News From OilFiredUp
RSS
Peterborough tops Planet Pledges
31st December 2004
More Peterborough people pledged to protect the planet than people from anywhere else in the country in a major campaign run by the Environment Agency during 2004.
Kicked off on UN World Environment Day 5 June 2004, and supported by a host of environmentally friendly celebrities, the Environment Agency’s campaign encouraged people across the nation to pledge small changes in lifestyle and behaviour that, collectively, make a real difference to our impact on the environment.
With the final nationwide tally of pledgers totalling well over 50,000, the collective impact of this year’s campaign was to save a massive 124 million litres of water, cut carbon dioxide emissions , a greenhouse gas linked to global warming, by 879,000 kilograms, and avoid the need for 627 thousand plastic bags.
Peterborough topped the list of towns for World Environment Day pledgers in 2004. People from Peterborough alone pledged to save enough water to fill more than three olympic sized swimming pools cut emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas linked with global warming, by 77,300Kg, and cut down on plastic carrier bags by over 53,000.
Nationally, people made in excess of 50,000 pledges in 2004. Over 60% of pledgers were female; women out-pledged men by two to one in all age groups under 45; and almost half of those who pledged were aged between 25 -34 years.
Peterborough was joined in the top ten pledge towns by London, Bristol, Ipswich, Nottingham, Cardiff, Swansea, Leeds, Norwich and Stafford.
The Environment Agency"s 2004 online pledge campaign in support of World Environment Day (held every year on 5 June), invited people to sign-up to one (or more) of 10 simple pledges. These ranged from turning the heating down by one degree and turning the tap off while cleaning our teeth, through to planting a tree and re-using plastic bags. Consumer research, commissioned by the Environment Agency at the start of the campaign, showed that 73% of the English and Welsh population might do more for the environment if they thought it would make a difference. The campaign pledge website was designed to keep a running tally of the impact of pledges as they were made, and provide feedback to pledgers to show them just how their individual actions were benefiting the environment.
On the basis of the success of the campaign this year, the Environment Agency will be building on the initiative in 2005 with the launch of new campaign focusing efforts around World Environment Day Sunday 5 June 2005 early in the New Year.
The campaign was suuported by a number of personalities including Jon Snow, Nick Knowles, Monica Ali, Alastair McGowan, Peter Sissons and John Stapleton.
As well as making environmental sense, initiatives such as turning your heating down by 1 degrees also makes great financial sense too.
For more information, visit the Environment Agency Online by clicking the link below:
