Innovative Ipswich
I have just bowed down before the closest thing I have to a religion, namely Ipswich Town Football Club, and have pledged to forever abide by the following:a) Thou shall not boil more water in the kettle than one needs.
b) Thou shall not leave ones appliances on standby.
c) Thou shall always unplug ones mobile phone charger when not in use (because the dastardly things still drain 90% of their operating power even when not in use).
Strange thing to pledge to a sports team hey? But apparently by going to www.saveyourenergyfortheblues.com and making these, and other more hefty commitments, I can help my team become the
posted by Benjamin Nakizo @ 12:14 am
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Working in conjunction with the team’s sponsors this publicity trick is making headlines and winning awards around the nation. Now the exact definition of what ‘carbon neutral’ means seems to be pretty elastic. In this case it simply means that if the club can coerce enough of its supporters to simply make these non-committal ‘pledges’ then theoretically they can announce themselves carbon neutral. And do so without having lifted a finger, not even to sign a check to some green start up company promising to plant a tree in some unused corner of the globe. Pretty clever huh?
Despite the obvious flaws in the plan, it still seems like a pretty nifty idea. By putting pressure on its supporters to go green it adds another voice to the chorus of those prophesizing our upcoming doom. Which can be no bad thing….can it?
The scheme is working closely with local schools and businesses to get the pledges it needs. If the intervention of everyone’s favourite football team is what it takes to get these organizations at least thinking about restructuring their energy use – then good for it. It sends out a small ripple of change – gets people thinking. Having recently read Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘The Tipping Point’, I am more inclined to see little changes like this in a more positive light. This scheme, if replicated elsewhere, has the potential to be the spark for a comprehensive change in energy consumption. But of course, it probably won’t.
Regardless it is still a good news story from a town which has had one heck of a miserable year so far. I am myself far from a good ambassador for my home town, believing it to be well and truly a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Yet this one made me smile. This one made me thing that perhaps my provincial backwater does show some promise after all.
To bad the scheme was dreamt up by our German energy giant sponsors and had little to do with any Ipswichians. But if it can get just one local kid thinking differently about the future , for even a split second, then it will have been well worth it. Come on Town.
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