Sutton resident’s green idea reaps rewards

Story published 21.04.08

Cheam resident David Keeble scooped first prize in the “Sustainable Sutton” competition with his idea for making Sutton greener.

The competition is part of the borough-wide initiative to turn Sutton into the UK’s first zero-carbon, sustainable suburb. David Keeble’s winning idea is to “set a ‘Green space Challenge’ to encourage a one per cent increase in quality green space each year in Sutton.”

David Keeble, who wins a £200 voucher for Pearsons Cycles in Sutton, an energy monitor so that he can keep track of home energy consumption and a green tomato kit which contains energy, water and waste saving products, said, “I am delighted to receive the prizes and will definitely put them to good use. I fully support the One Planet Living initiative to make Sutton a better place today and for tomorrow. I’m looking forward to seeing a greener Sutton.”

In explaining the judging process, the Mayoress of Sutton Myfanwy Wallace said, “We chose David’s fantastic idea to increase green space in Sutton by one per cent each year because we need to keep space for wildlife and because it's so important for people to have access to park and natural spaces for their well-being and fitness. If the borough's community works together this should be an achievable target over the coming years. I hope more residents come forward with brilliant ideas.”

David’s idea feed into Sutton’s Sustainability Action Plan. Sutton residents can contribute to the Sustainability Action Plan, learn more about One Planet Living and look out for more competitions and offers via www.oneplanetsutton.org and by contacting
• Jessica Hodge at BioRegional on 0208 404 5924, jessica@oneplanetsutton.org or
• Katherine Hudson on 0208 770 5330, katherine.hudson@sutton.gov.uk

The basic premise behind One Planet Living is that if everyone in the world continued consuming natural resources and producing pollution at the current rate as we do in the UK, we would need three planets to live on. But we have only one planet and we need to look after it by changing the way we use our one planet’s limited resources – it’s as simple as that.

Once Sutton’s Sustainability Action Plan has been agreed Sutton will formally become part of local charity BioRegional’s ground breaking, global One Planet Living programme. The programme is based on 10 principles of sustainability developed by BioRegional and WWF and aims to show “one planet living” in action through a network of sustainable communities and businesses in the UK, USA, South Africa, China and Portugal and the through the London 2012 “One Planet Olympics”.