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
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
Sustainable Tottenham
Lead Organization Name
Tottenham Hotspur Foundation
My initiative is designed for and delivered in London
1
Year that you started/ registered your organisation
2006
Website URL(s) or Social Media Handles
https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/the-club/foundation/about-us/
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
Leveraging Tottenham Hotspur’s sustainability leadership and Motivez’s expertise in engaging young people in climate action, Sustainable Tottenham bridges the gap between STEM, sport and 300 students aged 14-18 across North London to develop technical innovations for the sports sector, driving climate action through awareness, and fostering a new generation of green leaders through expert-led workshops, mentored hackathons and youth-led community initiatives at the world-class Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
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?
In boroughs like Haringey and Enfield, the climate crisis is not abstract; it is a direct threat to the right to play. Rising energy costs, poor air quality, and increasingly unplayable, waterlogged pitches are pricing out & pushing out underserved youth from the sports they love. Despite being the most impacted by these environmental shifts, 14-18-year-olds from these communities are systematically excluded from the STEM and sustainability sectors. They possess the lived experience of these climate barriers, but lack the technical tools & platforms to engineer solutions. 300 underserved students from 15+ North London schools will benefit most. They will gain environmental literacy, technical STEM skills, and direct access to high-level industry mentors, turning them from spectators of the climate crisis into its architects. This mission is personal. Motivez was founded to address and bridge the gap between underrepresented talent and STEM careers. By partnering with the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, the literal and metaphorical heart of N17, we collaboratively place ourselves as a beacon of environmentally-friendly practices for the community to follow suit. With Tottenham Hotspur being the UK’s most sustainable football club, we are uniquely positioned to turn our living stadium into a laboratory where the community's own youth solve the community's own climate challenges.
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?
Our approach adapts Sustainable London, our proven multi-borough STEM competition, to the sports sector. We equip underserved 14–18-year-olds with environmental literacy and technical STEM skills, then challenge them to engineer solutions that reduce the climate impact of sport — from stadium systems to local pitches — while strengthening their own right to play. Addressing the Problem Through our established hackathon model, which has engaged 2,500+ students across London, young people move beyond awareness into action. This mentored, design-thinking format builds confidence, demystifies climate science and enables participants to prototype practical solutions to real-world challenges. Harnessing the Power of Sport We deliver the programme within 15+ schools across Haringey and Enfield, removing cost and transport barriers to ensure inclusive participation. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium becomes a “Living Lab,” where students analyse real sustainability systems — water reuse, energy efficiency, zero-waste operations — making climate innovation tangible, local and culturally relevant. Shifting Behaviour By solving live challenges linked to their club, students transition from climate anxiety to climate agency. They can influence peers, families and schools, reframing sustainability as innovation rather than sacrifice. The Aha Moment Our data showed engagement spiked whenever we used familiar local landmarks. We realised that for a young person sports Stadium aren’t just football grounds — they're visions of possibility. Since they can unite 1000s behind a team, they can unite a generation behind climate action. That insight shifted our ambition from running a programme to building a movement — turning stadiums into engines of community-led climate innovation.
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?
Our initiative is built on the principle that those closest to the problem are closest to the solution. We do not simply consult young people; we position them as Technical Consultants for their own community. 1. Rooted in Lived Experience Participants (14–18-year-olds from Haringey and Enfield) directly experience climate inequality — from heat-island effects in social housing to flooded pitches reducing access to sport. Inspired by young & visible climate leaders such as Greta Thunberg and Dominique Palmer, students understand both local and global climate impact. During hackathons, they define the climate barriers that matter most to them, ensuring solutions are grounded in lived reality rather than abstract challenges. 2. Programme Co-Design Our Sustainable London model embeds youth voice structurally. A Youth Advisory Panel (YAP), made up of diverse Motivez alumni, meets six times per year to co-design content, shape marketing and provide delivery feedback. This ensures the programme evolves in response to young people’s needs. 3. Peer-to-Peer Leadership Motivez operates a 'near-peer' mentoring model, where mentors from similar areas and backgrounds as participants provide culturally relevant guidance. This increases trust, relatability and aspiration, as students see themselves reflected in the STEM and sports industry. 4. Community Accountability “Borough Finale” and “Stadium Pitch” events bring together councillors, landowners, regeneration teams and corporate leaders. Students present their technical solutions directly to decision-makers, ensuring outcomes are both community-rooted and institutionally supported. Young people are not recipients of support — they are architects of change.
