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Skiing is one of those holiday opportunities that can provide you with a good quality hotel or resort, at a relatively modest price. Many 1 week ski holidays in Europe (the most popular place in the world to go skiing) can even less than Five Hundred Pounds! If you have a large group of friends you could find that this is even better value, as you could all rent out a chalet, providing you all with some privacy, and cheap holiday, usually with a decent amount of accommodation!

Skiing is becoming an extremely popular sport, and is the most popular of all the winter sports. So if you fancy trying out something different, you can usually get a package deal that will also provide you with basic training. All of these add up to a holiday that provides you with an experience new to you, as well as something that isn’t going to break the bank. Many of the ski resorts actually give you beautiful views, and although you are surrounded by snow and ice, it is quite likely you will even be able to get a spot of sunbathing in as well!

France, Austria and Italy are 3 of the most popular destinations for cheap ski deals, which mean that you have a broad range of choice. Most of these are operational throughout the year; however France has the widest range of resorts available to choose from, and therefore can span a longer time of year in the ski season. It is important to remember that you will usually be in very high altitude situations, so the air can sometimes be quite thin, although this doesn’t mean that you have to be an athlete to ski, trust me!

As for drinks and food at these resorts, your choices can be quite limited, many of the resorts have a town below them, which is usually the best place to go for a drink. However food is usually better in the resort restaurants, even though they are usually a little more expensive. Most of the time you will find that drink prices are quite modest, so you don’t have to fork out a fortune for a couple of bottles! France ski holidays are usually the best choice, as there is much to choose form, and the prices are normally quite low!

Why go ‘Green’ with your choice of van

Nowadays it is de rigueur to discuss ‘going green’ with almost any topic imaginable. Here in the UK we have our first ‘Green’ party MP – the first of many I am sure. But in the emotive area of vehicle development, what is the availability of environmentally efficient cars, trucks and vans? With the price of petrol (gasoline) rising all the time, it becomes more and more important to conserve fuel consumption, because ultimately this means more money in our pockets. So how do you define a ‘green van? According to petrol prices.com: “a green van is a vehicle that is considered to be environmentally-friendly and to be less damaging to the environment compared with conventional vans”. So who cares, and why should anyone be bothered to ‘go green’ the next time they buy or lease a van?

The UK government (Department for Transport) is actively involved in encouraging the development of zero carbon and low carbon emission vans. Following competitive procurement, a process of selecting potential supplier, 4 companies were invited to submit proposals that showed new levels of performance, technical innovation and the potential for mass market commercialization.

Adrian Vinsome, Head of Programmes for Cenex (Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell Technologies): “Van use in the UK is rising more rapidly than for any other vehicle category, and van journeys are getting longer. As a result, CO2 emissions from vans are projected to rise rapidly over the next 10 to 15 years. A number of manufacturers have developed lower carbon and all-electric technologies, but these tend to be expensive in low production volumes and it is difficult for fleet operators to justify the additional cost. The LCVPP is helping overcome these initial cost barriers, paving the way for market development.”

‘Green’ vehicle technologies

Hybrid Vehicles: The current craze is for hybrid vehicles which were first released in the US markets by Honda with its ‘Insight’ model. The insight was able to boast 61 mpg in urban areas and up to 70mpg on the open roads. This vehicle was soon followed by Toyota’s version, the Prius. The hybrid technology uses a combination of a petrol motor and an electric motor that are connected via battery pack, featuring state-of-the-art energy saving measures such as regenerative braking.

Regenerative braking takes over some of the stopping duties from the friction brakes and instead uses the electric motor to help stop the car. To do this, the electric motor operates as a generator, recovering some of the kinetic energy and converting it into electricity that is stored in the battery so it can be used later to help drive the vehicle down the road. In order for the system to actually improve fuel economy, however, the vehicle must have a large enough electric motor operating at a high enough voltage to efficiently capture the braking energy.

Regenerative braking system

Hybrid vehicle and SUV’s are now offered by virtually every major automaker. Unfortunately, all the extra equipment involved in building a hybrid engine means that they are often more costly to buy than conventional vans and cars. That means that you may be driving for a few years before the money you realize the potential savings from the traditional method of transport.

High Efficiency fuel: In comparison to conventional combustion engines, high efficiency engines use much less fuel and therefore release less harmful emissions into the atmosphere. It is predicted that major advances in the technology of these engines will occur during the next few years, with potential increases of up to 30% in fuel economy. There is a cross over here with hybrid vehicles, as many are already using the highly efficient engines.

Going green is getting more important to a lot of people every year. As vans get better and better at conserving fuel, we all see the benefits: both to our environment ultimately in our pockets.

