Green web awards: upwards, onwards

November 11, 2009 by William Shaw
Filed under: William Shaw 

I’ve been invited to be one of the judges on the Green Web Awards, alongside Caroline Lucas, Green Party MEP, Adam Vaughan of The Guardian, Ed Gillespie of Futerra. Bonnie Alter of Treehugger and others. The Green Web awards were launched last year by Nigel Berman of nigelsecostore.com, so it’s a chance to figure out how much has changed in those 12 months.

Please get nominating.

Last year the standout winner for me was Freecycle, which won the Favourite Online Community award. It’s easy to forget what a quiet revolution that has been working on so many levels – building community, recycling tonnes of goods and  saving landfill.

By adding a Best Greenwash category the Awards also ensure that they get great national publicity. Last year Mattel’s range of Eco-Friendly Barbies sashayed straight into the top spot.

But 2008 seems a long way away.  Blogs themselves have lost some of their shininess in the intervening months. This is partly because the ADD-style attention span of the web has already moved on to social media, but I’m not sure if blogs themselves have grown as successfully as they should. While independent sites like DeSmogBlog are still lynchpins, and sites like Treehugger remain central, those of the major campaigning NGOs like Greenpeace and WWF are looking sadly corporate and staid, as if their copy is part of a greater PR machine, rather than exuding the passionate intelligence that so many people who work for them have.

To acknowledge the shifting emphasis there’s a new category Social Media Hero. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. I do follow people like @revkin, @sustainblog and @adamvaughan_uk, but I’m not sure the environment movement yet has its own Stephen Fry. Take a look at Mashable’s list of 75 green tweets and see how many you would really want in your Twitter window every day.

On the plus side, sites like Naresh Ramchandani and Andy Hobsbawm’s Do The Green Thing have a real elegant simplicity to them and have proved continued to prove that the web is a brilliant tool for behaviour change.

But as these projects integrate with the social web, I suspect we’re on the verge of harnessing something quite spectacular. RSA Projects like Design Behaviour and The Social Brain tell us again and again we behave better when we act together.

We perceive it’s hard for us to lower our energy use on our own, but when we start comparing our use with our friends and neighbour’s, we suddenly start finding new ways forward. PriceWaterhouseCooper’s Carbon Bigfoot app on Facebook is one great new tool which does exactly that. Pachube is another fantastic mash up of technologies to create a live online community energy use comparison site.

I’m sure you have your own favourites.

I’d be particularly interested in seeing nominations for sites that aim at reaching the “other half” who are the least engaged in environmental issues.

And of course should anybody want to nominate and vote for us…

Bookmark and Share

Tags:

Comments

4 Comments on Green web awards: upwards, onwards

  1. David Hayes on Wed, 11th Nov 2009 5:55 pm

    2. Hi William

    Its good to see the Green Web Awards running once again. Edenbee were luck enough to recieve an award in 2008 for our site. Since then we have decided to focus on our Facebook application http://apps.facebook.com/edenbee It’s a simple premise where users set, adopt and share goals for a more sustainable life. To assist we provide a product or service to assist them with that goal. If they follow through on our suggestion we donate 50% of the transaction fee to an NGO of their choice. The NGO’s that we are promoting address the policy areas of Conservation, Energy Efficiency, Climate Change, Equality and Poverty

    Check it out!

  2. William Shaw on Thu, 12th Nov 2009 6:34 am

    3. Congratulations on last year’s award, David. Richly deserved.

  3. Peter on Thu, 12th Nov 2009 2:19 pm

    4. ‘Take a look at Mashable’s list of 75 green tweets and see how many you would really want in your Twitter window every day.’

    I was grateful for that list, and pleased to add a few more I did not already have.

    But you are right, a few really didn’t seem to float my boat at all. Not to say some were not sincere or well done, but I found many that resided at the two extremes that frustrate me most (other than the two at each end of (A)GW), either preaching to a very faithful hairshirt flock in such a way as to repel ‘liter’ greens still keen to find out and change, to high-end fashionistas way above my pay grade. I am more Fiesta Family on a Friday Tesco run for the whole week rather than Prius Person using the wicker basket bike to get organic veg for a dinner do at the weekend Devon retreat.

    Personally (and flying a wee selfish, self-promo flag here), I think (and hope) the future is in the hands of those who seek to inspire rather than hector, reward rather than punish and educate/entertain rather than strike fear or promote guilt.

    It’s a great world. We should enjoy every moment of making it even better, even when we are rolling up our sleeves to help support it while in need.

  4. William Shaw on Thu, 12th Nov 2009 5:01 pm

    5. You see?

    What we really need is funnier, smarter voices. Less Toyota Pious. And you’re right, of course, about the inspire/hector thing…

Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!