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?
Our initiative is built on an evidence-based foundation. Motivez has engaged 2,500+ students across six London boroughs through Sustainable London, since launching in 2022. Post-programme data shows: - 92% of participants report increased confidence in pursuing STEM climate careers. - 85% of alumni progress into full-time employment or higher education within six months. - 70+ industry mentors have contributed 12,000+ hours of high-quality STEM engagement. Building on this model, in partnership with Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, we will deliver 15–20 cohorts over 12-to-18 months, reaching 300 underserved 14–18-year-olds in Haringey and Enfield. Envisioned Impact Behavioural Shift: By working on live sustainability challenges within Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - such as zero-waste matchdays or renewable energy solutions - students move from climate anxiety to climate agency, developing both environmental literacy and practical problem-solving skills. Economic & Social Mobility: The programme bridges the gap between underserved youth and green career pathways, equipping participants with technical skills, industry networks and clear progression routes into future-facing employment. Environmental Contribution: Our “Borough-to-Stadium” model creates a credible pathway for prototypes to be pitched to decision-makers for potential implementation, linking youth innovation to measurable reductions in environmental impact within the sports sector. Success looks like a Year 10 student from a Tottenham estate confidently presenting a water-recycling solution to club executives - transforming lived climate barriers into leadership and opportunity.
Innovation: What is different about your initiative compared to other solutions that are already out there? How is your approach original and innovative?
Our innovation lies in the “Sport–STEM crossover.” While many youth climate initiatives focus on awareness campaigns or individual behaviour change, our model builds technical agency. We shift the narrative from climate anxiety to climate engineering. 1. The Living Stadium Methodology Rather than relying on hypothetical case studies, we use Tottenham Hotspur Stadium — the UK’s most sustainable football venue — as a live classroom. Students analyse real systems such as water recycling, transport emissions and zero-waste operations. A global sports venue becomes a laboratory for urban resilience, making climate science tangible and applied. 2. Proven Model, New Sector We adapt the award-winning Sustainable London framework, previously delivered across sectors such as fashion and transport, and apply it to sport for the first time. By leveraging young people’s passion for football, we remove the traditional engagement barrier often associated with STEM learning. 3. Redefining Access to Power Underserved youth in N17 are typically consumers of elite sport. Our model flips this dynamic: they become technical consultants, pitching sustainability solutions directly to decision-makers from government, corporate and charity sectors. This creates a new talent pipeline — not for athletes, but for future green engineers and climate leaders. 4. Rapid Prototyping for Real-World Impact Through capacity building workshops & structured hackathons, students develop and test solutions to local climate barriers. This high-intensity, design-thinking approach makes complex environmental challenges practical, local and solvable. Our approach does not just raise awareness — it embeds young people inside the systems they seek to change.
Roles and Responsibilities: Describe how responsibilities are shared among your team or partners.
Sustainable Tottenham is designed as a cross-sector collaboration that combines community trust, industry access and specialist STEM expertise to deliver long-term impact. Tottenham Hotspur Foundation (Lead & Community Anchor) As the lead partner, the Foundation engages 10,000+ residents age 5 to 65 annually, since launching in 2006, providing strategic oversight, governance and safeguarding to the programme. It anchors the initiative within North London by: - Leveraging established relationships with 15+ schools and colleges to secure equitable access to 300 underserved young people. - Mobilising club staff, club partners and volunteer mentors to provide industry exposure and role modelling. - Providing access to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as a real-world sustainability case study and event venue. - Aligning the programme with borough priorities, youth engagement strategies and progression pathways. Motivez (Specialist Delivery & Innovation Partner) Motivez brings a proven track record of delivering STEM and employability programmes to 13,500+ young people nationally since launching in 2020 . Motivez will: - Lead programme management and operational coordination. - Deliver the curriculum, hackathons and mentoring model. - Train facilitators and mentors to ensure quality assurance. - Lead monitoring, evaluation and impact reporting. - Broker pathways into STEM education, apprenticeships and employment. We’ve already delivered a STEM Careers Festival, reaching 300 young people (age 16 to 24) to explore the world of STEM with brands like Tottenham Hotspurs, Ticketmaster, British Council, Brunel University, and more. And now, this partnership would build on that to integrate local reach with national STEM expertise, creating a replicable model where sport, sustainability and education intersect to drive systemic change.
