In October AMDEA's 'Time to Change' campaign celebrates its first anniversary. Well, it will be one year since we opened the campaign's website - though preparatory work had been underway for nine months before this.

The basic message remains the same; to persuade consumers to change their old domestic appliances for new energy-efficient models. Also, to engage the support of respected organisations for our cause and to help deliver our message.

The record of achievements

I believe ‘Time to Change' has enjoyed a series of achievements over this last year, including:

• Establishing a savings calculator for domestic appliances which has been widely acclaimed. Apart from appearing on our own website, the calculator has been placed on the websites of a number of retailers - notably Comet - and will soon appear on others, including retra's website.
• Achieving significant trade and consumer media coverage for the concept of recycling old appliances. Our competition to find the oldest fridge still in use gave us BBC TV coverage and was reported in numerous newspapers and magazines throughout the country. (The winning fridge was 55 years old and was owned by a family in the Wirral.)
• Engaging with the Energy Saving Trust and local government environmental programmes. These joint activities included a one day workshop for Energy Advice Centre Managers from across the country - all of whom deal on a daily basis with enquiries from the public. ‘Time to Change' also features in one of the environmental campaigns of the London Mayor's office.
• Opening discussions with Members of Parliament, peers and civil servants on the merits of our case and the need for incentives to consumers similar to those used in Italy to considerable effect.

But much more could be done. That is why AMDEA will continue to fund ‘Time to Change' into 2009.

Agenda for the future

We shall be updating our calculator - higher energy prices mean it makes even more sense to change old appliances.

The Time to Change website will be improved, with new information sections highlighting technology and the eco-features of modern appliances.

We shall be continuing our discussions with retailers and their representatives to find more ways to get our message across.

We plan to have more workshops, and to generate more media coverage.

We will also continue to build up a stock of persuasive and authoritative information promoting our viewpoint on early replacement of domestic appliances.

We will continue to talk to the Government to seek to have financial inducements for consumers to help them change their appliances.

At AMDEA we believe that the benefits from our ‘Time to Change' campaign go far beyond fridges, freezers and washing machines. It presents our industry - and its retailers - in a positive light. You can approach climate change from the macro-perspective, and talk of wind power, tidal power and all the rest. But our message has to be that there are simpler and more direct ways of reducing carbon emissions - like changing your domestic appliance.