Telegraph article on Hay Festival eco happenings

Geofferey Lean is the Daily Telegraph's environment correspondent, and for the next 10 days, he's esconsced in the Green Room at the Hay Festival, reporting on all things green and eco that are happening on the festival site and across Wales.

He wrote a good article on Saturday with a lovely headline "For the greenest nation, look west"

The Telegraph's equivalent of the Guardian's comment is free has the predictable range of neocons, deniers and voices of reason, some of whom are more than happy to dismiss the stories in Lean's article as insignificant - small though they may be, many of them are positive starts to something bigger and more worthwhile.

The Green Dragon's Den is running Tuesday-Friday at the Hay Festival, insterspersed with some excellent music and comdey.

Final Hay on Earth short list

Projects selected for the 2011 Hay on Earth Green Dragon's Den are listed below; the Hay Festival site is buzzing and there's already a high level of excitement about the forthcoming workshops and competition. For the Green Dragon's Den entrants who didn't get through, commiserations as well as congratulations are in order as every single project submitted had clear sustainability benefits; a few lacked the spark of innovation that was needed, a few lacked the leadership asked for and a couple, racing for the extended deadline places, were simply too late to be considered.

The Welsh Government's new Minister for Environment & Sustainability, John Griffiths, visited Friday's Sustainable Development Charter workshop, and we're hoping to see him back at Hay this Friday to congratulate the winners. 

The short listed projects are:

Clever Stuff (31 May)

Sustain IT (The ARC Project)
Rebound Books (L’Arche Brecon)
Packet In (Bron Afon)
Cleanstream (Cleanstream Carpets)
The Wood Shed (Crucorney Energy Group)
Zero waste in a box (Cwm Harry Land Trust)

Food to fork (1 June)

Revolution Forks (Bridgend)
Riverside Mobile Shop (Riverside)       
Food for the Future (Blaenau Gwent)
ACE Rainwater (Ashfield Community Enterprise)
FEAST (This is Rubbish)

Home and hearth (2 June)

Low Carbon Communities (Sustainable Wales)
Informed Energy Descent (EcoBro)        
Watery Heat Snake (Llangattock Green Valleys)   
Tŷ = Welsh Tree Squared (Coed Cymru)   
The One Million Person Sharing Plan for Wales (Bid and Borrow)
                       
Connecting Communities (3 June)

Blaen Afon Flower Gardens (Bron Afon Housing Assn)     
Making Litter Pay (Llangattock Green Valleys)  
Living Diaries (Kirsty Morris)
Open Swansea (ThinkARK/Wales Coop)
Pots, tubs, troughs and tucker (Co-operative group)

Hay on Earth Dragons' Short List

After some tough consideration, and a good sift through some exellent entries, the following projects have been short listed for the Hay on Earth Green Dragon's Den 2011:

CLEVER STUFF

* Sustain IT
* Rebound books
* Cleanstream carpets
* Packet In

FIELD TO FORK

* Feast
* Revolution with forks and trowels
* Riverside mobile food truck
* Food for the future
* Ace rainwater harvesting

HOME AND HEARTH:

* Informed energy descent
* Watery heat snake
* Low carbon communities campaign

CONNECTED COMMUNITIES

* Open Swansea
* Making Litter Pay
* Blaenavon Flower Gardens
* Living Diaries

Congratulations to all those who have been shortlisted, and comiserations to the projects who, whilst putting excellent ideas forwards, didn't reach the innovation or leadership criteria that the panel needed. 

Short listed projects: further information will be sent out in the next 48 hours on what the next stages involve.

Non short listed projects: you'll receive a few lines explaining why your projects didn't make the cut on this occasion.

Green Dragon's Den Tickets: short listed projects will already have seats allocated; if you want to bring other folk along, be sure to let people know that they need to get their free tickets from the Hay box office online / phone before the event to be sure of a place - the Hay team are expecting all four days to be sold out.

Well done all - some great proejcts all-round. Now - onwards and upwards.

Hay on Earth short list

UPDATED

All entries submitted for Hay on Earth 2011, including some real gems, have been handed over to the WAG sustainability team for short listing - names will be posted here by Monday at the latest - apologies for not getting them up earlier.

In one area, Home and Hearth, whilst there were some great bids that will make a real difference, a few lacked the edge that would mark them out as being innovative and showing leadership - so we will be extending the deadline for this area alone, until 12.00 on 24 May to give groups the opportunity to re-submit bids that were unsuccessful or craft new ones from scratch.

Those who get shortlisted are guaranteed some interest in their projects as Andy Fryers, the Hay Festival's Director of Sustainability and lynchpin for Hay on Earth, is confident that all four days of the Green Dragon's Den are likely to be 'sold out' - whilst the tickets are free, anyone wanting to be assured of a seat should contact the Hay Festival booking office (online is best) and get their name down. The sell out means that each project will be pitching their ideas to 250 people...

Hay on Earth entries

Like watching the first House Martins return from a winter in the south, there are times of the year when signs of spring lift the heart. One of the more recent signs for me has been the arrival of Hay on Earth application forms, flying west to line up for short listing. It's going to be an exciting year - more ambition, more professional projects, more verve. 

Keep them coming in. Deadline 2 May.