Archive for April, 2009

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10 eco-driving tips

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Transport produces some of the worst numbers in terms of carbon footprints and results in serious environmental destruction. Ironically by making different transport choices  you can reduce pollution, congestion,  improve health and fitness, save money, reduce accidents and create a more sustainable city.

Acrual car numbers outnumber drivers in America. We’re not far behind per capita with our  high numbers of cars and drivers. So given transport produces nearly a quarter of greenhouse gases what can we do individually? Here’s a list of 10 ideas.

1. Plan better – ask yourself do I really need to make this trip? Is there an alternative mode? That is what cityhop members do!

2. Could you walk? It’s amazing how much really is within walking distance of your house.  Not only will you get your errands done but you’ll be doing your body a favour. People who bike or walk more are often less stressed and happier than those who drive!

3. What about car share? Do you really need more than 1 car in your household? Could you get by with one car and get a car share membership for those trips when you really need a car? You’ll save money, see cityhop

4. Buy a cleaner car – no not less dirty – but look for a smaller engine, perhaps a hybrid, at least one with low fuel consumption.

5. What about a manual car? They use less fuel and put less pressure on the brakes which means fewer particulates going into the air and waterways, the fish will thank you!

6. Slow down! Not only does it save fuel it’s safer! Aggressive driving will only get you to your destination a few minutes quicker! Is it worth it?

7. Keep your tyres inflated to the right pressure and keep your car serviced regularly – it saves fuel and lengthens the life of your car.

8. Travel light – Do you really need to carry your golf clubs, and all the other junk in your boot?  What about your roof rack? Take it off until you need it. This will conserve fuel.

9.  Start slowly and anticipate stops – yes you might feel like a  granny but if we all did not only would the roads be safer, you won’t waste fuel or waste your brakes  which means less pollution.

10. How about going car free one day? Try the bus, the train or see if someone from your office lives nearby so you can slowly start to change your habits.

Finally, if you have to have a car buy the most fuel efficient model you can afford, practice some of the eco-driving tips, and when you can think about having a car less day!

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Sharing and 7 other ways to reduce your footprint

Saturday, April 25th, 2009

Becoming more ‘green’ conscious doens’t mean huge sacrifices, but it can require a different way of thinking.

It’s only when people don’t have easy access to a car that sharing a car with others makes complete sense say Cityhop’s car share members. Car share is an easy and afforable way to use a car by the hour ( for only $15 including the gas) when you need wheels.

But aside from sharing a car what else is easy to do to reduce consumption?

How about sharing other things – like books, CD’s, maagzine subscriptions, even equipment like hedge clippers, power tools. It’s a great way to get to know your neighbours better. Hey we might even go back to those days when neighbours actually helped each other out; for example, cutting the hedge, taking turns of mowing…

Idea 3. More on this borrowing – remember the library! Public libraries have great books, in good condition, CDs, movies, books on tape and librarians love giving you ideas on things to read.

Idea 4 Do you have a major purchase to make? Think about renting or leasing instead.

Idea 5. What about talking to your friends to get a buying co-operative going. You’ll save a lot of money, you can take turns, its friendly, and you will reduce trips to the shops and get healthier and better quality produce.

Idea 6 What about only buying a paper when you are going to have the time to read it? Or read it on line so you can waste less.

Idea 7  Here’s a great tip – when you can’t choose between 2 items  – which has the least unnecssary packaging. And don’t forget to carry those recycling bags ( like your cityhop member bag) wherever you go.

Finally, We think big congrats to The Warehouse, New World any shop that is charging people for plastic bags. May you prosper and pass it on.  It’s so easy to say No to plastic and it’s not hard to carry recycling bags around with you. Don’t forget when you join Cityhop, we give you  a abg to re-use, recycle and reduce your rubbish.

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Electric diesel buses improve the environment

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Cityhop NZ’s first car share company offering cars by the houris always on the look out for other sustainable transport options.

Recently we heard about the Dutch company, e-traction,  they have come up with an innovative way to move buses in a more sustainable way – through electric propulsion.

The diesel electric drive train brings down diesel consumption and pollution from emissions. It recharges the batteries that drive the bus with electric engines. The diesel engine is used for electricity generation only while the electric engines deal with peka power and low power. The buses use only about a quarter of the diesel fuel. The engines are built directly into the wheels making them as efficient as possible.

Imagine these buses on our roads-  no more smelly fumes! Let’s hope our transport companies are up to the play.

Victoria Carter, CEO of Cityhop saw a similar innovation at a local body conference in Brisbane. Bascially it was like train that could change into a bus. It didn’t need  large tramways; it was designed to go on roads it was brilliant for cities with congestion. During rush hour the seats folded up so more people could fit in. It was electric. So many possibilities exist.�

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Making a difference – 6 ways to start Earth Day

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

It’s not surprising that the environmental message hasn’t really engaged more people. It’s so easy to think what difference can I make to climate change – we’re talking about the impact of the world, industry and millions of people-  what can one person do.  It’s Earth Day so why not take the first step?

