Green Today

Make this my homepage | Add to favourites

Today's Headlines:

National Awards celebrate the benefits of ICT
0 comments
Forty two finalist organisations gathered last night at the National eWell-Being Awards 2010 at a ceremony

Heathrow runway opponents win court fight
0 comments
By Mike Jones Campaigners protesting against a third runway at Heathrow Airport have won a major High

Major investment in UK offshore wind sector
0 comments
By Mike Jones General Electric (GE) plans to invest 110million euros in the UK offshore wind sector

£30m boost for low carbon transport
0 comments
By Mike Jones Low carbon buses and fuel generated from everyday waste are at the centre of

Government continues climate campaign despite criticism
0 comments
By Mike Jones The Government is to continue its current campaign on climate change, despite having two

UK offshore wind towers above rest
0 comments
By Mike Jones The offshore wind supply chain received a double boost after Energy and Climate Change

Now families face £1k fine for using wrong bin
0 comments
By Mike Jones Householders could be fined up to £1000 if they throw waste into the wrong

Nissan's Sunderland factory to become Europe's biggest electric car plant
0 comments
By Mike Jones Nissan's Sunderland factory is to build its new electric Leaf car. It is part of

Should junk mail be made illegal?
0 comments
By Mike Jones Agreement between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union in the long-running postal dispute

Health to be at centre of climate change fight
0 comments
The danger and cost of climate change to the health of Europeans is the focus of

News Story

National Awards celebrate the benefits of ICT

Monday 26th July 2010

Forty two finalist organisations gathered last night at the National eWell-Being Awards 2010 at a ceremony held at the UNISON Yorkshire and Humberside offices in Leeds. The awards conceived by the charity UK CEED and sponsored by Unison and Becta, are now in their 8th year and this year received 120 entries for projects demonstrating the innovative application of Information Communication Technology for social and environmental improvement.

This year the awards linked with Race Online 2012, the national campaign for digital inclusion led by the Government’s Digital Champion Martha Lane Fox.
The winning digital inclusion projects were the highly commended project ‘Connect with IT’, the Age UK’s national digital inclusion campaign, run in partnership with BT and designed to support people in later life to build social capital; and the winning entry, the NHS Choices ‘Libraries Inclusion Programme’ which aims to tackle health inequalities and improve the health of excluded groups through digital engagement programmes in libraries.

The judges singled out one organisation for special recognition for a true, long-term commitment to promoting digital inclusion. That organisation is the Bristol based social enterprise, Knowle West Media Centre. This project demonstrated considerable social benefits creating jobs and building skills as well as changing community perception in one of the most deprived areas in the country.

The awards highlighted independent living projects, such as the highly commended ‘Shropshire Council Telly Talk’, Shropshire Council’s innovative project which enables those living in rural and remote areas to access various public services without needing to drive or get a bus to the nearest county town; and the winning entry, Self Help Services’ ‘Community Based Computerised Cognitive Behavioural Services’ programme which aims to deliver Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Services (cCBT) to those experiencing mild to moderate mental health problems within non-stigmatising community settings.

The Sustainable Use of ICT in schools category saw the highly commended prize go to ‘PrintSmart’, an East Lothian Council initiative which gives print and copying control back to schools with the overall aim of “less printing to less devices” and the title of winner to the Djanogly City Academy Nottingham, Nottingham Blue Coat and Technology College and Fernwood Schools’ ‘Energy Reduction Project’ run by students from 3 schools looking at innovative ways to halve the Academy’s energy consumption.

There were an impressive variety of projects designed to improve public services, such as the highly commended ‘Telehealth for Long term Conditions within Argyll and Bute’, a NHS Highland Argyll & Bute Council project which uses ‘Home Pod’, a device which gathers information from a patient and is then sent by wireless broadband or telephony to a server for monitoring by a clinician; and the winning entry, ‘One Link’, an Isle of Wight Council project which provides a ‘one-stop-shop’ for information which empowers people with long-term health and social care needs to better manage their condition.

Looking at the area of green IT, the Energy Efficiency category included projects such as the joint highly commended ‘BroadLeaf’ by VeryPC, a desktop PC solution that takes into consideration sustainability throughout the product life cycle producing a low carbon aluminium chassis as well as moving manufacturing to nearby Hull; and the other joint highly commended Student Switch Off, a project conceived and implemented by young entrepreneur Dr Neil Jennings that encourages students to adopt simple energy saving measures such as switching off lights and appliances in university halls of residences. The winning project, TelecityGroup’s Energy Management Programme, is improving the environmental efficiency of its data centres through innovative operation and design.

The judges selected Consense as the overall winner of this year’s awards for their ‘Open Debate Online Consultation System’. In 2005 Consense launched the online tool which enables businesses to put forward their plans to local communities and engage in discussion helping to form a planning system. It is unique in that it aims to engage the silent majority – those who may not have much free time, are without a preconceived opinion or are in support but don’t realise the value of their comment. All this makes for much more of a balanced and accurate account of public opinion.

In her keynote address at the awards, Saeeda Begum, a Cabinet Office Social Enterprise Ambassador and Director of Trescom, praised the finalists for being at the forefront of innovation in ICT for environmental and social improvement and encouraged other organisations to follow the best practice demonstrated by this year’s winners.

Following the event the dissemination of best practice will be further facilitated by the publication of an award digital magazine with details of all the highly commended and winning projects with film, photos and articles.

The winning, highly commended and shortlisted projects chosen by the judging panel in each category were:

Building Community Networks
Big White Wall Ltd
E-ngage Development
Freegle (Joint Winner)
Knowle West Media Centre (Joint Winner)
MMC Consulting

Independent Living
NHS Highland, Argyll and Bute Council (Highly Commended)
Francis Leckie Associates
Hft
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
Isle of Wight County Council (Winner)

Race Online 2012 - Reaching the Digitally Excluded
AGE UK (Highly Commended)
Digital Birmingham
NHS Choices (Winner)
North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC)
Service Birmingham

Improving Public Services
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
Epping Forest District Council
London Borough of Hillingdon
Self Help Services (Winner)
Shropshire Council (Highly Commended)

Better Ways of Working
Edinburgh University School of Chemistry (Highly Commended)
Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council
Northumberland County Council (Winner)
Pembrokeshire College
Welsh Video Network

SME Innovation
Active Web Solutions Ltd
Consense (Winner)
Mediaroots Ltd
National Federation of Builders, Evolution IP
Postcode Anywhere

Energy Efficiency
Bristol City Council
Student Switch Off (Joint Highly Commended)
TelecityGroup (Winner)
PURE
VeryPC (Joint Highly Commended)

Sustainable Use of ICT in Schools
Connecting Minds Limited
Djanogly City Academy Nottingham, Nottingham Bluecoat School and Technology College, Fernwood School (Winner)
East Lothian Council (Highly Commended)
Essex Police Museum
Northumberland County Council
The Minster School

Environmental Innovator (in association with PC Pro magazine)
Sony Ericsson (Winner)

Overall Winner
Consense

Special Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Digital Inclusion
Knowle West Media Centre

For more information on the National eWell-Being Awards visit www.sustainitawards.co.uk or contact Sarah Weaving or John Pickstone at UK CEED on 01733 311644 or s.weaving@ukceed.org.