Talk to your employer about changing your start and finish times so that you can travel on public transport when it isn’t so busy. If you’re the boss, think about whether you really need all your staff to start work at the same time and especially at the same time as all the other workplaces in that area. If not, institute staggered schedules for your employees. The Government’s business advice service Business Link gives information on how to bring flexible working patterns into your business.

If you don’t have reasonable access to public transport from where you live think about driving to the nearest train station or bus stop and leaving your car there. Or, consider the possibility of moving closer to where you work. If that’s a realistic option you can then walk or cycle.

Changing your travelling to work habits is beneficial to the environment, your peace of mind, and your wallet. The relative cost savings can be substantial. A non-car user who uses a combination of public transport and taxis over the year, with the odd hire-car thrown in, usually runs up lower bills than someone who buys and runs a car, with its insurance, fuel, and maintenance costs. Imagine the costs for families with two or more cars per family.

If you have to use your car, find out whether you can share driving with someone else travelling the same or a similar route – check the previous section ‘Sharing the driving – and the car!’ for advice. People park at a pre- agreed location and are picked up by colleagues for the rest of the journey. Informal arrangements like this have led many local authorities to provide official park and share areas. You can make a difference.

These legs were made for walking (and pedalling)

The reality is that many people live too far from their work to walk all the way. Or do they? An increasing trend in many cities around the world is for people to live close to their workplace and social attractions, so they walk to work via the many shops and services that exist in inner urban areas.

If the walk to work is too far, walking to a nearby train or bus stop is a much healthier and less expensive transport option than driving.

Cycling is also becoming an increasingly popular mode of transport – largely as a result of many cities and towns investing in good, safe, and direct cycling paths that don’t compete with other traffic. In some cases, using a bicycle to get to work may be quicker than dealing with traffic congestion.

The key to cycling to and from work is doing the necessary planning:

• Make sure that your workplace has good cycle parking and locker facilities, ensuring your peace of mind that no one is going to cycle off with your treasured transport investment.
• Check that you have accessible showering and changing facilities. If there are no washing facilities at your workplace talk to your boss about the possibility of making them available and why you think they’d make a difference to the work environment as well as the wider environment. Many employers just haven’t considered washing facilities a necessity because no one has ever brought up the subject.
• Research the route you use – look for roads or paths that are well surfaced and wide enough to avoid conflicts with other vehicles.

If you’ve done all that then what are you waiting for – on your bike!

If you take up cycling to become a greener traveller, don’t forget to stay safe. Make sure you have good lights on the bike and wear a helmet, highly visible clothing, and reflecting bands. Motorists need to be able to see you easily in the dark or in poor visibility.

About two-thirds of people in the UK live within cycling distance of a train station but very few of those get to work by train because facilities for bikes at stations and on trains are scarce. Some train operating companies are very strict about the number, size, and type of bike they allow on board and some allow them only on particular trains, if at all. Check out the situation before you travel and lobby hard for more facilities for bikes at stations and on trains.

Although the number of commercial deliveries by planes, trains, and courier vehicles may increase with more online shopping, the impact is negated by the reduction in individual car trips people make to the shops to pick up the goods. Increased online shopping may have a negative impact on the economic and social sustainability of urban centres and towns, but this issue is still being debated.

Some of the most popular online shopping categories that reduce individual transport trips include:

Books and music: Amazon.com was one of the first companies to popularise buying music and books online. The attraction in ordering from home is the greater choice online compared to your local shop. You can even order from overseas companies, but this may not be great for your local economy.

Perishable and non-perishable foods: Many of the large supermarkets and specialist organic food stores encourage online shopping because of the growing number of people who are Internet savvy, have a set shopping list, and do not have to go to the shop to see what they are buying.

Takeaway food: Home pizza delivery was one of the first `dial-up and get it quickly’ home delivery services provided to urban areas. Now there are a number of companies offering tasty and culturally varied menus online.

Home furniture and electronics: Most large retailers have glossy online catalogues that encourage you to order and have your bulky purchase delivered without you having to lift a finger.

Anything and everything: Sites such as eBay, which give people a chance to sell their own goods, have taken a lot of business away from the modern-day pawnbrokers who used to operate in many cities and towns.

Most retail operators now have interactive Web sites that provide picturesque catalogues of their goods and services, which you can browse through to your heart’s content.

Go to your favourite online shopping site and follow these steps:

1. Click on a product you like to send it to a virtual shopping cart, where your selection is stored until you’re ready to buy.
2. Complete your shopping session by clicking through to the checkout, where your goods are totalled and your additional taxes, shipping, and delivery costs are added to give you an invoice total.
3. Use your credit or debit card to pay for the total cost and provide your address details so that the goods can be sent to you. If the thought of giving your details over the Internet worries you, you could try PayPal. This allows you to pay anyone who has e-mail and an online account number without giving out your card details.
4. Receive an e-mail that confirms the goods you have bought, how much they cost, and that your purchase is in the process of being delivered.
5. Bingo! All from the comfort of your home.