 Well actually, quite a bit.  David Suzuki in his new book, “Suzuki’s green guide’ (Allen & Unwin RRP $35.00) suggests 6 general ways we could all move towards acheiving zero waste.

1. We can follow principles of sustainable consumption – do I really need to replace or could I re-use?

2. We can reduce our consumption. We have become a naiton of shopaholics – it’s what we do for recreation. Let’s get outside more!

3. We can repair items when possible. It’s so easy with cheap goods flooding shops to just decide to buy another but sometimes it’s better to repair -especially if we bought a good quality item in the first place.

4. We can re-use items where possible. Best exmaple of this is recycling bags – always carry one in your car or your bag- there is no excuse for taking a plastic bag! Just think of that disgusting plastic littered part of the ocean where sea life is dying from mistaking plastic for food.

5. We could recycle when possible. If you live in Auckland the council has made it so easy to recycle. Extra recycling bins can be bought reasonbly cheaply so there is no excuse for recycling all your paper, cans, plastics and bottles!

6. We could compost our garden, lawn and garden waste. Worm farms are easy and good for the garden too.

The Cityhop car share team are pretty committed to zero waste. You’ve probably all read about Victoria Carter’s worm farm! We recycle everything we can. Victoria even takes her egg cartons to a shop that re-uses them! We’re pretty obsessive about re-using what we can! Recently a friend was getting rid of computers, we needed one so we have re-used their e-waste!

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Cityhop twitterer special offer

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

Cityhop is a twitterer! Follow us on www.twitter.com/cityhoppa

Have a look, we ‘ve put a special offer for our kiwis – every 10th kiwi who follows and joins Cityhop, NZ’s first car share company using eco-friendly cars in convenient and handy Auckland and Wellington car parks gets a FREE membership!

If you want to save money, be eco-friendly and sustainable, join car share. You’ll see money savings, you’ll ge fitter, car share members walk more; and you will be reducing your footprint.

Twitter with cityhoppa today.

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Making a difference starts with one step

Monday, April 20th, 2009

Have you heard the story about the old man who loved walking along the beach. One day  he saw a person moving like  dancer, bending, then wading out into the waves with arms extended. As he got closer he saw it was a young girl but she wasn’t dancing. She was reaching down into the sand and picking something up and then carrying it carefully out into the ocean.

“Hello, what are you doing,” he called out. “I’m returning the starfish to the ocean,” she replied.

“Why?”

“The sun is up and the tide is going out and it I don’t rescue them they will be stranded on the beach and die.”

“But there are miles and miles of beach with starfish. What difference can you possibly make?”

The girl didn’t answer straight away. She bent down and picked up another starfish and carefully placed it in the sea as a wave picked it up and it sank into the sea. She watched  and then turned to the man and said, “I made a difference to that one.”

He thought about it for a moment and then bent down and returned some starfish to the sea.

One small act by each of us may seem like a drop in the ocean but everything we do has a ripple effect that multiplies its impact. When we turn a light off we save up to three times and much energy as the light would have consumed.

Every walk, bike ride instead of a car journey or holiday at home prevents pollution, saves natural resources, money and improves our health and well-being.  As Cityhop, NZ’s first car share company says, every car share car takes between 15-20 cars off the road. That’s a lot less wear and tear on our roads, less emissions going into the air and cleaner waterways. Then there’s the money savings our members get from not owning a car.

The more of us who start to make a difference, the closer we get to Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point. The ripple effect, hundredth monkey principle or tipping point is what happens when enough of us start doing something differently and soon everyone is following suit, naturally.

Be mindful of the choices you can make and their impact on the environment.

What are you going to eat today; how will you travel today, what are you going to buy and how will you exercise your democratic right and make sure you get heard?

Step 1 in making a difference might be to consider car share. Our transport use is one of the biggest polluters and contributors to greenhouse gases. Car share gives you easy access to a car. For only $15 an hour you can drive whereever you need to in an eco-friendly brand new car – that includes the gas. Car share members walk more, have more money in their pocket from the savings made and seem happier! (it’s less stressful than being in the fast lane).

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How big is your footprint?

Friday, April 17th, 2009

Ecological footprints are calculated on the dimensions of land and water required to grow crops, produce livestock, wood products and energy as well as the area required to absorb the carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels. The size of our individual footprint depends on where we live, what we eat, how we travel and other ways that we use energy and consumer the earth’s resources.

 What is scary is that the combined footprint of the world exceeds the Earth’s capacity by around 25 %. People are turning resources into waste faster than nature can turn waste back into resources.

North Americans have the biggest footprint at 9.6 hectares – that’s around 20 football fields; Australia isn’t far behind at 6.6. So New Zealand s probably around the same sort of figure.

So it’s all in our interests to look at our energy usage, water use, carbon dioxide generated and air pollution produced. That’s where cityhop comes in! Car share is one of the ways that you can make a difference to your transport use.

When cityhop first launched, how big is your footprint was one of the themes we were going to use to encourage people to think about their consumption.

To have a sustainable future those of us in the western world probably need to reduce our footprint by around 75 % to achieve a sustainable future. That’s similar to reducing greenhouse gases by 60 to 80 % which is what scientists claim is necessary by the middle of this century to avoid climate change.