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?
Viability & Organisational Strength The Foundation & Motivez both operate with a focus on project governance, KPI tracking & evaluation, and structured safeguarding oversight, ensuring delivery quality and financial control. Our partnership model combines Motivez’s specialist STEM delivery expertise with Tottenham Hotspur Foundation’s institutional infrastructure, employer network and stadium assets. This reduces delivery risk while embedding the programme within an established organisation with long-term strategic alignment. Operational Sustainability Our near-peer volunteer mentor model creates a renewable talent pipeline, reducing reliance on paid facilitators while maintaining cultural relevance and quality. By solving live sustainability challenges linked to club operations, the programme integrates into the Foundation’s ESG, workforce and community engagement strategy — positioning it as value-adding rather than grant-dependent. Scalability & Growth Model We are productising the “Sport–STEM Living Stadium” framework into a replicable toolkit, enabling adoption by other professional clubs across football, rugby and cricket. Our growth strategy combines club partnerships, corporate ESG sponsorship and place-based funding to scale regionally, with the long-term ambition of establishing a nationwide network of stadium-based climate innovation hubs.
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) Phase 1: Build the Laboratory (Sept–Oct 2026) Co-design the Sustainable Tottenham curriculum with Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and industry sustainability partners, positioning the stadium as a live case study in environmental innovation. Confirm 15+ school partners, recruit 300 students, onboard mentors and establish baseline evaluation. Milestone: Programme infrastructure complete; cohort enrolled; impact benchmarks set. Phase 2: Spark the Mission (Nov 2026–Feb 2027) Through environmental literacy workshops and ‘Fireside Chats’ with diverse STEM role models, participants explore the intersection of sport, climate and technology. The stadium becomes a tangible example of sustainable engineering in action. Milestone: Increased environmental literacy and STEM confidence measured across the cohort. Phase 3: Engineer the Solution (Feb–Apr 2027) Hackathons, design-thinking labs and stadium insight visits enable students to develop practical solutions to local climate barriers affecting youth sport. Structured mentoring ensures technical rigour and industry relevance. Milestone: Prototype solutions developed and reviewed by employers and sustainability experts. Phase 4: Showcase & Shift Power (Apr–July 2027) Students pitch solutions to councillors, employers, housing associations and community leaders, shifting youth from climate spectators to solution architects. Alumni transition into peer mentors, embedding sustainability leadership locally. New funders approached to continue programme post-date. Milestone: Public showcase delivered; progression routes secured; alumni network launched; funding conversations started. Phase 5: Measure & Scale (July–Oct 2027) Comprehensive evaluation and impact reporting inform programme refinement and borough-wide expansion with new funding. Milestone: Replicable delivery model established for growth across North London.
Capacity-Building Participation and Support Funding: If you were to make it as a finalist, you will be required to participate in an 8-week capacity building programme. If funding/ cost is a barrier to your participation, we may be able to offer up to 10,000 GBP of grant money available to support you. Please break down below, if it is the case, what costs you would incur and you would need covered. (Please note that there are restrictions on how the grant money may be used; please refer to the T&Cs for further details (LINK).
If selected as a finalist, we would utilise the £10,000 grant to strengthen the technical robustness and scalability of Sustainable Tottenham. Proposed allocation: - Impact & Evaluation Design (£3,500): Commission an external evaluation specialist to build a rigorous measurement framework, including environmental literacy benchmarking and long-term STEM progression tracking. - Prototype Development & Testing (£3,000): Materials and specialist technical advisory support to enable student teams to develop and test early-stage sustainability solutions linked to sport infrastructure and local climate challenges. This will also include an allowance for our Youth Advisory Panel to test the programme and offer feedback before launching. - Sustainability & Feasibility Consultancy (£2,000): Expert input to ensure solutions align with borough climate strategies and real-world engineering standards. - Replication Toolkit Development (£1,500): Creation of a scalable delivery toolkit to support expansion across additional North London boroughs. All costs would directly support project development, quality assurance and long-term impact sustainability.
Now that you've explored what it truly means to put young people at the centre, how are you designing your initiative so that young people are genuine co-leaders and co-creators of the initiative?
