The GeoVation judging panel met this week and were delighted at the quality and scope of the ideas submitted to our GeoVation Challenge to look for ways that British business could improve their environmental performance using Ordnance Survey products or services in the solution.

The judging panel have now selected a short-list of 10 finalists who have been invited to develop their ideas further at the GeoVation Camp, held on the weekend of 21-23 June 2013 our Southampton head office.

The finalists are:

“Virtual” national transport fleet – an idea to create a connect-able, broker-free web of independent transport companies; breaking down the systemic big company/small company inefficiencies which exist.

Creating an Energy Democracy: The Wasted Energy Network – a platform for encouraging inter-business recycling, triggering waste-based economies and identifying areas of opportunity for sustainable waste management and energy generation systems.

RecycleLink – the idea is to bring waste producers and processors together using a centralised trading platform that will facilitate collaboration and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill.

Which renewable energy scheme is right for you? – this idea is based around finding out whether a particular business is suitable for different renewable energy schemes and will show the buildings that are suitable using OS OpenData.

Mapping Soil Carbon to Improve Environmental Performance  – the idea is to use Ordnance Survey mapping technology and soil sampling techniques to create a carbon map of the United Kingdom’s agricultural soil to use as the basis for a carbon offset trading scheme.

Reducing the impact of food consumption and waste using geodata – using a decision-making Geotool that helps make more effective and targeted decisions geographically regarding consumption and waste production.

Get on my land – which aims to facilitate a peer-to-peer network to provide potential agriculturists with the information, support and practical opportunities they need to get started.

How to reduce costs and make money by separating your waste – cleanly separated recyclable materials without any contaminants are greatly sought after by reprocessing and manufacturing companies. This idea achieves this ‘early separation’ with the vessel in which the public, businesses and organisations use and aims to help the reprocessing industry benefit from good quality recycling materials which in turn will become revenue.

The ‘Green’ Contest – novel visualisation of environmental impact indicators such as energy usage overlaid onto Ordnance Survey maps will surface information, allowing consumers to view in a spatial context, the ‘environmental performance’ of businesses and businesses to view how they fare against their competitors and be incentivised to reduce their environmental impact through competition.

Streetkleen Bio Project – a practical, innovative solution based around the anaerobic digestion of dog waste to create usable energy (methane). It will provide the impetus to demonstrate why we should divert dog waste from landfill and transform it into usable energy.

This year we have limited the number of ideas that are invited to camp so that there will be more time to work with team and help them to develop their idea into prototyped ventures and to work on their pitches for funding. Because places at camp are limited we are operating a reserve list and have notified the teams that are on this list.

At the end of the fun and intense weekend, they will pitch their idea to the judging panel and assembled audience and the successful finalists will selected to receive a slice of £100,000 innovation funding to develop and launch their ideas. There will also be a £1,000 Community Award prize which is decided by the participants at camp.

If you feel you can help teams develop their ideas at GeoVation Camp then please register for Camp Helper tickets here and let us know what skills you can offer.

We would like to thank those of you who entered our recent OS OpenData competition to win an iPad. We had over 100 entries, with many varied uses, from personal projects, producing printed products, delivering environmental applications to supporting charitable work.

We will be contacting some our entrants to work with them to develop case studies, which we will release on our website when available.

In the meantime, here are a few comments from the entrants:

 I have found Open Source Data from Ordnance Survey of extreme benefit in aiding the creation of various map types for submission as part of the planning process. The customer service from OS has been excellent in dealing with any questions and queries in relation to OpenData. quarryplan

The mapping lends itself well to recoloring and while being simplistic in the detail, it has enough information to create and engaging map. James Howard, Bespokes & Creative Manager, MapMarketing?

To a relative novice in web-programming, the OS OpenSpace API has opened up many possibilities for enhancing the experience of our users of our web resource, both during the project and after and to create a professional appearance with relatively little cost. Herefordshire Nature Trust

It has been encouraging to see how not just one OS OpenData product is being used in applications, but a combination of many.

http://www.isisarchitecture.co.uk/ – a freelance architectural designer specialising in home extensions, uses the following products to promote their services within a range of postcode districts which are within a 30 minute drive time.

OS Code-Point Open is ideal for selecting the districts of interest. This is then overlaid on OS VectorMap District and OS Street View to provide a geographical context, which enables assessment of travel time and best route to client site. As this service includes making planning applications to the Local Authority, OS Boundary-Line is overlaid to find the name of the Local Authority responsible for the client’s location.

