Sustainable September 2016 - Day Six

Hello beautiful people, 

Another day in sunny Canberra (yes I am as surprised as you are). I spent the morning taking advantage of the sunshine by sitting on the porch with my book and a cup of tea just relaxing, after all, this is my holiday. 

I ate some lovely vegetarian frittata "left overs" for lunch and had fresh fruit for breakfast. Then we went out for dinner...

Being on hoiday is the best excuse to go out for dinner!

 I had a roasted vegetable salad covered with pieces of Haloumi lightly dusted with crushed candied nuts on a bed of fancy lettuce. It was divine.

This was huge, delicious and filling.  Not to mention vegetarian.

 Not bad for a Meat Free Monday! 😍

Today's idea is simple: 

Sustainable September Day 6: Catch Public Transport or Walk to Work/School/Uni/Shops. 

I then went for a Walk to the local shopping centre here in Canberra, which was  a 3.4km walk. And it really got me thinking, how much do we need cars? Sure they are handy but are they really worth all the hassle they give us too? I mean servicing, paying for insurances, licences for us and the car, parking fees, fuel, and the like. Sometimes it is much easier to just catch public transport. And if you are one of those lucky people who can read whilst riding public transport, you have more time to do that!!! Bonus!!! 

I had a look at the Western Australian Public transport authority website. They said "Riding the bus, train and ferry is fun, fast and eco-friendly. Transperth passengers reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 232,000 tonnes a year and greenhouse gas emissions from public transport is the equivalent of one third of private cars." Perth Transit Authority 2016

Where I (usually) live in the Perth hills has been fairly limited when it comes to public transport. They run every hour but if you need to be somewhere sooner you often have to catch a super early bus just so everything connects. However, even using the car to take us a short way to the train station is better than driving the whole way to the shops/school/Uni/work/city.

It is amazing how much public transport helps things us get out and about. :) 

So do some research if you are not regular public transport travellers so you know where to go and how to get there. It really is easy. I used to do this when I lived closer to the city and worked in the city. It was faster to catch the bus and train than it was to drive in because of peak hour traffic and crazy drivers. Did I forget to mention that when you don't drive you don't have to worry about crazy drivers as much from the back of a bus or on a train. 

Today I walked to the shops but I caught the bus back, after all half the walk there had been downhill. 

My tip for doing your shopping without a car is to take a backpack and to only buy what you can carry back with you. Which is not a bad thing to do at all! 

Kindness idea: Pay for Another Persons Ticket for Public Transport. 

You can do this in a Pay-It-Forward kind of way by leaving some money on a ticket machine. Alternatively you could just offer to give coins to someone who doesn't have any or give them the time left on your ticket. If you have an all day ticket and it still has time on it you could pass it someone who is getting on as you get off or someone who is waiting at a bus stop. 

Front Lines: Environmentally friendly cars. 

Car companies are now looking at how to make their cars more sustainable. The most popular environmentally friendly car currently available on the market is the electric car.

Photo froms:First Vehicle Leasing 2016

Tesla is currently the most popular Electric Car Company. The cars a pretty fantastic but they started by selling cars on the luxury market. So they are expensive and fancy. They are releasing cars in lower price brackets but there is currently a wait list for these cheaper cars. I must admit I love the Tesla S... 

#Drool. I just need a spare $120,000. AUD to be able to buy one of these babies. 

Gorgeous right? I thought you might like a bit more information about the car itself. Or maybe that is just me.

Photo taken from: Visually 2016

To see a video of the model S check this out: 

I live in hope that Electric cars will not just be things of the future but also the present. I hope they become more affordable, more common and even more sustainable. Then the human races obsession with cars might not be such a bad thing.

I hope you are enjoying Sustainable September so far. 😊
Sending love to you all,
Love Daena xx