Green Options » Car Sharing

Zipcar Launches All-Electric Car-Share Scheme

Andrew Williams — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:20:55 +0000

US-based car-share giant Zipcar Inc. has launched its first ever Electric Vehicle Pod, featuring an all-electric Citroen C1 and a Plug-In Toyota Prius. The vehicles, among the most efficient and technologically advanced on the road today, can be hired by the hour for a fraction of the cost of owning one.

The company figures that EVs are ideally suited for early, large-scale use in Zipcar’s car sharing platform since the average Zipcar trip lasts just under four hours and less than 25 miles, well within the range of a typical EV.

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Car or No Car?

Kay Sexton — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:27:34 +0000

Car-sharing (car-pooling if you’re in the USA) is one thing, and car rental is another, but they come together in a weird way in the variety of schemes appearing in the UK that allow people to rent a car, cost-effectively, in Brighton, Cambridge, London, Maidstone (don’t worry if you’ve never heard of Maidstone, it’s a strange place), Oxford and Southampton.

It’s called car-sharing, not because you get in a car with somebody else, which can be problematic for all kinds of reasons, not least for solo-travelling women, but because, after you’ve paid your annual fee (around £50 or $100) you get to ‘borrow’ a car from the company for around £4 or $8 per hour. The UK’s leading car-sharing company is Streetcar, founded in 2004, and they have more than 1000 cars in a variety of locations, and sizes.

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Hawaii to Get Electric Car Battery-Sharing Program

Alex Felsinger — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:14:45 +0000

The island state’s small size makes for short drives, which are perfect for electric vehicles, and now an innovative network of recharging stations will make the cars even more convenient.

California-based company Better Place will operate the stations on a subscription-based system. Owners could sign-up for a monthly plan or choose to pay as they use. The company will own the batteries, which can run upwards to $11,000, and loan them out to drivers.

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Back to School Week: Miami, Bowdoin Ban Student Cars

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:55:38 +0000

We’re seeing a lot more sustainability-minded colleges, universities and even high schools encouraging their students to walk or bike, rather than drive, to classes. But two institutions of higher learning, one in the north, one in the south, are taking things even further by banning on-campus cars for all incoming freshmen.

For the first time ever, the University of Miami is prohibiting cars for freshmen starting this fall. Instead, new students, returning students and faculty alike will be able to travel around campus and the city using fuel-efficient cars available through a university partnership with Zipcar. The car-sharing program offers users hourly, daily or annual access to cars when needed, gas and insurance costs included.

The Zipcar option will also be offered at Maine’s Bowdoin College, where first-year students will be barred from having on-campus cars starting next fall (2009).

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Back to School Week: UF Issues Alternative Transport Challenge

Shirley Siluk Gregory — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:40:43 +0000

As kindergarteners to post-grads across the U.S. begin returning to school this month and next, they’re finding more and more of their campuses taking steps to reduce energy consumption, save water and go green. All this week, we at EcoLocalizer plan to highlight some of the ways in which schools nationwide are working to becoming more sustainable.

The University of Florida in Gainesville, for example, is launching a campaign to encourage students, faculty members and staff to reduce individual car travel in and around town. UF’s “One Less Car Challenge” (the grammar nag in me has to note it should be the “One Fewer Car Challenge”) asks everyone to explore other ways of commuting, including bicycling, regional transit, car-pooling and car-sharing.

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Enterprise Rent-a-Car Opens Green Branches in Atlanta

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:04:40 +0000

When I sat down with Enterprise Rent-a-Car’s VP of Corporate Responsibility and Communications Pat Farrell, and Christine Conrad, VP of Public Relations, in January, both spent a fair amount of time talking about the company’s large fleet of greener vehicles: hybrids, flex-fuel vehicles, and higher-mileage cars. As a couple of commenters noted on those posts, though, finding the greener car you want may be a challenge. Enterprise’s Dan Miller, general manager for Atlanta, also heard these concerns from their customers (particularly corporate accounts), so he decided to do something about it. Now, Atlanta residents wanting to rent either a hybrid or higher-mileage (28 mpg or higher) vehicle from the company know where to go: one of the area’s four “green” branches.

Each of these branches carries stocks about 100 cars, and about 60% of the vehicles at each branch consist of greener vehicles. In a short call last week, Pat (and colleague Lisa Martini) told me that these branches are not focusing on flex-fuel vehicles, as the fueling infrastructure in Atlanta doesn’t support their widespread use. He also noted that Miller’s decision was based on “the need for green in Atlanta” because of the high amounts of traffic congestion, as well as customer demand for the vehicles. He stressed throughout the call, though, that this was a “grassroots” decision: Enterprise sees itself as a “confederation of local operations (owner Andy Taylor’s phrase), and Miller’s decision reflects any local managers ability to manage his/her fleet to meet local needs. He expects that other regional managers will be watching developments in Atlanta closely.