The Go! London's capacity building programme has been a direct challenge to our assumptions. Working through the engagement spectrum (from informing young people at one end to genuine co-creation at the other) we were honest with ourselves: our original model sat closer to “Involve” than true co-leadership. We’ve since restructured our approach to close that gap. 1. Youth Advisory Panel (YAP) with formal decision rights Our YAP, composed of diverse Motivez alumni aged 16–24, meets six times a year. We’ve upgraded its mandate beyond feedback. YAP members now have formal input into curriculum decisions, mentor selection criteria, and the programme’s evaluation questions. Critically for Sustainable Tottenham, the YAP will co-design the hackathon challenge briefs, which will include deciding which sustainability problems the programme addresses, before we set foot in a school. Their lived experience of sport, climate, and STEM exclusion is the foundation of the programme’s problem definition, not a validation exercise after adults have already decided. 2. Near-peer facilitators as programme co-leads We recruit mentors and session facilitators from similar North London backgrounds to our participants. They co-deliver workshops and hold genuine authority over how sessions run. For Sustainable Tottenham, we will develop a cohort of alumni through a structured facilitation programme, giving them agency over session design, not just execution of a pre-written script. 3. Competitive co-creation as the programme’s spine The hackathon and Borough Finale format gives young people architectural control over the programme’s outputs. Students define the problems, develop the prototypes, and pitch their solutions to decision-makers independently. Councillors, club executives, and industry partners are the audience. This mirrors the design principle Ashoka illustrated through the Viability case study: the moment young people stopped being players and became the leaders managing clubs, entire systems shifted. We’re building the same logic into our programme structure.
What partnerships and collaborations are most critical to delivering and sustaining your initiative and how are you building/ plan to build them?
Sustainable Tottenham exists because two organisations brought different but essential assets to the table. Tottenham Hotspur Foundation provides the school access, safeguarding infrastructure, community trust, and the Stadium as a living laboratory - things that cannot be replicated or shortcut. Motivez brings the programme design expertise, STEM curriculum delivery, and operational infrastructure to turn that access into meaningful outcomes for young people. Schools: 15+ formal partners across Haringey and Enfield THF’s pre-existing school relationships de-risk our recruitment significantly. We are formalising these through school partnership agreements that commit to cohort recruitment, space, and staff coordination. We inherit decades of community trust rather than starting from cold outreach. Corporate partners: the sustainability layer We’re building the corporate tier on two fronts simultaneously: - Motivez-side: We leverage existing relationships with corporate partners in consumer health, transport, and aerospace, using our delivery track record as a case study to unlock ESG-aligned sponsorship from sports-adjacent corporations. - THF-side: Club corporate partners are activated through direct exposure to delivery. Bringing them into showcase events where they see young people pitching solutions live, creates genuine investment in the programme’s outcomes. Local government: stakeholders, not just judges A deliberate design choice, local councillors judge the Borough Finale. This creates reputational accountability as councillors now have a stake in what happens to winning solutions. We’re building these relationships proactively so they arrive at pitch day already invested in the outcomes. How we’re building: spiraling engagement Drawing directly on the spiral engagement model from the capacity building sessions, we start with those already aligned (THF, established schools), use early delivery evidence to bring in corporate partners (Club, Schneider Electric), then deploy showcase events to deepen local government and community involvement. Each ring of engagement generates the evidence needed to bring in the next.
What are you measuring, how are you measuring it, and what does the data tell you so far (quantitative and qualitative)?
