sainsbury

Local Businesses are an enormously important part of a community, making its supply chain decisions, providing communication hubs and employing people. They also have great resources and energy. The 9carrots project seeks to strengthen the supportive relationships between community and local business by providing them with a way to co-operate in the fight against Climate Change.

Participating retailers choose upgrades that will make their business more energy efficient, 9carrots advertises them and consumers support them. Each business commits 10% of the extra revenue they make from the extra 9carrots customers towards their target upgrade.

Our pilot study in conjunction with Transition Town Brockley signed up over 40 diverse local businesses to the scheme. 70% of local businesses approached signed up. One business in the pilot study area has already upgraded its lighting to energy efficient lights and is considering solar panels as a result of the community support.  After the pilot study, 9carrots received a millenium award from UnLtd.

The project is now rapidly growing in popularity. Groups around the country have requested our "starter kit" and need our core services. From our news page:

• A steadily increasing number of Transition Towns around the country (currently 12) have started to implement the scheme and the founders of the Transition movement are actively promoting the idea. (http://www.transitionnetwork.org/news/2010-07-28/engaging-local-business-9carrots)
• People and Planet are awaiting starter kits to send to their student groups around the UK.
• Goldsmiths University is actively supporting the project.
• EthicalConsumer magazine covered 9carrots in its July edition.
• 1 London Council is actively implementing the scheme and another has proposed it.
• Supporters in the Green Party have spoken publicly in favour of the scheme. (http://greencroftonpark.blogspot.com/2010/02/merry-carrots-mr-lawrence.html)
• The first 9carrots franchise is currently being set up in Canada.
• CarrotMobs from around the world (see below) are contacting 9carrots as their next move.
  

So that we can show business owners that we're sending them additional customers, we need to keep track of 9carrots sales. To achieve this we give each local business a special receipt book. 9carrots customers must ask for these special "9carrots receipts" when making a purchase. That way we know when the business has hit its stated target and needs to install its green upgrade.

We plan to virally grow the community by using new movement building techniques. The structure of the business and the marketing are based around bottom-up ownership by the groups who use the scheme. By giving them ownership of the project and developing it with them to their agenda they will become supporters and advocates and work to implement, extend and spread the idea with us.

9carrots is a not-for-profit registered with companies house. We have not begun to trade yet and all the work has been carried out by volunteers. The only income so far was the millenium award which was granted to cover initial printing costs and has been used.

We need to develop the necessary core services for the growing number of local environmental groups that wish to start the scheme in their community. This includes:

• the website: providing functionality for the local groups that run the scheme in their area, 9carrots franchises, participating local businesses, 9carrots prefered suppliers and consumers (the current website already provides some of these facilities)
• communication: graphic design and copy - we urgently need to explain the scheme better
• marketing: developing, testing, printing and distributing of local group materials
• networking: with major environmental groups to spread the idea further, e.g. People and Planet, Transition Towns, etc. - this has been key so far and a very successful part of our marketing strategy
• initial receipt book printing and provision (allowing local businesses to track the extra 9carrots income) - these are required to run the scheme
• management, development and analysis of the ongoing South London pilot area - we need a successful example of the scheme to promote it

We currently have 2 revenue models that we are focussing on which will bring in additional funds once the scheme has become popular:

• Supplier sales commission: when a local business installs its energy efficient upgrade, we offer to organise it and charge the supplier sales commission. Almost all business owners in the scheme have expressed interest in this service
• Permission based advertising: between local businesses and consumer. This can be extra updates on progress towards targets or specific offers (vetted by the community first)

These revenue models will more than cover the ongoing costs of receipt book printing once the scheme is popular. We intend to allow environmental groups themselves to own and develop the system as far as possible, as can be seen from the open community area on the website (http://9carrots.org/community).  However, funding is crucial for the first year in order to put the core infrastructure in place and grow the organisation to a sustainable size.

9carrots estimates that it needs £100k to cover the next 2 years of core services development. This equates to 2 full-time workers on a £20k pro-rata self-employed contract basis. Also some receipt book printing (£5k) and shared office space (£10k).