The first of Kinver Climate Action Group’s short-term projects has been completed, meaning the village is well on its way to cutting 200 tonnes of carbon collectively, in the next year.

Started in March 2023, by the project’s lead Kath Tunnicliffe, the aim was to get 100 villagers to sign up to a free-to-use app called Giki Zero. The app offers tips and challenges to help people change their habits and live more sustainably. These include everything from learning how to recycle properly, to choosing ethical investment opportunities and switching to more plant-based meals.

The ethos of the app — and this project — is that lots of little changes can have a big impact. As echoed in a quote by zero-waste chef Anne-Marie Bonneau: ‘We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly’. And so the project was simple — get as many people to commit to trying the app as possible. And by the end of September, Kath and her champions had hit their 100-recruit target.

Promotion included posters in our village shops encouraging download, QR codes handed out at markets and events and a display in the village library asking villagers to make a pledge of what they will do differently going forward.

If you have seen our post on Kinver’s Carbon Footprint, you will know that we sit above the national average and have a lot of work to do. So while this won’t make Kinver ‘green’ overnight, if each of the recruits lowers their family’s footprint by two tonnes within the next year (which is what Giki estimates is very easy with a few changes), their combined effort will be equivalent to driving around the world in a petrol car 20 times. This is also the equivalent of the energy use of 25 homes!

Most importantly, one hundred residents from our lovely village are beginning to make a difference.

And it’s not too late to join them. Just click on the  Giki Zero    app. Let it help you explore the changes you could make to reduce your carbon footprint – and often save money too!