The use of hybrid and electrically powered cars is one piece of the puzzle, however, it does not look at this time like the move towards alternatively powered vehicles is happening fast enough for us to achieve these targets.

Carpooling is one of the most obvious solutions to this problem – as it allows people to retain their current cars, whilst still managing to reduce the amount of overall emissions.

Benefits of carpooling

It is very easy to understand how carpooling is beneficial to the environment.

For every extra passenger you carry in your car – another vehicle is off the road, and not producing harmful greenhouse gases and other dangerous emissions.

According to the popular carpooling website, carpooling.com, between 2008 and 2012 around 630,000 tons of carbon dioxide have been prevented from entering the atmosphere thanks to carpooling.

Many businesses who give their workers company cars also pay for their petrol. It is believed that carpooling has saved around 324 million litres of petrol in the last four years, which translates into quite a considerable amount of capital.

Running a carpooling scheme in your workplace

As with everything in the workplace, creating any kind of change to the normal daily routine can pose a challenge.

The best way however to instigate a plan of carpooling is to get everyone involved in the scheme, from directors down to your part-time workers.

By showing your employees that this is a complete cross company measure that’s truly being done for the greater good of both the environment and the company’s bank balance, and not just something that you expect of your workers and are not prepared to do yourself, you’ll quickly win hearts and minds and create the change in culture to move towards this practice.

After people have been doing it for a couple of months, they’ll be wondering why they didn’t start it sooner.

The power of the internet

Drivers don’t just have to car-pool with people from their own workplace.

There are now a number of websites where car users can sign up in order to meet other people in their local area who are keen to help save money and make a difference to the environment through carpooling.

Europe’s top carpooling website has just under 5 million users, not only showing the effectiveness of this service, but also highlighting the large number of people who believe that it is worth taking the extra effort to carpool.

This post was written by BreakerLink – the car part location specialists.