Green Britain Day should be everyday, right?
Posted by ericww on June 16, 2010
JUNE 17 (tomorrow depending upon when you read this post) marks the second Green Britain Day in the UK. It’s quite possible you have missed this fact, as there’s only been limited noise about it – but there are a lot of good events happening, which are geared towards getting lots of people involved in a good cause.
Organised by EDF Energy with Eco-Schools, London 2012, the Eden Project and Global Action Plan, the day aims to inspire Britons to cut the UK’s carbon footprint in time for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
At HZH, it’s fair to say that we suffer from a mildly cynical view of these kinds of special ‘days’ and ‘weeks,’ which are designed as a focal point as part of a wider plan or promotional activities, geared to generating media interest and, subsequently hopefully, mass consumer participation.
Now we don’t want to knock what is a good, worthy effort. That’s not our job. You can buy The Sun or the Daily Mail for that. But we do wonder whether Green Britain Day should just be every day? On the basis that that’s a big ask, and it’s best to eat the elephant in small bites etc., we’ll take the day for now – but let’s hope green days are the norm rather than the exception in the not too distant future.
Of all the events that form part of this year’s Green Day push, then Team Green Britain Bike Week does it for us (19 to 27 June). This is an annual opportunity to promote cycling and show how cycling can easily be part of everyday life. Demonstrating the social, health and environmental benefits of cycling, the week aims to get people to give cycling a go all over the UK. This year, the aim is to make ‘everyday cycling for everyone’!
As part of this, there’s even a celebrity bike auction, where you can buy Lord Sugar’s drop handlebar racer. The current highest bid on that is £1,000. Let’s hope it gets a few more bids otherwise, Sir Alan, ‘You’re fired!” (Sorry, I just wanted to say that!) 
