Meeting with Carbon Heroes
WHAT’S your view on car sharing? Too intimate when you need space just to be alone in your car? Or a useful, socially and environmentally responsible thing to do?
Two directors of Carbon Heroes – a new start up – reckon car sharing is the new way forward for businesses to cut carbon emissions. It’s an interesting proposition. Because usually, somewhere along the line, if you cut carbon emissions, you usually save money.
One of the directors is Tony Johnston. I know Tony of old – most recently he was at Auto Windscreens before it was bought out by a venture capitalist firm from the RAC. Tony decided to move on at that point. Now he’s involved in Carbon Heroes which is the brainchild of Craig Barrack (pictured above).
But the point of Carbon Heroes is that it’s directed at businesses. Larger corporates in the main that want to lower their CO2, and that also have car parking space issues.
There’s some clever tech behind the product: mapping technology pairs people up that travel from the same area; the amount of CO2 saved is calculated; and a monthly report is produced.
“Big companies will have a financial benefit from using Carbon Heroes when they are not fined for meeting their CO2 emissions targets,” reckoned Craig. “We have our first customer signed up that has several thousand employees.”
While this is all laudable stuff for the big boys, what about us lower down the scale? Is there an application for car sharing in smaller businesses, I asked Craig?
“I think there is, because it’s a way to reduce parking spaces you may be paying for,” said Craig. “We also think companies in trading estates and Regus-style serviced offices will also benefit from this type of car-sharing.”
It’s a brave new world out there – and car sharing is certainly a new part of the business transport mix. But if reducing carbon means reducing costs (and making a contribution to lessening CO2 output) then this must be worth consideration. By any size business.
You can have a look at the development website here: www.carbonheroes.com.
The full system is due to be launched on 20 April. Check it out and see what you think.