These 4 datasets provide an ideal toolset to evaluate and refine my marketing activities and to assess the suitability of an enquiry to my business. Mike Furby

If you have a use of OS OpenData that you would like to tell us about, just submit your project (https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/opendatadownload/gallery.html) and we could feature it on our gallery.

Guest blog by Jayne Phenton, Media Co-ordinator for Living Streets @livingstreets

Last weekend I visited Wiltshire and walked seven or so miles up to Bratton Camp and back.

The landlady of the B&B where I was staying was shocked. ‘You must be very fit’, she said.  ‘Jayne walks to work every day’, said my friend.  Her jaw dropped further.  ‘It’s less than two and quarter miles’, I reassured her.

‘I’m the sort of person who parks right outside the shop’, said Mrs Fawlty, looking shame-faced. I suggested she might give walking a go during Walk to Work Week,13-17 May, which is part of National Walking Month run by Living Streets.

I’m fortunate to live a 40 minute walk away from the Living Streets office in London and especially so because my commute takes me across the River Thames and past historic sites like the Tower of London.

But whatever your route, a brisk walk to work is a great opportunity to clear your head, and prepare for your day. Walking is great for your health in every kind of way.  It’s a valuable weight bearing exercise, an excellent work out for your heart, proven to be good for your mental wellbeing and you’re strengthening 200 muscles with minimal impact on your joints.

If you do want to lose a pound or two then building some walking into your day is going to help.  Just half an hour’s walk to work and home again could use up to 250 calories. Sign up on Living Streets’ website www.walktowork.org.uk and you can log your walks, see how many muffins you’ve burned off and compete with your colleagues to see who can be top walker.

The average commute to work is just under nine miles so many of us will rely on some kind of transport, but you can still fit some walking into your journey.  Getting off at an earlier bus stop, altering your route or walking to the station all add up.  If you need extra motivation, then try challenging colleagues at work or sign up your workplace to see how far up the leader board you can get in your area.  There are some fabulous prizes to be won too.

But the best prize is that, over time, even a small number of steps add up to miles and muffins and before you know it you’ve walked the equivalent of up Bratton Camp and down again.

When we saw an article in The Times about the 30 best towns in Great Britain, it sparked our imaginations at Explorer House and we wanted to see them laid out on a map. Would there be a hotspot in one area of the country?

The Times actually looked at a range of towns spread across great Britain that were chosen for their charm, history, housing, amenities and much more. Not only that, but they identified that these popular towns could already be spotted quite easily as their housing prices tended to be higher than the average for their region.

Over a series of days the newspaper ran a number of other top 30s featuring the coolest places to live, best places to retire and best places to have a second home, amongst others. We’ve taken four of those top 30s and put them on a map…have a look by clicking on the link below.

Have a look at our OS OpenSpace map and see if there’s a top spot to live near you – or maybeinspire yourself and pick a spot to retire to! Maybe there are some towns not featured that you would like to see on The Times’ lists – let us know where and why on the blog.

If you haven’t come across it before, OS OpenSpace is a free service that allows you to embed our maps, covering the whole of Great Britain, into your web applications, if they are free to consumers. OS OpenSpace uses our JavaScript application programming interface (API) and does not include any advertising in the maps.

The Keswick Mountain Festival is the largest event of its kind in the UK and we’re proud to be the official mapping partner of the Festival this year. Set in the heart of the Lake District, it inspires thousands of visitors to get into the great outdoors, try new activities and enjoy exciting experiences.

The event, which is being held at Crow Park in Keswick from Wednesday 15– Sunday 19 May, promises to be jam packed with leisure activities (cycling, climbing, hiking, swimming, kayaking, triathlons and more) inspirational speakers such as Chris Bonington, Graham Obree and John Beatty, live music, parties, swim clinics and map reading workshops.  If you love the outdoors then this event is not to be missed.

Not only that, but if you book an activity at the Festival, you’ll receive a discount code giving you one month’s free access to OS getamap, our online route-planning and printing service. Over 140,000 routes have been drawn since its launch in March 2011. Subscribers benefit from free A4 Ordnance Survey mapping prints, extra route editing tools and full screen map view all for only £19.99 per annum.