Forget Free Love, Free CO2 Offset is what Boutique Festival Lovers Demand

ibuyeco headline sponsor of Cornbury Music Festival to offset the first 1,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions generated by visitors' journeys

Immediate release: 12 June 2008

Peterborough-based ibuyeco, the 100% carbon neutral car insurance provider, is celebrating its 1st birthday with a whole host of events to continue its message educating people to reduce the effects of climate change.

At the BGL Group head office in Orton Southgate, Peterborough, ibuyeco colleagues planted a commemorative carbon-reducing tree and distributed birthday "thankyou" cakes to all the departments in the building for all their hard work and support over the past year. They also encouraged colleagues to bring in their plastic carrier bags for recycling in exchange for a re-usable ibuyeco cotton shopping bag.

Nationally ibuyeco is pledging to offset the travel of UK visitors to this year's Cornbury Music Festival in Oxfordshire up to the amount of 1,000 tonnes (1). Headline acts at the festival for 2008 will include Paul Simon, KT Tunstall, Crowded House and The Bangles.

From today, UK visitors to the www.ibuyeco.co.uk website will be able to calculate the amount of CO2 their journey to the festival will emit and offset that, completely free of charge, up to a total 1,000 tonnes.

Hugh Phillmore, Cornbury Festival Organiser, commented: "We understand that bringing all the family and camping gear to Oxford for the weekend will mean most visitors have to use a car. It’s great then that ibuyeco, headline sponsor of the festival, is supporting our efforts to make Cornbury greener by offsetting CO2 emissions caused by families’ travel to the event."

Running since 1796, the Cornbury Festival is an eclectic, distinctive and diverse music festival. With previous headline acts including Blondie and David Gray, Cornbury has always offered parents and kids alike a fun-packed weekend of music, dance and fun creative workshops. Famous visitors to last year's festival included George Michael, David Cameron, Jeremy Clarkson and Hollywood screen writer Richard Curtis.

Taking place over the weekend of the 5th and 6th July this year, the Cornbury Festival will feature the ibuyeco family zone tent which, for the first time ever, will act as a family-friendly venue for numerous performances and activities over the course of the entire festival. The FUNtastics and the Yogabugs are just a couple of the acts performing and festival-goers can also take part in a range of rock 'n' roll activities such as singing and dance workshops to Mr Men and Postman Pat readings. Visit www.ibuyeco.co.uk for further details of the ibuyeco family zone tent.

Launched on World Environment Day 2007, by eco-campaigner and model Laura Bailey, the car insurance provider ibuyeco offers competitively priced packages which offset 100% of a vehicle's CO2 emissions (2) for the duration of the policy. ibuyeco calculates a vehicle's CO2 emissions based on engine size, fuel type and the annual mileage details provided by the customer. ibuyeco then purchases carbon credits from carbon reduction projects to offset the CO2 emissions produced by driving the insured car. Currently, ibuyeco will fund the offset on behalf of their customers at no extra cost to them (3).

Enjoying a fantastic first year, ibuyeco has offset almost 150,000 tonnes of CO2 - equivalent to the annual emissions of UK holiday hotspot, Torquay (4). Looking forward to next year, Lucy Bailey of ibuyeco commented "150,000 tonnes is a huge milestone and shows that ibuyeco's message resonates strongly with the British public. Throughout 2008 and 2009, we will be continuing to enable everyone to take a small step in the right direction and make the planet a little greener through their choice of vehicle insurance policy."

Also at head office ibuyeco are auctioning off two sets of family tickets (complete with camping) to the music festival - all the money raised in the auction will go towards this year's corporate-nominated charity the NSPCC.

(1) The estimated daily CO2 emission of an average family car is calculated at 0.00548 tonnes

(2) 100% carbon neutral car insurance means we will offset 100% of a customer's vehicle's CO2 emissions for the duration of the policy, based on the information the customer supplies to us. For terms and conditions visit www.ibuyeco.co.uk.

(3) Limited offer free offset: Closing date is 30 Jun 08. However, we reserve the right to extend the offer beyond the quoted end date or to withdraw the offer at any time on giving reasonable notice.

(4) Based on an average annual CO2 emission of 5.6 tonnes per home - data supplied by the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management working with The Carbon Neutral Company and Torquay containing 27,793 households - National census 2001

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