Getting you from a to b without costing the earth
August 30, 2011 2 Comments
We’re running an event on 6 September to help FORS members meet their environmental objectives. If you’re a freight company in London and not a member of FORS (which is run by Transport for London), you should think about joining – for more information, apply here!
December 7, 2010 1 Comment
So today we can announce that we’ve won the 2010 Greenbang Award for Most Efficient Transport Programme for our “simple strategy to maximise the energy efficiency of existing modes of transport”. Some of the other winners included SAP, L’Oreal, Sony Ericsson and Verizon so it is nice to be included alongside some of those rather large business names! And of course congratulations to all the other winners – 1E, Onzo, TelecityGroup and Cawleys. Details of the awards can be found here, but the other winners are as follows:
Best corporate responsibility project: SAP, for its SAP Project Ghana, which provides women in Ghana with the training and technology needed to operate competitive, market-based cooperatives in the international shea nut butter trade.
Best IT technology: 1E, for its NightWatchman automated software for desktop and server power management.
Top smart-grid technology: Onzo, for its suite of energy management products and services to help both utilities and end-users improve energy efficiency.
Best data centre innovation: TelecityGroup, for the innovative, efficiency-maximising design of its Condorcet data centre in Paris.
Most efficient transport programme: Carbon Voyage, for its simple strategy to maximise the efficiency of existing modes of transport through taxi ride-sharing, web-based trip planning and reduction of empty taxis.
Best sustainable resource management programme: Cawleys, for its multi-benefit initiative to reduce food and agricultural waste while reducing landfill emissions of greenhouse gases and generating clean energy via anaerobic digestion.
Best low-energy building: L’Oreal, for its 100-per cent biomass-fueled beauty products plant in Libramont, Belgium.
Best cross-organisation sustainability effort: Sony Ericsson, for its GreenHeart across-portfolio initiative to eliminate paper phone manuals, significantly reduce packaging, phase out hazardous substances in its products and recycle phones to recover valuable resources.
Top in-house sustainability effort: Verizon, for instituting waste-reducing printing practices, greening its fleet with hybrid and compressed-natural-gas vehicles, re-engineering shipping processes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and trialing fuel-cell, geothermal and solar energy at its Garden City facility in New York.
June 16, 2010 1 Comment
We are launching a ride sharing service called Tesco Carbon Voyage this week in partnership with Tesco and the University of Manchester’s Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI). The service will be operating as a twelve week trial at three of Tesco’s big stores in North West London; if it proves successful, it may be extended. To visit the site, click here. The service will be offered to Tesco Clubcard holders in three Tesco Extra stores in North West London.
This is a really important activity; 84% of all passenger car trips in the United Kingdom only have one occupant according to DfT figures, so any opportunity to increase vehicle occupancy can have a impact on reducing carbon emissions, congestion as well as cost. The service we provide will be great in being able to get a baseline of the impact of customer travel to and from these stores and then identify potential financial and environmental savings.
What we are trying to do here is firstly understand travel patterns to and from supermarkets and then provide Tesco customers with a safe and convenient way to share their trips to and from their stores. The customers of the service will be able to book via phone, text or online. We will capture all the financial and environmental data so customers can find out how much they are saving through the ride-sharing scheme.
At the end of the trial, the SCI will also interview several hundred participants to get a detailed understanding of their views to such a service – what is a good enough incentive to get people to share, what barriers are there and so on. Something that is unique here is that not only are people being surveyed about their travel patterns, but we have the opportunity to see what they actually do. The SCI has also written a short information piece on this trial here.
As a start up, this is a tremendous opportunity to deploy a service on a very large scale and demonstrate the value of what we have to offer, and we’re really pleased to have been selected by these organisations to help them deliver this service.
May 14, 2010 Leave a Comment
Over the last few weeks, Carbon Voyage has been fortunate to be able to speak about what we are doing – firstly at GreenNet 2010 in San Francisco run by GigaOm’s Earth2Tech and more recently at Low Carbon South West’s Low Carbon Startup Fest in Bath which was chaired by James Watson of the Economist Intelligence Unit. In both cases it was great to see some of the innovation from the other startups presenting Soneter and get a good insight into what is happening on both sides of the Atlantic. I think there is still a lot that the UK investment community can learn from what is happening in the US – things like Y-Combinator would be a welcome addition over here and schemes such as the EFG are proving to not deliver what they are intended for (Richard Tyler quoted me as saying something similar about the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme in the Daily Telegraph back in January 2009). It has been useful in both cases to get a bit of feedback from venture capitalists and private investors about what they are after which will hopefully be of use when we do start actively seeking investment.
April 12, 2010 Leave a Comment
Carbon Voyage is looking for a marketing or PR guru with entrepreneurial flair and a passion for the environment to join our team. If you are interested, please contact careers [a] carbonvoyage [dot] com.
Responsibilities
While KPIs will be based on individual skills and experience, responsibilities are likely to include:
-Assist with managing website copy and contributing to the company’s blog.
-Communicating with customers via social networking platforms and newsletters.
-Drafting press releases.
-Drafting of marketing material for business.
-Assist with customer relations and monitoring customer behaviour.
Knowledge, Skills & Qualifications
Must have:
-Excellent communication skills and writing abilities.
-Technologically savvy with a high comfort level in the use and application of information and communication technology.
Preferred:
-Marketing or communications related studies or experience. There are B2C and B2B elements to the business, so experience in either will be valuable.
-Experience in the environment and/or transport sector, particularly major environmental reports, policies and carbon accounting methodologies.
-Experience in provision of customer support.
Other requirements
-It is essential that this person at the very least have an interest in and awareness of green/CSR issues.
-UK based at present.
Persona/ style/ demeanour
-A can-do attitude, who is undeterred by obstacles
-Strong work ethic and very professional
-Extroverted; able to assist in representing the company in a large audience.
-Something of an entrepreneurial spirit with a readiness to work flexibly given the start-up nature of the business.
Why might this person want to join the venture?
-Belief in the concept of the venture
-Strongly committed to green agenda and ventures that support such
-Strongly committed to making a difference to a more sustainable provision of transport services, both here in the UK and globally
-Excitement of being a part of a new start-up venture
Remuneration:
Initially, the role will be offered on an agreed expenses only basis. The role is anticipated to be equivalent to approximately 1.5 days per week.
Role to be located:
The office is located in Shoreditch; however, the business is run virtually, so the majority of work can be done at home. Occasional visits to customer locations in London may be required.
March 15, 2009 Leave a Comment
Olly (our ops man) and I have been spending the last two days help with setting up Leicester Square for the premiere of Age of Stupid. Nik from HelloUnity asked us to assist with some of the transport requirements, and we were delighted to be able to offer some assistance. It is a very important film and so we were really delighted to be able to help out – even with laying the ‘green’ carpet!!!! There will be a few politicians and celebs at the launch tonight for which the main star is Peter Postlethwaite.
