Earthdreams announces first North American partnership
As the Honda Racing F1 Team prepares for its Canadian Grand Prix challenge in Montréal, its earthdreams programme today announced a major two year funding partnership with Clean Air Champions in association with Honda Canada.
Clean Air Champions (CAC) is a Canadian charity that works with respected athletes to educate and inspire Canadians to adopt practices and lifestyles that enhance personal and environmental health. The Champions are made up of over 120 national team, Olympic and Paralympic athletes, each passionate about our environment and the health of Canadians. CAC’s school programme, Clean Air Achievers (CAA), is at the centre of this new partnership.
Honda Canada and earthdreams have committed up to $200,000 CDN to the programme over the next two years. The funds provided will expand the CAA programme into three new provinces, including Quebec, 14 new cities and 100 new schools. CAA targets young people in grades 6 to 9 and educates them about the interconnections between air quality, climate change and health. The programme’s two main goals are to encourage young people to choose less polluting forms of travel and to increase their level of physical fitness by walking or cycling to their destinations.
This new partnership is a joint funding agreement between Honda Canada and earthdreams. Honda Canada introduced CAC to earthdreams and, at the same time, is extending its own existing partnership with the charity. Honda Canada has been a proud sponsor of the Clean Air Achievers’ Programme for the last two years.
earthdreams is a global initiative that is supporting and empowering a range of environmental projects. earthdreams’ global network of environmental projects focuses on the themes of mobility, technology, sustainability and education and plans to be supporting 30 projects worldwide by 2009. Today, Clean Air Champions becomes the ninth earthdreams project partner.
Through the earthdreams network, Clean Air Champions will receive exposure on a global scale and the opportunity to connect and collaborate with other like-minded charities, businesses and social entrepreneurs around the world.
“As a national charity with a mission to promote cleaner air and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, we are pleased to be partnering with Honda Canada and earthdreams,” said Christian Weber, Chair of Clean Air Champions. “Honda is truly a world leader in integrating the environment into its business practices as well as a pioneer in the manufacture of cleaner, more efficient engines. What we at CAC are committed to is making change happen and inspiring others to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. We believe that every choice and every step does count.”
Clean Air Champion Nancy Drolet, an Olympic Medallist and a six-time World Champion in Women's Hockey, added: “From an athlete’s perspective, I hold the environment extremely close to my heart. The capacity to avoid injury, illness and to be able to breathe at full capacity has a direct impact on performance. My life mission is to make a difference, which I feel today’s announcement can achieve. I am proud to be a part of the team work between Honda Canada, earthdreams and Clean Air Champions, as it’s a winning combination.”
“At Honda we have always considered it our responsibility and commitment for the future to ensure ‘blue skies for our children’. To achieve this, we will continue to advance technologies for the benefit of today’s customer and future generations. We welcome our new partnership with Honda Racing F1 Team’s earthdreams programme to fund Clean Air Champions Clean Air Achievers programme to build awareness of, and drive action for, environmental concerns." said Jerry Chenkin, Executive Vice-President, Honda Canada Inc.
Commenting at today’s announcement of the partnership at L’Écomusée du Fier Monden in Montréal, Nick Fry, Chief Executive Officer of the Honda Racing F1 Team, said: "Honda Canada has supported CAC for the past two years and as a charity, it is a perfect fit with the aims and ambitions of our earthdreams programme. Supporting environmental education projects is integral to earthdreams and preparing the next generation for their environmental responsibilities."
Also representing the team at today’s announcement was race driver Jenson Button, who commented: “At the Australian Grand Prix we announced our first earthdreams partnership with the Lighthouse Foundation and now, here in Montréal, our partnership with Clean Air Champions is the ninth project that we are supporting. The earthdreams programme is a very important part of the Honda Racing F1 Team’s activity and I am very proud to be playing my part with the projects.”
