Lessons From Essex: Driving Air Quality Awareness with Theater and Technology

Recognizing the need to raise awareness of air quality and encourage positive behavioral change by all, Jacobs worked together with Essex County Council to obtain funding from the annual Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) Air Quality Grant scheme. Along with the development of the air quality website, Essex County Council used the funding to deliver an innovative theatrical educational air quality program which toured almost 100 schools in Essex teaching more than 5,000 primary school children. It was also used to undertake air quality monitoring around primary schools in Essex – including using backpack mounted sensors.

Improving air quality can be challenging because solutions are often not obvious. Understanding the contribution made by different emission sources is essential to inform the development of effective solutions.  As part of a separate Defra-funded project for Essex County Council, we designed, installed and operated an innovative traffic and air quality sensor network in Colchester in Essex, to better understand the causes of poor air quality in the area. Analysis of this data allowed us to identify which factors had the greatest influence on air quality at specific locations.

Improving air quality across a wide region, such as Essex, requires not only targeted interventions at specific locations but also a range of actions covering many different emission sources. While the work undertaken to date is an important first step toward improving air quality in Essex, we are currently working with Essex County Council to develop an approach to more effectively direct and coordinate future actions.

Improving air quality at a regional level requires a multifaceted approach. We help our clients improve air quality by providing technical air quality services, developing and undertaking innovating projects and providing strategic advice.

What can I do?

We can all reduce our emissions and our exposure to air pollution by:

• Walking, cycling or using public transport, rather than traveling by car.
• When changing our vehicles, choose those with lower emissions (and if we can, go electric).
• Turning our engines off when stationary for more than a minute (particularly near sensitive locations such as schools and hospitals).
• Burning fewer solid fuels such as wood in our homes (and making sure if we do, we burn the right type of wood in an approved appliance).
• Ventilating our homes when cooking or cleaning to reduce our exposure to indoor air pollutants.
• Taking alternative routes when walking or cycling to avoid heavily trafficked areas with higher levels of air pollution.