My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
Yes
I am 18 years of age or above, by the application deadline.
Yes
My organisation is a registered UK entity and has a London-based address.
Yes
My organisation is a non-profit (e.g. school, university, or local authority) — not a for-profit, which can only join as a partner.
Yes
If there is a for-profit organisation as a partner in my initiative, they work on a cost-recovery basis only.
Yes
My solution is implemented at scale, or if not, I have a clear business plan, a minimum viable solution (prototype, pilot, or proof of concept), and evidence of work or impact in London within your coalition.
Yes
I am aware that, if I am submitting more than one application to a Challenge run by Ashoka and Go! London, only one of them is able to progress through the stages.
Yes
Are you an employee (and their children and grandchildren) of Ashoka or any of its respective affiliates and participating advertising and promotion agencies?
No
I have read and accepted the Challenge Terms & Conditions
1
First Name
Last Name
Pronouns
Email address
I would like to receive notifications and updates about Go London!, Ashoka, Ashoka Changemakers, and other Ashoka opportunities.
Are you an Ashoka Fellow?
Are you applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow?
If you are applying from an organization founded by an Ashoka Fellow, please specify the name and organisation of the fellow below.
Initiative Title
Power Play
Lead Organization Name
Energy Garden
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2016
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
https://www.energygarden.org.uk/
Initiative Stage
Scaling (You’re expanding impact to many new places or in many new ways)
Sectors/Themes: What topic does your project most directly relate to?
Environment & Sustainability
Initiative Summary: Describe your initiative in one sentence
PowerPlay London transforms underused urban spaces into youth-led, climate-resilient sport hubs that combine green infrastructure, renewable energy and intergenerational stewardship to drive climate action through physical activity.
Challenge Focus: What topic does your initiative most directly relate to?
Climate action through awareness and engagement
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve and who will benefit the most from your solution? How close are you to the problem and/or community impacted?
London’s young people—especially those in lower-income, rail-adjacent and estate-based neighbourhoods—are on the frontline of climate change. They experience higher urban heat, poor air quality, limited tree canopy and fewer safe, affordable spaces for sport and play. At the same time, climate action often feels distant and abstract. We see a growing tension: rising climate anxiety alongside declining physical activity and shrinking public youth space. Many underused sites—hardstanding near estates, rail-adjacent land, depaved corners—could support movement and community life, yet remain grey, overheated and underinvested. Without intervention, inequality deepens: less access to sport, less resilience to heat, less voice in shaping neighbourhoods. Energy Garden has worked for 14 years in these spaces, co-creating green infrastructure with over 100 London communities. We are embedded in climate-vulnerable areas where young people already gather. When young people help design and steward a space, it becomes safer, more resilient and more loved. Solving this matters because climate action must be embodied, local and inclusive—turning awareness into visible, shared action that builds healthier, more resilient neighbourhoods.
Your approach: How are you addressing the problem outlined above? How are you using the power of sport and physical activity to build awareness, shift behavior, and enable sustainable participation for all in response to the climate crisis? We'd love to know about the origin of your idea, and what was your "aha" moment" that led you to take action?
Energy Garden PowerPlay addresses this challenge by turning sport into a gateway for climate Action repurpose underused, rail-adjacent land and estate spaces into climate-resilient sport hubs: depaved surfaces that reduce heat, tree canopy for shade, biodiversity planting to improve air quality, and solar-powered lighting for safe evening use. Young people co-design and activate these spaces through regular sport sessions. Sport becomes the hook. Climate becomes the context. During sessions, young people measure temperature differences between shaded and unshaded areas, track biodiversity, learn how solar works, and explore how design affects health. Climate becomes something they can see and improve. This builds awareness, shifts behaviour and stewardship. Participation is free, local and youth-designed—removing cost barriers. Our “aha” moment came during extreme heat. Newly depaved, planted sites were cooler and more used than nearby hard surfaces. Young people gravitated toward shaded areas and stayed longer. Many shared climate anxiety but felt powerless. We realised our spaces could double as movement spaces and climate classrooms. PowerPlay grew from that insight: climate resilience and physical activity are not separate. By integrating sport, green infrastructure and youth leadership, we create inclusive spaces that reduce risk and strengthen wellbeing and agency.
