A little off topic I know (only very slightly), but I think that 9carrots is a brilliant idea and well worth putting out there.
Transition Network has a quick run down:
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‘).
I’ve always found that making changes to my lifestyle in order to reduce my carbon emissions requires a bit of a nudge, especially if I need to invest money in order to achieve this, and I suspect that businesses have a similar problem with this behavioural inertia.
The beauty of this scheme is that the business gets that nudge and the double benefit of environmentally conscious customers (in many cases new customers I’d wager) plus the long term savings of the energy efficiency measure which is quite likely to pay for itself many times over.
It’s good to see that there’s already a business in Stoke Newington, Lemon Monkey, signed up. I was aware of it but had never been in – now I will pay them a visit.
Thumbs up to 9carrots, best of luck with the project.
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Thanks for the mention! I would say it was off-topic at all: the other Transition Towns we’re working with feel that’s really important to engage local businesses in transition, as they’re key members of the community too.
As you mention, we’ve already signed up Lemon Monkey, but we’re currently focussing most of our efforts on other areas. We’d be really keen to support you, though, if you’d like to get 9carrots going in Stoke Newington! 🙂
Hi Jonathan
Only a little off topic because I focus on homes rather than businesses but I fully agree that we need to engage with local businesses and there have been murmurings about doing this at TTSN for a while now.
I’ll put it to the rest of the group and see if we can nudge some action in this direction.
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