About Sandbag

Thinking about climate change can be a depressing occupation. It's a massive issue and personal actions like switching off lights and unplugging televisions can feel like small contributions. But what if there was an easy way to make a big difference and really speed up the pace of change? What if you could take action now sitting in front of your computer armed with nothing more than an e-mail account?

Well there is and sandbag has been set up to let you do just that. Thanks to policy makers in the UN and Europe levels of pollution are now controlled. Permits must be bought by polluters to let them keep polluting. But a finite number get created and the good news is we can both lobby to ensure fewer are handed out and also buy and cancel them ourselves. So by taking a permit out of the system we can reduce the amount of pollution taking place and force industry to invest in cleaner technologies. Every permit removed from the system means one less tonne of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

Join us and we will take permits out of the system on your behalf. We have teamed up with Guys and St Thomas's NHS Trust whose two hospitals in London are part of the EU trading scheme. They recently invested in new energy system to save emissions and we are buying some of their spare permits. They have pledged to use the money we give them on improving their efficiency even more. And we cancel the permits ensuring they are not used by other would-be polluters.

Once you feel the sense of satisfaction you get from taking such an easy and positive action, we hope you will also join us in putting pressure on the people who receive them for free and the people who decide how many permits to hand out each year. At the moment far too many are out there but with enough people watching and asking for change we can change that. To see who has been given what so far check out our map.

So that's what sandbag and this site are all about - for more background information continue reading here or check out the FAQs.