Ethical man versus the Petrol-head

I don’t think my eldest son forgave me for high jacking his Facebook entry the other day when I demonstrated little sympathy for him having to travel by train and put a link on his website to my Blog. So with his impeccable style and charisma, he somehow tracked down the BBC’s “ethical man”, Justin Rowlatt and his article on how the car could actually been greener than public transport.

My first car was a Mini like this

I actually have a great deal of sympathy for anyone who has been forced to give up their car. Since passing my driving test all those years ago, the car has been part of my life and that of my family. We’ve driven the kids to school in them, dragged them round National Trust properties, taken them on holiday and provided the family taxi service until they could drive themselves. Jonathan was whinging last week that he had to take the train to meetings in Glasgow and Edinburgh and I had little sympathy, but it has got me thinking, could I give up my car?

For my recent birthday, a very dear friend gave me among other things a book by Colin Beavan called “No Impact Man”. I am only half way through it but the book is about how he and his family embarked on a project to minimise their impact on the environment. The book is sub titled “The adventures of a guilty liberal who attempts to save the planet and the discoveries he makes about himself and our way of life in the process”. To say that I am engrossed in the book would be an understatement. I think it has got both me and my dear wife thinking that our own efforts to reduce our impact on the environment are fairly half hearted. Before rushing off and doing something rash we will both wait until we finish the book. But already I suspect that there will be some easy options and many more challenging.

So back to the dear old automobile, could I live without my car? The quick answer is I don’t know. We live in a very rural area, with very few services. Very few buses, no trains (nearest station is an hours drive away) and definitely no underground. Obviously, if I share my car when I go somewhere, then I could reduce my impact and carbon emissions. Could I cycle to Brecon (to the bus interchange) or Swansea (nearest rail station)? Going back to my last post, could I afford the rail fares? There is clearly some work to be done on our transport options. I need to weigh up the time travelling and the opportunities to do work on the public transport journey, with the convenience and costs of using my car. Of course, if I didn’t have a car, then this debate would be academic! Somehow I suspect that I will be returning to this subject again. So in the meantime, I will try when possible to use public transport as I did last week, but I will drive to the station, for the moment at least.

If you would like to know more about what you could do to improve your environmental performance give me a call 01874 638979 or e-mail me. I am shortly going to roll out a series of seminars/workshops on business and the environment and how you can save money from your waste and energy costs.

As always keep thinking about your environmental impact.

Keep smiling

Chris