The last six months…
In March, we planted hundreds of trees.
In our final planting weekend of the year, we planted 660 trees in Bridgnorth, Shropshire - helping Lara make her vision a reality, and bringing the total no. of trees planted by Possible volunteers that season to over 20,000.
April saw us open the first Fixing Factory.
To tackle throw-away culture, we created two fixing factories, and ran a free training programme for local young people. This project will intercept e-waste to repair and refurbish donated laptops and tablets. These are then donated to members of the community who are in need of digital access. Visitors to the site are able to donate devices, see how they’re repaired and find out about the project. Those keen to learn about repair will have a chance to volunteer on the site and get work experience.
In May, we called out aviation’s missed targets.
Possible might be the stubborn optimists of the climate movement but we know that if climate hope is all we ever talk about, we ignore some real issues that need solving and jeopardise meaningful action. To tackle this, Ali has teamed up with research agency Green Gumption. Together, we've uncovered 20 years of failure to meet climate targets in air travel (due to misplaced faith in techno-fixes), shedding light on the urgent need for practical action.
In June, John Muir Trust joined Climate Perks.
In June, the Scottish conservation charity, JMT, signed up to our Climate Perks scheme meaning they now staff who choose flight-free holiday travel paid ‘journey days’ on top of annual leave so that they don’t miss out on leisure time. (Seven more employers also joined the scheme between March and September this year, bringing the current total to 62).
In July, hundreds of you got involved with Going Car Free,
We inspired and supported 1,000 drivers to disrupt their well-worn routines by leaving their cars at home for a month - and 98% of those who took part have said they’re cutting their car use for good!
And we teamed up with others in the movement to call out the BBC.
In the televised Conservative party leadership debate, the BBC’s climate question firmly put the onus onto individual behaviours, rather than acknowledging the role government plays in tackling the climate crisis. We quickly brought together over 30 organisations to launch an official complaint.
Then in August, we responded to the fuel cost crisis with positive collaborative action.
People across the UK are facing frightening increases in energy bills. We need urgent action to get us off gas for good, ensure our homes are warm, and power our lives with clean, cheap and secure renewable energy. So we teamed up with anti-poverty charities and other environmental groups to launch a petition demanding positive action to address the fuel cost crisis - including home upgrades and insulation, support for cheap renewable energy and emergency financial support for those on the front-line of poverty this winter.
September was all about parklets.
For World Car Free Day, we worked with communities to repurpose road space in some of the UK’s busiest cities. By filling old car parking spots, with benches, planters, cycle storage (and more) we can speed up the transition to greener, cleaner, cities.
What’s more, we’ve launched an interactive map, where you can choose your ideal parklet location and send it to your local council, along with information about how they can turn your vision into a reality.
And finally … we brought back wind!
After years of persistent campaigning, the government has finally listened - and lifted the ban on onshore wind power (our cheapest source of electricity). A huge thank you to everyone who got involved with that campaign!