I asked a number of people at the festival what they were doing in their own lives to tackle climate change and also what they found the most difficult.

Sharia – Greenpeace Fundraiser

‘I shop locally, eat locally, manage my own allotment, and cycle to work. I don’t use supermarkets, so for me fitting in all my shopping, along with everything else is difficult. But the vegetarian and vegan co-operative I’m a member of, makes this slightly easier.’

Joe – LetsTalkGordon.org.uk Campaign Co-ordinator

‘I’m getting active politically, at the moment I’m co-ordinating LetsTalkGordon.org.uk a campaign dedicated to getting the Prime Minister to make a televised address to the nation on climate change, launching the national debate about how we should respond.

I’m trying to eat less meat and cut down on flights. It’s difficult because my brother lives in New York. I offset, but am not convinced. Not being a vegetarian, eating less meat is not easy.

Helen – Festival Go-er

‘I’m growing my own veg in the garden, going to local farmers markets and buying too much cheese! I try to buy eco-products like organic, fair trade clothes and earth friendly toiletries. Overcoming my own laziness is the hardest part.’

Three Drunk Blokes on Cider

‘Arhhhhhhhhg.. Take a photo.. hic’

Gemma – Anti-Slavery Campaigner

‘Buying energy saving light-bulbs and saving energy around the house. I find the hardest part is seeing how were all making a difference, knowing that the part you play is just a small part in the whole thing.’

This year’s Glastonbury Festival was one of the greenest yet, but there was still room for improvement. It will be remembered as ‘one of those fantastic years’.

Keep coming back for a review of the Festival’s Greener Side in the coming days.

At Glastonbury Festival, The Green Fields provide an environmentally friendly guide to life.

A number of entrances to the fields exist, but many will come along the old train track. Decorated by campaigners, the old track contains a number of climate inspired messages. ‘Did you know if all the bees died, life on earth would cease to exist after 60 years’, ‘Walk your kids to school’.

This year the Green Fields are showcasing a couple of low impact homes. Practical tips on how you can insulate your walls with sheep wool, build with green timber and make but use of your natural environment.

Despite all this greeness, the festival motto ‘Love the farm, leave no trace’ has clearly not struck a chord with some.

One morning I was walking to work in London when I passed a woman unlocking her shop on Old Bond Street. I noticed that all the lights in the shop were on, yet she clearly hadn’t been inside that day as the shutters were still down.

Realising the lights had probably been on all night, I couldn’t shake a sense of curiosity at why she was wasting electricity.

I began to investigate the subject more and found similar concerns expressed on websites like Green Girls Global. I also began to make late night trips to Old Bond Street on my way home to see how many shop owners had the same attitude as the woman I saw unlocking her shop.

I was horrified to discover that nearly every shop on Old Bond Street left at least some lights on after dark even though they were closed.

One night I had a chat with the security guard who has the unfortunate task of patrolling the street at dark. He told me that my fears were right and that most of the shops left their lights on all night. Some were even timed to come back on as the sun went down.

In looking to understand why shop owners may leave their lights on at night I came across two main responses. The first is that it is for security reasons. This I think is a crazy excuse. Surely it would be better to turn the lights off as any thief breaking into a shop with its lights turned off would need a torch to see where they going. The security guards would find this torch light very easy to spot.

The second and more plausible reason is that the shop lights are left on to attract shoppers. This I find more convincing especially on a road like Old Bond Street with its overt sense of wealth and extravagance. However surely we should be putting the fight against catastrophic climate change above mere window shopping? There are so few people on Old Bond Street at night it doesn’t seem worth the bother of leaving all the lights on. Surely the act of saving energy would be a much more powerful and environmentally positive statement to their customers?

To spread my concerns I created a website called www.bondstreetbaddies.com which has the aim of publicising which shops leave their lights on and which are going green.

Obviously this is a problem that blights many streets and I’d encourage anyone interested in this subject to find ways of drawing attention to it. I’d also encourage people to ask at their favourite shop whether they turn off their lights at night and if not why not?

Last week John invited me and Dave to a meeting at the office of Steve Webb, the Lib Dem spokeperson for the environment together with few other really interesting bloggers. Steve wanted our help with ideas on how to best utilise social media for influencing the political process of the Climate Change Bill.

The UK has the opportunity to show real leadership in combating global climate change by delivering a strong Climate Change Bill. We need to set a target that delivers the reduction in UK climate-changing gases that is needed – the scientific data tells us the target should be at least 80%, not the 60% the government proposes, which is based on out of date science (read more here).

Annoyingly, for most politicians, especially the Tories with their phony green disguise but the labour is not much better on this one, this is a petty political matter and they will probably vote as a herd.

So we had a nice improvised brainstorm and quickly realised that WE DON’T need another public awareness campaign, and we don’t need another pledge, and the email your MP mechanism has lost it’s steam.

We need something else. Something that might not involve thousands of participants as there is not only general green fatigue, but also the green activism sphere is highly fragmented. We need something personal and effective that will send MPs the message that this is a national and global matter and it’s not the time for political pettiness and herd voting. Vote as you believe you should.

This is how we came out with Canvas My MP. The final mechanisms are still being sorted out but the idea is that we want to reveal each and every MP personal stand on the bill and put as much pressure as possible on those who refuse to acknowledge the need for a stronger, more effective bill. So we are moving away from the rather ineffective email your MP to hopefully more effective action of meeting every MP in person to try to convince them to vote for stronger bill. In a nutshell we will ask people to set an appointment with their local MP and and nag them to vote for a stronger bill. These people (we are hoping that a dozen constituents meeting their MP in person can start making an impact.

