...and bicycled about 20 “Giro d'Italia” lengths. A group of climate advocates from the British Council’s Challenge Europe project recently organised a competition to get people to cycle to work every day during the month of May. Its aim was to encourage employees to consider using bicycles instead of cars to get to work and in turn reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The project was designed to emphasise the many positive effects of cycling, to both health and the environment.

An open invitation was sent around asking people who work together to get together in groups of three and take part in the competition. They were issued points for every day, each group member used their bicycle to get to work, and discounted points if they decided not to cycle. Action started on May 3rd and ended on May 27th. If the overall result was positive after totalling all the groups scores then the troika was placed into a prize draw. 251 troikas applied through our web page to take part in the competition and at the end of the month 204 applications were returned to us. Out of them an impressive 197 showed a positive result and so were eligible for the prize draw. The draw held at the Ministry of Transport and this event was recorded and can be viewed here. Prizes, which were donated by the Embassy of Denmark, were awarded to 2 teams with each team member receiving a Danish city bike and cycle helmet. The team from the Government Communication Office (Alenka Čebular, Danila Mašič and Zvone Berlot) cycled a total of 406,8 kilometres whilst a team from The Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia (Milan Mastnak, Tadej Poljšak and Igor Žagar) managed 329 kilometres.

All the troikas added together cycled a staggering 67.542 km as part of the project, which is about the same length as 20 times around the famous bicycle race "Giro d'Italia". Best of all it means more then 10 tons of carbon dioxide was saved, or to be exact, 10 tons and 250 kilograms of CO2 was not realised into Slovenian cities during the month of May.

The project rounded up in front of Ljubljana City Hall on June 3rd when the prizes were handed out by Patrick Vlačič, Minister of Transport together with HE Anita Hugau, Danish ambassador to Slovenia.

The project was deemed a huge success by all the advocates involved but what makes them most proud is that this is not the end for this innovative idea. The Council for Prevention and Education in Road Safety within Ministry of Transport were so impressed with the project they have decided to adopt it and include it in their future campaigns.