Chooseday and Shut the Door!

This week I have read about two community initiatives taken in the UK that try to do simple things that help reduce CO2 emissions and improve our environmental footprint.

The first I read about was Chooseday (sounds like Tuesday). The aim of this initiatives is for people to decide a day of the week in which they will leave their car at home and travel to work by bus or carpooling. The obvious aim is to reduce the number of cars on the road (http://www.chooseday.org/). This is being carried out in Bristol.

An interesting thing I noted is that bus lanes (yes, they caused significant controversy when they were introduced for a few hundred metres in Marsa) can also be used by cars that car pool. So instead of here where bus lanes are used by buses, mini vans and taxis (even if carrying no passengers), this could be extended to allow cars that have more than two passengers. I do not know how many fines were dished or how it is monitored.

The second community initiative I read about was Close the Door. It speaks for itself: Leave doors shut and is targeted at the business community. A lot of energy is wasted by leaving the doors of shops and restaurants open. Huge losses result from lost hot / cool air. Why not close them and save this energy. It was calculated this may bring a 20-25% reduction in electricity bills. The initiative offers stickers to be fixed on doors to explain why the shop is leaving its doors closed. Good one!

I would extend this to offices too. We took a similar initiative at work to keep room doors shut when the air conditioner is on. It may go against what many cry out for the 'open door' attitude (mainly to bridge the physical divide between management and staff). I do not have records of the achievement from our initiates, but electricity consumption did fall.

So try it yourself: carpool and close that door!