10,000 Londoners die prematurely every year due to toxic air. But this is an invisible killer. Unseen, ignored, and all the more deadly as a result. How could we get Londoners to see the problem, and care enough to do something about it?
We made Londoners care by linking air pollution to something they do care about – property prices. addresspollution.org gives everyone in London an Air Quality Report for their address, showing its health and financial costs. Shocked homeowners could then demand action at a local and national level. The service launched with a multi-channel guerrilla campaign targeting the property industry.
1 in every 10 London households have generated an Air Quality Report. For perspective, this is more than twice as many as the number of properties changing hands in London in any given year.
The campaign overall reached over 30 million people, far beyond London. It was discussed on the BBC, Good Morning Britain, Channel 4, Sky News, ITV and TalkRadio, made front page news of The Times and appeared in 90 other national news publications.
Zoopla have made the Air Quality rating system available
as a tool on their website. Other property portals are using our API to produce
Air Quality Ratings for every listing.
As a result of addresspollution.org, National
Trading Standards have mandated the disclosure of Air Quality Ratings to
property buyers and renters. This is lasting change, recruiting an army of
homeowners and renters as a powerful lobbying force in the fight against air
pollution.
Over half local councils have adopted the anti-pollution measures homeowners petitioned through addresspollution.org, and the government has brought forward the single national policy change we lobbied for.