Green Apple accolade for council's community energy challenges

A project which has pitted residents and colleagues against each other in a bid to reduce energy consumption has won a national environmental award.

Peterborough City Council's climate change team has been named in the top three of the Green Apple Award's environmental best practice category based on its Peterborough Energy Challenges. Each challenge involves 60 people and requires them to record their energy usage based on figures obtained from an energy monitor over a three-week period. The aim is to help residents understand their energy consumption and identify areas where they can make changes.

Two challenges have been run to date - a community energy challenge which involved 60 households in Werrington, and an employee energy challenge which included 60 individuals from 16 organisations - and there is already a waiting list for future challenges.

The Green Apple awards are run by The Green Organisation and recognise and reward environmental best practice. This is not the first time the team has won a Green Apple Award - last year an innovative climate change board game designed by the team was awarded the prize. The game is available to city schools and is on sale in the Destination Centre.

Councillor Samantha Dalton, the city council's cabinet member for environment capital, said: "The energy challenges are a great opportunity for the council to translate a global issue like climate change into something that can be tackled at a local level.

"By focusing on this issue in a fun, educational and competitive way, the challenges allow us to raise awareness of energy use and efficiency in a way that directly benefits residents by cutting their energy bills, whilst also helping build on the city's growing reputation as the UK's environment capital. Well done to the team on this achievement."

Jenna Hiley, the city council's climate change officer, said: "The energy challenges are a unique project because they use simple tools to enable people to make their own choices. The challenges are fun and interactive and show people they can make a real difference just by making small changes in the way they carry out day-to-day tasks. This means they are likely to continue to make these choices on an ongoing basis."

The team will find out whether it has won the gold, silver or bronze Green Apple at a presentation at the House of Commons on Monday 15 November 2010.

The next employee energy challenge will start on Monday 6 September 2010. To find out more, email climatechange@peterborough.gov.uk