Cutting Down the Air Mites

Wherever you are in the UK, if you look into the sky, it won’t be long before you see a plane. Between 3,000 and 4,000 of them are flying over Europe at any given moment. Even with an average of only 100 passengers each that adds up to 400,000 passengers up there now and many more taking off and landing by the time you reach the end of this sentence. About 220 million passengers use UK airports each year. The number using London airports has doubled since 1987 and the number using regional UK airports has gone up three times in the same period. The Government thinks the number could double again by 2030. Air traffic is predicted to go on growing as flights continue to be relatively cheap — bringing air travel within the reach of more and more people.

Add to that the increasing numbers of people from developing countries joining in the travel rush and you begin to see why air travel is a big concern for scientists worried about its effect on the environment. More flights mean more airports, more take-offs and landings, more demand for fuel, and more harmful greenhouse gases pumped out into the atmosphere.

Aircraft are the fastest-growing polluters in the world. In the UK they account for around 6 per cent of the greenhouse gases emitted but because those gases are pumped out at high altitude into the atmosphere they do at least twice the amount of damage caused by emissions from homes and factories. The aircraft manufacturers argue that they’re building ever-cleaner, more- efficient engines but even though that’s true the rate of growth of air travel outweighs those technological advances.

The bigger planes being built and taking over on some long-haul routes may mean more passengers can travel more often without the need to increase the number of flights but that only works if they fly full. Governments are resisting the idea of taxing aircraft fuel, which would push up ticket prices and make people curtail their travel plans. But while they hesitate, flying has become the most environmentally damaging way to travel.

You can help by cutting down your air travel by taking holidays and short breaks in the UK instead of abroad and looking for greener ways to make journeys you have to make — such as using the train. You can also take steps to neutralise the carbon emitted by the flights you do make.

If there’s no choice but to use your car for most journeys ask your children to think of ways to cut down using the car. If children get used to going to school by car and never walk or take the bus, it’s hard to break the habit. But they may have friends who also go to school by car and whose parents can share the journeys with you. If there are several families who can share the driving, ask the children to work out the rota once they’re old enough to remember what’s been arranged. Children can take pride of ownership in a plan they’ve come up with.

Often children actually prefer to walk or cycle but parents are reluctant to allow them out alone. Ask if there are friends who would like to walk or cycle together. Arrange for them to go on a cycling proficiency course and everyone will feel safer.

Cycling is good exercise, but if it isn’t fun, all the messages about reducing pollution and greenhouse gases, and using a cheap means of transport, fall on deaf ears. Your children will demand a car as soon as they’re old enough to drive. Be flexible about reverting to a lift in the car occasionally when the weather’s bad or cycling is just too much of a struggle.

Talk to your children about holidays they would like to have in the UK and explain why it’s good for the environment to cut down on the number of flights you make. Explain to them about offsetting the amount of carbon your travel produces and work out how much that costs for each journey. Ask your children to think about that cost and help you to decide as a family whether to pay the extra or to cut down on the travelling you do.

Reining in the Water Use

Most children love water as long as they don’t have to wash too often. Remember that when you’re nagging your children to have a shower and brush their teeth you’re asking them to use water. When you’re telling them to turn off the tap while brushing their teeth and have showers instead of baths to save water, you’re sending out a fairly mixed message. If possible go for reusing and recycling water. Collect rainwater in a butt in the garden and use that for flushing the toilet. Teach your children to flush the loo when there’s brown matter in it but leave it when there isn’t. If you can install a system to collect bath and shower water before it reaches the sewage system and reuse it, they’ll see that their used water can be used for washing the car and the windows, and watering the garden. Keep the messages simple.

Getting involved in Projects That Protect the Planet

Trips to any projects concerned with the planet and how it works will whet your children’s appetite to know more. Camping, and visits to farms, museums, landfill sites, and recycling plants are interactive demonstrations that get them interested.

If they do show an interest set them the task of checking in their local area and on the Internet for projects that they’d like to become involved in that give them practical experience.

Respecting Other Cultures

Appreciating how people in other cultures live and what problems they face can help children understand why adults are getting so worked up about the environment and leading a greener lifestyle. Explain the ideas behind fair trade, air miles, locally grown food, and saving local environments such as the rainforests. Discuss with them how demands for more and more oil and wood, for example, take valuable resources out of the earth that can’t be put back. Show them what our demands do to the areas these resources are taken from. Talk to them about the alternatives. Relating the need to use alternatives to the effects our lifestyles have on other people will give them a picture that’s easier to understand.

Making a Career Out of Green Living

Careers teachers in schools don’t always mention careers in conservation and environmental protection when giving children advice, even though this growing sector has a lot of job opportunities.

Natural Talentis a training programme of apprenticeships for the next generation of naturalists. It’s based in Scotland and Northern Ireland and gives young people with an interest in the natural world the opportunity to learn specialist conservation skills. There are apprenticeships in beetles, freshwater and grassland conservation, lichens, and more.

Apprentices get money from a bursary scheme and extra money for training and equipment. You don’t need any qualifications to apply, and the training lasts for 12 to 18 months depending on which apprenticeship you choose.