Funding news - 06/07/2012
Sainsbury’s Launches Challenge-led Competition for Low Carbon Solutions (UK)
Sainsbury's Supermarkets wishes to become the UK's greenest grocer and has pledged to reduce operational carbon emissions by 30% of 2005 levels by 2020.
The retailer is now looking closely at lighting and water solutions after discovering that lighting accounts for between approximately 14% and 20% of energy use in stores.
The new Sainsbury's Challenge-led Competition has been set up to reward organisations with innovative market ready, or close-to-market, solutions for low-carbon lighting and water saving solutions. Winners will have the opportunity to demonstrate their technologies at a Sainsbury's supermarket. If successful, the winning technologies could be rolled out across all 900 of Sainsbury's UK stores.
As well as the winning project being implemented in-store, prizes also include €20,000 (£16,000) and €15,000 (£12,000) 'vouchers' to spend on innovation support with Climate-KIC experts.
Solutions should be commercially viable, reliable, space efficient, suitable for retrofitting in existing stores, easy to operate and have no or limited impact on customer experience.
The sponsor is willing to receive entries from a wide range of organisations including small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), universities, public sector bodies and sole traders, all of whom are eligible to compete for the opportunity to demonstrate their innovation at a Sainsbury's store.
Announcing the competition, Ian Short, Chief Executive of the Institute for Sustainability, said:
"The market in climate change adaptation and mitigation innovations is still young and a lack of confidence in new approaches, restricted opportunities to trial innovations and concerns about risk and reward are acting as barriers to take-up.
"By working closely with potential buyers to understand their issues and requirements better, we hope to stimulate suppliers, innovators and researchers to respond with innovation that solves real world challenges."
The closing date for entries is 1 August 2012.
Click here for more details and to submit an online application (link opens in new window).
Source: Institute for Sustainability, 06/07/2012