Clean Diesel: The ‘Greenest’ technology on the road at the moment is a variation of the diesel power plant that has been in production for a number of years. Known as ‘clean diesels’, these engines can average 50mpg under normal driving conditions. One of the advantages of this improved technology is that you do not have to sacrifice performance for efficiency. Clean diesel cars and trucks are now offered by Volkswagen, BMW, Audi, Cadillac, Saturn, Honda and Ford.

Bio
Peter is an internet marketer and enjoys writing about SEO and automotive topics, specializing in van leasing.

This post isn’t as boring as it sounds, trust me I will do my best to keep it interesting!  Your car tyres are made out of rubber (Der!) and they most certainly don’t last forever, in fact on average we have to replace out tyres once every 10,000 miles.  So for some this could be between 6 months and 2 years.  The main problem is, what do we do with them when we are finished with them?

Each year we take about 40 million tyres off of our cars because they have become to worn, or are damaged because of other reasons.  That’s around 350,000 tonnes of Tyre rubber being taken off all the cars in the UK.  However only about 75% of this is recycled, the rest of it is sent to land fill around 85,000 tonnes of waste!

The tyres that are recycled can be used on Aircraft or Trucks and buses, where they are remoulded to be the right size and shape (and have the correct amount of tread).  On average each tyre has a diameter of 2 feet (cars and trucks) obviously not included busses and HGVs.  If you were to lay all 40 million of these tyres together side by side they would be about 15,000 miles long, which is just over half the circumference of the planet (at the equator).

The main problem that we face in the future is that if all these unused tyres keep on mounting up, landfills will become filled in no time at all, so we need a better solution for recycling.   When you think about the Car Tyre generally you don’t really consider what damage it does when it comes off your car.

Burning rubber is not an option either, so creating a perfect recycling program is the best thing for us to do!

Bio:

Marcus travels all over the world in search for any information, he is a contributor at Top Travel Blogs, and enjoys Thailand holidays.

While most of the coverage of ‘green’ issues in the media and in environmental campaigns tends to focus on how an individual can promote a more eco-friendly lifestyle, arguably the biggest impact on the environment can be achieved by businesses and corporations addressing these issues. In this post I explore how a business can actually achieve environmental targets by keeping accurate records of their fixed assets – ie equipment, machinery, vehicles etc – and their carbon footprints.

Fixed asset management has many advantages. It allows your organisation to manage internal and external service providers to reduce administrative costs associated with asset maintenance and repairs. Software-based systems can capture data adrift in paper-based processes and provide asset-specific total cost of ownership information that can be analysed at a corporate level. However another dimension has been added that makes reliable asset management programmes even more essential. Whether you agree with the theory of man-made global warming or not, the UK government has decided to adopt a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% over 1990 levels by the year 2050.

Image credit: johnb/uk

The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) requires that companies must achieve energy efficiencies (or purchase allowances from the government) based on the amount of CO2 emitted. Companies that achieve significant reductions will be rewarded financially. Those that do not will suffer the consequences. Carbon taxes will inevitably become more significant mechanisms for the Exchequer and there’s likely to be an increasing emphasis on enforcing regulations governing the collection, treatment and recycling of all sorts of waste, especially electrical and electronic equipment as specified by the WEEE directive. The Carbon Reduction Commitment will affect approximately 20,000 organisations in the public and private sectors and the Environment Agency requires disclosures to be submitted by those companies by the summer of 2010.

Sustainable environmental management is not only concerned with supply chain resource or carbon emissions management. It also addresses the wider issues of sustainable planning and design, waste reduction, water management, the efficiency of electronic and electrical equipment etc. All these facets of business operations are inputs into an organisation’s environmental impact and ultimately its bottom line. From a sales and marketing point of view, companies are also going to have to prove their “green credentials” to consumers and who are increasingly demanding that green tinge of virtually every product or service. Doing all this will create a significant cost for business, unless they get their fixed asset register in order. Organisations now have to prove their commitment to green issues through information transparency and fully auditable policies.

At the core of this approach has to be consistent and detailed information about the life cycle of all fixed assets, from country of origin, maintenance schedules and carbon efficiency to final disposal details. A good, up to date central asset register therefore will not only streamline year end audits but will also provide highly detailed insight into corporate assets that will enable management to make more informed decisions. Until you truly know what assets you’ve got, which you own and the real operational/ownership cost of those assets, managers cannot make informed decisions about capital expenditure, carbon footprint reduction and how to “green” the business in the most cost effective and beneficial way possible.

About the author:
Tom is a blogger currently working for a company specialising in software for asset tracking and fixed asset accounting. He passionately believes that businesses can go greener at the same time as cutting costs.

This seems to be quite a sensible post to use at this time of year, especially seeing as many factors are just right to start discussing.  First of all, petrol is costing an absolute fortune, and is becoming sparser.  The next obvious factor is that we are in a climate being damaged by our own carbon foot prints and over usage of fossil fuels.  We can make a change and what better time to start than in the summer, and help save yourself a few pennies!

