Annual Report

To bring everyone up to date with where we are and what our plans are for the rest of this year...

Bus refit

Anyone who has seen the bus ‘in the flesh', as it were, will know that it has been refitted beautifully, with great attention to detail and using local, recycled and eco-friendly materials wherever possible. This has been challenging but well worth the effort because it fits entirely with the ethos of the charity. The Big Green Bus is a perfect showcase for everything we display and talk about... as well as being a very nice environment to work in!

Although the bus has already attended many events, the refit is still ‘work-in-progress' as there are some things that I can only make decisions about after taking the bus out and seeing how things work. We are constantly adding more handles ‘here' and extra storage ‘there', as well as playing around with the space we have to make sure we maximize its potential. We have also left the solar powered cinema on the back burner till the end of this summer: partly because of funding and partly because it has been difficult to decide whether to go for a flat screen TV and DVD player or a projector and pull-down screen. The final decision is that we're going for a TV, which will be more difficult to mount, but will use less energy and be less likely to go wrong.

We are also constantly adding new interactive displays which go down really well with children and young adults.

Bus events

We have had an incredibly busy year since the new engine went in. Apart from all the primary schools we have visited, we have also attended events in Exeter City Centre, Bournemouth and Poole's ‘Big Green Fortnight', Hereford City Centre, Coventry, Loughborough University, The Fold at Bransford, Colwall and Bishopswood Outdoor Centre. All of these events have been extremely successful, but project managing them has been a steep learning curve for me and there are a few things that I will do slightly differently with the benefit of hindsight.

We have had well over 6,500 visitors to the bus so far, many of whom have given us valuable feedback on evaluation forms, via email or verbally. My hope is that each of these visitors has learned something new and that many of them will have passed information on to their friends and families.

Bus maintenance

As you know, our first outing last October went (literally) with a very big bang! Having spent winter '08 raising another £5,000 to cover the costs of buying and fitting a new engine, we now have an 18-month guarantee on one of the most reliable engines ever built, but I have decided not to run it on bio-diesel or waste veg oil for the time being because I don't want to risk voiding the guarantee. This has been an extremely difficult decision for me to make, but I simply can't afford to risk damaging the new engine during its running in/guarantee period.

Now that we have driven the bus on a number of short and long distance journeys we have discovered a number of mechanical issues that need to be addressed before we do any more events. The power steering needs some attention, we need a new windscreen wiper and we definitely have to do something about the lack of heating!

Therefore we will be taking the bus off the road for a couple of months from mid-July to sort out these and a number of other little problems.

Funding

It has not been easy in the present climate to find funding to get the BGI up and running. Many charities are struggling at the moment and we need to make The Big Green Idea a sustainable and viable business if it is to achieve its aims. I am confident that we can do this.

The purchase and refit of our Big Green Bus has been funded entirely by the generous donations and monthly subscriptions from individuals all over the UK, to whom I am eternally grateful. It is a wonderful thing to know that we have got this far through people-power alone. I had a go at applying for a few grants last year, but failed dismally to get funding. There's a knack to filling in funding application forms - and I don't have it!

However, this year, with help from someone who understands better than I do how to fill in these forms, I was fortunate enough to be offered a slot to make a six-minute presentation to The Funding Network, whose members generously pledged £5,517.31 to the BGI. With half of this money we have been able to cover a year's rent on an (eco) office at The Fold, in Bransford, near Worcester, where we are now able to operate more efficiently than we were from under my stairs. We have earmarked the other half of the money donated by TFN to enable us to go out to isolated communities in rural Herefordshire and Worcestershire where we will run sustainable living workshops.

One of the things I'll be doing during the summer is looking at how to get more grant funding.

Summer break

I have been working on a voluntary basis for the BGI without any time off for the last two years, so whilst the bus is off the road I will use the time to recharge my batteries by taking a much needed break myself. Our wonderful newsletter, website and office volunteers will also be taking a break from mid-July until the end of August.

At the end of the summer we will have our trustees AGM and our core support group AGM and will be back in action in September.

Thank you

We really are making a difference - and I can't thank everyone enough for the support they have given to help me get this project up and running. I eat, sleep, drink and live the BGI and believe passionately in our ability to help get things moving at a grass roots level, but it's not just me making it happen; it's down to having a team of amazing people who share my vision and who have all contributed in whatever way they have been able to make this first year such a success. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to you all for your continued support!

Brigit

Our affiliate merchant AMAZON has lots of books for sale around this subject. The Big Green Idea is paid a commission if you choose to buy via our links. These are not recommendations by the author and are chosen purely to give a representation.