Bedgrove Carbon Contest

The atmosphere was electric on the 11th May, as Aylesbury Town Council hosted the awards ceremony to celebrate the hard work of participants in the Bedgrove Carbon Contest.

The contest was an innovative scheme designed to help households cut their carbon footprint. The challenge was laid down to residents and schools from the Bedgrove area of Aylesbury to try and cut their carbon emissions as much as possible. As an incentive, they were in competition against one another.

By entering electricity meter readings into the specially designed website, households could see how simple, practical steps could make real and observable differences in their energy use, carbon footprint and ultimately their electricity bill!

Over 100 households took part in the contest with average carbon saving of 11.4%. Encouragingly, 29% of households managed to cut their electricity use by more than 20%. Four household managed a whopping saving of more than 50%! Financially, this represents an average saving of £155 a year per household. No small change.

Daniel Parslow, Project Officer at Aylesbury Town Council, who took a central role in helping organise the contest was encouraged by the results. He commented, ‘The figures show that by making small changes to habits you can easily reduce your energy use. Ultimately, any reduction is going to save you money on your electricity bill, which is good news for hard working families.’

Feedback from participants was positive, and it was clear that the household and schools involved benefited from the enjoyable contest. Jo Speakman, team leader of the Bedgrove Eco Dynamos commented, ‘the contest has opened our eyes to how much energy we used without even realising, and how easy it was to make savings.’

With support from the Greater Aylesbury Local Area Forum, it demonstrated how all tiers of local government can successfully achieve common goals. Aylesbury Town Council worked in close partnership with Aylesbury Vale District Council and Bucks County Council to organise the Bedgrove Carbon Contest with officers from all three forming a working group.

In celebration of the hard work undertaken by households and teams, Aylesbury Town Council hosted an awards ceremony at the Town Hall. There were a diverse range of ecologically sound prizes on offer to the best performers in the contest. These had been generously sponsored by local businesses. The prizes were dished out by Mayor of Aylesbury, Graham Webster in one of his last public ceremonial duties before stepping down.

In closing the Mayor commented, ‘It’s really encouraging to see how hard the households have all worked, particularly the school children who will be making important decisions about their energy use in the future. I congratulate all involved.’

For a full list of winners, please click here.

The contest has been given independent coverage by a number of our sponsors:
Blue Pepper Designs - Bedgrove Carbon Contest
Good Energy - Good Energy support the Bedgrove Carbon Contest Awards Ceremony

Lead Officers were:
	Daniel Parslow, Project Officer Aylesbury Town Council;
	Rob Smart, Sustainability Officer Aylesbury Vale District Council;
	Grace Davis, Sustainability Officer - Schools Bucks County Council.
	We would also like to thank Andrew Smith Zap Carbon.