B&Q: Wear jumpers to save the planet

B&Q have teamed up with British designer Wayne Hemingway in a bid to get customers to turn down their heating and wear a jumper instead.

To launch B&Q’s ‘Body Warming Not Global Warming’ campaign, HemingwayDesign has created a new range of limited edition sweatshirts available only in B&Q stores.

With the cold weather of spring 2008 expected to continue, people will be using their heating for longer than usual.

However, B&Q wants its customers to turn down the heating anyway, and wear a jumper to keep warm.

If every household in the UK turned down their heating by just 1 degree Celsius, 7.6 million tonnes of carbon emissions would be saved every year. That’s enough to fill Wembley stadium 970 times.

For the money-conscious, B&Q have also pointed out that a 1 degree cutback results in 10% off the heating bill. Presumably they’d prefer that money be used to buy their jumpers.

As well as selling jumpers, B&Q launched the campaign by commissioning research into British attitudes towards global warming.

The results found that even those who don’t believe the hype about climate change want to take steps towards sustainable living, whilst 64% of home-owners have already made the switch to energy efficient lightbulbs.

B&Q was the first retailer to join the sustainable design OnePlanet initiative, committing to zero carbon, zero waste, and sustainable business practice.

In January this year, B&Q announced that it will stop selling patio heaters once its current stock is sold off. Patio heaters consumer enough energy in an hour to make 400 cups of tea.