10 things you made possible in 2022
From putting thousands of trees in the ground to getting thousands of cars off the road, 2022 was an incredible year of inspiring climate action. Here’s what you made possible in 2022.
We opened a Fixing Factory.
Our Fixing Factory volunteers demonstrating how to open a laptop at our launch event.
Electronic waste is one of the fastest growing sources of waste in the world, but an estimated 80% of broken electronics could be easily repaired.
We were so excited to cut the ribbon on our first high street Fixing Factory, where people can bring their things to be mended for free while learning a few tricks of the trade themselves. We started cutting waste, cutting carbon, and bringing the community together.
We’re working so that one day, we’ll have a Fixing Factory on every high street.
2. We encouraged a thousand drivers to go car free.
Funmi and her daughter going car-free for a month!
Over the summer, we called on you to try living car free for a month, and we were overwhelmed by the response. A thousand drivers left their car keys at home, and got around by bus, tram, train, walking, scooting and more.
We know we need to cut traffic by a third to hit our climate targets, and your action to normalise car free travel is a critical part of making this happen.
Nothing could have prepared us for your response to going car free.
An astonishing 98% of you said you wanted to cut your car use permanently. And in a trial earlier in the year, we found that people even saved money by going car free, with average potential savings of up to £450 a year.
This shows that a vision of a car free city is a vision of a better place to live.
3. We brought clean air to five million Londoners.
Out interactive sonographic map helps find the noisiest streets in our cities.
We’ve long campaigned for clean air zones which cut carbon emissions and air pollution at the same time, and you helped us push for them to be introduced in Bristol and Birmingham in 2022.
One of the biggest wins was to secure a commitment to expanding the Ultra Low Emission Zone to the entirety of London, protecting 5 million more people. Thousands of you called for this huge step forward, and it made all the difference.
Some of our fabulous tree-planting volunteers getting stuck in at one of our events.
4. We put thousands of trees in the ground…
Trees and hedges draw down carbon and boost biodiversity, which is why hundreds of you planted 20,000 trees across the country last winter, and we’ve got our spades in the ground again right now.
We’re in Scotland and Wales for the first time ever this winter, bringing together teams of volunteers with climate-friendly farmers.
5. … and brought the vision of a twelve year old girl to life.
Back during the Covid lockdowns, a nine-year-old-girl named Lara set to work planning how to transform Bridgnorth into a town of trees. She mapped the town out, selected the right planting locations, and put her plan into action.
After reaching out to us, we got nearly a hundred of you got together to make that dream a reality, and this year, Lara got hundreds of trees in the ground all over the town. She’s now created a guide to others who want to do the same.
6. We helped thousands of people take low carbon holidays…
Climate Perks is our innovative flagship scheme which invites employers to offer more paid leave so people can use low-carbon transport to get to their holiday destination.
This year, 491 more of you have been empowered to take the train on your holidays without losing out on precious leisure time with friends and family, taking the total number of employees with Climate Perks to over 2,000!
A huge thanks to the 13 new employers leading the way on clean travel - including our first museum!
The badvertising team take over a billboard to send a clear message: Stop adverts fuelling the climate crisis.
7. … and took action on high carbon adverts.
More and more cities and councils have been adopting a policy of pulling down ads from high carbon products like fossil fuels, flights and SUVs, and we’ve been working across borders to make it happen.
Thousands of you have contacted your councillors to ask them to do the same, and some of you even joined us in Bristol to reclaim a billboard and create a beautiful piece of community art.
8. … and exposed the lies of the aviation industry.
The aviation industry has long promised that it can cut its carbon without cutting passengers, but this year we exposed that this is just complete greenwash.
Since the turn of the millennium, the sector has set itself over fifty targets to cut emissions through efficiency, new fuels and techno-fixes. Our original analysis showed that they have only met one of them.
Thousands of you have called for the real solution: a frequent flyer levy which cuts demand in a way that’s fair for everyone.
9. We released more groundbreaking research.
We published about a dozen reports and pieces of research, on everything from the impact of traffic on 999 response times, to what we could get from a real tax on oil and gas, to why train stations should stop advertising cars.
We’re proud to keep shaping the debate around climate, and coming up with fresh analysis and real solutions.
10. And we brought back onshore wind.
After almost a decade of onshore wind being banned in England, we’ve moved forward on getting this clean technology up and running again.
Thanks to thousands of you who have campaigned with us with such determination and optimism, we’ll see new turbines powering our communities soon.
2022 has been an absolutely amazing year of inspiring climate action, and it’s all down to people like you.
Some of the Possible team at the launch of Fixing Factory at Queen’s Cresent.
Whether you’ve put a tree in the ground, sent an email to your councillor, set up a school street, chipped in a few quid or gave up the car for good, you have made all of this possible.
We can’t thank you enough.