Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

The ‚ Bananas Innovation & Scaling‚ project builds on a parallel programme to expand our reach and impact. Having won a ‚ Women in Innovation‚ Award (¬£50K) to create digital versions of our successful science-based, physical carbon footprint games - your fund would allow us to (a) take this beyond the education and charity sectors and into other targeted sectors and (b) investigate global markets more quickly and in time to benefit from promotion at the Glasgow COP26 climate conference opportunity in November 2021; ensuring (c) cultural relevance through intensive, targeted customer evaluation and a collective intelligence design throughout the development process.

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The sustainability/environmental professional sector is reportedly the least diverse sector after farming in the UK (Policy Exchange, 2017). When climate is a social justice issue, why is climate activism the domain of the white middle class? Research suggests that the tide is turning, but too slowly for the cultural changes necessary to avoid crisis. 

At a time when public distrust of Government, scientific experts and economists is at an all-time high and misinformation is rife, climate leaders need to be more creative and reach people where they already are in formats that are engaging, accessible and non-judgmental. Online media is an obvious solution. 

4.66 billion people on the planet had access to the internet as of October 2020 (Statista, 2020). Mobile phone use accounts for 91% of total internet users. Whilst these 4.66 billion probably represent the bulk of the richest populations on the planet, they are likely the largest consumers of digital and other products and potentially the people with the biggest carbon footprints to compress ‚ as such they are exactly the target audiences for a media that helps to demystify the carbon agenda and facilitates voluntary and effective changes in both individuals and organisations. 

Up to now our physical games have been limited in their reach and influence and tend to be purchased in the country of origin (the UK) although they have been used further afield. Our digital games (the free versions especially) will allow all those with digital access across all corners of the globe to learn in a non-threatening but fun and engaging way about their own carbon impacts. This massively increases our potential impact and enables climate leaders to start the conversation with hard- to-reach audiences. 

The intention is to use a ‚ collective (diverse) intelligence‚ design approach (Nesta, 2019) to engage a diverse range of customers via technology throughout the development process in order to make the game relevant to the broadest audiences. People of varied cultures will answer questions differently and may view aspects of the game in very different ways. The game will give activists in the climate movement a hook to spread awareness and education about the carbon impacts of (to use Mike Berners-Lee‚ word) ‚ everything‚ . 

On a personal level, I am a proud ambassador for the sustainability sector. Coming from a multi-racial family, I'm aware I need to help to build a more tolerant world through my spheres of influence and ensure the 'green recovery' opens this sector up to people from every background. Our development work with the Climate-KIC Pioneers Programme has seen us work with individuals from Germany, Malta and Romania since 2018, on the development of the game. 

Our values are in line with the program‚ values ‚ we could have developed this game earlier with funding from one of our clients back in 2018 - Shell International - but we knew our game would then no longer have the credibility it needs had it been backed by the fossil fuel industry.

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