I never learned to drive and as a result cycle, use public transport and walk everywhere, but until yesterday we had a family car which my husband drove at weekends, mostly for shopping and trips to the country. Recently we moved house into a car-free development, and as a result we decided it was time to say goodbye to the car. I must admit, as I typed its details into an Ebay listing I felt a little sad. We have had some great fun on family outings in our car, it was very reliable (only breaking down once in four years) and also was a useful receptacle for boots, surf suits and miscellaneous childrens’ toys and junk. However, look at the plus side. We can join a local streetcar service for essential journeys so that we are still able to make spontaneous trips when we can’t use public transport. We won’t have to pay for road tax, car insurance or the car’s annual MOT. Financially, we will be saving hundreds, possibly thousands of pounds. And environmentally, we will be practising what we preach. I think electric cars are great (at an event I went to recently, one person arrived in a G-whiz and another in a Lexus hybrid) but they are financially out of reach for a lot of people and they still consume energy. It is possible to take steps to reduce our dependence on cars, by sharing, renting and reducing use and and by getting rid of our car I feel that my family has taken a big step forwards. I’ll be posting soon with news about how we have found the car club: we are going to join Zipcar as it’s the only service which will let us take our dog Dexter on board!
Monthly Archives
March 2010
The Women on their Way Awards, for which I was nominated as one of the Best Online Businesses, was a great day out and very inspiring. I didn’t win the award, but had a very enjoyable day catching up with some of the fantastic people that I’ve chatted with on Twitter and met at other events. We listened to a talk from Caroline Marsh (from the Secret Millionaire series). From a difficult start in Africa after her family fell on hard times, she went on to work as an air hostess, move to the UK and then build up a million pound property portfolio. She is very active in her local area doing charity work as well, helping young people get a start in business. One thing I enjoyed about the Awards was how varied they were, taking in so many different areas of business and charitable work. Here is a photo of all the nominees and award winners together, from the day!
I just received an email from the Book of Green, which Mimimyne is in this year (we’re going to be listed in their free iPhone App as well – can’t wait to be in an App!) and wanted to let you know that Book of Green has been nominated for Best Media/Publication at the Eco Veggie Awards 2010!
Eco Veggie Awards 2010, honour the movers and shakers of the Green, Fair Trade and veggie circles – the people, organisations and products that are making a difference right now.
Awards organiser Tim Barford from Bristol based hemp firm Yaoh says: ‘The threat of Climate Change, and the reality of poverty, injustice and environmental destruction, are there for us to deal with – this is the challenge to the generations of today. We aim to focus on the positive, not the negative, it’s the only way forward to achieve solutions, and for this reason we are honouring some of the brightest and biggest achievers on the planet.’
Book of Green said: ‘We were delighted when we discovered we had been nominated for the award. We created the national paperback eco directory last year to promote a collective set of eco/ethical businesses. We made it free to enable the public to gain access the genuine green marketplace easily. We had such a fantastic response in 09 we’ve doubled our print run to 60,000 copies for 2010, and we are looking forward to launching our free iPhone app soon’
The awards are voted for by the public and winners of the ten categories will be announced on Sunday May 30th at The Bristol Eco Veggie Fayre. To vote for favourites (including Book of Green!) visit Eco Veggie Fayre Awards