Tread Lightly on The Earth by Pledging Weekly

Photo by permission of Guardian Unlimited of a weekly pledge

Tread Lightly is a new campaign created by the creators of Guardian Unlimited, an online UK environmental news magazine. This campaign encourages us to take steps to reduce our own CO₂ emissions through weekly pledges. Realizing that most people feel that reducing their footprint is just too hard, the staff has created easy pledges that encourage people to reduce their impact.

Past pledges have included wash your clothes in cold water, take a shower instead of a bath to use less water, turn off your appliances instead of allowing them to be on standby, and switch to energy efficient light bulbs. Easy steps. Just to make it fun, if you complete 12 pledges, you can receive a free smart eco-shopping bag with the Trend Lightly logo. Unfortunately, this offer is only open to UK residents over the age of 18.

Although this is a UK based website, it is has international appeal. Anyone can sign up for pledges since we all impact the Earth. The pledges are in three different levels (light, medium, and heavy) in which you can choose to sign up for as well as past pledges if you have not already done so.

Each Friday there will be a new pledge for people to sign up for. In addition, Guardian Unlimited will be running a blog that will share tips on how to best accomplish this pledge, ask for advice, read the latest news pertaining to the pledge, and learn about special offers to assist you in accomplishing this pledge (only offered to UK residents.)

So how do the creators of this campaign keep on top of the pledges?

“Seven days after your pledge you will receive an email from us reminding you to come back and tell us whether you have kept your pledge. If you have already done this, the email will confirm your weekly CO2 saving and invite you to sign up for the next weekly pledge,” according to the Company. The creators of this Campaign have it all figured out.

Guardian is hoping to foster a world-wide community effort to reduce their carbon needs. It is fun to see how your steps added with the rest of the community truly make an impact. Right now, 3739 readers have saved 18.59 tones of CO_2. Pretty amazing, huh? Just think the impact this community will have as more and more people sign on?

So, be part of the Guardian Tread Lightly community and help make a difference. Pledge away!