Mar 21 2007

Almost Carbon Neutral Holiday

Justin | Category: Global Warming, Sustainability & Beyond, Urban Agriculture | 0 Comments

I just finished a week long vacation with my dad. I wanted to keep the footprint of my holiday as small as possible without limiting myself to sitting at home with the heat and lights off, reading by candle light under a pile of blankets. My dad made the three day journey from Ontario with VIA Rail to join me for some almost carbon neutral fun.

Successes

  1. The train trip was less carbon intensive that air travel. (approx 0.6 tonnes vs 0.8 tonnes)
  2. We only made four car trips, including the taxi to and from the train station.
  3. We made numerous trips to Home Depot with Bob trailers to fetch odds and ends (including concrete blocks & a shop trolley!) for the house and garden.
  4. We made it up to Grouse Mountain to go skiing and boarding using public transit alone (see pics below).
  5. We built the cedar fence I had been hoping to create for the last year from locally harvested wood.
  6. We assembled the fence using the Stil electric chainsaw (no smelly 2 stroke engine) Lisa got me for Christmas.

    7. Electric Stil Chainsaw

  7. I found 7 of the 10 concrete blocks I needed for the fence in the blackberry bushes accross the street. Free and recycled!
  8. I learned how to get around the lower mainland via transit much more efficiently.
  9. Lisa tested and purchased a new three wheel recumbant for our almost carbon neutral honeymoon bike tour of BC.
  10. We turned all compost into the garden, planted peas, lettuce and spinach.

    11. Playin in the compost

  11. I offset 2 tonnes of CO2 with offsetters.ca for $40 CDN

Failures

  1. We made four car trips, I had hoped for zero.
  2. It’s really difficult to not make any garbage when you take a holiday to fix everything around the house and garden.

Photo journey to Grouse Mountain using Public Transit
Total trip time each was about 2 hours each way. Take the #50, to sea bus, to #136 to Grouse Mountain gondala.
Chris with our gear trolley
Chris with the gear at 2nd & Fir
Chris on 50 bus to Waterfront Station
Chris bus 1
Chris & I on the Seabus
Chris & Justin on the Seabus
Chris on the Gondola Skyride up to Grouse
Chris Gondola
Broken Wheelchair Lift on the Bus on the way Home.
Broken Bus

[tags]Carbon Neutral Vacation[/tags]

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