O3e Talks: School run pollution and how Business can help
- Peter and the team at O3e
- May 2, 2019
- 5 min read
Pollution is BIG in the headlines, and rightly so. We can all play our part in reducing our carbon footprint, and this month, ahead of the national "Walk to School Week", we're looking at how businesses can support more more parents and carers to ditch the car on the school run, through, believe it or not, the clever use of their next offsite or team building event. We even throw in some ideas to get your team to 'park and stride', dust of their bikes or walk to work!
(Incidentally, we'll be publishing our own o3e environmental policy very soon!).
So why are we talking 'school run' and how can we help?
“UK children inhaling toxic air on school run and in classroom”
“Clean-air campaigners call for ban on school run to cut pollution”
With headlines like these, and many or our team being parents ourselves, we wanted to see what the crux of the problem was and understand where and how we and big business could be supporting.
"Children in the UK are being forced to breathe dangerous levels of toxic air as they make their way to and from school – and even once they are inside their classrooms, according to new research."**
This is being largely 'fuelled' (if you'll pardon the pun) by many (deemed to be) 'unnecessary' school runs made in the car. We're confident the same could be said of some work commutes too.
So what is a typical Primary School Commute?
The average Primary school run is 1.6 miles. This may be a stride too far for walking with little legs, but it is entirely achievable car free once you start to incentivise children (and their adults) with making it quicker and more fun, through the use of a scooter for example.
Andrea Lee from the environmental law organisation Client Earth, which has successfully taken the government to court three times, over its “woefully inadequate” air pollution plans, said:
“This is a problem that can be fixed. We need urgent action by the UK government and local authorities to take the most polluting vehicles out of the most polluted parts of our towns and cities. But they also need to help people move over to cleaner forms of transport, like public transport and walking, to give them real alternatives.”
What's already happening?
There are charities working to support healthy, clean air school runs, from Living Street’s Walk to School Week in May, to Home-Start’s initiative to support health and wellbeing in young families - a project funded through Children in Need.
So it really is a holistic tackling of health problems, from reducing pollution to increasing exercise!
Living Streets go on to say that the exercise a school run gives a child, helps to boost and support their mental health, with schools commenting that children arrive ready to learn, if they’ve already had exercise before they arrive. Now apply this same idea to your team's productivity?
How can your Business Help?
Well, in terms of tackling pollution, you could arrange your own 'walk to work' week or maybe 'walk to work Wednesday' each week! - or a 'park and stride' week - or whatever is achievable for your work place...... Actively encourage and brainstorm ways in which your employees can engage with the initiative and achieve a healthier commute. The planet, your employees and your productivity will thank you! Shout about it on social media - inspire others!
When it comes to supporting families on the school run however, your business could directly support, through a rather special initiative we have developed......
Why not use your next offsite or team building event to directly support vulnerable families to ditch the car and get healthy. You could even use this CSR focussed team building event, as a launch event for your own 'walk to work' scheme amongst your employees.
We want to support as many families as possible, to access a car free school run and the environmental, physical health and mental health benefits that brings. So we've teamed up with our long standing charity partner Home-Start, specifically Home-Start Slough, to support their Health and wellbeing project, funded by Children in Need.
We’ve worked with Home-Start for a few years now, donating many bikes - through our CSR team building event Charity Bike Build - to gift to the families they support.
And when you get feedback like this, you can see why we are compelled to keep supporting the work they do:
"I haven’t got words how happy we all are. beyond expectations. Children thought they would be second hand bikes and they just couldn’t believe their eyes. We are so thankful for the generosity and support we have received. This will truly change our lives"
Bikes in themselves are a great support to getting healthy and ditching the car for the school run, however, bikes can’t always be ridden safely or on the pavements and so often get left behind when it comes to the school run.
Home-Start Slough also reported that many of the families they support, live in flats where storing bikes can be very problematic.
So…. We got our thinking caps on.... and Cue our....
‘Scooter Run’ Team Building Challenge
Offering your business, a direct way to support more car-free school runs in urban areas.
Working with Home-Start means that we can directly donate the scooters you build at your CSR team building event, to the families that need them most. For example, families living in poverty, living with disability or living with mental health difficulties. Home-Start are providing emotional support, and with the donation of scooters, they can provide practical support too.
Team building these fantastic scooters, is fun, engaging and is delivering a real and tangible benefit to local communities across the UK.
Working in teams, to compete in new, fun and engaging team building challenges, to earn the parts to build your scooters.
The scooters are delivered by Home-Start volunteers, directly to the families in most need, through their health and wellbeing programme, engaging and inspiring the families to get out more, exercise more and enjoy School Run Scooting and greater health!
If you know a local school or charity that could really benefit from the support of our 'Scooter Run' campaign, please think about taking this challenge on, on their behalf! Alternatively, Home-Start operates nationally, offering a simple way to support those families in most need near you.
We’re kicking our Scooter Run event off, with an official launch on 17th May, with our client Reckitt Benkeiser, just in time to support this year’s official ‘Walk to School’ week 20th-24th May. But let’s face it – ‘Walk to School’ could and should be ANY week or indeed every week!
Let’s work together to kick-start and support some positive new behaviours that are great for both our next generation and our Planet.
Join our Scooter Run Challenge and start working positively with your local community!
We are O3e - Only 3 elements:
Business - Charity - Team work
Every team building event we do, directly and purposefully supports charity or local community groups.
This adds true purpose to your valuable time out of the office, and creates wonderful, authentic, inspiring, and engaging connections between team members, as well as your business and the local community. Supporting a truly sustainable future.
CSR team building is the most engaging activity, you will find for your team. Having a higher purpose at your event, creates real passions, drive and commitment to the task in hand. Every minute spent is of high value.
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