Cleaner air: our campaign

Cleaner air for everyone

Our campaign focussed on making the air we breathe cleaner for everyone by:

  • enabling individuals to monitor their local air
  • working with schools and community group to take action to improve their local area
  • challenging companies and politicians to clean up their act.

Have a browse through our successes. 
 

Success: ground-breaking air pollution experiment

Thousands of people have taken part in what we hope will be the biggest ever national experiment on air pollution. More than 5,000 people ordered a Friends of the Earth Clean Air Kit to test the air quality near them.

Results from the experiment fed into a UK-wide air pollution map, developed with experts at King’s College, London. This data helped us create a state-of-the-nation report shedding new light on the reality of air pollution up and down the country.

I’m blown away seeing how fired up people are to discover what the air quality is like on their doorstep. This experiment has the potential to expose the state of our polluted air and spark off thousands of individual stories of people taking action against pollution.

– Ollie, air pollution campaigner

Success: community groups working for cleaner air

A beautiful green well kempt field, with a walking path and trees.
Winchester
In Winchester a Friends of the Earth group marched through the city centre  carrying 51 tombstones to represent the number of early deaths caused by air pollution in the district.
Winchester
In Winchester a Friends of the Earth group marched through the city centre  carrying 51 tombstones to represent the number of early deaths caused by air pollution in the district.
Oxford University
Oxford
In Oxfordshire, Friends of the Earth members set up an Oxfordshire Clean Air Action Group to tackle air pollution. The group lobbied local council, set up community events and encouraged individuals to think about how they can reduce pollution locally.
Oxford
In Oxfordshire, Friends of the Earth members set up an Oxfordshire Clean Air Action Group to tackle air pollution. The group lobbied local council, set up community events and encouraged individuals to think about how they can reduce pollution locally.
A lone tree in a park, with houses in the distance
North Herts
Many groups secured impressive media coverage throughout the clean air campaign. North Herts Friends of the Earth is one of several groups to get a sizeable feature in their local newspaper, bringing awareness to their community.
North Herts
Many groups secured impressive media coverage throughout the clean air campaign. North Herts Friends of the Earth is one of several groups to get a sizeable feature in their local newspaper, bringing awareness to their community.

Success: Investigating garages removing car pollution filters

We launched an investigation  into garages that promised to boost car performance by removing a filter designed to reduce fine particles of air pollution. 

The garages were using a loophole that allowed them to advertise and carry out the removal – even though driving on UK roads without the filter is illegal. We put in an official complaint. And now all garages have been banned from advertising this dodgy service without making it very clear that driving your car without such a filter is illegal.

We also called on the Department for Transport to make the act of removing pollution filters illegal and demanded that it investigate the scale of this scandal.

Success: London mayor proposes to clean up London’s buses

London’s mayor Sadiq Khan lost no time getting started on tackling the capital’s dirty air. Only a week into his new job he set out key proposals to improve London’s air.

And, because of pressure from Friends of the Earth and our allies, the mayor is including a proposal to consult on a key Friends of the Earth policy: halting the purchase of all-diesel double-decker buses by 2018 – 2 years sooner than his pre-election commitment.

This is great news for Londoners, where air pollution leads to up to 9,500 early deaths per year.

Simple things
School child

Success: working with school children

Working in partnership with Muslim Aid, we piloted our Clean Air Schools pack with English Martyrs Catholic primary school in Tower Hamlets. Tower Hamlets has some of the worst pollution in the country and English Martyrs was rated as having the third highest levels of air pollution  of all schools in London in 2013, with dirty air way over the legal limit.

Parents and teachers expressed their concerns about the level of pollution that children are exposed to. During the course of the pilot students learned about what air pollution is, its impact on health, and the ways they can get involved making the air they breathe safer. Many of the students designed their own posters and slogans to discourage people from idling their cars outside the school gates.

School child

Success: Clean Air Schools pack

We’re proud to have supported over 1,300 primary schools across the country to campaign on air pollution.

Year 4 pupils from Rosary Primary School in Birmingham used Friends of the Earth's Clean Air Schools pack to investigate the air quality around their school.

"The results made us think about the air we breathe in," says teacher Joe Perkins.

Watch the children and Joe put their air monitoring tubes through their paces.

If you came here looking for air monitoring tubes, thank you for your interest – but we're no longer able to provide tubes to individuals.

You can get in touch with us on the Clean Air campaign at: [email protected]