Everyone whinges when this topic is brought up, but it is an obvious one and it is as though people don’t believe some of these simple facts.  So I want to help put this next point into perspective.  Riding your bike, is probably the best substitute to driving your car (stay with me on this for a moment).  On average the carbon footprint from someone who drives around 10,000 miles a year (averages about 30 miles a day) will be about 3 tonnes of C02.

This doesn’t really mean much to us “average” people, so let me help put this point across a different way.  The average fuel consumption of a car driving 10,000 miles each year is around 1355 litres.  That sounds like a big number and it is, especially when you start to consider how much it is going to cost you as well.  1355 Litres is going to set you back about 1650 pounds a year.  That’s a massive amount, so look at how much money you can save.

As for the C02 well riding a bike will create none (other than your heavy breathing).  This amount may be low for individual drivers but mounts up to astonishing numbers when you add everyone together.  It is this C02 that is damaging out atmosphere and polluting the planet, of course for a dramatic change we would need 1000’s of people to change to riding a bike, or using electric cars, when this will happen, who knows, but it may be too late!

Bio:

Marcus is an SEO and works for a Le Sport St Lucia tour operator, dedicated to bringing it’s customers top quality service!

Ever thought that it was possible to see a green cat – and I am not referring to some pampered pussy that’s passed its sell-by date. I am talking about roaring tigers – the two new Eco-friendly Catamarans commissioned by Wightlink ferries, and built in the Philippines by FBMA Marine.

The first of the new fleet of two catamarans was launched in the Philippines recently and after a successful period of sea trials, was given the green light. The vessels were named Wight Ryder1 and 2 respectively after the company held and internal competition. The winner of the competition, Mike Bristow, was an employee of the company based at Ryde Pier head, and claimed to have got the inspiration from ‘watching too many American programmes’.

But aside from the obvious aesthetic quality of the vessels, the thing that has really impressed the industry is the operational efficiency that has been worked into the design. Originally designed by Southampton based boat designer, BMT Nigel Gee, the new catamarans have been given greater stability during the journey, and improved berthing facilities. Both of these points have greatly reduced the anticipated cancellations, and have therefore improved the service on offer. Andrew Wilson, Chief Executive of Wightlink commented:  “Reliability is our overriding objective and, with these advantages, the new craft should enable Wightlink to reduce the instances of weather-related cancellations that affect the existing service.”

The key to the improved performance, and the reason the designers can lay claim to the environmentally-friendly credentials is the new advance electronic management system. This, it is claimed, will result in fuel savings of around 1.3 million litres per annum, compared with the existing FastCats vessels, with a reduction in emissions equivalent to over 3.4 million kg CO2.

But how does this translate to the ordinary man in the street? It is a clean and simple service, or do people encounter problems that end up resulting in the undoing of all the best practices established by the vessels themselves? I decided that the best way to find this out, was to take a trip on the ‘cats’ myself.

I arrived in the city of Portsmouth by car, not a good start I know, but I wanted to see how well the area was signposted. I was not disappointed. Both the regular car ferry service and the catamarans are well signposted, an important factor when you consider the extra petrol consumption used on futile searching for your destination. When approaching by rail, a much more sensible option, you will find the docking point of the catamarans immediately outside Portsmouth Harbour station. After a short walk, you are ready to board the catamaran, which runs a service every 30 minutes. The journey itself, takes only 18 minutes, but as you leave the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour, you can’t help but think of the historical magnitude of the area; the fleets that have previously left for battle and the famous commanders of those fleets like Nelson.

Your destination is the historical Ryde Pier head, where the Cats are moored. Ryde Pier is quite long, about a quarter of a mile, but providing you are up to the walk, this is another great way of saving costs and therefore energy. A service is available for disabled and senior passengers, but I preferred to walk and take in the emerging view of the town ahead of me. All in all, I was impressed by the service offered by these vessels and the way that the ferry company, Wightlink, have integrated it into their system. It indicates to me, that they are serious about issues concerning the environment, which I hope in time will spread to the larger car-carrying vessels.

Bio

Peter is an internet marketer and SEO, and enjoys writing about issues that concern the environment, and travel and accommodation on the Isle of Wight.

Rubbish is the bane of our environment.  Damaging everything around is something that all of us generate, no matter how much we recycle or do our bit to look after the environment.  Have you ever really thought about what happens to all of that Garbage?

Rubbish or Garbage, is generated in mass amounts by families all over the world, and of course we can’t just keep it in our backyards so we must send it off to mysterious Garbage fairy land.  We know not where it is, just that our Rubbish goes there.  In some cases we do know where this rubbish goes but dare not go any where near it!  However do you really know how much garbage you generate?

