Airlines and shipping companies get a bad rap for the CO2 emissions they pump out – as well they might! But when it comes to the biggest and baddest transport pollutants, road traffic wins hands down, every time. In fact, road vehicles are responsible for 75% of all transport CO2 emissions.
We put our heads together here at Ardmore and did some rough sums. On an average day there may be around 50 people driving to and from the office. That’s 100 journeys every day. Two thousand a month. An eye-watering 24,000 car journeys annually.
Oof! So what can be done? Ardmore already offers the Bike To Work scheme and will pay the upfront cost of any staff member who wants to avail of Translink’s (local public transport provider) aLink card – which gives users unlimited travel for a 20% annual saving on typical costs.
We’re also in the process of setting up the brand new and shiny Ardmore Carpool.
Employees who wish to take part will be grouped together by postcode and encouraged to share the commute. It won’t suit everybody every day based on work and personal commitments, but one thing we’ve learned during this process is that every little helps. If two, three or four people in different parts of the city can share a journey once a week or a couple of times per month the number of overall journeys will reduce dramatically. It’ll also help everyone involved save money on fuel too; a proper win-win scenario. The only question that remains now is, who gets to ride shotgun?
