Public and shared transport
Services people can rely on and afford.
Focus — Mobility, Energy & Essential Infrastructure — Sustainable transportation
SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve how people and goods move for the passengers, traders, and operators using the route.
Why this area
SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION
IN CONTEXT.
Transport decides access to work, school, market, and care. Ideas qualify when the route, the users, and the operating economics are named.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Cleaner vehicles
Electric, efficient, and lower-emission fleets.
Walking and cycling
Safe movement without a vehicle.
Freight
Moving goods affordably over the last stretch.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where how people and goods move fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — journey time, fare, reliability, or emissions per trip.
- Explains what the passengers, traders, and operators using the route do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of how people and goods move in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier transport schemes and fleet programmes did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the passengers, traders, and operators using the route, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — routes, vehicles, or passengers per day.
- A stated measure of success — journey time, fare, reliability, or emissions per trip.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves access, cost, time, and safety for the passengers, traders, and operators using the route.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named transport operator, cooperative, or local authority able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of how people and goods move in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the passengers, traders, and operators using the route or the transport operator, cooperative, or local authority.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about sustainable transportation with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about how people and goods move that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.