Sustainable Marlborough’s social this month was all about their 2023 challenge in partnership with Do Nation. They’re having a ‘Carbon Saving Spree for 2023’. Anyone can take part (you don’t need to live in Marlborough) and it doesn’t cost a penny, in fact, it could well save you money.
Do Nation usually work with businesses to spark employee engagement with the journey to net zero. They have a brilliant platform where pledges are collected and once completed the carbon savings are logged and added together. People’s individual pledges on their platform alone are currently saving a whopping 16,360,837kg of CO2 per year – that’s 272,681 flights from London to Paris! Once a quarter Do Nation give away a free one year subscription to a charity or community organisation and Sustainable Marlborough were lucky recipients.
When you’re plugging away on your own it can often feel hopeless. Does you washing your clothes at a lower temperature or eating a bit less meat and dairy really make any difference to the huge global problem of solving climate change? Well, YES! Do Nation are showing that together, we can and do make a difference and it’s really encouraging and inspiring to see how our seemingly small efforts really do add up to something big and great. Research from The Jump and UK government shows that almost a third of the required savings in emissions need to come from individual behaviour changes, so we all have an important role to play. But where to start? The idea of ‘changing your lifestyle’ might seem daunting, overwhelming, irritating or at best inconvenient. This is where Do Nation is so good. The pledges offer inspiration as well as a clear idea of how much impact your action will have, enabling you to balance ease vs impact. Each pledge is for 2 months, which helps with motivation as well as giving you a chance to try out changes to see what works for you.
As well as making your own pledges, you can ask friends and family to pledge as a gift to you or in lieu of monetary sponsorship for a personal challenge like a 10k run that you may be completing. What a great way to increase your impact and start conversations about sustainability.
So, what do the pledges involve? There seems to be something for everyone – from educating yourself on climate change to large scale projects like installing solar panels and almost everything in between.
We were all inspired to get pledging – what about you?
Sustainable Marlborough’s Carbon Saving Spree for 2023 supported by Do Nation
King Charles III Coronation – you can help decide celebration
