Environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy (KBT) is today (16 June) launching its new Centre for Social Innovation at the Tomlinson Centre in Hackney, London.
The Centre for Social Innovation is the charity’s new research and innovation hub, and will build on KBT’s recent work developing approaches to solving the issues the charity works on – litter, waste and the quality of local places.
Today’s launch event will see partners and ‘leading experts in the field’ brought together to share what has been achieved and look at innovations that can help bring about behaviour change and improve communities across the country.
Alongside the event, KBT is also launching a new website featuring news, case studies and design tools to help others learn from the approaches used by the centre. It will also feature opportunities to get involved in research and solutions alongside Keep Britain Tidy
Finding ‘innovative, practical and cost-effective solutions’
The centre has the following aims:
- To better understand the drivers and context of negative behaviours;
- To use behavioural insight to design effective solutions;
- To create a robust evidence base as to what works;
- To scale successful innovation; and
- To influence others through sharing best practice.
Keep Britain Tidy interim Chief Executive Richard McIlwain said: “We are excited at the prospect of bringing together new research and understanding around people’s behaviours. We hope to help find innovative, practical and cost-effective solutions to these issues, to help improve communities.”
Today’s event is showcasing the theory behind changing behaviours, provide examples of behavioural research and successful interventions, and enable attendees to practically follow the outlined approaches.
Litter in the spotlight
Litter has been in the spotlight quite a bit lately with the former incarnation of the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) publishing the ‘Litter and fly-tipping in England: Seventh Report of Session 2014–15’ in March. The report, developed from a range of findings and recommendations put forward in three evidence sessions, outlines that litter levels in England have ‘hardly improved’ in the last 12 years, costing the taxpayer between £717 and £850 million each year to clean up.
In addition, a recent report by Zero Waste Scotland found that people litter more than they admit, and a new initiative in Westminster, Neat Streets, recently launched with the aim of ‘finding the most effective ways of combating littering and bringing about behaviour change’.
Learn more about Keep Britain Tidy.
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