Collaboration with young people and the community: In what ways does your initiative engage young people and community members closest to the problem? What role do they play in building the solution you deliver?
Energy Garden PowerPlay is built with—not for—young people. We are embedded in 20 locations across London and deliver around 100 school workshops annually in gardens at sites including Acton Central, Cultivate Colindale, Ebury Pimlico, Ladbroke Grove, Latimer Road, Willesden Junction, Feltham Forest and Forest Hill. These spaces already function as trusted, youth-facing community hubs. Young people closest to the problem help shape the solution from the outset. At each PowerPlay site we run co-design workshops where local young people map how they use space, identify barriers (heat, safety, cost, exclusion), and prototype ideas for sport and movement. At rail-adjacent sites in west London, participants highlighted overheating hard surfaces and lack of lighting as key deterrents. In response, they co-designed shaded areas, biodiverse planting and solar lighting to enable safe evening play. We establish Youth Climate Leaders groups drawn from local schools and workshop participants. They measure temperature differences, track biodiversity, support planting days and act as ambassadors to peers. They also shape programming—football, dance, training circuits or intergenerational movement. Community members, including elders and residents, join stewardship days and advisory circles. By rooting the initiative in neighbourhoods where we already have relationships, we ensure continuity—not a one-off intervention. Young people are co-designers, data collectors, stewards and visible leaders of climate-resilient sport spaces.
Potential for/Evidence of Impact: How do you imagine your initiative will make a difference in raising climate awareness, shifting behaviors, or reducing environmental impact or harm? If you have already implemented it, what difference have you made so far? What is the impact your initiative has had¡, and/or what impact do you envision having in the future?
PowerPlay builds on a proven education and youth training model delivering measurable climate awareness and behaviour change across London. In 2025, we delivered 72 school workshops across 9 schools, engaging 1,888 children—100% in boroughs with higher poverty levels (Camden, Ealing, Lewisham). We also delivered 35 horticulture workshops (more than double 2024), connecting young people to green space, biodiversity and renewable energy through hands-on learning. In classrooms, pupils use solar panels and voltmeters, map green space inequality and explore fuel poverty—making climate science tangible. In gardens, many grow food or use tools for the first time. Feedback shows increased awareness, curiosity about renewable energy and confidence engaging with environmental issues. Through four Youth Training Programmes in 2025, 51 young people completed 40–50 hours of accredited sustainability training, with a 90% completion rate. All came from underrepresented or low-income backgrounds. Trainees installed solar, built green infrastructure and engaged with policymakers—shifting identity from “climate anxious” to “climate actor.” PowerPlay scales this impact by adapting hard surfaces into shaded, biodiverse sport hubs that reduce urban heat, improve air quality and enable free participation. Each site becomes a visible climate adaptation intervention and living classroom. Engaging 300+ young people per hub annually, we will track temperature reduction, biodiversity gain and sustained participation—accelerating awareness, behaviour change and environmental impact at community scale.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
PowerPlay is innovative because it does not treat sport and climate as separate agendas. Most climate education happens in classrooms, and most sport provision focuses only on participation. We integrate climate adaptation directly into the physical design of sport spaces—so the infrastructure itself becomes the teacher. Rather than building new facilities, we repurpose overheated, underused hardstanding—rail-adjacent land, estate corners, paved yards—into shaded, biodiverse, solar-powered movement hubs. Depaving, tree canopy, nature-based drainage and renewable lighting are not add-ons; they are core to enabling safe, resilient sport. This tackles the root problem: unequal access to both climate resilience and physical activity. Our innovation is also structural. Young people are not programme attendees; they are co-designers, data collectors and stewards. They measure heat reduction, monitor biodiversity and shape programming. This shifts norms from passive consumption of space to shared civic ownership. Finally, PowerPlay connects sectors that rarely collaborate—sport, climate adaptation, youth leadership and landowners—creating a replicable systems model. By embedding climate literacy in everyday movement, we change behaviour through lived experience, not messaging alone.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
