CredR, India’s most trusted online marketplace for pre-owned two wheelers, announced the launch of a national social initiative to combat rising air pollution. The campaign aptly titled ‘OFF OK PLEASE’, urges citizens to turn off the engines of their vehicles if their stoppage is for over 10 seconds. This small step has the power to reduce air pollution by 5-8 per cent. The initiative is currently rolled out across Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Faridabad, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad.
CredR has tied up with municipal corporations, traffic police department, auto and taxi unions across these cities to make this initiative successful. Reputed startups have also joined hands to support this national emergency.
Elated with a positive response to phase 1 of this initiative, Sumit Chhazed, Co-Founder of CredR, said “As CredR turned one, we wanted to create a social impact in the cities in which we operate, to help keep it safe and thriving. We comprehend that air quality has a strong bearing on India’s ability to sustain high economic growth, through this initiative, we aim to reduce the air pollution by 5 – 8 per cent and it can be made possible only if a vehicle driver commits to live by the ‘OFF OK PLEASE’ movement.”
Speaking on the rationale behind this social campaign, Raghav Soni, Marketing Head at CredR, said “We aimed at creating the campaign ‘Off Ok Please’ to address the rising menace of air pollution and build on-ground awareness amongst the masses. The first phase of the campaign has received phenomenal response and support through petitions signed online as well the pledges that were taken through offline activities. Through this initiative, we hope to make a difference to the well-being of the society.”
A dedicated webpage OffOkPlease.org has been launched to help patrons calculate the pollution caused due to idling of vehicles on traffic signals. Within three days of the launch of the page has crossed 5500+ pledges and is still counting. A great deal of awareness was also brought about by their digital campaigns on social media networks. Contests run on Dubsmash/ Twitter garnered significant engagement. The hashtag #OffOkPlease was seen trending at the second spot, India-wide. An embellishment to the campaign is the video, which garnered 300K organic views in just 36 hours. The social media engagement currently stands at 50000+ and is growing as we speak. On ground 3000+ rickshaws in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune have come forward to support the cause and to actively spread the message.
On an average, every car on the road idles for 18 minutes during a 60 minute drive time. Thus, one vehicle can save close to 100 litres of fuel and reduce carbon emissions by close to 106kg annually. Five top cities in India – Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore have 2.26 crores vehicles on its roads causing huge amount of vehicular pollution.
