Community Challenge winners share £20,000 for low carbon travel projects
Thu 15 July 2010
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The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership (LowCVP) and the Energy Saving Trust have announced the winners of the Community Challenge, a competition offering prizes of up to £5,000 for community-based projects promoting low carbon vehicles and fuels or smarter, sustainable travel. Seven innovative solutions to greener transport at community level are to share £20,000 prize money to support their work.
Meeting the winners at the LowCVP Annual Conference, the LowCVP Managing Director, Greg Archer, said: “The winners are engaged in projects that not only help reduce road transport emissions, but also provide wider community benefits, such as employment and training opportunities for young people.”
“We are delighted to recognise and support the achievement of community organisations across the UK in helping to accelerate the shift to low carbon vehicles and fuels. The judges were hugely impressed by the creativity and originality on show.”
The Energy Saving Trust Chief Executive Philip Sellwood said: “I have been delighted that the Energy Saving Trust and the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership have been able to jointly run the Transport Community Challenge.
“In judging the entries, I was impressed by both the quantity and quality of projects looking for support. The projects illustrated to me that there is a groundswell of support for low carbon transport at the community level. It is inspiring that there are such innovative thinkers out there with some great ideas on how to reduce transport carbon emissions."
Among the winners are WiganRecycles, a scheme where unemployed 18-24 year olds are trained as eco-driving instructors, to provide workshops on green driving to public sector organisations in the area.
Ace Bicycle Club, a Social Enterprise based in South London, will receive £1,000. Ace repairs and rebuilds donated bicycles for use by vulnerable and marginalised members of the community. The grant award will provide professional mechanic training to one of its volunteers.
Prizes were awarded in three categories:
Vehicles and Fuels
- £5,000 to Cotswold Council for Voluntary Servicesto test how eco-mapping within their minibus fleet and eco-driving training provided to its staff improve fuel economy and lowers costs. Eco-mapping helps to optimise fuel performance based on where and how a vehicle is used.
Smarter Driving and Eco-Driving
- £5,000 to Climate Squad, for a project to train newly qualified and learner drivers in eco-driving, with training delivered by young people testing the potential for peer-to-peer support
- £2,500 to WiganRecycles, a scheme where young, unemployed 18-24 year olds are trained as eco-driving trainers and provide workshops to public sector organisations in the area
Reducing Car Use
- £1,000 to Ace Bicycle Club, which repairs and rebuilds donated bicycles for use by vulnerable and marginalised members of the community, to provide professional mechanic training to one of their volunteers
- £1,000 to Broomfield Bike Beauties, a group of mums who met at the school gate, developed a shared interest in cycling, undertook a 190-mile charity cycle ride, and who plan to encourage other local parents to take up cycling
- £5,000 to Oxcar, a car club in Oxford funded to bring forward innovative ideas for the take-up of car-clubs
- £500 to SPOKES, an informal network for people working within the NHS who cycle to work or use a bike for business, to help raise awareness of the opportunities for cycling within the provision of health care
Three projects were highly commended by the judges:
- The School Travel Health Check, which maps patterns of travel to and from school to assist with travel planning
- easitNETWORK, which works with a wide range of businesses in the South East of England to offer low carbon alternatives for the daily commute
- I Move It, a website offering a low cost delivery option making use of available boot space in cars already making a journey
The Community Challenge is funded by the LowCVP and Energy Saving Trust, and supported by ACT Travelwise, Global Action Plan, liftshare, the RAC Foundation and WhatGreenCar.com.
Click here for the full press release and Community Challenge microsite.
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