In the old days, the UK had a taxation system: corporations handed a set percentage of their profits over to the state each year, and elected politicians spent the money in accordance with the priorities their party had won the most recent general election with. Recent governments have reduced taxation on corporations, but encouraged them to be socially responsible with the taxes they are saving. The said governments, having less money, have cut their expenditure, leaving no end of good causes which the socially responsible corporation can support. Thus we have elected politicians handing money back to non-elected company directors who then take the political decisions on what our political priorities for funding are. It’s a funny old world, when you bother to look at it.
Anway, the people down at Shell have been running a programme called Springboard, which hands out grants to SMEs working in the low-carbon sector. (Quite when we turned carbon into a sector is another story.) Now, in its ninth year, the programme has £330,000 to award to help finance innovative low-carbon ideas,.
To apply for Shell Springboard, go to www.shellspringboard.org before 5pm on Friday, 13th December 2014. All applicants must be based in the UK, be categorised as an SME by the European definition and have been in business for at least three months.
And whether competition rather than co-operation is the best way to get results in a planet-saving technology is yet another other story.