What are you prepared to do to help tackle the environmental crisis threatening our planet?

As the 2021 St Albans Sustainability Festival gears up to launch this weekend, an interim survey report reveals 90 per cent of local respondents are worried or very worried about the climate crisis.

The survey, by Sustainable St Albans and St Albans Friends of the Earth, is still open for residents to complete until the end of the festival on June 6. It will help inform St Albans district council’s climate advisory group about residents' priorities.

Interim results indicate 83 per cent of 300 respondents have cut food waste and 84 per cent have changed their clothes’ shopping habits. It also shows residents’ priorities for council action include more tree planting and high environmental building standards.

#SustFest chair Jill Watson said: “The priorities highlighted by this report mirror the popular event topics in the festival this year. Our district residents love sustainable fashion, are keen to cut food waste, and they want more trees in our wonderful green spaces. We can all make low-stress changes in our lives that have a big impact on the planet, whether through Meat-Free Mondays, shopping pre-loved or taking our picnic litter home.”

Sustainability Festival events include food waste sessions with local chefs demonstrating recipes from the ‘Love Your Leftovers’ cookbook, a talk by Delicious and Real on eating parts others throw away and Herts WasteAware brings experts together to explain what happens to your food waste once the lorries remove it.

Catherine Ross, who helped create the residents’ survey added: “We would love to get a thousand local people to complete the survey, with the aim of residents helping to shape local climate action. It is clear from the sheer number of SustFest21 events that the climate crisis is still high up on people’s agenda, despite the challenges of lockdown.”

Have your say in the survey with a chance of one entry winning £100. The survey is open until June 6 and can be found on the Sustainable St Albans’ website at https://sustainablestalbans.org or go direct to: bit.ly/StAclimatesurvey

Find more than 100 events including local schools, guides and scouts’ activities in the Sustainability Festival programme at https://sustfest.org