By Ed Kemp, Marketing, 06 May 2008, 1:20pm

Tesco, M&S, 02 and other brands back climate change event

LONDON - An alliance of blue-chip brands will stage a mass participation event later this year to raise awareness of climate change among consumers.

Together is backed by The Climate Change Group

Together, the umbrella organisation for CO2 reduction orchestrated by The Climate Group, is supported by brands such as Tesco, M&S, Sky, British Gas, More Than, HSBC, O2 and B&Q. The organisation was unveiled by Tony Blair in April 2007 in a bid to reduce CO2 emissions.

The group, which is also backed by Live Earth, Defra, The Church of England and Energy Saving Trust among others, has now hired experiential marketing agency Out of the Blue to devise an awareness raising event, which is due to take place in the autumn.

The alliance was launched with a campaign entitled, 'We're in this together' which saw brands take steps to reduce their carbon footprint. Sky, for example, introduce technology to automatically turn off Sky HD and Sky+ boxes to standby overnight as part of the initiative.

According to the group, Together has now saved more than 460,000 tons of CO2 emissions since launch.