Winner of Ben Fogle’s zero emission schools challenge announced

Go Ultra Low, the joint government and industry campaign to promote the uptake of electric vehicles, has announced the winner of Ben Fogle’s Hero to Zero Emission Miles Challenge.

The competition was run around the country and encouraged pupils to choose walking, cycling, using public transport or travelling in an EV to get to school. Pupils accumulated a total of 5,717 ‘zero emission miles’ over the course of a week, more miles than it takes to get from the UK to Japan.

The competition was run in conjunction with a series of lesson plans, aligned to the KS2 core curriculum, which saw over 100,000 pupils taught about the importance of zero emission travel and the benefits of electric vehicles.

In the lessons, pupils learnt how their individual choices, such as using low and zero emission travel, can help society collectively reduce its carbon footprint. By using zero emission transport, the pupils learnt how driving in an electric vehicle can help improve local air quality, as fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles driven in electric mode produce no tailpipe emissions.

Go Ultra Low ambassador Ben Fogle will meet the winner Lottie Cleevely of the competition from the Churchdown Village Junior School near Gloucester.

Lottie achieved an impressive personal total of 208 ‘zero emission miles’ over a 7-day period, through walking and being driven in an electric vehicle.

As a personal prize, Lottie will be presented with tickets to the Formula E Championship in London this year where they will watch high-performance electric cars racing against each other.

The runner-up’s family will also receive an EV over a weeklong period with free access to the Polar network provided by BP Chargemaster. 

Alongside their personal prize, Ben Fogle will take part in an assembly at the winning school along with Minister for Transport George Freeman, and EV expert Charlie Fraser, from Go Ultra Low member Octopus Electric Vehicles. 

Go Ultra Low ambassador Ben Fogle, writer, broadcaster and adventurer, said: ‘I’m all for encouraging the younger generation to make more sustainable travel choices, and I enjoyed reading the pupil’s entries of where they could travel to using low emission transport. It’s great to see how engaged the next generation is regarding EVs and sustainability.

‘I’m proud of my involvement in this challenge and would like to congratulate Lottie again on accumulating an impressive 208 zero-emission miles.’

Photo Credit – Go Ultra Low