22 June 2010
Employees from EDF Energy have set out from Exeter on the second leg of a series of bike rides from the Bristol Channel to the English Channel for Team Green Britain Bike Week.
The four cyclists Thomas Burman, Tony Harding, Al Mitchell and Simon Rowe, left Gadeon House on Exeter Business Park at 9am today (Tues June 22), on the second leg of a 150 mile journey that will see different riders from EDF Energy connect the company’s Hinkley, Exeter and Plymouth sites, to arrive tomorrow (Wed June 23) at the Eden Project, which is hosting this year’s Festival of Cycling.
The festival, organised by Cornwall Council, is part of national Team Green Britain Bike Week, sponsored by EDF Energy, and takes place on Saturday, June 26, and Sunday, June 27.
Team Green Britain – including Team Green Britain Bike Week – is a growing movement of people and groups brought together by EDF Energy through a shared commitment to lowering Britain’s carbon footprint. EDF Energy is working with the Eden Project, Global Action Plan, Eco-Schools and London 2012 to organise a summer of activities which will inspire people to live a lower carbon life.
Tony Harding, 54, a senior business analyst and cycling society member at EDF Energy in Exeter, said: “EDF Energy is working hard to encourage people to use more environmentally-friendly transport and we’re hoping the Festival of Cycling will help inspire more people to do just that. As a company, EDF Energy has firm commitments on reducing carbon emissions from its transport fleet too.”
The first group of 11 riders travelled across Somerset into Devon, through the Exe Valley to Exeter, arriving at the company’s Gadeon House office yesterday (Mon June 21).
EDF Energy has more than 2,000 staff in Cornwall and Devon, with green travel plans for its Plymouth and Exeter offices, including incentives for employees who cycle to work.
Free entry to the Eden Project will be granted to anyone registering for the event on the Team Green Britain Bike Week website. Go to www.bikeweek.org.uk/cornwallfestivalofcycling for more information.
Team Green Britain Bike Week, sponsored by EDF Energy, is an annual event that aims to show how, by getting on our bikes, we can all play our part towards a greener future while exercising and saving time and money too. For more information go to: www.bikeweek.org.uk
ENDS
For more information please contact Dan Pritchard on 01392 813783 in the EDF Energy press office.
Notes to editors:
Team Green Britain was kicked off by EDF Energy, the UK’s largest producer of low carbon electricity, in partnership with the Eden Project, Global Action Plan, Eco-Schools and London 2012. It is a growing group of people all across Britain doing what they can to reduce their carbon footprint by changing their lives in ways which are better for them and the environment.
Green Britain Day is a day each year where schools, communities, businesses and other motivated people showcase and celebrate what the Team are doing as an inspiration to the rest of the country to join us. This year, Green Britain Day is on June 17.
Through Our Climate Commitments, EDF Energy has launched the biggest environmental programme to tackle climate change of any UK energy company. In these commitments, we have pledged to reduce the intensity of carbon emissions from our legacy power plants by 60% and to lower the proportion of carbon arising from our customers’ energy consumption by 15% by 2020.
As well as reducing the carbon intensity of our emissions, EDF Energy has a social and ethical responsibility to encourage the next generation of environmental guardians to take action against climate change. This is why EDF Energy has worked with Eco-Schools to set up “the Pod”, which aims to educate 2.5 million school children about sustainable living by 2012.
For information about Team Green Britain go to www.teamgreenbritain.org