmers' markets in schools (mostly primary) that are self-sustaining once established, with the proceeds coming back to the school.

Business & Enterprise - Green Valleys Cash Cow. This already successful project bid for funding to expand their reach from the planned 20 projects to hundreds in communities across Wales, generating as much as £72m over 20 years through the feed in tariff.

Community & Housing - SEED House. A low-carbon, locally sourced demonstration project, to be build at the Centre for Alternative Technology at Machynlleth, using simple replicable timber frame and high levels of insulation.

Our next steps are to post the reports from each of the Hay workshops online, which we'll be doing in the next couple of days, tighten the 'R10' real change targets into micro-projects, and then start spreading sparky, clear ideas wherever we can.

Hay on Earth - Eugenie Harvey

There are some profound issues at the heart of climate change that we need to overcome if we are to make the change that is really needed. I'm not going to suggest that a 10% reduction in emissions is the whole journey, but it is an important first step.

10:10 is "an ambitious project to unite all sectors of scoiety behind one simple idea - that between us, we can reduce our carbon emissions by 10% - an in so doing, send a powerful signal about the world that we want for ourselves, our children and our fellow man".

You don't have to be perfect - trying to be perfect can be an enemy of doing good.

2500 businesses - Ocado, Slny and football club Tottenham Hotspur have all signed up

110 NHS tusts

47% of local authorities

2000 schools and colleges

4 cities or regions

France Germany, Netherdlands, Nepal - among the 10 countries who are signed up at government level

Within it's first month of coming to power, UK Govt have committed to 10:10 - we're now going to use this to help get other countries to follow the process.

Small recent steps:

10:10 tags - seeing the racks of bikes changes the landscape of a city - in a much smaller way, we're asking people to wear a 10:10 tag - made out of the recycled jumbo jet that Franny had been flying on when it's engines stopped due to volcanic ash.

Brighton and Hove have 10:10 on the sides of each bus, Gateshead and Tottenham Hotspur have made big steps - and we signed up Joey from Friends too - and two weeks ago, we got the Royal Mail to stamp six million letters witht he 10:10 logo.

In the last two weeks, M&S, the IPO, Bill Bailey, Arsenal and the Citizen's Advice Bureau have all signed up. We do want the usual suspects, and many more.

10 ideas on mainstreaming an idea:

1. Take it to the people - make it part of their daily life
2. Understand the barriers to participation
3. The value of social proof - fire alarm, Royal Mail etc
4. Accept the reality of human nature - we want to look good, be perceived as better people etc
5. The importance of language in presentation of an idea - making it inspirational and exciting
6. Don't be worried about starting small
7. Role of advocates (e.g Boris and cycling)
8. Stakeholder engagement
9. Leveraging support
10. The unique narrative of your project

Last call for Hay on Earth

Here's a short update on the events running at Hay on Earth this year - the deadline for applications is 12.00 on 24 May, so organisations in Wales that want to be considered for the sustainability innovation funding from the Welsh Assembly's SD Challenge need to get writing.

SD Challenge: the Welsh Assembly have a funding pot of £40,000 that's going to be split equally between four projects in a 'Green Dragon's Den' event that will be running on 1-4 June at Hay on Earth, with themes over the four days on Low Carbon Travel, Food & Sustainability, Business & Enterprise, and Communities & Homes. Short-listed projects will work with a team of specialists during the first half of each day to sharpen their ideas before pitching those ideas to members of the public in the afternoon as dry run before a three minute pitch to the 'Dragons' at close of play. The short application form can be found here and needs to be submitted by 12.00 on 24/5/10

Setting the real goals for change + Marketplace for Innovation: Free workshops/ seminars will run on each day 1-4 June with discussion and detailed description of the real goals that we need to work towards to achieve a sustainable future. What will businesses actually need to be doing by when to achieve reduction of their carbon emissions? What will social enterprises be doing to make change? What capability would 80% of children leave school with if they were to play a part in changing the world for sustainability. We're making the shift from goals that improve on yesterday to those that are needed for tomorrow. Information on the workshops can be found here; please email Andy Middleton to register a place on one or more of the days.

Green Heroes: As part of each day's attraction, Cynnal Cymru's Green Heroes 2009 exhibition will be on display to share inspiration from last year's winners and gather entries for the 2010 awards.

Do Lectures: for those who appreciate a dose of the finest inspiration on the planet, grab one of the last 20 or so tickets to the 2010 Do Lectures, held in north Pembrokeshire in mid September.

Hay on Earth: £40,000 for sustainable innovation & leadership

It's a pleasure to confirm funding and arrangements for the 2010 Hay on Earth sustainability workshops that will once again be running at the internationally reknown Guardian Hay Festival. In this third year of the event, there's great news.

With support from the Welsh Assembly Government, four groups will be given a £10,000 grant that turns heads, engages the community and makes a real difference to change. The application form can be downloaded here, and the programme from here.

Eight groups will be shortlisted under each day's topic focus, and others are invited to attend to share, learn and develop their own ideas. The morning and afternoon sessions of each day are ticketed and free.

Hay on Earth 1: Food

Hay on Earth 2: Low carbon travel

Hay on Earth 3: Enterprise and business

Hay on Earth 4: Community and homes

The paragraph below gives a taster for what the selection panel will be looking for in the 'Green Dragon's Den' style sessions:

"Tim Smit, Founder of the Eden Project, talks of the need for leadership in sustainability being “big, bold, dangerous, compelling, sexy, aggressive and rock and roll”. Successful projects in sustainability stay away from doing what they’ve done before because it’s easy and focus on what needs to happen first, then on how to make it happen. Einstein talked about doing the same thing and expecting different results being a sign of madness. Your project should be something that Tim Smit (and Einstein) would relate to…"