10 things you made possible in 2021
1. Together we planted thousands of trees.
Neil, ready to hand out saplings to our volunteer tree-planters in Eltisley, Cambridgeshire
While the January lockdown meant we couldn’t run the community tree-planting events we had planned, we didn’t let the planting season go to waste. Instead, Possible staff and supporters across the country took part in our first at-home tree planting weekend, together (in spirit) we got our gloves on, our spades out, and put those trees in the ground. With the help of our wonderful volunteers, we’ve hit the ground running this season - planting 3,000 trees in Cambridgeshire in November and 4,000 more in Chester two weeks later.
2. …and introduced our friends and family to climate-friendly cooking.
Our head of development, Patrik, and his mum preparing gnocchi as part of the Climate Cook-In
At the moment, over a quarter of global carbon emissions come from what we eat and what we intend to eat but throw away. So to tackle the climate crisis, we need to get people eating (and shopping) differently. So this year, as part of the first Climate Cook-In, Possible supporters up and down the country hosted climate-friendly dinner parties to show our loved ones everyday actions they can take to reduce their environmental impact, all whilst raising money for action on climate change.
3. We’ve built a positive case for fewer cars.
Reducing car use won’t just help us tackle climate change, but it’ll create safer and healthier streets with cleaner air and more space for people and nature to thrive. But we’ve got used to private car ownership as normal, and change can be scary. So this year, we’ve been working with communities in Birmingham, Bristol, London and Leeds to create positive visions for the future of our cities. Hundreds of you have helped catalyse discussions about reclaiming our streets by re-envisioning parking spaces. Through sharing information online, designing your own parklets, or even helping us build pop-up parklets in your streets for Car Free Day, together we’ve got people reimagining road space and feeling positive about what’s possible when fewer cars are on our roads.
4… and used citizen science to back up the case for change.
Akwesi, Carolyn and Hirra in Waltham Forest, London, where they spoke to residents about their experiences of traffic filters
With your help we also developed an evidence-based case for change. This year has seen a lot of debate around traffic filters (bollards or planters that remove through-traffic from neighbourhoods, whilst still allowing access to the homes within them). What was missing from the debate, however, was the voices of those who had lived with these filters for several years and experienced their impact first-hand. So with the help of volunteers in four cities, we surveyed residents in these streets, and learned that 84.9% want to keep the traffic filters on their streets. Thank you to the hundreds of you who used this report to show your local council that LTNs are popular.
5. We’ve celebrated coaches.
Coaches are the unsung hero of low-carbon travel in the UK, helping to bridge the gaps of our rail network and ensure that everyone has access to nature even without having to travel by car. So this year, we’ve been thinking about how to get more people excited about the value of coaches. Working with our friends at Glimpse, we created Nature Drop - an event that brought people from Middlesbrough out to a mystery natural beauty spot in the Pennines — an area of outstanding beauty just on their doorstep, yet only normally accessible by car.
6 … and cycled for change.
174 of you joined Possible’s head of development, Patrik, on November’s 475-mile, London to Glasgow bike ride. Together, we got friends and families to show their support for the COP26 cycle, by committing to climate action themselves! The event drummed up over 5,000 pledges which ranged from switching from petrol to pedal and choosing flight-free holidays.
7. Let’s not forget April’s singing and dancing extravaganza.
As part of our work to inspire more climate conversations in different spaces and bring people into the climate movement, we created the Climate Cabaret. The arts have always enabled us to tackle pressing social issues through imagination and experimentation, and climate change is no different. So we commissioned performers (from drag kings to burlesque artists) to create work about climate change and perform it live in April’s online virtual cabaret, and have since collaborated on three more live cabarets in Cardiff, Glasgow and Liverpool. Thank you to the hundreds of you who got involved, whether that was helping us find performers, attending an event yourself, or donating so that we could offer free tickets for those who couldn’t pay themselves.
8. … or the fact that we’ve got loads more employers to give their staff more time off work for flight-free holidays.
Reducing flying is one of the most impactful things an individual can do to shrink their carbon footprint, but swapping planes for trains can be difficult when you’ve got a limited number of days off work. This year, with your help, we’ve supported lots more businesses (including Keep Britain Tidy, Love Design Studio and Bryt Energy) to join our Climate Perks scheme and offer their staff 'sustainable travel days' on top of annual leave to ensure no one loses any time on the beach.
9. We got the government to take flight emissions seriously.
Since the UK government introduced carbon budgets 13 years ago, they refused to include the hefty chunk of emissions that come from international flights. So we teamed up with Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, and others to urge the government to start acknowledging aviation emissions in its calculations. And they listened - for the first time ever, this year the UK government has included international flights in the carbon budget!
10. … and last but not least, we went global.
Those of you who know Possible well will know that we have always focussed our work here in the UK. But 2021 has seen us working with partners abroad to support positive action on climate change around the world.
With your help, we’ve created an interactive online map to showcase, and learn from, various positive traffic reduction methods that are already in existence in cities across the globe. This year also saw the launch of our Car Free Megacities project: we have teamed up with partners in London, Paris and New York to create transformative visions for these major metropolises, and inspire one another to push for bolder changes for cleaner futures. Finally, working with an NGO in India we discovered that implementing our solar railways initiative in India could save seven million tonnes of CO2 every year - equivalent to the entire annual emissions of Uruguay!
And that’s a wrap.
A massive thank you to everyone who’s supported climate action this year, whether you planted a tree, wrote to your MP, or donated to one of our campaigns, your actions do make a difference.
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