20/20 The Way to Clean Air

The goal of the 20/20 The Way to Clean Air program was to engage residents living in the Greater Toronto Area in taking actions at the individual and collective level to reduce air pollution. Before program strategies and materials were developed, Toronto Public Health contracted a marketing and communications team to conduct a best practices analysis outlining energy reducing activities for the program with a focus on home energy use and personal vehicle use. Activities identified through the analysis became the basis for the development of the 20/20 Planner and 20/20 EcoSchools Planner, which targeted residents and schools with energy-reducing behaviors. Prior to launching the program on a large scale, a small pool of residents participated in a living lab exercise and pilot version of the program, allowing the development team to test and refine program materials. After two years of testing and development, 20/20 The Way to Clean Air was launched to the general public in 2002. Residents could obtain a free copy of the planner by calling a hotline, downloading it from the program webpage, or via public events. Participating residents were encouraged to complete and return a feedback form indicating the energy reduction activities they would engage in, and in return, residents were entered into a prize drawing and received a welcome letter, window decal, and energy saving prompts to remind them of their commitment.  The 20/20 workplace and EcoSchools programs built upon this initial foundation, and through tailoring outreach strategies, were able to target subsets of the population with specific energy reduction behaviors and educational components. Program developers also partnered with community agencies to deliver the program to communities whose first language was not English and to residents living in multi-family complexes, expanding the reach of the program. In 2004, Toronto Public Health conducted a participant survey to assess if participants used the 20/20 planner and to determine the specific actions they were taking to reduce energy consumption. Emissions reductions were then calculated based on the activities self-reported by participants. On average, the program resulted in a 19% reduction in home energy use per household, a 15% reduction in vehicle km traveled per household, and a 1.2 tonnes emissions reduction per household per year.

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