BackPeople power
27 January 2010
The failure of world leaders to agree an international climate change treaty at Copenhagen in December has turned the spotlight back on to individuals and communities to drive forward the low carbon agenda.
In January 2010, Society Media and NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, announced the inspiring winners of NESTA's £1m Big Green Challenge.
One of the winners was the Hebridean Isle of Eigg whose 95 inhabitants have installed their own electricity grid powered by wind, water and the sun.
The three winners (who received £300,000) and the runner up (who received £100,000) are proving that communities can have a real impact in transforming the UK from a high to a low carbon economy.
The entries were judged on how much they had reduced carbon emissions, and how easily their projects could be practically adopted by other community groups across the country.
Society Media partnered NESTA to announce the winners, achieving coverage in the Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times, BBC online and Radio 4's Today programme.
We also gained strong regional and trade press coverage.
While news outlets headlined the stories of the winners, we believe that the real success of the launch was in communicating the power of local community solutions to global problems: a powerful counterpoint to the bi-partisan breakdown of communications at Copenhagen.
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