Little Green Ideas: Transportation To Keep The Planet Habitable For Humans

By Kate Sinclair | SS Mathematics Teacher

How do you get to work? How does your daughter get to school?

Many of our Abbotsleigh girls can be seen walking up from the train station each morning, alighting from busses or walking to school each day. Spending time outdoors provides many general health benefits (as long as the city is not blanketed in bushfire smoke). Spending time outdoors reduces anxiety and helps sleep – both important targets for our girls. There is an easy to digest slideshow on this site.

Not only is the practise of walking or cycling to school beneficial for our health, it can also make a tremendous difference to the health of our planet.

In today’s world, we would all benefit from spending more time exercising and less time sitting in cars. By combining your outdoor exercise time with your daily commute, we can all help to reduce CO2 emissions.

In his book Sustainable Energy – Without The Hot Air, Sir David Mackay (from the UK) points out that transportation is an area in which we can make a significant difference towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Transport is Australia’s third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, with the highest rate of growth. Cars are responsible for roughly half of Australia’s transport emissions. An international scorecard ranked Australia second-worst for transport energy efficiency.

Walking or cycling to school makes sense on so many levels. Physical health, mental health and climate health.