From December 2008 until December 2009, we’re making our own contribution to Eastleigh Borough Council’s CarbonFREE fund, the Carbon Fund for Reducing Emissions in Eastleigh, which will be used to help finance sustainable energy projects across the Borough.
Bluestar Managing Director Alex Carter (centre) is seen alongside representatives from other bus operators in the region celebrating the contribution to the CarbonFREE fund with Councillor David Airey, Eastleigh’s Cabinet Member for Transport (right), at Bluestar HQ.
We are donating 1p from every bus ticket sold on Thursdays in the Borough straight to the CarbonFREE fund. At the end of the 12 months the total contributions will be awarded to a project within the CarbonFREE fund.
The project is expected to yield thousands of pounds over the course of the year. Open to businesses, community groups or individuals to invest in, the fund will be used to finance sustainable energy projects in homes and community buildings in the borough. Louise Bloom, Eastleigh’s Cabinet member for the Environment said “CarbonFREE is unique in that it can clearly show how carbon dioxide emissions have been saved – some schemes around the country have been criticised for double counting or investing in projects with dubious long term management, like tree planting in developing countries. I am delighted that Bluestar have agreed to show their support for the Eastleigh scheme.”
The Council itself is committed to investing in the CarbonFREE fund, and is looking to work with other local partners to reduce Eastleigh’s carbon dioxide emissions. The Council is reducing its own emissions as part of its goal to become ‘Carbon Neutral’ for its key business activities by the 2012 Olympics, but will pay into CarbonFREE to offset the remainder of the emissions it could not avoid.
Earlier this year, Eastleigh Borough Council became one of only six local authorities awarded Beacon Council Status for Climate Change. The Tackling Climate Change award is made to local authorities that show commitment to reducing the causes, and managing the effects of climate change.
And we at Bluestar are conscious that as well as making our own contributions to CarbonFREE initiatives, we can all help doing our bit by thinking of using the bus for certain journeys. Our Operations Manager Alex Hornby is excited by this extension to the strong local partnership with Eastleigh Borough Council, “As a bus operator we believe we can play an active role in reducing carbon emissions by attracting more people to the bus – and we are reducing prices across Eastleigh to make our services even more appealing. Going one step further in donating our fares to finance such green, innovative and local schemes makes so much sense”.