Innovation Exchange

We would like to thank all applicants who responded to the Call for Ideas in relation to the Green Next Practice programme. We are impressed by the strength and enthusiasm of the third sector to support public services in reducing their carbon emissions. We hope that applicants who didn’t make to the next stage will remain engaged with the programme – we would certainly be interested in hearing about your progression.

We are now looking forward to holding our Going Green: A Festival of Ideas event with the shortlisted applicants – so watch the space!

Just hosted a small discussion around greening public services attended by key people in the third sector and public sector. Some really interesting themes on the issue of scaling green innovations coming from the third sector:

a) Who do we turn to?
“Who is the right person in government to talk to about my work when I can demonstrate it does have a positive impact?”
“Time is a barrier to finding commissioners. Also, we don’t know how to have these conversations.”

b) Where is the data?
“I can’t find out how much waste this public organisation produces – it won’t admit to having any waste – so where does it all go?”

c) Lobbying; third sector innovators need support to be taken more seriously by the government – how do we engage the government with the third sector, it’s language, potential etc.
“Is the third sector tag a problem in this space?” How best to overcome this?

d) Integrated approaches – the need for projects that are looking at issues across the spectrum like WORP – spark cross-departmental interest

e) What do the coalition government’s promises mean? e.g. green investment bank

f) How do we incentivise public sector organisations and third sector innovators to green their services? E.g. through tax breaks

Jaime Lerner, green city guru, tells Green Futures how to redesign a city, what Brazil’s major metropolises have yet to learn, and why urban acupuncture is the way forward.  As mayor of the Brasilian city of Cubrita, he transformed the city through innovative environmental strategies.  The area is notorious for flooding and instead of building traditional concrete defences, he created flood plains, a natural defence that also provides green spaces for the people of Cubrita.  Read more about his ideas and work here.  

Helen Clarkson, the Deputy Director at Forum for the Future, makes the case for radical strategies for sustainable public services in the face of public secotr spending cuts.  This is what we are trying to stimulate and foster through our Green Next Practice Programme, providing brokerage support to about six third sector innovations working to green public services. The deadline for applications is 2 June, so we are in our final days before appliations shut.

We have already recieved some great applications and have had interest from projects across the UK.  So hopefully, through our pogramme, the UK will begin to make sure that it does not miss out on a future of sustainable public services.

You can read her full article here and the work that Forum for the Future has been doing around for this.

There are ten days left to respond to our Call for Ideas for our Green Next Practice programme!

Top tips:
a) Read about Innovation Exchange to understand the nature of our work
b) Read the learning paper which includes feedback from our previous participants (please note that the previous Next Practice programme did make some grants to the projects but the Green Next Practice programme will not be making any grants)
c) Think about what you would like your broker to do for you. What kind of relationships would you like us to broker? Who are the key people to connect wirh to help you develop your work? Where do you see this work in two years time?

We met quite a few green innovators at the SHINE Unconference last week and it was great hearing about their work. We’re really looking forward to finding out what the third sector is doing to green public services in different parts of the country. We noted the Government’s announcement last week that it is committed to reducing the entire carbon footprint of central government by 10 percent in a year which is excellent news! It’s a real opportunity for the third sector to help the government lead the way to a low carbon economy.

Remember the deadline to respond to the Call is Wednesday, 2nd June at 5pm. You can find the application form here. You need to email your application form to Raj Cheema at raj.cheema@innovation-unit.co.uk. (Tip: put the name of your project in the subject title of the email).

If you have any queries about the application form then feel free to get in touch with Raj on 020 7259 1368. Good luck!