More than 70 Plymouth businesses will join forces on World Environment Day to drive forward a trailblazing scheme aimed at beating the credit crunch and protecting the planet.

Tomorrow (5 June) will see the official launch of Plymouth 186 - a pioneering project to help local firms calculate and cut their carbon footprint, save money and avoid hefty green fines - due to be introduced next year. It will take place in the Council House from 9am to 12.30pm.

The project is named after the Government's National Indicator 186 - the measurement used to calculate the carbon cutting target for each local resident in the UK.

Plymouth has agreed to reduce the carbon footprint of each resident from 5.8 tonnes to five tonnes by 2011. That's almost a full hot air balloon for every city resident and is on top of the city's ambitious pledge to cut C02 emissions by 20% by 2013.

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Friday's event, sponsored by the City Council and Plymouth 2020 Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), will be a chance to showcase some of the action already being taken in the city to combat climate change.

Case studies will include the globally important work on ocean acidification being researched at Plymouth Marine Laboratories and promoted by Ridgeway School.

There will also be presentations on various carbon cutting measures being taken by the police, the Theatre Royal, Derriford Hospital and local green business champions Bandvulc. The final speaker, from the insurance sector, will look to the future and the benefits of being ready to tackle the impacts of change.

Councillor Michael Leaves, Cabinet member for Environmental Regulation said: "This is an incredible opportunity for Plymouth to lead the way as a low carbon city. By creating their own carbon management plans and reducing their emissions, local businesses can help us meet our targets - it's a real win-win situation as they'll be saving on their energy and fuel bills at the same time."

(CD/JM)