PowerPlay is delivered through a clear, place-based partnership model rooted in existing relationships. Energy Garden (Lead & Delivery Partner) Energy Garden leads site coordination, safeguarding, monitoring and reporting. Our Education, Trees and Engagement teams deliver workshops, facilitate youth co-design, oversee depaving and greening works, and integrate renewable energy and biodiversity into sport spaces. We draw from our 20-site London network and adjacent parks including Feltham Station & Grantham Park, Cultivate Colindale & Heybourne Park, and rail-linked gardens across boroughs. Schools (Core Delivery Partners) Schools are active co-creators, not just beneficiaries. In 2025–26 alone we have delivered or committed 39 workshops reaching 1,048 pupils across Lambeth (Christchurch School), Lewisham (Rathfern School, Turnham Academy), Barnet (St Paul’s C of E), Camden (Netley Primary for Autism) and Ealing (Ark Byron School). Schools host sessions, integrate climate-sport learning into curriculum time, support youth recruitment and enable long-term engagement near our gardens. Young Climate Leaders Recruited through our workshops and Youth Training Programme, young people co-design layouts, support planting and installations, gather environmental data and act as peer ambassadors. Local Authority Partners Brent, Hounslow, Barnet and Westminster Councils are active partners across tree planting, depaving, education and community resilience projects. They support access to land, strategic alignment and scaling. This shared structure ensures delivery is locally embedded, youth-led and institutionally supported.
Viability and Scalability: How are you setting your organization up for success, and what is your plan to ensure operational sustainability of your solution and its impact? What are your ideas for scaling your initiative to the next level?
PowerPlay is built on Energy Garden’s long-term infrastructure model, not short-term programming. Our sustainability rests on three pillars: land security, diversified income and community stewardship. First, we operate across 20 London sites with established land agreements and borough partnerships. PowerPlay hubs will sit within this network, reducing overhead and ensuring continuity. Second, our long-term financial model is linked to community-owned solar on rail and civic infrastructure. As we expand solar generation, surplus income can support free youth programming and climate-sport hubs. We are also developing funded “solar for schools” projects that cut energy bills while creating live learning environments—linking infrastructure, education and resilience. Third, we build local ownership. Young Climate Leaders and schools co-steward sites, reducing maintenance risk and increasing longevity. To scale, we will: • Develop a replicable Climate Sport Hub toolkit • Secure additional borough and rail partners • Blend climate, sport and education funding • Leverage corporate and philanthropic partners Our ambition is a London-wide network of climate-resilient sport hubs powered by community energy.
Upcoming Milestones: Please provide an overview of the milestones that are required for your initiative to come to fruition/ to grow.
Upcoming Milestones (12–18 Months) PowerPlay is ready to move quickly, but continued delivery depends on stabilising our schools programme at a time when education funding has dramatically decreased. The funding climate for schools-based climate work has been deeply wounded. This grant enables continuity while we scale long-term solar income. Phase 1: Stabilisation & Co-Design (Months 1–3) • Secure funding to maintain school workshops in priority boroughs • Confirm 2–3 pilot PowerPlay sites within our 20-site network • Youth co-design sessions with partner schools and local groups • Baseline data collection (heat, usage, biodiversity) Phase 2: Site Adaptation & Installation (Months 4–8) • Depaving, planting and shade installation • Install solar-powered lighting and climate-resilient features • Launch weekly climate-sport sessions • Establish Youth Climate Leaders groups Phase 3: Activation & Evidence (Months 9–12) • Deliver structured sport + climate sessions • Monitor participation, temperature reduction and environmental indicators • Publish interim impact findings • Develop Climate Sport Hub replication toolkit Parallel Milestone: Solar Expansion (12–18 Months) • Progress additional rail and school solar installations • Secure new solar PPAs to generate unrestricted income • Reinvest surplus into free schools programming and hub maintenance By combining immediate programme funding with longer-term solar infrastructure growth, we ensure PowerPlay is both deliverable now and financially sustainable over time.