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To Consume, or Not to Consume?

Paul Smith — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:58:51 +0000

Unless you’re hidden deep in a cave in Afghanistan, you’re probably aware just how popular and prevalent green businesses are, as well as the greening of existing ones. And in many ways, this is to be applauded. Companies seem to be falling over themselves to find ways to be more efficient, as in the VW Polo Bluemotion car, a Prius beater without the hybrid geewhizery. And then there’s Walmart, which seems to have turned over a green leaf in convincing ways, albeit with plenty of room to improve.

However, the question seems to be, is it possible to consume our way to a greener planet? Is buying more things the solution to the current and impending resource shortages? The newly released Smart Seed, an engineered grass seed that purports to require less watering, via much more efficient root systems, would seem to be of this camp. Yet is the answer a greener lawn, or to not have a lawn at all? Will it take drastic change in the way we (we being the developed world, and those emulating us) go about living our lives? Doing business? Raising our families?

Or is there a middle ground between gluttony and martyr-like abstaining from participation in modern consumer culture in order to “save the planet?”

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Car Sharing Comes to St. Louis

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:56:50 +0000

While it is possible to go carless in St. Louis (especially if you live in the city), most residents would claim that it’s challenging. In many cases, this perception represents an unwillingness to give up the convenience of a personal vehicle, but there is merit to the argument: our public transportation system is good, but not great, and the concept of a walkable neighborhood is still very much in its formative stages. In the last month, though, St. Louis-based Enterprise Rent-a-Car (a company I’ve blogged about recently) has started an experiment that may help residents rethink the idea of car ownership: it’s WeCar car-sharing program has launched (rather quietly) at Washington University and in the downtown loft district.

As local blogger Steve Patterson noted when WeCar rolled out at Wash, the program appears to be all-hybrid: six Priuses at Wash, one at their medical campus, and nine downtown. Mayor Francis Slay is already singing WeCar’s praises: “It will help the environment,” Slay said. “It will also give people more options as far as commuting. Some people would like to take light rail or the bus to work but they need the flexibility during the day. They can use the WeCar.”

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Are You Willing to Carshare?

Gavin Hudson — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:48:23 +0000

In a recent article on public transportation, Miranda Newsom commented that carshare programs are an excellent transportation option for environmentally conscious and money wise urbanites. Here, we follow up on the carshare option. So, the question becomes…

Toyota Prius Tuesdays and Ford Escape Hybrid Fridays?

What if you could drive a different car each day of the week? Carshare programs make this possible and often even beat the price of owning a car. Carshare members can experience both the freedom of living without a car, which increases interest in public transportation, and the freedom of having a car.

The outcome is more public transportation friendly cities, less congestion, and less auto exhaust pollution. But just who would want to participate in such a program? What are the advantages and what are the drawbacks?

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Chicago’s LEED Silver Green Exchange: Hybrid Parking Only?

Preston Koerner — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 13:40:48 +0000

There's a reason GreenBuild 2007, the green building industry's major conference and expo, is going to be in Chicago. The city is just busting at the seams with progressive thinkers and eco-entrepreneurs.

Recently, I noticed a news report about Baum Development rehabbing the old Cooper Lamp Factory in Logan Square into a one-stop, live-work, shopping center of green businesses and activities. It's going to be called the Green Exchange. The four-story, 250,000 square foot building, located at 2545 West Diversey Avenue, will be renovated to LEED Silver standards with a variety of uses including retail, showroom galleries, office, and incubator lofts.

The Baum Development team is planning on some aggressive green renovations. The parking spaces will have electrical outlets for hybrid cars, but that's not all: hybrids have priority parking privileges. There will be a 9.000 square foot sky garden, solar panels on the roof, and a roof garden. A rainwater cistern will collect water for the gardens and landscaping. Some other green features include the high-efficiency HVAC system, eco-friendly paints and stains, bike room and showers, car sharing services, and energy-efficient doors and windows. In total, Baum will spend about $30 million outfitting the old facility with the latest and greatest in green building technologies.

The project is not without its skeptics. One such argument is that environmentally-friendly products and businesses only cater to about 25% of the consumer market. The inference being that it's a bad business idea to target 25% of the market, especially if there's a softening in consumer demand for green products. Portland, Oregon has a similar green market that has been highly successful. The Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center has about 20 tenants in 70,000 square feet of space. The owners say their market has been very successful and they get calls for space all the time. In fact, they feel they could double the space and still do great.

So, Chicago: what do you think? Are you going to make the commitment to speak with your wallet and frequent businesses that try to pollute less, recycle more, and conserve more? Are you going to buy things that improve the health and quality of life? It's a loaded question, but we'd like to know what you think…

Via Chicago Tribune & Baum Development