Hello all,

I'm doing some work for The Guardian on their new eco-awareness website, 'Tread Lightly'. I'd like to hear any comments you might have about the site, the pledging system or about the issues surrounding it

Please post your comments here and feel free to be as brutally honest as you like

Thanks in advance...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/tr...adLightly2


About Tread lightly

Do you want to live a more low-carbon lifestyle, but are unsure where to start?

Tread lightly is a community of people committed to reducing their CO2 emissions through making weekly pledges and recording their actions against their pledges.

This will enable people to step up their efforts to reduce their own CO2 emissions, and also to track the combined efforts of the community.

How to get involved

We are starting with an easy pledge - asking users to switch to energy-efficient lightbulbs. You can choose your level of commitment for each pledge - light, medium or heavy user.

Each week, on a Friday, there will be a new pledge, such as turning appliances off standby, washing clothes at a lower temperature or using the car less frequently. You can also suggest pledges you think the community should make on our blog.

Why?

I think it's a good idea, getting all the members to stick to their pledges and achieve their overall goals will be difficult, but even doing small things like changing light bulbs can get people interested in cutting their CO2 emissions and inspire them to do bigger things.

Good luck with the site!

thanks

better a little, than nothing at all in my humble opinion.

When my local authority replace all the street lights in the borough with those that don't send most of their light into the sky, then I will think about better efficiency in my home.

I think that anything that makes people more aware of their impact on the environment is a good idea and I applaude what sounds to be a reasonable initiative. My concern would be that people who use this site will already be doing the things that you suggest, hence you may find that you are just 'preaching to the converted'.

People who take an alternative view to their impact upon the environment are very unlikely to ever visit the site let alone make a pledge. After all, the media has been highlighting these initiatives for some time now and I'm sure that most people have heard of them. And you just have to look at the number of people who refuse to recycle their waste (even though bags/bins are provided and it is collected from their doorstep). So, if they have ignored the advice to-date, why will this site make a difference? How do you propose to address this issue?

Also, respecting and caring for the environment consists of far more than just cutting CO2 emissons. How about not littering or getting involved in local volunteer work or attending local community forums, etc. Do you intend to widen your scope or is it only dealing with CO2?

I'm not a liker of the Guardian's 'holier than thou' style, so being associated with it would probably turn me off in the first place. You might find that some of your target audience may take the same view.

Having said all that, good luck with the site.

thanks.
Yes - i suspect that, initially at least, the sort of people who will take and interest in this are the people who are already interested...However, i feel that by making the issues more 'bite size' in this way, they will eventually pass from relative specialist interest into a more popular consciousness, in much the same way that the '5 pieces of fruit & veg' did.

any more comments folks?

Here's a few:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=363581

Kingfisher

thank you kingfisher

You are welcome. There will probably be a few more comments later as more people view the thread.

Kingfisher