European Sustainable Development Week: virtual competition across Poland

Every year at the end of summer, the European Commission organises a campaign to encourage Europeans to choose greener forms of transport. It is all designed with our health and the improvement of the environment in mind. The campaign promotes actions that can bring immediate effects and help address problems such as air pollution, carbon dioxide emissions, and traffic congestion.

Due to the difficulties related to the COVID-19 pandemic, that year the European Commission focused on flexible city participation. It decided to organise a challenge in the Activy app, based on virtual competition.

Preparations

The biggest challenge was the short time available to promote the initiative. We had only a few days to encourage as many people as possible to join. The campaign lasted just one week, which is why most participants joined at the very beginning and completed activities every day for 7 days. In the end, more than 2,100 people joined the competition.

Usually, initiatives like this last longer, giving participants more time to reach strong positions in the rankings. Here, the time factor and prizes clearly worked well: many people outside the top 100 completed an activity every day.

Campaign progress

Participants competed in two categories: on foot - running, walking, and Nordic walking - and on two wheels - cycling, riding a scooter, or skateboarding.

The main motivation was the attractive prizes funded by the European Commission in Poland. The fight for the top places continued until the final seconds. The advanced rankings in the app allowed participants to compete in different categories, including by gender and type of activity.

Results

The one-week campaign motivated entire families to choose eco-friendly means of transport. Instead of cars, they chose bicycles, scooters, or walking. In one week, participants saved 40,613 kg of CO₂ by covering almost 163,000 kilometres.

The winners received folding city bikes and scooters, while the first 100 people received eco-friendly gadgets. The campaign finale fell on 22 September, World Car-Free Day. That year's theme of European Sustainable Development Week was "Zero-emission mobility for everyone".

The campaign encourages actions that can bring immediate effects and help address problems such as air pollution, carbon dioxide emissions, and traffic congestion. The AktywniUE campaign was held under the slogan: Live actively and save CO₂!