The week of 14-18th August saw Princebuild hold their own Sustainable Travel Week, encouraging staff to think of more environmentally friendly ways to travel.
We started off the week by test driving a Renault Zoe, a 100% electric car supplied by our long term vehicle solutions partner, Smiths Motor Group. The test drive went well, with our fleet manager Jon Brown describing the car as “a very economically friendly and futuristic vehicle with nippy performance”. The company now plans to purchase an electric car to replace one of our pool cars. The vehicle will be charged from the solar panels installed at our Head Office, achieving carbon neutral travel.
Day two was all about promoting walking as a healthy and sustainable mode of travel. Several staff walked the 1.6 mile round trip to the local shop to get their lunch instead of driving. Walking this short journey instead of driving every day could save up to 1.85 tonnes of carbon each year. As well as being great for the environment, walking is also the perfect lunch time activity, providing gentle exercise and helping you return to your desk feeling refreshed and energised.
On day three we promoted car sharing to our staff, whether to and from work or to meetings. Car sharing is a great way to reduce emissions, reduce strain on parking spaces and help employees save money on fuel and maintenance costs.
Day four focussed on public and alternative transport with director Mark Asplin taking the train to his meeting in Leeds instead of driving. By driving he would have emitted 448kg of carbon but by taking the train he only emitted 80kg, what a saving! By taking the train he could also continue working on the move, so as well as reducing his carbon footprint, he also saved precious work time too. Our Project Managers based in London also contributed by swapping the tube for Boris bikes!
On day five we celebrated with all those who took part and spread the word around the company on our success in an effort to keep everyone thinking about what they could do to contribute to reducing our carbon footprint in the future.
Over the week the staff at our Peterborough office saved a whopping 1.86 tonnes of carbon, if we can do that in a week imagine what we can do in a year!
The week has certainly helped to get staff thinking about how they travel and how they can make more environmentally friendly choices in the future, whilst also reducing personal and company expenditure too!