Engaging local business with 9carrots
By Ed Mitchell 28th July 2010
If you are interested in working with your local businesses, and haven’t heard of 9carrots, it’s worth your consideration. It’s a simple enough idea whereby local shopkeepers can add themselves to a map, and when customers visit and mention the map, the shopkeeper puts 10% of the takings aside for energy efficiency measures (more on their ‘how it works page’).
Some of the 9carrots team came to the 2010 conference and found a lot of interest in the idea. Since then, Annesley and Jonathan from 9carrots have been working on a starter pack for Transition Initiatives, and Graham Truscott and others from Transition Training and Consulting are looking at. Here is Graham’s outline:
The 9carrots idea proved very popular at the Transition Network conference 2010. Transition Training and Consulting is now helping 9carrots to develop a starter pack which will enable other Transition Initiatives to launch the scheme in their communities.
If you would like to present the idea to your group, please reserve your starter pack now and we’ll send you one as soon as it’s ready.
If you’re not yet familiar with the scheme, here’s how it works: locally owned and operated shops identify energy-efficiency upgrades, the local Transition Initiative advertises them and consumers support them. Each business invests 10% of the extra custom they receive towards their energy-efficiency upgrade. Businesses have embraced the scheme, as it gives them a unique opportunity to attract green consumers and cut their energy bills.
Nicola Davidson, the owner of the Shop on the Hill food store in Brockley, South London, is saving for energy-efficient lighting. She is very positive about the scheme, saying:
“I try to run my business as sustainably as I can, but at the same time I have to keep an eye on cash-flow. This scheme is great because the extra customers make the energy efficiency upgrades possible”
Jo Homan from Transition Finsbury Park said:
“We all know that involving businesses is crucial to building resilience in our community, but it’s often really difficult to get business owners to take action. 9carrots makes it easy.”
You can sign-up on 9carrots.org for updates, or reserve your starter pack now.