Big Changes – The Car and my Carbon Footprint.

To make any large impact on my carbon footprint some important changes have to be made. The most carbon guzzling of them all for our family is with transport, the second largest was our housing electricity and gas usage – I will look at this in the next blog.

We drive a Holden Wagon that runs on unleaded fuel and we drive it around 15,000km per year. We also take around 4 flights a year (or at least I do).  Getting rid of the car is not an option at this point and I am not sure if swapping it for a “greener” one is practical either.  Our choices re said car are 1) use it less, 2) have it converted to LPG or biofuel if possible 3) make sure we fill it with people each time we go anywhere to maximise it’s carrying potential.

I am sure that as a reasonably fit family, living within walking distance to a bus and train station we should be able to get by with using the car less.  We should, with better planning be able to reduce the number of short trips to the shops, school and friends and make a positive impact in our footprint. This will contribute a little to using the car less.  I am putting this plan into action straight away and am also going to try and have a car free day once a week (just not sure what day yet!).

When it comes to changing the car over to run on a more economic or environmentally friendly fuel I am in the dark. I have  done little to no research in this area to date so can’t really be sure which direction to take. I did speak to some local garages who can convert the car to LPG for around $3000. About $2000 of that is covered by a government grant. This could be an option, I just want to look into the environmental effects of making any change a little more.  Stay posted to find out more….

As far as filling up the car with more people when making journeys, that is not as silly as it may sound. I know that there are other children in the street that go to the same school as mine – car sharing could be an option as could walking to school together.  It is school holidays now which gives me some time to get a few idea’s formulated.  I also know that there is a ride share web site that has just launched in Sydney.  When doing longer journeys this may work out. Again, I need to find out more.

Overall there seem to be a few things that our family can do to reduce our car’s impact on the environment – all quite encouraging really!