Achieving a future powered purely by renewables not only means growing the country’s green energy capacity; we must value energy more and use it less. The Bedgrove Carbon Contest is a brilliant example of engaging communities with their energy use and how it can be reduced. Daniel Parslow of Aylesbury Town Council tells us a bit more about the competition and its winners.

“An excited crowd gathered on Wednesday, 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 household’s carbon emissions as much as possible. As an incentive, they were in competition against one another.

Overall, households saw an average carbon saving of 11.4%. Encouragingly, almost a third of households managed to cut their electricity use by more than 20%. Four households achieved a whopping saving of more than 50%! Financially, this represents an average saving of £155 a year per household. No small change.

In celebration of the hard work undertaken by households and teams, Aylesbury Town Council hosted an awards ceremony at the Town Hall. Good Energy were kind enough to sponsor some of the exciting prizes on offer. These included Eco Kettles, Energy Monitors and Solar Classroom Kits from the Good Energy Shop. The prizes were dished out to the best performers in the contest by Mayor of Aylesbury, Graham Webster, in his last ceremonial duty 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.’ He went on to add, ‘I would also like to thank Good Energy, one of our sponsors for their support – without their contribution this contest wouldn’t have been the success it has been.’”

Daniel Parslow,
Project Officer, Aylesbury Town Council