These heart-warming images show children attending school in capes - which help combat air pollution
The innovative accessories might look like it’s a fancy-dress day, but these garments have inbuilt technology designed to help clean the air.
High tech fabric in the cape absorbs pollutants into a fabric mesh, where it is trapped and disaggregated.
The capes can help ‘destroy’ dirty air, literally clearing it as the children walk to school.
E.ON partnered with award-winning fashion brand Scamp & Dude, to create the eye-catching limited-edition capes, as part of its Air Heroes initiative.
Biggest impact in reducing air pollution
A study of 1,000 parents, with primary school-aged children, found more than half (59 per cent) believe their child’s generation will be the one to make the biggest impact on reducing air pollution.
They believe youngsters are taught to care about the planet (48 per cent) and are more eco-conscious than previous generations (41 per cent), with technology making them more clued up on information regarding the environment (65 per cent).
Children, aged six to 11, were also questioned as part of the survey and they revealed eight in 10 were aware of air pollution and the majority (94 per cent) are keen to help reduce it.
Helping the planet
This is driven by a desire to help the planet (64 per cent), keep their family and friends safe (49 per cent) and protect future generations (41 per cent).
A further 81 per cent of the kids believe they have the power to help change the world.
Michael Lewis, E.ON UK CEO, said: “Air pollution in our communities is something that we can’t always detect, but we know that children are exposed to it daily, whether that be on their journey to and from school or running around the playground.
“From our research, it’s clear that this is something parents and children are actively worrying about, so it’s hugely important that we do something to help reduce this and clear the air.
“The Air Heroes capes are a fun, engaging way to encourage children and their parents to think about the serious impact we have on our environment on a daily basis.
"We hope we can continue to educate and encourage people to make changes to their daily routine, even if it’s small changes, such as walking to school one day each week.”
Role models
The children questioned also revealed almost a third (32 per cent) of them look up to role models such as Greta Thunberg and want to do their bit to help the planet.
Three quarters are worried about the planet and 66 per cent fear the air they breathe is dirty.
It also emerged 85 per cent of kids and 81 per cent of their parents worry about the level of air pollution around their school.
Despite this, three in 10 (29 per cent) parents admit to driving their children to school despite it being less than 30 minutes away.
But eight in 10 (82 per cent) say they would change their routine and school run habits if they saw the improvement it would make to their family’s health.
Parents have become more aware of the dangers of dirty air on their family’s health, however, more than four in 10 (42 per cent) feel they lack an understanding of what they can do to help.
Jo Tutchener-Sharp, Founder of Scamp & Dude, said: At Scamp & Dude, our mission is to fill people with superpowers.
"With many children worrying about air pollution, it seemed like a perfect fit to create an exclusive design that would not only look great, but help to make a genuine difference.
"The E.ON x Scamp & Dude Air Heroes capes bring together our signature print with a magic ingredient – the technical fabric – to supercharge children across the nation.”
To enter the competition and to find out more, head to https://www.eonenergy.com/air-heroes