Green champions

People up and down Yorkshire are already playing their part by cutting carbon emissions and cutting the amount of waste sent to landfill sites, but much more needs to be done.

That is why the Yorkshire Post is, once again, launching the Environment Awards to celebrate local endeavours. This newspaper will honour the best green initiatives among businesses, voluntary groups and individuals because Britons have to learn to live their lives differently. Every community can tell of its own worries about how technological progress puts their way of life at risk.

This awareness of environmental issues has increased over the last decade and such public concern is one of the few small positives to emerge from the devastation of foot-and-mouth disease, which broke out 10 years ago today. Today’s children will have to live more sustainable lives than their forebears. Britain will not stay a green and pleasant land unless its people grasp the mantle of change.