It is becoming ever more apparent that renting a car is the ideal ‘green option’ for the environmentally conscious motorist, and for far more reasons than you may imagine.
There seems to be a definite shelf life for the modern car and mass ownership means that more and more cars are going on the scrapheap as un-roadworthy. It seems slightly tragic that the polished, refined vehicle you have shelled out your hard earned cash for may only have a shelf life of less than ten years; which creates a huge carbon footprint in its own right with raw materials being written off so flagrantly in a world of finite resources.
If we all hired rental cars, this environmental deficit would be greatly reduced, and furthermore it appears to be an eminently practical solution given that most cars spend the majority of their lives in the driveway.
Road travel is one of the major sources of carbon emissions; somewhat dwarfing the output from the likes of air, freight and rail. Transportation contributes 13.5% of greenhouse gases with road travel donating 9.9% of that total as evidenced by this enlightening study: http://www.responsibletravelreport.com/component/content/article/2646-cars-and-the-environment.
This is why we need to embrace the greener rental market as opposed to unthinking ownership, and in response, companies like http://www.hertz.co.uk have recognised the need to adapt their business approach in this direction by offering up a green fleet of vehicles: http://www.hertz.co.uk/rentacar/car-hire/green-car-hire.
Hybrids are readily available from hire companies, but sometimes as practical are cars that are highly frugal on the MPG. If we are taking a road trip, we may as well get the best value for our pockets by hiring vehicles with combined MPGs of 50 and over; not only saving our environment but reducing the cost of our trip significantly. Driving a gas guzzler for 300 miles may easily cost £60 or more, whereas utilising an economical vehicle means you could half that cost.
Check out the economical options at http://www.hertz.co.uk and cut your motoring bill in the knowledge that you’re also saving the environment.
[ad]