We are going to write a series of blogs over the next little while on all the small steps we can take that have the potential to make a HUGE difference.

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Generous art gift to Auckland and New Zealand

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

STOP PRESS  See the art collection sooner than you think – James  is holding a charity fundraiser – get along and see some of his fantastic art collection. Click on the link (art collection).

Victoria Carter, founder of Cityhop was delighted to be invited by the Mayor, John Banks, and James Wallace to the launch of James’ generous gift of his art to the City. This $50 million art collection says the  NZ Herald a cornucopia of more than 4000 New Zealand modern works, has found a public home at the Pah Homestead in Hillsborough.

“I’m fantastically excited. We have been looking for a permanent home for the collection for years,” says Mr Wallace, who began collecting New Zealand art in the late 1960s.

The collection will go on public display at the Pah Homestead in Monte Cecilia Park. Auckland City Council acquired the homestead when Victoria was on the Council. It was in a dreadful state and restoration has slowly begun.

“It’s a magnificent building,” says Victoria. “The view shafts from the homestead windows over to Cornwall Park are magnificant. The home is quite speical, built around 1877 the space are majestic and grand – not many homes left like this in Auckland and wonderul that it will house magnificent NZ art.

Mayor John Banks said the collection was a truly magnificent gift to Auckland and arguably the biggest since Sir John Logan Campbell gave Cornwall Park.

The cocktail party at the Pah Homestead was attended by many Auckland City Councillors and significant people from the art world. Artists, sculptors, donors, and benefactors joined former Prime Minister Helen Clark,  James Wallace,  TSB Chairwoman and TSB’s CEO.

Mayor John Banks (who gave a fascinating history of how the land was bought and the dramas of how the house got built and who lived in it) . TSB were announced as part sponsors of the collection.

Ron Sang, James Wallace and Victoria Carter at the launch

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Ethan Hawke, Rebecca Hall and Cityhop

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

Okay, it is a bit tenuous but Cityhop has a teeny weeny connection to Ethan Hawke . Victoria Carter, CEO of Cityhop, NZ’s first car share company, also sits on the Board of the Edge (Aotea Board of Management). Last Saturday night, she went to the Cherry Orchard, sat beside former Prime Minister, Helen Clark and enjoyed the Bridge Project, this fantastic colloboration between British and Amercian artists. Click on Helen to see other photos of the opening night party. Victoria introduced Ethan and his fellow New Yorkers to Helen and later was lucky enough to have a glass of wine with Ethan and chat to him about the show, NZ and stuff at the after party. Read about why you mustn’t miss it.

The acting is sensational – you can’t choose between the actors – they all perform their roles so exquisitely. Then on Wednesday Victoria saw The Winter’s Tale. “This really was incredible,” she said. “Seeing the actors 5 days later perform something so different to the Chekhov – their versatility, the variety of roles they played.  I loved seeing characters you didn’t warm to in the Chekhov suddenly be so likeable and thoughtful in the Shakespeare.

“And you have to see Ethan Hawke with his guitar -more below.  Don’t miss it – it is a once in a life time opportunity to see such top shelf acting for such good prices without flying to New York.”

Said the NZ Herald review today, “Despite the uniform excellence of the supporting cast, Ethan Hawke stands out with a display of sheer charisma. As Autolycus – the freewheeling prince of thieves – he appears as a dangerously cool, Dylanesque balladeer and is in such fine voice that it is seems unfair to have his songs interrupted by the squawking yokels. Theatre at this level is a rare treat seize the opportunity.”

If this hasn’t tempted you, see TVNZ Close Up’s interview with Ethan and Rebecca Hall, the lady of the moment (she’s starring in the Woody Allan movie Vicky Christina Barcelona showing now)

Tickets start at $50 don’t miss out visit www.buytickets.co.nz.

As Ethan says on Close Up, “There is nothing like it, you’ll experience it and then it will be gone forever, and someone in another city will experience it and then it will be gone.”

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Why should we pay more for an electric car?

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

Australia’s Federal Government recently gave the electic car the green light to go on Aussie roads reported the NZ Herald. Great, but hang on – how many are there that can be  bought and driven on roads?

None yet, there is a small trial going on. Remember Cityhop had a test drive that we wrote about a few blogs back!  We know Mitsubishi is entering large scale production for the domestic market in June. But will there be enough cars for places like New Zealand and Australia?

And what about the infrastructure at car parks and petrol stations to recharge the cars?

We at Cityhop think the electric car is amazing. We are all for it but it’s so expensive. We think if Governments favour electric cars because of the reduced impact they make on carbon footprints then they should subsidise them.

We don’t just think the Government should support those who drive electric cars. We think there should be incentives in place for people who car share too! Those who choose to give up  a car or who car share are doing us all a favour yet they don’t get rewarded for it. 

Car share members could be rewarded with say, cheaper public transport costs or cheaper parking. Why? Because car share members  take cars off the road, they drive less often, they  walk or bike more and by using car share they are reducing the level of emissions and rubbish going into our air and waterways.

What do you think?

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