Birmingham residents’ research reveals what they would do to save the planet if they could go back in time

Research revealed today shows 80% of Birmingham residents would do something differently around environmental issues to contribute towards saving the planet if they could go back in time

Forty three percent (43%) of respondents in Birmingham stated they would recycle more if they could turn back the clock. 

Making their homes more energy efficient through methods such as adding solar panels was the second most common action people said they would take (28%) if they could go back in time.

Not using as much electricity (28%) and conserving water (24%) also figured highly in the research with Birmingham respondents saying that if they look back now on their usage of these, they would not have used so much.NUsing less gas (19%) also scored highly with respondents saying they would have saved more of this natural resource.

Interestingly, 20% of those surveyed by Project Solar UK said they would not do anything differently. Only 11% of Birmingham residents reported that they would have voted for a party that had more green policies if they could turn back the clock which may indicate a general level of despondency with politics and politicians on this crucial topic.

Avoiding buying a car did not score highly with Birmingham people with only 6% of those who were questioned in the research saying they would have chosen not to purchase a vehicle if they could go back in time. Such a low response rate may indicate that locals are still keen to have their own vehicles and the campaigns to encourage alternatives such as electric cars and public transport may not be cutting through.

Campaigns to encourage recycling, energy efficiency and a move to a greener lifestyle are constantly being created to encourage people to get involved in their own homes and localities to help save the planet. The level of interest in these topics is reflected in new research from Project Solar UK which shows the number of Instagram hashtag searches for “#sustainability” in 2021 reached over 11 million. 

Searches on the platform using the hashtag “#green energy “ totalled over 800,000,  and both “#renewable energy”  and #solarenergy were hash tagged over 1.2 million times each. These same topics were popular over the TikTok platform with video views on these same #hashtags in the millions in 2021.

Most popular was the hashtag #sustainability which had over 640 million searches. Next up in the leaderboard was #greenenergy which had over 134 million views followed by  solar energy which was popular on TikTok with 98 million views as was  #renewable energy which had 97 million  views.  

These huge numbers of views on social platforms indicate an unprecedented level of interest in all topics concerned with the environment as people look for new ideas on how to get involved in saving the planet and reflect back on their behaviour towards the environment. The market research reflecting on what people would do differently to save the planet if they could go back in time, was commissioned by Project Solar UK who are leaders in the solar panel market.

Simon Peat, CEO, said, “When asked if they could turn back the clock, Birmingham respondents produced a varied range of things they would do differently to help save the planet. Using less electricity and making homes more energy efficient such as by using solar panels scored highly indicating that there is now a real understanding that choosing renewable energy sources such as the sunshine for solar energy is a real, practical alternative that can help save the planet.”