An innovative solution to achieve more impact — the CoLab Network Incentive Fund

Recognizing the success of the CoLab Network in engaging businesses of all sizes and sectors to reduce their environmental impact, the Ontario Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) invested $1 million from the Green Investment Fund in the CoLab Network in February 2016.

With the investment, we saw both an opportunity to launch programs in additional communities and to achieve more impact in existing programs. We wanted to create something to engage and excite the programs and felt some friendly competition could be the right approach. Daring to experiment, we came up with the idea of creating a unique fund that programs in the CoLab Network could access based on an incentive structure with the following goals:

Co-creating for Success: We subsequently worked closely with members in the CoLab Network to co-create the Incentive Fund structure to ensure that the design both met our goals and resonated with the work taking place on the ground in each of their communities.

How it works

The Incentive Fund structure is designed with both individual member incentives as well as “team” incentives to encourage individual program achievement and to create a sense of accountability and pride in our collective efforts.

Impact to date

As can be seen below, the Incentive Fund has had a significant impact to date. The following results are as of June 30, 2017.