Global Action Plan has announced The Wheel, Ireland’s national association of charities, community groups and social enterprises, as the winner of the inaugural Climate Competition for Irish companies.
Organised by Global Action Plan, the nationwide Climate Competition / Comórtas na hAeráide saw teams from 11 companies compete to see who could reduce their carbon footprint the most.
The competition ran for 2 weeks, from 17 until 31 October, and companies of shapes and sizes took part.
Out of the 11 Irish companies participating in the challenge, The Wheel staff saved the most carbon, an average of 125.88kg CO₂e per participant.
This saving is equivalent to using 8,498kWh of energy, the same as powering an entire portable heater for 236 days OR the same as travelling by car from Dublin to Cork and back (about 458 km).
If everyone in Ireland took the same actions as the staff team of The Wheel that would amount to a 33% reduction in Ireland’s total annual consumption-based emissions. If this was a reality, the country’s goal of reducing emissions by 51% by 2030 would be in reach.
The Climate Competition aimed to inspire each participant to introduce daily climate-friendly actions to reduce emissions, create awareness of sustainable habits, and ultimately lead to having more conversations and encouraging widespread change.
Participating teams spent the two weeks logging small climate actions like eating less dairy, turning off unnecessary lights, taking public transportation to work, and donating to good causes, and each activity was converted into a certain amount of CO2 emissions saved.
The competition is entertaining, educational and results in real life carbon savings. It is also designed to spark in-office and at-home conversations about collective action.