Our efforts will of course be documented and all MPs opinions and replies will be reported. We hope to get all green organisations and initiatives like the brilliant The Nag, Do the Green Thing as well as BBC Green and Treehugger on board in helping promote this one.

This all happens in the speed of light with not much time to polish the details (the details are being sorted out as we speak) but with lots of great people cheeping in for help so if anyone has any more ideas on how this initiative can grow more teeth please get in touch or leave a comment below. The lovely

I’m trying to convince Steve Webb to go for some BIG PRish initiative to get a nice kick start t this and send the message that this is a cross-party a-political issue – something like 12 MPs Calendar-Girls-like project (Prescott in bikini anyone???)

Will keep you posted on further developments.

UPDATE: I just been told that the lovely Make Hay have volunteered to design the website and already put some initial page…cheeers for that Vicky!!

The best piece of environmental marketing communications to date (IMHO…)

Only a few years ago, anyone working to raise awareness about climate change was doing just that: working to raise awareness. The challenge was primarily to convince people that climate change was happening, and that it was a problem to take seriously.

One of the refreshing things about today’s climate is that this first challenge has been won. Thanks in large part to Al Gore, and all the work preceding his, global warming is all but uniformly recognised – both on a national and international level- as the greatest threat facing humanity today.

This means that for the first time in the history of environmental campaigning, activists, politicians, mothers, fathers, businesses and anyone else moved to act can focus all of their energy on creating solutions to the problem. And this means that the challenge of global warming can become an opportunity for things to get better.

From all I’ve seen so far, the cornerstones of this opportunity are two-fold: collaboration and action. Action is self explanatory: we have to do something, and we have to do it now. Collaboration is the mechanism to do it. Gone are the days of ‘them and us’ approaches to environmental issues- more clearly than ever we all see that there’s a massive problem, and the only way out is to work together.

That means governments, businesses, pressure groups, families, students, civil servants, red, blue, green, black, white, pink, capitalist, anarchist, socialist , upper-class, lower-class, working-class, middle-class, religious, non-religious, 4×4 driving, cycle driving, suit or sandal wearing, you name it. We are united by our common humanity, and if that doesn’t make sense to you, then by our common being on this blue ball together a long, long way from any other coloured balls on which we can live.

So what’s the convenient truth about all this? That doing the work- doing what’s needed to stabilise the climate, not only enriches our own lives, it also enriches the lives of those around us, and everyone with a stake in planet earth- which is everyone. Everyone wins.

It’s not always easy. Collaboration, whether within a family, or within the arena of international politics takes work. It takes work to get through our clashing egos in order for our common humanity to emerge: imagine Mr Capitalist and Mr Anarchist in the Big Brother House arguing over whose turn it is to do the washing up, meanwhile the chickens in the garden are being eaten by a hungry fox who got driven from his home in the woods.

The question is the nature of our end goal. Too often in life the end goal is drama, tension, sparks flying and continuing to fly. Is that what we want on a planetary level? Or can our end goal be harmony? Can we do away with the drama of doom and gloom, now? Do away with the tension of political stand-off? Can we collaborate enough so that once the initial sparks of ego clashes have flown, they can recede and we can get on with the job at hand?

I think we can, and I think it’s worth it. And that’s A Convenient Truth.

The feature length preview of my film, A Convenient Truth, is now available online, www.climatefilm.com/preview

View the trailer on YouTube or visit the website at www.climatefilm.com

After a successful weekend at the south bank, the WWF giant boat & plane with thousands of names on them have been delivered to the House of Parliament. Let’s hope that MPs will get the message and support a truly effective Climate Change Bill.

When people don’t recycle, or leave the lights on, or driving their cars, the footprints they leave behind are to a large extent invisible and hence perceived to be intangible. That’s why one of the great challenges of environmental marketing is in brining to life the consequences of individual actions. This print done by Saatchi & Saatchi Copenhagen for the WWF does it rather nicely – it beautifully demonstrates that the survival of the forests is directly connected to what people consume.

Hello.

I’m Asi and I’m really happy to be part of the Green Guys Global team. I’m a strategist at Poke and I will mostly write about green marketing stuff and tell you about really nice environmental campaigns.

In my first post here I’d like to tell you about something I’m personally involved with – the WWF Get on Board campaign to strengthen the UK Climate Change Bill.

The UK is leading the field by introducing legislation committing us to reduce our CO2 emissions by 2050, but the WWF along with many others are pressing for deeper cuts and clear targets. Poke have focused on one seemingly crazy omission from the calculation of CO2 emissions – namely that the emissions from international aviation and shipping are currently excluded from the calculations.

As aviation is the fastest growing source of UK emissions, it’s got to be bonkers to leave it out. We’re going to be making a rather large paper plane and boat to highlight this issue, and are hoping to take them from Gabriel’s Wharf where it will be exhibited for the whole weekend – 15th-18th November – to The Houses of Parliament – which should get some attention!

The people who sign the petition will have their names printed on the giant boat or plane so please go and sign up and tell your mama and sista and friends to support us as well.

We’ve been working with some lovely people who support the WWF and for celebrating my first post here, I’ll show you an exclusive outtakes/blooper video footage that will make you laugh…you can watch it here