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Driving motorists to a greener future

Sustainable Development Champions, Sustainability South West, supported a new motor show featuring sustainable small cars - believed to be the first show of its kind - in a South West shopping mall.

Five of the latest, most environmentally friendly, and cost effective cars available were showcased at the Driving Green small cars motor show in the Sovereign Shopping Centre, Weston-Super-Mare, between 12th and 15th April 2007. The line-up included an exclusive showing of the brand new "i" car from Mitsubishi - the first time the car has been shown to the public.

Representatives from Sustainability South West attended the motor show to distribute brand new personal carbon cards, and provide information about, Fair Shares, Fair Choice, an initiative designed to help people who want to make positive choices to reduce the amount of carbon emissions they produce.

By ‘going greener’ with your choice of car, people can cut the amount of harmful C02 emissions they are producing. The low emissions produced by the new Fiat Dynamic Multijet (also on show at Driving Green), for example, produces only half the emissions of an average car with a 2ltr engine.

Explains Director of Sustainability South West, Leslie Watson, “Runaway climate change will be bad news for everyone but we can all do something positive to reduce the risks. Making smarter lifestyles choices will not only help to reduce the risk of climate catastrophe but could also save us money – for example by running a more energy efficient, cost effective car.”

“The Fair Shares, Fair Choice campaign is not about telling people what car they must drive,” says the Charity’s Chair Julian Dennis, Director of Compliance and Sustainability at Wessex Water, “but it will help us to understand that the lifestyle choices we make all have a different ‘carbon price’ which we’ll all pay in the long run.”