What we’re measuring We track across four dimensions: - Climate literacy and attitude change: Did students’ understanding of the climate crisis and their sense of personal agency within it shift? - STEM confidence and career trajectory: Did the programme shift students’ sense of their own qualification to pursue green careers? - Sustained behaviour change: Are changes maintained 6 months post-programme? Do participants influence peers and family around them? - Systemic ripple effects: What changed for teachers, parents, corporate partners, and community members beyond direct participants? And do they want to continue engaging post programmes? How we’re measuring it - For direct participants: pre/post surveys benchmarking climate literacy, STEM confidence, and career intent; structured interviews and video testimonials at cohort end; and 6-month follow-up surveys to track sustained impact. - For indirect stakeholders (teachers, parents, corporate partners, local government) we are commissioning an external evaluation framework through the £10,000 capacity building grant. This includes focus groups with the 16-24 cohort across our key boroughs (with participation incentives), teacher interviews probing observed behavioural changes in students, and structured feedback from corporate partners on how involvement shifted their own practices. - Employing an external evaluator who is a specialist with prior experience of building out Motivez’s Theory of Change & the 'Living Stadium' delivery framework, with input from climate experts across local governments, universities and corporates. What the data tells us so far Sustainable Tottenham launches in late 2026, so cohort-specific data is not yet available. Our proxy evidence from Sustainable London - the model this programme is adapted from - is strong: 92% of participants report increased confidence to pursue STEM-based climate careers 85% of alumni are in employment or higher education within six months 70+ industry mentors have delivered 12,000+ hours of STEM education 2,500+ students engaged across six London boroughs in 2024/25 One qualitative data point worth highlighting: through a prior Motivez collaboration with TfL, young people’s app accessibility solutions were not just celebrated - they were implemented by Transport for London. This is the clearest available evidence that our pipeline from student idea to real-world impact is genuinely operational.
Long-term impact: what lasting systems change are you seeking to create and how will you know when it has happened?
The funder feedback on our original application was direct: we hadn’t articulated how this work contributes to systemic change beyond direct participants. The capacity building programme gave us the framework to address this properly. Using the 5R lens - Results, Roles, Relationships, Rules, Resources - we can now be specific about the system we’re seeking to shift. The systems change we’re targeting At the individual level - shifting the dominant narrative: The current system consistently tells young people from underserved North London communities that climate science, green engineering, and sustainability leadership belong to other people. This narrative is reinforced through who gets STEM access, who gets proximity to industry, and who gets invited into decisionmaking rooms. Sustainable Tottenham attacks that narrative directly. When a young person from social housing in N17 presents a technical water recycling solution in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium’s boardroom to Premier League directors, something shifts - not just for that student, but for every adult in the room. At the structural level - new relationships and pipelines: We’re changing the architecture of how institutions engage with communities. Currently, North London’s underserved youth are consumers of their local sports club. The programme creates a new relationship: community codesigners and technical contributors. Once that relationship produces demonstrable value through feasibly implementable solutions and young people who get hired, it creates a precedent others can follow. This is the mechanism Ashoka’s Viability programme demonstrated: putting young people in leadership roles within clubs didn’t just help individuals, it changed how employers and government understood youth employability, spawning nationally-funded connection programmes. At the sector level - a replicable norm in professional sport: The long-term ambition is to make the Living Stadium methodology standard practice. The systemic change we’re after: major sports clubs across the UK have a structured, ongoing mechanism for co-creating sustainability solutions with young people from their communities not as CSR, but as core operational & recruitment strategies. How we’ll know when it’s happened: - When the programme no longer requires external grant funding because clubs have institutionalised this engagement model within their ESG strategy - When alumni from the programme are employed in green roles within the sports sector as practitioners, not just participants - When at least one student prototype has been implemented by the club or a local authority - When another club replicates the Living Stadium model independently, without Motivez’s direct involvement
Is there anything else you'd like to share with us that you were not able to share in previous questions?
Over the past eight weeks, we’ve moved from a programme that was strong on delivery to one that understands systems. The 5R framework, the engagement spectrum and the distinction between direct service and systemic change are no longer abstractions. They have changed how we think about curriculum design, stakeholder engagement, and what success actually means beyond the number of students in a room. We are a stronger application than we were in February because we’ve used the capacity building workshops to sharpen the thinking and approach for this project. Young people’s ideas get implemented, not just celebrated Mentioned briefly above, through a prior Motivez collaboration with TfL, young people developed app accessibility solutions that were actually implemented by Transport for London. The most common critique of youth-led programmes is that young people’s ideas become portfolio pieces for adults. Our Borough Finale and Stadium Pitch format is explicitly designed against that: winning ideas land in front of people with the authority to act on them. The TfL precedent proves that the pipeline is real. We are building something that outlasts the funding The Tottenham Hotspur Foundation’s existing ESG commitments, combined with their annual reach of 10,000+ community members, mean this programme has a natural institutional home beyond the grant period. We are not designing for 18 months of delivery. We are designing for a permanent shift in how this club, and eventually others, engage with their community on climate. The £100,000 from Go! London is the proof of concept that unlocks corporate and institutional funding to make this self-sustaining.