On average an American family will create about 24 Kilos of rubbish each week!  That’s one family and it’s about a third of the weight of your average adult.  This comes to just over a tonne each year of Rubbish supplied by each family.  Although I must be making this far worse than it sounds, because the rubbish isn’t leaking out anywhere we can see it, and there are no crazy garbage landslides.  Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean that it’s not happening.  Here are a few facts for you to think about:

Fresh Kills in New York is the largest “Land” Fill in the world.  Spanning over 890 hectares, that’s about 950 football fields (bring it into perspective).  However this “Land” fill is ridiculously small compared to the worlds largest Rubbish collection point.  Our seas are by far the most polluted parts of the world, and the Pacific ocean actually has a collection of rubbish that takes up about the same amount of room that Texas does on land.  The currents in the sea collect the rubbish and dump it in this oceanic desert.

Even more dangerously Landfills are ticking time bombs, capable of extreme destructive power.  As they grow, they compress rubbish at the bottom to a sticky and hot mush.  This heats up drastically, to somewhere around 300 degrees as one of the hottest recordings.  The chance of an explosion then becomes very high, and it is possible for it too ignite.  Another Bi-product of the Landfill is something called Landfill gas which is created by micro organisms living within the landfill.  This is extremely flammable and can be ignited by a spark or naked flame, also causing a mass explosion.

When you are throwing out your trash, remember that even the smallest piece of recycling can help to make a difference, for every kilogram of recycling that you accidentally throw away, there is a possibility that almost 300million more people in the US are doing the same thing!

Bio:

Mark Cronin is an Eco friendly Travel Blogger working with a Las Vegas holidays tour operator, sharing his ideas and experiences with any of his readers.

Cars today are messy, bad for the environment and are eating up our planets natural resources, but has it always been like this?  When cars were first built and invented by the French Engineer Mr Cugnot were they quite so bad?

The very first self propelled cars were steam powered, and were actually built in the 18^th century.  They were used frequently throughout the 19^th century and especially in Britain where they were used for stage coaches.  These steam powered cars although bulky and had received a name for breaking down quite a lot, had another charm about them!

These cars were environmentally friendly.  All they did was burn water, creating steam, doing no harm to the planet.  Speed may have been limited and of course it was annoying to travel somewhere long distance, especially because you would have to stop every 15 minutes or so to build up some steam pressure.  Where we really all that wrong with this sort of car?

The main problems as listed above where that we couldn’t actually travel anywhere and get there much faster than riding a horse or walking.  So we needed to find another way in which we could travel, similar but faster.  Steam may not have been able to help us get to destinations quickly, but it was safer for the planet.

The other big problem was the steam engine itself.  They were heavy and bulky, and of course extremely hot, and needed to be exposed.  If the occasional burn or engine exploding didn’t bother you then you were going to be right as rain, but will probably be forking out quite a lot of cash.

Now we are trying different solutions with electric powered cars and hydrogen fuel cells.  These are much safer, and still have the same sort of power as the gas powered cars.  In fact the company Tesla Motors had created a car called the Tesla (see image below) that is faster in a straight line than the lotus, and only needs to recharge every 200 miles.  It can accelerate from 0-60 in under 4 seconds, quite impressive for something that runs on laptop batteries.  This just goes to show that these electric cars can achieve a lot and could have even further to go.  All they need to do now is sort out the price tag!

Bio:

Marcus travels around the world with a Golf holidays Tour Operator, blogging and talking about the environment and cars is one of his greatest passions.

At some point we are going to run out of our fossil fuels like oil and coal and will need resources that can sustain us in the future!  So what are these wonderful renewable energies that will help take us into the future?

• Wind Power:  This is already in use, although not as much as it should be.  The idea is that by turning a turbine using the Earths natural wind energy can generate electricity.  It works and very well, especially in countries that have a windy climate or a high above sea level.  However the main drawback is that the amount of turbines needed to power even a village would be massive.  A Nuclear Power Station can power many towns and cities, whereas in order to power many towns and cities with wind energy you would need millions of air turbines.  This is still potentially one of the best forms of renewable energy resource to utilize.

• Next we have the Solar Power of the Sun.  Our most powerful energy source in the solar system is our Sun.  We use solar panels to store the energy that the suns rays give off and then store it to in an electrical form that can be used when we wish.  The power generated by these solar panels is much like the Wind turbines, as in it is very low.  This is also something we must utilize to great effect as well, as the potential here is also great, in vast amounts the energy that can be gathered is immense, and we need to use vast areas of land!

• Next up is Hydropower!  This one is utilised best in massive dams that have a huge amount of water flowing through them.  Much in the same way a windmill works but on a much larger scale, the water is driven through a turbine at immense speeds.  This can generate large amounts of electricity, but plenty of water is needed and required in a specific way, so it is difficult to place all over the world!

Bio:

Marcus works with a Caribbean holidays tour operator and enjoys blogging about all of his personal experiences around the world.