HERE WE ECO!
Join The Sun’s Green Team campaign with small lifestyle changes to save money and the planet
TODAY we launch The Sun’s Green Team – a brilliant new campaign showing how EVERY reader can make small lifestyle changes to help save the planet.
And we want you and your family to join our eco revolution.
Our measures will not cost the earth. In fact they will help you SAVE money.
A poll of Sun readers found nearly three quarters are more concerned than five years ago about our impact on the planet.
Show your support here
Half said they have adopted more eco-friendly practices since lockdown — with driving less and reducing food waste among the biggest changes.
But more than a fifth of us still do not know what we can do to help.
Playing our part in tackling greenhouse gases can feel overwhelming. But all this week we will be showing you practical steps we can all take to curb climate change — and help with our bills.
We have teamed up with the groundbreaking Count Us In initiative to urge readers to save millions of tonnes of carbon from being pumped into the atmosphere.
The global platform — launched on Saturday with the help of Avengers stars Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo — asks people to pledge to take simple steps to make a big difference.
We want you to go online to to sign up to as many of our special Green Team pledges as you can manage.
While there, a special calculator will show you how much carbon you will personally save by doing so.
It will not cost you a penny, but the emissions you and your family cut out will be added to the worldwide Count Us In total — and the online platform will support you every step of the way.
GREEN GIVEAWAYS
All this week we will be bringing you a special series focusing on the pledges, day by day, and sharing simple tips and expert advice on how to make good on your green goals.
We will also be running brilliant green giveaways to help cut your carbon footprint. Prizes include a new electric Vauxhall Corsa — just voted Sun Motors’ Car of the Year and worth more than £30,000.
We are also giving away £10,000 of top-of-the-range electric bikes and scooters to help cut emissions and save on travel fares.
Plus, you can win a year’s supply of vegan Heck sausages.
Of course it is governments and industries that must take the lead in combating climate change. But we can all do our bit.
It’s not about being perfect or feeling guilty — just about making easy changes to habits and routines, which can really add up.
Carbon emissions caused by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil lead to an increase in the “greenhouse effect”, which causes heat to be trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere.
This leads to rising temperatures and has been happening since the Industrial Revolution but increased massively in the 20th Century.
If we all sign up to just THREE pledges each, that would save 42million tonnes of carbon each year — the same amount created by the entire UK agriculture industry.
- Share your photos and stories of how you are doing your bit to help the environment. Email [email protected] and we’ll publish the best
Join The Sun's 'Green Team' & save the planet
MAKING simple everyday changes can add up to a BIG difference to the planet.
And we want you and your family to join The Sun's Green Team - our eco revolution.
It can feel overwhelming to know how to play a part in reducing greenhouse gasses, but we will be showing you the practical steps we can take to curb climate change - with the help of the global ‘Count Us In’ initiative.
And our easy measures will even help you SAVE money so your household budget goes further.
We'll help you to reduce food waste, insulate your home, create tasty planet-friendly meals and take simple steps to trim your carbon footprint.
We want you to go online to sign-up to as many of our special Green Team pledges as you can manage and a special calculator will show you how much carbon you will personally save.
It won’t cost you a penny but the total you and your family will save will be added to the global ‘Count Us In’ total and the platform will support you every step of the way.
So tap here to pledge.
The seven pledges
1. Eat more plants
CUT the amount of meat you eat – a great step to make a difference individually.
You’ll cut pollution, improve health and save money.
FACT: Going meat-free for a day a week for a year brings the carbon saving of not driving for a month.
2. Cut food waste
CUT the food you waste or throw away.
Try to buy only what you need and eat the food you have.
You will minimise pollution, save money and learn new recipes.
FACT: The average UK family throws away £700 of food a year.
3. Turn down heating
THIS is a major way to help save the planet.
You won’t notice it, but just one degree cooler has a big impact on your carbon pollution.
FACT: A one-degree heating reduction saves 340kg of carbon and cuts your yearly bill by £75.
4. Insulate homes
INSTALL or enhance the loft insulation in your home.
You’ll be warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer and save some cash too.
FACT: As much as a quarter of a home’s heat is lost through the roof in an uninsulated house.
A Green Homes Grant could make your home warmer and your bills cheaper. Home owners in England could get up to £5,000 to pay for energy saving measures. .
5. Switch energy firm
USE green energy.
Oil, gas and coal generate huge pollution, up to a quarter of a nation’s total.
It’s low effort, with a big impact.
FACT: A third of people are on a standard tariff – switching could save you more than £150 a year.
6. Repair and re-use
REPAIR stuff rather than buying new. Try to fix things.
It cuts carbon, saves money and brings a great feeling of achievement.
FACT: An average person gets rid of 36kg of clothes a year – the equivalent of 260 T-shirts.
7. Drive electric
CONSIDER an electric vehicle – it will significantly cut your carbon emissions and drastically improve air quality.
FACT: Switching to an electric vehicle can reduce your carbon pollution by up to 50 per cent.
You vote: let's do it
SUN readers are keen to go green – with 82 per cent saying they should do more to save the planet.
Sixty per cent would change habits if it also saved them money, our poll found, and 56 per cent say they would step up if new ways of doing things were as easy as the old.
Readers rated their climate-change fears at on average seven out of ten.
Most saw recycling as top priority (63%), then using less single-use plastic (61%), cutting carbon (52%) and reducing water waste (44%).
Top motivator was to protect our planet for future generations.
13 top swaps
CUTTING our carbon footprint – the amount of C02 we put into the atmosphere which causes global warming – is one thing we can all do.
The average person in Britain creates yearly carbon pollution of 12.7 tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e).
1
Here, Mike Berners-Lee – brother of world wide web inventor Tim and author of How Bad Are Bananas: The Carbon Footprint Of Everything – reveals the smart swaps we can all make.
And they might even save you money!
- Measurements are in amount of CO2e per kg of product unless stated
Can we count you in?
TODAY we are calling on The Sun’s readers to do your bit to save the planet.
Climate change is real and threatening so much we hold dear – our children’s health, the countryside, beaches, wildlife, the food we grow and ultimately our way of life.
We are asking you to say Count Us In and make a change that matters.
Choose steps that work for you.
Reduce waste, plastic use, dial down thermostats, recycle, reuse and repair more. These will SAVE you money too.
If every Sun reader took three steps, just imagine how these changes would add up.
Working together, our choices make an extraordinary difference both in directly reducing carbon, which creates a blanket of pollution around the world, and encouraging leaders to act more boldly to protect the things we love.
British people are recycling more than ever, we are eating less meat, and we have more electric car charging locations than petrol stations.
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But we can still do more of what counts. It’s not too late.
If we act now, we can protect our livelihoods and our communities and, crucially, leave a better world for our children.
Read The Sun all this week and take the first step.
Count Us In
EVERYONE has to start somewhere.
Don’t worry if you’re not able to take some steps or not ready to take others.
There really is a way for everyone to help.
So find a step that’s right for you. When you’re ready, try another.
Step by step, we’ll get there together.
Go online to to pledge to make small changes which will add up to a BIG change to the planet.
We have teamed up with new global campaign Count Us In to calculate how much carbon you will be saving by changing your habits.
It won’t cost you a penny and all of your actions will go towards a global goal of getting a BILLION people around the world to make changes.
Here’s how to do it:
- Choose a step. Decide a level of commitment that works for you.
- Keep it up. Try it for two months to see how you do.
- Report and track progress through your Count Us In profile.
Each day we will focus on a different pledge showing you why it is easy to achieve and why it matters so much.
Prince William urges country to 'show leadership' and save the planet from base of 1,000-year-old oak tree
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